Anybody else live in a rough city?

[RP88]

I live in a relatively good city (Virginia Beach), but there are some bad neighborhoods around. There are alot of sex offenders that live near me, and two houses were raided by police for marijuana in the past couple years. Other than that, most of the problems are just punk kids skateboarding and the thug-pretenders that go around and steal things from open garages. DUIs are a big thing here because of the tourism.

However, I do frequent Norfolk alot, and Richmond. Both arent very friendly places to have a car breakdown in at night -- especially Norfolk. Almost every building that isnt within view of the interstate has a cop in it. Sadly, the entire area of Norfolk actually gets worse and worse as you get CLOSER to Old dominion University, and that is where I spend alot of my time at when seeing friends.

 

[OOOXOOO]

I live in Phoenix, AZ not exactly 1980's Beruit but still mighty exciting. This year so far I personally witnessed all kinds of crazy stuff. Saw at least two robberies, called in two stolen cars parked on my street, woke up to a car parked 25' from my house engulfed in flames (also stolen), watched undercover cops do a sting operation on a drug house in the apartment complex across the street, stopped two teenagers and held them for the police that were spray painting the inside of an unoccupied house across the street, watched police bust a illegal alien drop house, and watched the liquor store 100 yards from my front door get robbed. I don't really worry about it that much. I personally have never had any problems(the burning car was as close as it got). I know most of the police that patrol the area and they know me. I always talk to everyone in the area(even the troublemakers) and try to watch out for the greater saftey of the neighborhood. Through all of this the only tool I ever used was my cell phone and my brain. This is my home and I will not run away because of undesireable people or actions here. "Evil is not overcome by running away from it." I will stay and do the best I can. Heck I actually like my neighbors.

 

[rondog]

Most dangerous thing about my neighborhood is the coyotes that cruise around at night for loose kitties and yard bunnies. A very calm, peaceful, "whitebread" Denver suburb. I'm probably the only gun-packer in the area.

 

[MaterDei]

I live in the country and work in downtown Houston. Both are reasonably safe cities provided you don't do something or go somewhere really stupid. Same as any city I suppose.

 

[Zach S]

No, in my area I worry more about four legged critters than I do the two legged ones.

Mom lives in a rough part of town. The police department has split the city into three zones, and at any given time the one she lives in has as many LEOS on duty as the other two zones combined. She lives on a pretty good street, but a few streets over is a pretty rough area. My little brother took me through a shortcut in the area, not doing that again. I'd rather take the long way than to have to deal with the drug dealers again.

 

[Defensory]

MaterDei:

You and I have a different definition of "reasonably safe".

Houston had at least 448 home invasions during 2005.

I don't have figures for the last couple years.

 

[tpaw]

New York City. End of story.

 

[Defensory]

Posted by tpaw:
New York City. End of story.

Uh, no.

NYC actually has one of the lowest violent crime rates per capita, of virtually any major city in the country.

 

[rantingredneck]

I grew up in Fayetteville, NC. Home of Ft. Bragg. Also home of several thousand prostitutes, drug dealers, gang-bangers and gang-banger wannabes.

I no longer live there......

Nice subdivision out in the sticks for me now.

I work in a fairly rough part of town in Burlington, NC though. I try to avoid that area at night. Daytime ain't quite as bad.

 

[thebaldguy]

Minneapolis has had it's share of problems. Most bad crimes take place in two neighborhoods, south and north. It's been over 10 years since the "Murderapolis" days of the 90's. Crime has been way down in North Minneapolis this year, and numerous home foreclosures may be the cause. My college neighborhood has seen it's share of break-ins, burglaries, and robberies. Be careful, stay alert, avoid problem areas, and you'll generally be ok.

 

[66912]

All I have to say is that I felt safer in the backwoods of Montana. I have been in the greater Portland Or. area for a little over a year now. My car has been broken into twice. My converter was cut from beneath my Toyota truck at work, and occasionally I have to push along people rifling through my recycling (I do not put it across the property line until I hear the truck.) I carry everywhere because this place can get crazy. All in all, I like Portland as far as cities go, but one more year and I am back to the safe zone. By the way, I had Freeman for neighbors back in MT. Good people. I had nothing to worry about.

 

[Cosmoline]

I've lived in some pretty rough parts of AK including Spenard, the Butte and the "out the road" sticks. Some areas are essentially lawless, and have a fair number of "end of the roaders" and sundry nogoodnicks. People get killed out there and just vanish. My advice is trust your gut, keep clear of trouble makers and watch your six. Most folks get into trouble because of who they know, not who they run into on the street.

