California Comment (Sacramento: hotel, restaurants, to eat)
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Status:
"It's the first page of the 2nd chapter"
(set 3 days ago)
Location: Richmond, CA
8,287 posts, read 5,659,140 times
Reputation: 3463
Quote:
Originally Posted by rgb123
you are absolutley right. The 'it can happen anywhere' arguement is tiring and mostly from people who have spent most of their life in California. I've lived all over the US and California takes the cake. I was robbed almost immediatley!
I'm 34 years old what are the odds that I've never been robbed before except for in the CITY of Chicago? I was never robbed in Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, nor anywhere in rural or suburban Illinois.
On top of that, where I grew up we hardly ever even locked our doors (cars or home) and a few times I accdidentally even left my KEYS in the door of my apartment in Washington and Texas (carrying in heavy bags, oops). Nope, no problems.
California is different.
I once left my keys in my front door. A stranger walked by and knocked on my door to tell me. Guess I was in some fantasy world yeah?
well according to many Californians on this board, I deserved to get my car broken into because I forgot to lock it....nothing was visible and it was in a 'secure' garage.
Naturally, I'd assume that leaving my keys in my apartment door would simply be the stupidest thing on the planet, since leaving my car unlocked in my own garage was such an offense, to where I actually deserved to be ripped off.
and no, California robbers are not more discrimanting. They just emptied out my glove box, it had lots of garbage in it.
Status:
"It's the first page of the 2nd chapter"
(set 3 days ago)
Location: Richmond, CA
8,287 posts, read 5,659,140 times
Reputation: 3463
Quote:
Originally Posted by rgb123
well according to many Californians on this board, I deserved to get my car broken into because I forgot to lock it....nothing was visible and it was in a 'secure' garage.
Naturally, I'd assume that leaving my keys in my apartment door would simply be the stupidest thing on the planet, since leaving my car unlocked in my own garage was such an offense, to where I actually deserved to be ripped off.
and no, California robbers are not more discrimanting. They just emptied out my glove box, it had lots of garbage in it.
I'm not sure why it's so hard to admit that crime is worse here. Implying that the rest of the lower 48 (but especially those backwater flyover states) are just full of ignorant people who either don't know better they could move to CA or are too stupid to know how to get out is just insulting.
I do feel like there is just, at least, some segment of California culture that simply doesn't understand the geography and culture of the REST of the country.
Humility...it's a little word, big meaning, lots of people don't get it here.
Because it patently isn't. Other than Oakland and Stockton and in the other cities, other than motor vehicle theft, the major cities are safer than most across the country.
I'll take my city, San Diego. The murder rate in 2008 (and it went down in 2010 - - 29 murders in San Diego for a city that has 1.3 million people) per 100,000 was 4.3. We're in spitting distance from unstable, dangerous Mexico . . . and yet our murder rate is nothing compared to the rest of the country. Crime rates per 100K:
murder
San Diego: 4.3
Seattle: 4.8
New York City: 6.3
Denver: 6.7
Boston: 10.3
Houston: 13.1
Dallas: 13.3
Miami: 14.7
Chicago: 18.0
Atlanta: 19.7
Philadelphia: 23.0
Kansas City: 25.5
Washington DC: 31.4
Detroit: 33.8
Baltimore: 36.9
St Louis: 46.9
robbery
San Diego: 159
Denver: 160
New York City: 266
Seattle: 270
Boston: 397
Kansas City: 463
Houston: 474
Dallas: 507
Miami: 565
Chicago: 589
Atlanta: 621
Baltimore: 634
Philadelphia: 667
Detroit: 675
Washington DC: 702
St Louis: 739
burglary
San Diego: 609
New York City: 238
Boston: 578
Washington DC: 639
Denver: 873
Philadelphia: 891
Chicago: 920
Seattle: 1087
Miami: 1155
Houston: 1204
Baltimore: 1234
Kansas City: 1654
Dallas: 1657
Atlanta: 1874
Detroit: 1967
St Louis: 2054
So three different crimes, 15 different cities - - 45 different comparisons to make. San Diego is the safest city in two of the three. They finish third in the other - - behind godless heathen Democratic cities New York City and Boston.
Your Missouri does really nice in this snapshot, Crumudgeon.
Now, to be fair, there are a few cities that do better than San Diego in crime: San Jose and Anaheim for two.
I think these were the types of statistics you guys were looking for before - - you know, science rather than anecdotes.
Why have we gone 13 pages arguing about something that all of us are aware of? Namely, that every state in the union has cities, towns, and areas that are quite safe and other places that are dangerous. If crime is a concern, then before relocating to a new place the crime data should be carefully researched. A good place to start is right here on CD, the home page of most places have the stats. I prefer to confirm crime numbers by referencing several different sources. The raw numbers do not always tell the complete tale. Places that have a large tourist influx often seem to be more dangerous than they actually are. Since a few of you have taken some cheap shots at Missouri, for just one example take Branson. Looking at the stats it has numbers way above the national average. Not factored in is the very high number of visitors each year. On the other hand, St. Louis is a genuinely dangerous city. Could give similar examples for every state.
Your Missouri does really nice in this snapshot, Crumudgeon.
No argument. That's probaly why the rest of us here don't really consider St. Louis to be a real part of MO and it certainly doesn't typify the rest of the state anymore than does Kansas City. Each of them is on the border of a neighboring state and there might be something significant and osmotic in the fact that STL borders on Illinois - home to Chicago and thug politic(ian)s
Places that have a large tourist influx often seem to be more dangerous than they actually are. Since a few of you have taken some cheap shots at Missouri, for just one example take Branson. Looking at the stats it has numbers way above the national average. Not factored in is the very high number of visitors each year.
Makes San Diego even look better . . . we have a few tourists.
The raw numbers do not always tell the complete tale. Places that have a large tourist influx often seem to be more dangerous than they actually are. Since a few of you have taken some cheap shots at Missouri, for just one example take Branson. Looking at the stats it has numbers way above the national average. Not factored in is the very high number of visitors each year.
You couldn't be more correct (we live about 22 miles south west of Branson). Branson's year-round population is about 7,000. This population surges to about 8,000,000 - yep, that's million - during the tourist season so there's no doubt that the vast majority of the crimes are property crimes/crimes of opportunity. Violent crimes are, statistically, extremely rare when compared to national averages.
You couldn't be more correct (we live about 22 miles south west of Branson). Branson's year-round population is about 7,000. This population surges to about 8,000,000 - yep, that'smillion - during the tourist season so there's no doubt that the vast majority of the crimes are property crimes/crimes of opportunity. Violent crimes are, statistically, extremely rare when compared to national averages.
No, it surges to about 70,000. The 8 million figure represents the total number of visitors in a year.
No, it surges to about 70,000. The 8 million figure represents the total number of visitors in a year.
The bulk comes during the usual summer and holiday seasons with a fair influx of weekenders. The end result is about 8 million a year which, for a town of 7K I'd call a surge. You may call it what you will. Regardless, statistics can be misleading (i.e. crime figures) and I have to wonder at those who constantly try to make salient points digging them up and quoting them without analysis. But then again, as one wise pundit put it, "figures lie and liars figure!"
Last edited by Curmudgeon; 06-23-2011 at 12:30 PM..
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