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Crime In The Heights


PureAuteur

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Saw this article in the Chron the other day...

Free gun initiative begins in Houston neighborhood

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Free-gun-initiative-begins-in-Houston-neighborhood-4588825.php

I'm not familiar with Oak Forest and it's crime rate, but this reminded me of an ordinance that Kennesaw, GA, in the Atlanta area, passed back in the eighties. The Kennesaw ordinance required the head of household to own a workable firearm and ammuntion. I don't believe they actually enforce the ordinance, but there was a lot of publicity about it and the city claims it reduced crime rates to below average for the county.

Edited by august948
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Treating Oak Forest as a neighborhood with a "high crime rate" says a lot about this initiative. The article mentions "a recent rash of driveway robberies and home burglaries," which, while obviously not good, does not suggest a generally high crime area. 

 

Let's see these guys in Sunnyside or Fifth Ward. Or hell, even Third Ward. 

 

Why do get the feeling that there might be a more ...demographic reason for choosing this neighborhood?

http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Garden-Oaks-Houston-TX.html

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Gun nuts believe guns are needed for protection from black people, not in the hands of black people. But, at least they are teaching the moms to handle the shotguns. That is more training than the majority of gun nuts have ever had. Maybe these moms won't end up dead when their 6 year old finds the gun, like I seem to read every week.

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Posted on NextDoor......

Neighbors,

This weekend, a man walking along the bike path @ Oxford and White Oak was carrying a plastic bag, removing items and periodically tossing them into the grass along the path. Checking the contents of what he was throwing, it was two large patties of large ground beef.

Have no way to confirm, but suspect the meat is laced with poison...especially since there have been reports of poisonings in the area lately. Police and SPCA were alerted.

Man was 50ish, 5'7" to 5'9", Caucasian or Hispanic, jet black hair (dyed?) with balding area on top of his head.

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From Culturemap:

 

A ring of squatters has been busy across the Houston in recent months, filing mountains of county paperwork in an effort to gain legal control dozens of area properties.

KPRC Ch.2 uncovered the wily group after reporting on a pair of women who moved into a vacant Heights home just blocks from the 19th Street shopping district.

The lady schemers are not the only people attempting to secure "adverse possession" — an obscure legal technique similar to "squatter's rights" through which potential owners maintain a property for a period of time and eventually claim legitimate ownership.

The economic downturn and foreclosure crisis has brought about a spike in recent "adverse possession" claims throughout the county and the state. Rarely do cases result in a full transfer of title. 

Area attorney Lisa Mathews tells KPRC she has discovered a local team of people using the law to gain possession of more than 60 Harris County properties. The same lawyer and notary are listed on each filing.

 

 

http://houston.culturemap.com/news/realestate/10-03-13-squatters-target-the-heights-moving-into-vacant-homes-and-claiming-ownership/

 

 

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Adverse possession is not an obscure legal technique.  It is a very common aspect of real estate law.  Adverse possession is really supposed to be like a statute of limitations/repose requiring someone claiming an interest in real property who has notice of a rival claim to either take action to challenge the rival interest or to lose that interest if they do not take action within 10 years (some other interests in real property have different deadlines in Texas).  It was never meant to be a way for people with absolutely no interest in land to be able to take advantage of the slow legal process of dealing with someone who died intestate with no relatives around to claim the property.  Those properties can frequently sit idle for years before local officials begin the process of selling it to pay the taxes, which can also take years.  Texas needs to either add a bad faith exception to adverse possession or to allow tolling of the time limit in the case of a property owner dying intestate. 

 

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There was a case about this regarding a guy who claimed a $350k house in a suburb of Dallas.  He got evicted after about 6 months.  He actively pursued publicity about it so I have to wonder how long he might have been able to stay there if he'd kept quiet about it.

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  • 1 month later...

 

 

Vandals shoot out car windows in Heights area

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There's a big mess for a number of people who live in the Woodland Heights area. At least 20 vehicles parked up and down the streets there had windows shattered.

Officers tell us they believe either a BB gun or an air rifle was used and say cars, trucks and at least one home was damaged. At least 20 vehicles along about five different streets were damaged. Police believe it could be teenagers responsible and they're looking for a white Dodge Dakota with a black camper on it.

 

 

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9353846

 

 

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Folks on ND Heights are freaking out. Growing up here, I've seen this before unfortunatly. It didnt happen all of the time but as a young man I saw scenes like this before :(  We do need more police presence around here.

Do we even know what happened? Where it happened? Did it happen in the Heights? Did he get dumped there? I think we should let the investigators figure it out before we flip out. Crime in HOUSTON is pretty bad. Very sad. 

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Crime in all areas of Houston is not bad....The Heights is just getting worse and worse, and its reported more and more.  I have lived my entire life in Houston, and the ONLY time anything bad ever happened to me was while living in the Heights.  I had my garage broken into, and my truck was broken into several times...and I never once parked on the street...all my vehicle break ins were while out in the area...CVS, Kroger, and at a friends house on 21st.

 

I have spent plenty of time in Memorial, West U, Bellaire, Galleria, Pearland, and Friendswood  - and NONE of them have even a fraction of  the crime as the Heights...I think the Heights is down there in the same category as midtown, as in, just assume its not safe, and hope for the best.

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Is ND Heights a message board?