 

[tpaw]

NYC actually has one of the lowest violent crime rates per capita, of virtually any major city in the country.

I would like to believe that but stats can be made to say just about anything you want. NYC is a tourist town and a major financial hub. Poor stats would not do us any good financially. Example: Precincts were rated A, B, and C according to the crime rate, with an A Precinct being the worst. Chinatown is a very high crime area and should be an A Precinct, I know, I worked there for a few years. NYC, mayors office, said Chinatown is a tourist attraction that brings in millions of dollars from tourists, therefore it's a C Precinct. Get my drift. NYPD Public Relations controls the crime reporting and filters the stats to soften the hard core crime. If you've taken statistics in college, you will know that you can just about come up with any conclusion you want. As for the FBI stats, they only get what we give them.
Remember 911, over 3,000 people dead in a matter of hours. People are still dying from the aftermath of that day. There were other bombings as well, one right at Police Hqtrs. I was working that night and was there. Then there are the daily homicides throughout the five boroughs, not to mention other crime. How safe is that? Yes, NYC is safer than it was years ago, but we still have a long way to go. LEO's in NYC have a tough enough time just trying to keep the lid on the garbage can. Trust me, after twenty years in the Big Apple as a LEO, and now retired, I wish the stats were true. Unfortunately, they are not.

 

[Navy joe]

Newport News, VA for 9 years, it has it's moments. Working and commuting in Portsmouth, South Norfolk and the like too. No problems now, 7/10mile long driveway and clear fields of fire!

 

[Defensory]

Posted by tpaw:
I would like to believe that but stats can be made to say just about anything you want. NYC is a tourist town and a major financial hub. Poor stats would not do us any good financially. Example: Precincts were rated A, B, and C according to the crime rate, with an A Precinct being the worst. Chinatown is a very high crime area and should be an A Precinct, I know, I worked there for a few years. NYC, mayors office, said Chinatown is a tourist attraction that brings in millions of dollars from tourists, therefore it's a C Precinct. Get my drift. NYPD Public Relations controls the crime reporting and filters the stats to soften the hard core crime. If you've taken statistics in college, you will know that you can just about come up with any conclusion you want. As for the FBI stats, they only get what we give them.
Remember 911, over 3,000 people dead in a matter of hours. People are still dying from the aftermath of that day. There were other bombings as well, one right at Police Hqtrs. I was working that night and was there. Then there are the daily homicides throughout the five boroughs, not to mention other crime. How safe is that? Yes, NYC is safer than it was years ago, but we still have a long way to go. LEO's in NYC have a tough enough time just trying to keep the lid on the garbage can. Trust me, after twenty years in the Big Apple as LEO, and now retired, I wish the stats were true.

The problem with your logic is, that even IF you could prove that NYC is "fudging" on their crime statistics, ALL the other cities in the country have the capability of doing the SAME thing.

Hate to disappoint you, but cities like Detroit and Washington, D.C. have MUCH higher violent crime rates than NYC, and have for years. Current ACTIVE DUTY cops in Detroit and D.C. will verify what I'm saying.

Nobody's saying that NYC doesn't have a serious crime problem, but the blunt fact of the matter remains that they have one of the lowest violent crime rates of virtually any major city in the country.

NYC has far and away the largest police department in the country, with over 36,000 sworn officers. Compare that to Los Angeles, with less than 10,000 sworn officers.

 

[tpaw]

Hate to disappoint you, but cities like Detroit and Washington, D.C. have MUCH higher violent crime rates than NYC, and have for years.

No disappointment here, I agree with that. I'm glad we don't lead the pack, but if you vist NYC, I'd advise being on the alert at all times.

The problem with your logic is, that even IF you could prove that NYC is "fudging" on their crime statistics, ALL the other cities in the country have the capability of doing the SAME thing.

It's not logic, it's money. Many cities don't and expect higher federal funding, we don't rely on enormous federal funds like other cities do. NYC is unique. We bring billions of dollars in every year from tourists and big business. We can't turn that away for the few scraps that the feds offer. And yes, we have 36,000 some odd officers, however, only 5 to 7 thousand of those officers are assigned to patrol duties at any given time, but not all are actually on patrol. If an arrest is made, an officer goes sick or gets injured, has to appear in court and many other reasons, those officers are not replaced. Considering the fact that we have a population of over 8 million people, it leaves very few officers for a very large population. The rest is administration and field support services other than active patrol.

