Decline of a Neighborhood

When we moved into our house on the southeast side of Des Moines five years ago, we were fairly pleased with the neighborhood we had chosen. It's located at the edge of a development that was constructed in the mid-90's (ours built in '94), so the homes are all relatively modern and in decent condition. The immediately adjacent neighborhood to the west is slightly older (probably mid-80's), with the homes continuing to get older as you move farther west. Extending to the east are generally newer homes, with the most recently constructed houses popping up all around Easter Lake, which is about 5 minutes from our house. We knew that the SE side, in general, was not the nicest part of the metro area, but it provided a lot more buying power, getting us a much nicer home than we could get for a similarly priced house in the western suburbs. Basically, you have to drive through some "not so nice" neighborhoods to get to ours, and when we purchased that was OK. Unfortunately, things have changed over the years.

The most significant change has been the fact that we are now parents. Having the well-being of a young child at the forefront of your daily concerns makes you sensitive to things in your surroundings that you probably could care less about when you qualify as just a couple of D.I.N.K.'s (Double Income, No Kids). Anyone with children will know exactly what I'm talking about. Things that might seem trivial to someone without any children can often times be very important to a parent. Unfortunately, there have been more than just trivial events (even by D.I.N.K. standards) leading to the decline of our neighborhood.

In general, the SE side of the Des Moines metro could be considered a bit of a rough neighborhood -- really the entire east side. Yes, there are nicer spots interspersed among the bad areas, like our neighborhood for example, but it's generally not a highly revered part of the metro. We knew that going in, realizing that we would most likely move on after 5-7 years, so no big deal, right? Well, it wasn't at the time we purchased, and continued to not be a problem up until about two years ago when the crime associated with the bad areas around us started creeping closer and closer to our neighborhood.

It seems like there is a shooting/stabbing/robbery/hit-and-run/recently discovered dead body on the east side about every other week. Seriously. If it's not one of those things, it's another. Here are just a few examples that stick out in my mind:

- A few nights ago a 15 year-old was killed in a hit-and-run near South Ridge Mall (about 5-10 minutes south of our house).
- There have been at least three robberies of various businesses on SE 14th over the last several months -- at least one of which ended up in a high speed chase. SE 14th is the nearest major north-south thorough-fair to our house, about 5 blocks away.
- Last year, a man was arrested for sexually assaulting a young child (under the age of 10) in a van parked at the Fareway 2 blocks from our house.
- A few months ago a house on our street was broken into. I'm not sure what, if anything, was stolen. No one was home at the time.
- And most recently, there have been a rash of mailbox bashings on our street. Saturday evening/Sunday morning marked the third time it has happened this summer. This last go-around was the first time our mailbox was hit. Luckily, the damage was only superficial. There were somewhere between 5 and 10 other mailboxes on our street that weren't so lucky.

Normally, I wouldn't get too concerned about my mailbox getting bashed. And compared to the other items in my above list, some damaged mailboxes seems pretty trivial. Yes, it's annoying, aggravating, and an inconvenience -- especially when it happens repeatedly, but under normal circumstances I'd just chock it up to some bored, rowdy teenagers. That's what it appeared to be all the times leading up to the most recent. However, this last round was accompanied by, what I can only assume to be, gang symbols spray painted on the side of my neighbors boat which he had parked in his driveway. I have no idea what it meant or what gang it may or may not have been representing, but it concerns me greatly. That's just too damn close.

I feel as if it's only a matter of time before something more significant than a smashed mailbox will happen to my family, and I don't really feel like waiting around to find out what it might be. It's time to get the hell outta dodge...