 

 

Crime in all areas of Houston is not bad....The Heights is just getting worse and worse, and its reported more and more.  I have lived my entire life in Houston, and the ONLY time anything bad ever happened to me was while living in the Heights.  I had my garage broken into, and my truck was broken into several times...and I never once parked on the street...all my vehicle break ins were while out in the area...CVS, Kroger, and at a friends house on 21st.

 

I have spent plenty of time in Memorial, West U, Bellaire, Galleria, Pearland, and Friendswood  - and NONE of them have even a fraction of  the crime as the Heights...I think the Heights is down there in the same category as midtown, as in, just assume its not safe, and hope for the best.

 

Crime has been a problem in the Heights for a long time, hasn't it?  When I lived there we were broken into twice, both times in broad daylight.  The second time they rammed the front door hard enough to break the frame, with the door still in it, right out of the wall.  

 

 

 

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Lots of petty thefts and break ins in the Heights yes. There has always been crime here and all over Houston. You just get more of it in your face because of social media. Theives are going to where the $$ is. Its not a small town folks. WE NEED MORE POLICE PRESENCE.

 

Memorial, West U, Bellaire, Galleria, Pearland, and Friendswood     uhm....OK

 

@Subdude   NextDoor Heights app. 

 

I mean, what do I know? Ive only been here for over 40 years. -_-  

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Crime in all areas of Houston is not bad....The Heights is just getting worse and worse, and its reported more and more. I have lived my entire life in Houston, and the ONLY time anything bad ever happened to me was while living in the Heights. I had my garage broken into, and my truck was broken into several times...and I never once parked on the street...all my vehicle break ins were while out in the area...CVS, Kroger, and at a friends house on 21st.

I have spent plenty of time in Memorial, West U, Bellaire, Galleria, Pearland, and Friendswood - and NONE of them have even a fraction of the crime as the Heights...I think the Heights is down there in the same category as midtown, as in, just assume its not safe, and hope for the best.

I read your post about crime in the Heights getting worse and worse and am troubled by it.

Each month ( first Tuesdays at 1600 State street) the Central one ( Montrose) and Central two (Heights) districts of HPD host the positive interaction police program=> PIP.

I have been attending these open meetings since 2005. I was really interested in crime stats within Montrose. The HPD Captain usually speaks at each meeting and a few times a year the Police Chief also speaks. There are booklets of previous months crime data listed by street address that are distributed.

Why I am troubled by your comment is that for the most part these meetings convey that overall crime has been going down. Violent crime down considerable. Car Burlgary is the most prevalent, going up one mOnth and decreasing the next and vice versa. So what's up with that? I'm not a resident of the Heights but rather Montrose. Are Heights residents observing a big uptick in crime?

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There has been a pretty good spike in vehicle B/E in the past two years in the Heights.  Most of the other major crime statistics in the Heights have been on the decline over the past few years and are actually very good for a major urban area.  The annual murder rate in the Heights is pretty much 1.  HPD views vehicle B/E as a preventable crime and is not going to take officers out of high crime areas to patrol the Heights to keep people from having their laptops stolen out of their cars. 
 

The fact of the matter is that the Heights is easy picking for criminals.  Alleys are great for breaking into garages.  There are a lot of vehicles parked in driveways and on the street.  It is very easy to get in and out of almost any section of the Heights because of the proximity of each section of the Heights to a major thoroughfare and highway. 

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There has been a pretty good spike in vehicle B/E in the past two years in the Heights.  Most of the other major crime statistics in the Heights have been on the decline over the past few years and are actually very good for a major urban area.  The annual murder rate in the Heights is pretty much 1.  HPD views vehicle B/E as a preventable crime and is not going to take officers out of high crime areas to patrol the Heights to keep people from having their laptops stolen out of their cars. 

 

The fact of the matter is that the Heights is easy picking for criminals.  Alleys are great for breaking into garages.  There are a lot of vehicles parked in driveways and on the street.  It is very easy to get in and out of almost any section of the Heights because of the proximity of each section of the Heights to a major thoroughfare and highway. 

 

Look at this, I agree with everything S3MH just said.  The heights is not nearly as dangerous as it once was, it is just petty crime, mostly cars, but there seems to be a recent increase in burglary as well... its quick smash and grabs in garages and houses too.  That is what happened to me....Crooks came in down the alley, jumped an 8' privacy fence into my back yard, kicked my door to the garage in, and made off with bicycles and tools...I was home and never heard it.

 

I think the reason the Heights is such an attractive target is the streets are in a perfect grid with multiple quick exits to multiple freeways...I mean a thief has any number of streets and alleys to use to get away and they all lead to a major artery (610, I-10, 45).

 

Add to this the fact that the demographics in the Heights means higher dollar electronics, jewlrey, etc and its the perfect place to hit.

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/poqnzv2l7dmh1zx/HeightsCrimeStats_%20Jan-May_2010-2014.xlsx?dl=0

 

Someone on nextdoor pulled crime stats for the Heights.  We only have Jan to May for 2014, so they only compared the first five months of the year from the previous few years.  Generally, it shows a big spike in theft in 2013, but improving numbers in 2014 and a very good trend overall.  But there will always be more crime in the Heights than in other neighborhoods for the reasons I previously mentioned.  However, I do not think that the Heights is dangerous and do not think that we are in the middle of a crime wave.  

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