Info Search: Small Beginnings Sequel
In a bid to come up with some sort of plot for a sequel to Small Beginnings, does anyone know any especially bad residential neighbourhoods in or around Washington DC? In the vein of the Magnificent 7's ATF AU's neighbourhood of Purgatorio.
A couple of websites that show maps of crime rates:
http://spotcrime.com/dc/washington -- although unless you are a subscriber, you only get the more "minor" crimes of the last month, rather than a full picture.
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/dc/washington/crime/ -- while I can't say how impartial it is, uses census and crime rate data to track which areas are 'safest' on a map. The lighter coloured areas are the 'bad neighbourhoods'. It shows the entire Southeast corner as light-coloured, with certain areas a little worse than others. (Note that the bright spot in Georgetown just south of Dupoint Circle that ranks "0", the worst of the worst, is actually the Georgetown University! Yipes!)
http://burgersub.org/murders2k9.htm -- this is the 2009 map of murders in the DC area. Zoom in to see several high-murder spots.
Basically, according to several sites, the highest poverty and therefore crime rates for the D.C. area are in the Southeast Quadrant. So within DC itself, that'd be like the Anacostia, Fairfax Village, and Garfield Heights neighbourhoods. Furthermore, Prince George's County (just outside the District, in Maryland) seems to be one of the major hotspots for murder and drug trafficking. There, Suitland-Silver Hill has one the highest crime rates anywhere, but still lies quite close to the affluent and nearly crime-free gated country-club community of Woodmore. Variety is the spice of life!
Really, I knew DC was dangerous, but until I did this research I'd had no idea how bad! ::is scared::
P.S. Also, since Denver's Purgatorio was made up, it might be a good idea to do the same thing for your fic. Use a fake location, maybe in the Southeast part of town, but with a fake name for your fic rather than a real neighbourhood. Lest you accidentally offend anyone who might read it... just in case.
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I did try my own Google-fu, and I did come up with a site that did crime statistics using colour-coded bobbles on something similar to Google Maps, but it was difficult to scan and to tell which neighbourhood was which, and when I looked them up all I got was PR about much everything was improving.
I definitely think going the way of a fictional neighbourhood would be the easiest, and least offensive, route. Now to come up with a neighbourhood name. Possibly something in the same vein as Purgatorio. Hmm.
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Hmm... actually, why don't you give the place a real nice sounding name? Like Point Pleasant or something. I mean, everyone knows Purgatorio's a bad part of town because of the name, but if your area was Garden Heights or Dawnwood, then it'd be a bit more ironic.
Of course, there are actual places like Seat Pleasant, Morningside, and even a neighbourhood called Friendly in that part of town, so it may not be saying much after all! ;)
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It appears we think along similar lines since I was thinking of going with underworld-y type places but of the vaguely more pleasant variety: Asphodel Meadows, Summerland, Fiddler's Green. I'm quite partial to the last one, actually. It's sort of a Valhalla for modern military apparently.
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The province of Newfoundland in Canada has some of the best town names you can imagine. Like Trinity Bay, which consists of Heart's Desire, Heart's Content, and Heart's Delight. Then there's such memorable townships as Conception Bay, Placentia, Dildo, Goobies, Blow Me Down, Come-By-Chance, Happy Adventure, and Witless Bay. Aw, Newfies... so crazy, ya gotta love 'em! :D
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Although we do have some cool ones here like the Drakensberg (Dragon Mountains). We've even got an Atlantis. But most of it's fairly boring. And a lot of my local geography's been changed in recent years to something Xhosa or Zulu or the like. Although I do like the rather poetic spin a lot of the names now have, instead of surnames of settlers.
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