Need advice about Roxbury (Boston, Reading: restaurant, shop, safer)

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Space_League

people here claim to care about data but mostly they still judge things using their eyes and ears, their own experiences and comfort level just like the rest of the world

Sure, and that's fine and wise. However, we should all be making not that what we see and how we feel is often very much shaped by other people's reactions and beliefs, and especially due to media. These things color our perceptions. People "feel" things are getting worse, when overall they aren't. For example: School shootings are actually down from the 90s, but people feel like its worse due to changes in the media. Its just something people should be keeping in mind and be cautious of.

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Sure, and that's fine and wise. However, we should all be making not that what we see and how we feel is often very much shaped by other people's reactions and beliefs, and especially due to media. These things color our perceptions. People "feel" things are getting worse, when overall they aren't. For example: School shootings are actually down from the 90s, but people feel like its worse due to changes in the media. Its just something people should be keeping in mind and be cautious of.

This makes sense. I get your drift. The media truly does know how to change narrative no doubt. And maybe it is because of that. But the fact is still that people in these communities generally feel less safe these days. If that is because of actual numbers of bodies, or media coverage it still feels real.

[Space_League]

Originally Posted by GeePee

This makes sense. I get your drift. The media truly does know how to change narrative no doubt. And maybe it is because of that. But the fact is still that people in these communities generally feel less safe these days. If that is because of actual numbers of bodies, or media coverage it still feels real.

a culture of fear is a powerful and destructive thing in itself far beyond the acts of violence that manifest the fear. this has been known for a long time and it's a big part of what motivates things like school shootings, terrorism, gangland teen executions etc

[bigfatdude]

Originally Posted by redplum33

Fat Dude, that's a whole bunch of nonsense.

What part is nonsense? The fact that Dorchester has some really bad and unsafe areas, the fact that it also has some really nice and safe areas, or the fact that suburbanites who have never been there think the whole place resembles Mogadishu?

[BostonBornMassMade]

Boston had 31 homicides in 1999 and 186 shootings...it had 75 homicides in 2005 and 363 shootings ....we had 60 homicides in 2008 and then 72 and 2010 we had 39 homicides in 2015 and we had 56 last year to go along with about 240 shootings. Boston is uniformly safer than it was 20 years ago but when it comes to gang violence it’s really no better than it’s been for the past 25 years

For the record there were 152 homicides in 1990 with a much smaller population of 574k for a homicide rate of ~25 per 100k. About 450 shootings

[Space_League]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Boston had 31 homicides in 1999 and 186 shootings...it had 75 homicides in 2005 and 363 shootings ....we had 60 homicides in 2008 and then 72 and 2010 we had 39 homicides in 2015 and we had 56 last year to go along with about 240 shootings. Boston is uniformly safer than it was 20 years ago but when it comes to gang violence it’s really no better than it’s been for the past 25 years

For the record there were 152 homicides in 1990 with a much smaller population of 574k for a homicide rate of ~25 per 100k. About 450 shootings

my understanding is that the city got safer as in formerly dangerous neighborhoods are now safe / 75%+ of the city has very low crime. when my dad lived in ruggles area in the 80s it was a rough neighborhood now it's full of students. the places that are still hood never really changed in terms of crime

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Space_League

my understanding is that the city got safer as in formerly dangerous neighborhoods are now safe / 75%+ of the city has very low crime. when my dad lived in ruggles area in the 80s it was a rough neighborhood now it's full of students. the places that are still hood never really changed in terms of crime

True but what happens in the early 2000s is that 1990s notorious areas like ruggles the south end Fenway and Mission Hill had expats and lesser amounts of crime spread to places like Roslindale Hyde Park and parts of Dorchester that hadnt experienced much crime. A large part of the decrease in crime the 80s was the slowing and damn near extinction of violent crime in Charlestown South Boston and the back bay/combat zone. 2010s has seen a lessening of gang tensions and pricing out of gang members and youth/families and more sophisticated criminal organizations.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Another homicide went down in Dorchester tonight at 930

[bigfatdude]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Another homicide went down in Dorchester tonight at 930

Sounds like it’s time to have dot split in two and renamed to eastchester and westchester...

[massnative71]

How much better has the EMS/Trauma Care/medical system become since 30 or so years ago particularly when it comes to gunshot wounds? Could that explain why the murder rate might appear low on paper but people don't feel a whole lot safer? It would be interesting to see that stats on shootings alone over that timeframe.