Talk:Opelika, Alabama

This article is part of WikiProject Alabama, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Alabama on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.AlabamaWikipedia:WikiProject AlabamaTemplate:WikiProject AlabamaAlabama articles

Cities

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Cities, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of cities, towns and various other settlements on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CitiesWikipedia:WikiProject CitiesTemplate:WikiProject CitiesWikiProject Cities articles

Wondering how to edit this U.S. City Entry?
The WikiProject U.S. Cities standards might help.

Recent Deletions

IP only editor--it would be appreciated if you would fill out an edit summary when you make your deletions, or start a discussion on this page. So far your changes have removed relevant information taken from the cited sources at the bottom of the References section, and as such I've had to revert them as vandalism. If you have valid cites which counter those provided in the current article, I would welcome your discussing of them here so that we can reach a consensus. --Lissoy 22:16, 18 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Gang issues

I have a question. Where does your information about Opelika's gang problem come from?

I work for the Auburn Plainsman and one of our reporters used your entry on Opelika for her story (no offense to you or the site, but she probably should not have done that). Long story short, some prominent citizens called us demanding to know where we got the info from, so me made some phone calls.

We talked to Officer McMinamin (I'm sure I'm not spelling it correctly) at the Opelika Police Department (he is in charge of all "gang related" crimes) and he said that while there is a "gang mentality" within certain sections of Opelika's youth, there are no real gangs, so to speak. He said that the whole "gang culture" of Opelika is really nothing more than a rumor.

While I agree that the city's crime rate has gone up in the last few years, as a long time resident of the city, I see no evidence of any real gangs. And the leaders in the African American community that we have talked to say the same thing.

Just wondering.

Thanks.

Good timing. I was just doing the research on this topic last night to get a better cite for that clause. Opelika is cited by the National Youth Gang Center and the U.S. Department of Justice as "reporting youth gang problems" in The Growth of Youth Gang Problems in the United States: 1970-98. Legally, in Alabama a gang is defined as "any combination, confederation, alliance, network, conspiracy, understanding, or other similar arrangement in law or in fact, of three or more persons that, through its membership or through the agency of any member, engages in a course or pattern of criminal activity." (Code of Alabama, Section 13A-6-26). By that definition, gang activity is common in Opelika--Mayor Fuller noted such an understanding between criminal elements with respect to territory in his 2006 State of the City Address: "Unfortunately, there are certain neighborhoods in our community where the people living there don't feel safe outside of their homes after sunset and would never entertain the idea of sitting out on their front porches - all because of the thugs, drug dealers and other criminal elements who have taken over those areas as their own "turf."" Fuller, as a candidate for mayor in August 2004, stated in an interview with Auburn-Opelika This Morning on WANI that the problem wasn't localized--that one could hear gunshots after dusk from any front porch (he seems to like front porches) in the city. I can't imagine anyone arguing that there aren't groups of youths in Opelika who commit patterns of crimes. For what is probably the single best description of crime in Opelika, go back and read the Plainsman article on crime in Opelika written in the 1995-96 year--it is quite an eye-opener.

Nonetheless, this technical definition of "gang" is not exactly what most people think of when they hear the word "gang". I cannot find any direct evidence of any national gangs operating in Opelika, and so to eliminate confusion, I've changed "gang activity" to "gang-like activity". That should eliminate confusion with respect to the national gangs, but also still describes the nature of much of the criminal element in Opelika. -- Lissoy 13:20, 6 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

File:East Alabama Medical Center.jpg Nominated for speedy Deletion

An image used in this article, File:East Alabama Medical Center.jpg, has been nominated for speedy deletion at Wikimedia Commons for the following reason: Copyright violations

What should I do?

Don't panic; deletions can take a little longer at Commons than they do on Wikipedia. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion (although please review Commons guidelines before doing so). The best way to contest this form of deletion is by posting on the image talk page.

If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use)
If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used.
If the image has already been deleted you may want to try Commons Undeletion Request

This notification is provided by a Bot --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 14:59, 1 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to one external link on Opelika, Alabama. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/20121007073315/http://www.apa.org/divisions/div6/awards.html to http://www.apa.org/divisions/div6/awards.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers. —^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 11:01, 29 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

toward greater greater sentences

The Auburn-Opelika, AL MSA with a population of 150,933 which, along with the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area and Macon County, Alabama, comprises the greater Greater Columbus, Georgia, a region home to 501,649 residents.

This sentence has no main verb; removing "which" would cure that. Also: "greater Greater Columbus"?? —Tamfang (talk) 19:02, 21 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Advertisement language

This entire article reads ridiculously like a blatant city ad, which can be said for most Alabama related articles on this site. Someone please filter excessive business info and add historical or social information, such as why the vast majority of the poor population is African American. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.85.240.3 (talk • contribs)