Otis White, quoted on the New Urbanism email list: "It’s getting harder and harder to tell the suburbs from the city. Latest evidence: Criminal gangs are moving to the ’burbs. Take Atlanta’s Gwinnett County, which recorded 27 homicides by early August of this year, six more than in all of 2002. At least some of the murders there were gang-related. Police have identified 175 gangs at work in the county. Similar story in the Washington, D.C., area, where there are an estimated 3,000 gang members in the region, many in the suburbs. Said the head of Fairfax County, Va.’s anti-gang unit, gang leaders 'know that Northern Virginia is prime real estate. No one gang has it claimed as its drug territory. One of the richest counties, tons of kids, tons of money. They call it a green area.' In Boston, a newspaper analysis of recent crime statistics shows that crime rose sharply in suburban areas in 2002 while declining in urban centers. The number of violent crimes in Massachusetts was up 11 percent in the suburbs last year and down 2 percent in the cities. There were similar trends for property crimes."