The perception of our fair corner of the city sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. I stumbled on an exchange on city-data.com from this summer where a potential buyer proclaimed he's likely to put burglar bars on anything he buys in Kirkwood, et al.
This reply from a local gets it about right:
"... Living in Kirkwood, my feeling is that most of the crimes are burglaries of construction sites, unoccupied homes, and garden sheds. I don't think there are any streets to avoid necessarily. I would say the northeast quadrant (north of Hosea Williams and east of Warren) probably experiences less crime, but that is a VERY rough approximation. Plenty of nice streets outside of this area. There are some well-known drug houses that it would be best to stay away from and a few bad apartment complexes. When you visit properties evaluate the street just like you would the house. I do not think you need burglar bars, and I am sure your neighbors would rather you not install them (quite an eyesore!). An alarm is always a good idea, as is a dog. And just get to know your neighbors. I know there are a couple of guys are our street that have lived there forever and keep an eye on our house (in a good way, that sentence could be read wrong). There is a safety thread on the Kirkwood Neighborhood Organization webpage (Kirkwood Neighbors' Organization (KNO) :: Kirkwood Neighborhood, Atlanta, GA, you can request a password when you go to the page). You can get a good sense of crime in the neighborhood from that, plus KNO posts the monthly beat reports from our police zone there (note that it covers an area far larger than Kirkwood)."
Despite the recent rise in burglaries, burglar bars are still a bad, bad idea. They send a stronger message to potential buyers than they do to criminals.
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