Moving Out!

We, at the Chatham Avalon Park Community Council, have noticed that long-time middle-class residents of Chatham are now moving out, with the ever increasing expense of getting through the recent harsh winters, in light of the changing neighborhood, intimidation from young black males playing basketball in the alleys with no respect for residents who need to park their cars in their garages, the ever-rising crime wave, the degentrification of Chatham, or perhaps ghettoizing of Chatham with the influx on ex-CHA residents into Section 8 housing units, in both houses and apartment buildings (there are approximately more than 1400 Section 8 families now living in Chatham after having been relocated from the projects), and with them, the ills of the inner city, like, crime, drugs, children having children, and the drop in the quality of life in the area. Chatham during the 1950's, 60's, 70's and 80's and even into the late 90's had a standard of living comparable to any middle-class suburb in the white community, with a comfortable living, even more so than Pill Hill.