Why do so many of you say "time to move." Why is running the answer for so many of you?
Jeep,
It's a fair question. Since I was one that said Two Men and a Truck sounds pretty good about now, I'll do my best to respond.
Typically running is never the answer for me. I have a tendency to meet anything I percieve as a threat head-on and aggressively. For me, that is the exact reason why I suggested moving. For me, I could foresee the escalation and likely legal trouble I'd be getting into. I constantly use intelligence to restrain my more baser instincts-- but that is because I recognize that I can have a short fuse.
Now that isn't really the only reason I would suggest it.
While the OP did not explicitly state it, there was sort of an assumption that he is a renter or leaser due to the home being a duplex. This means he likely has no real investment in the community. He may not see this as where he wants to settle in. This may not be the neighborhood where he wants to invest substantial monies into a home.
Obviously, I am not there. There is a lot of things I have to use my imagination on and make serious assumptions. However, I've lived in a lot of neighborhoods in a good number of cities in the US through my college and career paths. Based upon my own experiences, I start building an idea of the neighborhood-- based on some I've lived in.
Gangs moving in. Drug dealers. This sounds like it could be a neighborhood on the decline. If the OP is a leaser or renter, he has options.
From an investment perspective, I would be very reluctant to purchase a home in a declining neighborhood. On of the great fallacies of the housing market is the belief that a person's home always increases in value. Wrong! Last year-- before the housing bubble concerns-- there were 15 major markets in the US where home values saw greater than a 10% decline in market value in a one year period. A house CAN lose money. This is always either a function of a tremendously over-priced market in an area or a declining neighborhood. Using a term we use a lot in the investment community, investing in a declining neighborhood without serious renewal efforts already going on is a lot like "Trying to catch a falling dagger."
So financially, there is a concern for living there.
Now, if he has kids.
Aside from wondering what ills the child may face on the streets (and that one is HUGE with a drug dealer trying to get girls high for sex!), the school districts of areas depend greatly on their tax base for education. This comes often from property tax and sales taxes. In a declining neighborhood, the tax base is getting smaller. Usually, the quality of education is one of the first things that goes. I lived in a neighborhood in Orlando once where a house on one side of the street was literally 50% more expensive than the one across the street from it-- both essentially in the same neighborhood, and both essentially the same. The difference in cost was because the more expensive home was in the Seminole County School District and the other one was in the Apopka County School District.
Where you choose to live is often an investment in your child's future as well.
Finally, if the OP is a renter/leaser, it is likely that many of his neighbors are also in rental houses. My experience is that people that do not have a monitary investment in a community are difficult to keep energized and activated in the reclaimation process. There simply isn't enough vested interest there. This is no fault to the persons-- it is just a different situation.
Granted, I am making a lot of assumptions and requiring myself to use what I imagine the situation to be in this post. I'm not there, and I don't know in any certainty what the situation.
But were it me, I see a lot of reasons why I would consider investing myself in another neighborhood.
One final thought from another thread....
NO ONE can live in condition yellow every second of the day. If the OP has made himself a target, it is likely there will be a point where he or one of his family slips up.
For me, there is way too much downside and not enough up-side in this.
Without having sunk my roots, I may look for better soil.
-- John