Decatur, DeKalb…What’s the Diff?
Decatur Metro | January 18, 2010I guess its a “power of words” sorta day.
In yet another documented instance of Atlanta news orgs referring to incorporated DeKalb as “Decatur”, thanks to a Decatur mailing address, the AJC first reported this DeKalb motel shooting as “Decatur motel shooting victim now in critical condition”, according to Andisheh.
Not the first time this has happened.
The location was reported as Decatur. An hour later, it’s changed to DeKalb without any note.
As we’ve noted before, it might not matter to most, but countless shootings and other illicit acts reported as “Decatur” but really in DeKalb, aren’t all that great for the city’s image.
Maybe a specialized “Decatur: We’re incorporated!” ad campaign would help.
The confusion definitely affects perceptions. When a colleague decided to move to Decatur from out of state and had a contract on a local home, he panicked at the last moment after reading news reports about crimes in “Decatur”. I had to explain the difference between City of Decatur and a Decatur postal address. But geographic labels are a Georgia-wide problem. Why isn’t Decatur in Decatur County? Or Madison in Madison County? Or Jasper in Jasper County? Too confusing!
“…a Georgia-wide problem. Why isn’t Decatur in Decatur County? Or Madison in Madison County? Or Jasper in Jasper County?”
Karass, with all due respect, you’re not from here, are you? I suspect this relates somehow to Georgia having more counties (proportionate to area) than just about any other state because counties kept splitting, and people in different parts of the state were inclined to honor some of the same individuals by naming towns and counties after them. By the way, it may be more widespread than you thought: Macon is in Bibb County, Oglethorpe is in Macon County, Lexington is in Oglethorpe Co., Dahlonega is in Lumpkin County, Lumpkin is in Stewart Co., Georgetown is in Quitman Co., Quitman is in Brooks Co., Cumming is in Forsyth Co., Forsyth is in Monroe Co., Monroe is in Walton co., Moultrie is in Colquitt Co., Colquitt is in Miller Co., Clayton is in Rabun Co., Jonesboro is in Clayton Co., Morgan is in Calhoun co., Calhoun is in Gordon Co…..you could go on all day. I thought this was quite entertaining when I took Georgia History in about the 4th grade. And it seemed to me that people in places like Thomasville (Thomas Co.), and Tifton (Tift Co.) didn’t have much imagination!
Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island.
Moreover, it has never received a prestigious scholarship and is not the home state of historic city of Rhodes, which is an island.
Three TV stations also reported incorrectly despite the fact that WSB TV is a cousin to AJC who did eventually get it right. When this happens, I just fire off emails or complaint forms to the stations involved every time. If they get enough of those, maybe they’ll pay a little more attention. I point out that it’s not difficult to get it right. DeKalb police uniforms and cars are a completely different color from Decatur and the PIO is DeKalb, not Decatur. I also pointed out in this instance, that the current incident meant that the County had already matched Decatur’s number of homicides last year (1).
This is only tangentially related, but what is the industry standard regarding corrections in online articles? I’ve noticed that most of the news websites I visit (NY Times, Slate, this one) draw quite a bit of attention to post-publication corrections within articles, even if it’s a trivial error. I think Slate actually adds an asterisk to a corrected sentence, tacking on an explanatory footnote at the end of the article. However, it seems that the AJC freely edits their articles after the original posting with no mention of a correction. In addition to minor changes such as this, I noticed awhile back that certain paragraphs vanished from an article shedding some negative light on a certain politician. Since I double-checked the original facts, I assume that this edit was due to political pressure.
Guilty. I live in unincorporated DeKalb but I tell everyone I live in Decatur. It’s hard to warm up to unincorporated DeKalb. At least I am in 30030.
Parker, as long as you aren’t participating in any illegal activities while simultaneously yelling “I live in Decatur!”, I’m OK with it.
Pay my taxes, Parker! Then you can say you live in Decatur! I’ll gladly pay your unincorporated DeKalb ones for the tradeoff.
But seriously, it is an issue for others reasons- look at the language on some real estate ads- agents will boast of “great Decatur address” when it’s in unincorporated DeKalb, and I know younger and less sophisticated buyers who were taken in by vague language and “great Decatur deals’ – I couldn’t convince a friend of mine that the Midway area was not Decatur because her agent kept telling her it was. It’s not a matter of crime- it’s a matter of perception. If we are promoting Decatur as a particular type of community then we do need to be conscious of the image.