 

[Wopasaurus]

I live in Cincinnati.... 'nuff said. Haha...

The area I live in now is nicer, but it's still about half a mile away from the corner of Mug Whitey and Stab Whitey where I used to live.

 

[SpeedAKL]

cbrgator,

Where in Miami are you living? Some areas are rough - Liberty City, Overtown, Opa-Locka, etc are all right up there - but pretty much anything south or southwest of downtown is OK, and most of Miami Beach is fine save for a few spotty areas near South Beach (which can attract some problems during nights due to the party scene).

 

[SpeedAKL]

My hometown of Salem, VA, had its first murder in over 10 years a couple months ago.....and both the shooter and victim were out-of-towners, victim was involved with shooter's wife. Roanoke can get a little rough, particularly in northwest or southeast. I was jumped once while running a cross-country race and beaten, luckily I was able to get up and run away and tell a hulking course judge with a metal bat what was going on...my race was shot tho....

Where I'm working in over the summer (Richmond, VA) is always on the top-10 murder list, but it's very confined even in the city. Hull Street and Route 1 area in the south side of the city, along with anything directly north and northeast of downtown, are murder city. Other than that, the city itself is fine and many parts of it are less dangerous than they were when I was growing up here. The suburbs are basically crime-free save for the lower-income areas in eastern Henrico County.

Honestly, the place where I have the biggest day-to-day violent crime risk is the town where I go to college. Aside from a very unfortunate event we had a little over a year ago, crime in Blacksburg went through the roof this past year. Several shooting incidents, stabbings, rapes, robberies at knife and gunpoint, large bar-fights that spilled into the streets, and even a couple armed invasions into students' off-campus apartments. The big problem (besides the meth industry out in the sticks nearby) is that we have a huge bar/party scene here that while fun can bring in lots of out-of-town problems. There are a couple clubs right by campus downtown that attract the gangsta crowd, police seized almost 100 illegally-possessed guns outside one club over the fall semester. Some of our football players have gotten in trouble due to fights involving people from their hometowns (bad parts of Richmond and Tidewaters), and our star cornerback had his apartment shot up as a result one night. Luckily, nobody has been killed yet, but we've had our share of injuries and rape victims. Who'd have thought that I'd have to watch my back at night in the leftist college town as much as I would in the big bad city?!

 

[SpeedAKL]

tpaw:

I've been to NYC on basically an annual basis (and sometimes more) since I was a little kid and have never had any problems. Then again, my relatives live in Manhattan and the area in Brooklyn around Prospect Park, all of which are relatively safe areas.

 

[kkille1lsu]

New Orleans, Louisiana. Much like most urban areas, one street has million dollar homes and condos and the next block has flooded, burned, trashed crack houses, projects, and sect. 8 housing.

 

[tpaw]

SpeedAKL:

I've been to NYC on basically an annual basis (and sometimes more) since I was a little kid and have never had any problems. Then again, my relatives live in Manhattan and the area in Brooklyn around Prospect Park, all of which are relatively safe areas.

I am happy to hear that. However there are many areas in all the boroughs that you would not go into with a tank. Bedford Styvasant is just one of them. Like any other big city, it has it's good areas and bad. About Prospect Park, you would not want to walk the area at night.
Where in Manhattan and Brooklyn do they live?

"Then again, my relatives live in Manhattan and the area in Brooklyn around Prospect Park, all of which are relatively safe areas."

That's a very broad statement for one who does not live in NY. Truth is, many sections of Brooklyn and Manhattan are not safe during the day, and extremely dangerous at night.

 

[Tyrannosaurus]

LA

Downtown Los Angeles can be a scary place. In 1984, an android from the future drove a truck right through the front of a police station. He was well armed with modern weapons, and if I recall correctly, he killed just about everyone in there.

 

[Drgong]

I grew up in a rough town (Gastonia) and it honed the BEST self defense weapon, which is not a Gun, though a gun helps...

The best weapon is to be aware and trust your gut to get out of a area if your gut says so.

I would say some areas of Gastonia are some of the roughest in the US of A.

The HomeSurfer crime rating for Gastonia, North Carolina is 0.3 out of a possible 5 total points. Higher ratings indicate that your area is safer.

 

[SpeedAKL]

tpaw:

Upper West Side and Park Slope.

Worst in New York I've seen in South Bronx around Yankee Stadium - but I didn't hang around long enough to find out!