KANSAS CITY, MO -
A Kansas City, Missouri, woman has had enough of the gang activity and graffiti in the neighborhood she has lived in for six years, and now she's getting out.
Lesley Pickett says that she has fought back against the criminal activity in her neighborhood for over a year, and she says that it has made her the target for troublemakers, and her children the target for bullies and other threats.
So she's stopped paying the mortgage on her home near 18th and Kansas, and has walked away from her dream home out to an apartment in the suburbs.
"It really made me feel uncomfortable," said Pickett. "It was endangering my family, especially if I was to go to work, think about it more and more hoping that nothing go bad. I decided to just move on out."
"It makes me feel frustrated, but I'm better off in a better environment," said Pickett.
Pickett says that her new home is expensive - her $700 rent is the same as her mortgage payment. But her new place is on the bus line, which made the move possible.
"Put it behind me, no more endangerment, no more worry, for the time being," said Pickett. "And just see what happens maybe in the future."
Pickett says that the appraised value on her house dropped more that $35,000 in the last year alone, and she says that she is convinced that it's not all because of the recession.
Alvin Brooks of the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime says that abandoning the urban core makes solving problems in the neighborhood that much more difficult.
"It doesn't get any better when you move," said Brooks. "I think you have to take a stand, you have to take a position. I think you have to say I'm not going to move. I'm going to work with those organizations, with the police with neighborhood groups, and with individuals, maybe the families that are creating the problem."
Pickett says that she may someday return to the urban core, when there are more people there willing to help fight the blight.
Lesley Pickett says that she has fought back against the criminal activity in her neighborhood for over a year, and she says that it has made her the target for troublemakers, and her children the target for bullies and other threats.
So she's stopped paying the mortgage on her home near 18th and Kansas, and has walked away from her dream home out to an apartment in the suburbs.
"It really made me feel uncomfortable," said Pickett. "It was endangering my family, especially if I was to go to work, think about it more and more hoping that nothing go bad. I decided to just move on out."
"It makes me feel frustrated, but I'm better off in a better environment," said Pickett.
Pickett says that her new home is expensive - her $700 rent is the same as her mortgage payment. But her new place is on the bus line, which made the move possible.
"Put it behind me, no more endangerment, no more worry, for the time being," said Pickett. "And just see what happens maybe in the future."
Pickett says that the appraised value on her house dropped more that $35,000 in the last year alone, and she says that she is convinced that it's not all because of the recession.
Alvin Brooks of the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime says that abandoning the urban core makes solving problems in the neighborhood that much more difficult.
"It doesn't get any better when you move," said Brooks. "I think you have to take a stand, you have to take a position. I think you have to say I'm not going to move. I'm going to work with those organizations, with the police with neighborhood groups, and with individuals, maybe the families that are creating the problem."
Pickett says that she may someday return to the urban core, when there are more people there willing to help fight the blight.
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