No doubt Nellie.
As a local Realtor, this is on of my biggest pet peeves. I have lived just in or just out of Decatur my whole life. Love them both, but they are very different. Listing agents outside the city love to label their properties as “Decatur” when they are not. The MLS system and all the scab websites that mine data from it like Realtor.com, AOL, Yahoo, Zillow include 30032, 30034 and 30035 in their “Decatur” listings. I am perpetually re-educating prospective Buyers who are new to the area between the differences.
My favorite is when agents list the subdivision as Oakhurst/Kirkwood…..hmmmmm? Is it either Oakhurst or Kirkwood? It cannot both.
Sean, I’m sure you recognize that everyone wants to be in a “desirable” neighborhood, and so agents will do whatever it takes to make it sound like one. We once lived in a rural area of Pennsylvania that was very attractive with horse farms, etc., and we were literally next door to the post office with the town’s name and saw listings that referred to our town which were located 15 miles away.
I guess it’s a compliment to Decatur that we are one of those “desirable” areas and I feel sorry for buyers who, though not knowing better and not being fully informed by agents, don’t get what they expected. Even better, I like the listings that boast of “no Decatur taxes” without mentioning “no Decatur services”. And these days, the taxes aren’t much less.
I just find that so unethical though!
Actually, I read the article and emailed the author. It was changed quite quickly, but without note. My main point was that if the incident had been in Decatur, the City of Decatur police would have responded, not the DeKalb police.
Call me particular, call me bitchy, but i get tired of Decatur getting a bad rap for things that don’t really happen here.
Send your complaint to the TV stations also.
Meh.
Crime happens all over the Metro area. “Not in my neighborhood.” Yes, yours too. Perception? Who cares? If you want accuracy in reporting statistics to better inform and fund law enforcement, sure….complain away.
I have to say that this is a problem we’ve faced for years. After years of trying to figure out how to “brand” real Decatur vs. “greater” Decatur, we decided we were better off focusing our attention on the positive. Ultimately the address is assigned by the Post Office. Marietta, Suwanee, Stone Mountain and all other cities struggle with this same address identity problem. As someone who has been around a really long time, I have to say that I get a satisfaction in real estate agents assigning a “Decatur” address to every listing under the sun. I remember the day when Decatur properties were listed as “Emory” area or “Druid Hills” area. Now everyone wants to be in Decatur — we’ve come a long way. Seriously, when you write to the AJC and to the television stations tell them that it’s very easy — if they are talking to a DeKalb police officer or a DeKalb firefighter it’s Not Decatur.
“Seriously, when you write to the AJC and to the television stations tell them that it’s very easy — if they are talking to a DeKalb police officer or a DeKalb firefighter it’s Not Decatur.”
The fire trucks, police cars, and police uniforms are different colors – it’s not that hard to tell the difference.
And to my point above:
http://www.decaturmetro.com/2010/01/19/decatur-pd-alert-evening-home-burglaries-in-south-decatur/#comments
Sorry Joe, but I don’t understand your point. Are you saying there’s no difference in public perception between shooting at a motel and a few break-ins?
And what does funding law enforcement have to do with news agencies reporting the proper jurisdiction?
My point is this:
Are you really that concerned with the public perception? I mean, you know where you live and you know what’s going on there. There’s an underlying current of burying one’s head in the sand here. “Wait…wait…that happened 2 streets over…it didn’t happen in MY neighborhood.”
In my opinion, that sort of mentality is counter productive.
Regarding the other comment, I can see outcry over correct reporting (not necessarily “news” reporting) of crime incidents so that they are properly assessed by law enforcement agencies so that they can apportion man power to the appropriate areas.
But if the average Gwinnettian is watching the news and hears about a motel shooting in “Decatur,” are you really concerned about what his reaction is going to be?
I agree with you JoeBlow and think you have really hit onto something.
Crime happens and can happen regardless of the jurisdiction. If I live in the City of Decatur and crime happens in unincorporated Dekalb or City of Atlanta a few blocks away, I’m still concerned and am not just going to bury my head in the sand because we have a great police force here in Decatur. They can’t be everywhere at all times.
Plus, any one of those “few break ins” could have EASILY turned into something worse. Then what of the perception?
Anyone who owns property in Decatur and expects to sell it some day cares about perception. Right now, people are willing to pay a premium to live in Decatur. I’d like to keep it that way.
