Politics

Trump trashes John Lewis' district: Things to know about 5th Congressional District

U.S. Rep. John Lewis speaks as Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard (foreground) sits next him during a town hall discussion about the impact of gun violence at the Martin Luther King Sr. Community Resources Complex in Atlanta on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM
U.S. Rep. John Lewis speaks as Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard (foreground) sits next him during a town hall discussion about the impact of gun violence at the Martin Luther King Sr. Community Resources Complex in Atlanta on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM
Jan 14, 2017

If President-Elect Donald Trump believes Georgia's Fifth Congressional District is "falling apart," then he believes Atlanta is falling apart.

The Fifth Congressional District includes downtown Atlanta and much of central Fulton and DeKalb counties and the northern third of Clayton. Or, to put it in the language that Atlantans best understand: The Fifth Congressional District covers the majority of the land inside the Perimeter, as well as some of the suburban communities to the south and west.

It includes Buckhead and Bankhead, the Ritz-Carlton and the town of Rex, Lenox Square and Lakewood Heights -- and a lot of places in between.

» Map | Georgia congressional districts

The state of Georgia is represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by election officials from 14 districts.  The city of Atlanta is mostly located in Georgia's 5th congressional district.
The state of Georgia is represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by election officials from 14 districts. The city of Atlanta is mostly located in Georgia's 5th congressional district.

Here's a quick data snapshot of Rep. John Lewis' district:

While overall crime in the city has been down, according to statistics cited by the Atlanta Police Department, Mayor Kasim Reed spoke last summer of a spike in the number of homicides and announced the creation of a gun violence task force.

But the rise in homicides in Atlanta mirrors a national trend in major cities across the country, and New York Times analysis last year showed major jumps in murder rates in 25 of America's 100 biggest cities. Atlanta was not one of the 25.

The most recent violent crime rate for Atlanta and more than two dozen of its largest surrounding counties, according to the FBI, was 401 per 100,000 residents. That puts Atlanta at a rate similar to that of Clarksville, Tenn, which came in at 405. That's higher than the rate of the Dallas-Fort Worth area (338) but lower than Kansas City (536), Columbia, S.C. (651) and Columbus, Ga. (469).

AJC Data Specialist Jeff Ernsthausen contributed to this report. 

About the Author

Jennifer Peebles is a newsroom data specialist at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, helping reporters find and tell stories with government data (and sometimes documents, too).

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