Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ The other day some idealistic young man confronted me outside the county administration building, saying: “Mensing, why are you lying about Salisbury’s crime statistics! Why are you trying to hurt MY town?”
“Salisbury’s crime statistics are really awful,” I said. “Those are FBI statistics–they are the accepted stats everywhere.”
“Yeah–why are you using 2012 stats and not 2013′s?”
“Because Salisbury’s 2013′s haven’t been released. They won’t be released until midway through the summer. Those will go up on the RFP as soon as they come out. They’ll show a murder rate that’s 5 times 2012′s. Violent crime and property crime will show badly.”
Look I don’t expect every person out there to investigate what’s really going on in “their” town. Although here I hardly see any folks bothering to do this. They blindly accept whatever they read or hear as if its gospel. It’s like they do a cursory read of the Panther’s roster without bothering to watch of the games.
I came from Philadelphia a huge diverse urban area with multiple newspapers, all-seeing eye investigative reporting teams, no long entrenched city governments, and real broadcast news media. Hoodwinking and wall-papering over reality generally doesn’t happen in Philly for long. The searchlights are too bright. There’s a lot of persons from all political spectrums reporting news. I’ve seldom encountered the kind of political naivete or gullibility I’ve witnessed here in Salisbury. This town is a perfect fit for music men and undetected corruption. Nobody is watching.
Back to Salisbury’s grossly underperforming statistics. Let’s read the over-sized “handwriting on the wall”.
Salisbury’s abysmal crime statistics in FBI Crime Statistics from 2012, the latest available. The 2013 statistics will not be available until mid-summer 2014. Here’s 2012′s:
With an understaffed police department and the challenges of numerous gangs, big time drug selling, and an army of criminals, Salisbury will have quite a time climbing out of its weighty stats anytime soon. They need more officers going out in patrol cars.
Public schools (K-12), inside of Salisbury’s city limits, had really bad composite scores on the State Education READY Report. All of Salisbury’s scores are well below the state and county scores:
http://www.rss.k12.nc.us/rssys/News/2011-12/12-13READYAccReportSummary.pdf
The composite scores inside of Salisbury are difficult to change especially with families and children moving away, going to private schools, and learning at home. Scores will continue to plummet. The reversal of school composite scores requires more than outstanding literacy programs–it requires families and children to move into Salisbury. That is extremely unlikely to happen under current conditions. Crime, education, and poverty statistics, like those seen in Salisbury, drives folks away and deters newcomers from setting foot here. Our scores will keep lowering for some years to come. There is no miracle cure for this. Poor schools are a killer for attracting people and business. As schools go–so goes the city.
When public education sank below the horizon in my neighborhood in Philadelphia, urban flight emptied my middle and upper class neighborhood within a few years and left it a crime ridden slum. School systems are the “canary in the mine shaft”. When the canaries keel over, the miners are no longer safe.
Salisbury has a high percentage of persons living below poverty (25%):
US Census Bureau stats for Salisbury verify that one quarter of the City’s population is living in poverty. This turns people and businesses off from coming here when they spot it in the databases.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/3758860.html
Yahoo and MSN reprinted the Wall Street 24/7 report where Salisbury, N.C. is said to be the 5th ranked city in the entire U.S.A. suffering from “soaring poverty”. 28% soaring poverty!
http://homes.yahoo.com/news/cities-where-poverty-is-soaring-235610513.html
http://money.msn.com/investing/5-cities-where-poverty-is-soaring#image=2
Poverty is difficult to turn around. Many poor are chronically poor with little education and spotty work records. Changing poverty is not easy. Here are some suggestions:
http://rowanfreepress.com/salisbury-n-c-poverty/
Salisbury’s real estate databases show thousands of homes for sale. People are moving out because of Salisbury’s big 3 stats: Crime, poverty, poor public education. Urban flight compounds the Salisbury’s moribund situation. The handwriting is large and loud and people are reading it. I’m not making up those stats. I’m not being disrespectful at all and neither am I a Salisbury hater. Salisbury is losing ground fast as a livable city and people are moving out. A fact of life.