Easily? The guy ran off when he heard the woman in the house.
This time, sure. But are you saying that here in the City Of Decatur, our criminals aren’t as dangerous as those menaces in unincorporated parcels?
No, I’m saying that in this particular case you are making a pretty big assumption to prove your point.
Neither you or I could ever prove that criminals are more “dangerous” in one place over another. But I can compare crimes against people in South DeKalb (“Decatur” zip code) and inside the city limits and look at the data, no?
Your argument seems to be that even though people are SAYING they’re concerned about public perceptions because of real estate prices and broader public perceptions of the city, really they’re in blanket denial of any crime in Decatur.
I’m pretty sure it’s not an either/or. You can believe that public perception is important for city PR and at the same time have a healthy perception of crime in Decatur.
I’m not necessarily saying/assuming they’re in blanket denial. For some reason this discussion calls to mind a recent happening in Inman Park. There was a slew of home invasions (6 is the number that stands in my head) that occurred in that neighborhood, I think around this time last year. A local news station reported on the incidents from a local restaurant parking lot and there were members of the Inman Park Neighborhood Association who were furious that one of “their” businesses would allow the reporter to broadcast the story. The underlying message was “we don’t want people thinking that sort of thing happens here.”
Have you ever met any of the hardcore Inman Park Neighborhood Association people? I know a number of the more involved people over there. They get upset a lot.
I’m sure our local realtors are working very hard to do just that.
Regardless of crime perception, Decatur vs. Unincorporated DeKalb has always been a pet-peeve of mine. I used to work with several folks who said they lived in Decatur (due to their assigned postal address) but actually had no idea where ‘City of Decatur’ proper was. It drove me insane. I think they actually lived somwhere outside the perimeter near Wesley Chapel Road. I was actually excited when Vernon wanted to create the ‘City of DeKalb’ because I thought it might correct this annoying issue for me.
That said, I don’t really have any problems with people who live near Decatur but not inside the city limits saying they live in the ‘Decatur-area’ or whatever.
However, I do agree with others that is very unethical for real estate agents to misrepresent the location of a property as being inside ‘City of Decatur’ when it actually is not and merely has a Decatur postal address. Same with the ‘Oakhurst/Kirkwood’ listings (which I’ve noticed are always actually located in City of Atlanta/Kirkwood and not the other way around). Guess it’s good that Decatur is a desirable address, though!
The following exchange took place today between yours truly and Steve Schwaid, the News Director of channel 46 (“We ask the tough questions”). I have not received a response after my last message, in which I got a little nasty.
BTW, this is not the first time Mr Schwaid and I have exchanged emails on this subject. The previous exchanged have ended in a similar fashion.
———
From: Steve
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 11:29 AM
To: Steve Schwaid
Subject: Confusion
Howcum the story about the carjacking where the suspect was shot correctly states that the incident was in DeKalb County, but the caption under the video link says “Decatur”
Steve
————————
From: Steve Schwaid
To: Steve
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 11:50 AM
Subject: RE: Confusion
From our web folks:
No confusion. It happened in Decatur. Decatur is in DeKalb County. This is Decatur, but in unincorporated DeKalb. Both terms are correct in this story.
Steve Schwaid
Director of News and Digital Content
CBS Atlanta News and CBSATLANTA.com
Direct: 404-327-3267
Cell: 917-952-1392
Fax: 404-327-3062
——————————————————–
From: Steve
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:40 PM
To: Steve Schwaid
Subject: RE: Confusion
Sorry, but Decatur is an incorporated city since 1823 that happens to be in DeKalb County like Avondale, Chamblee, Doraville, Stone Mountain, etc. We may be a bit parochial, but we are proud of our community spirit and involvement and one of the results is a low crime rate (one homicide each in 2008 and 2009, for instance). We do not appreciate being associated with crimes that happen far from our City (almost 5 miles in this case) and therefore are associated with us by unaware people. Just because a location has a Decatur address assigned by the post office doesn’t mean it’s in our City limits.
It is not difficult to differentiate: DeKalb police uniforms are gray and their cars are gray. Decatur uniforms are dark blue and the cars are white. The spokesman, Ofc. Gagnon, was from DeKalb County.
Every other outlet got it right – yours was the only one that had any mention of Decatur and I think that and your response reflects directly on your organization’s professionalism, but I guess that question is too tough.
Perhaps you should visit our City sometime and see what we mean. I’ll be happy to give you directions.
Steve