wlking score and crime score (Lincoln: apartments, condo, loans)

[dontcallmeshirley]

what are the sights that tell you the crimes committed in certain neighborhoods. Also what is the sight that tells you the walking score of certain neighborhoods.

[lincolnparker]

I look for boarded up houses, window bars, street loitering, cleanness of a neighborhood, presence of pawn shops, payday loans, etc

Originally Posted by dontcallmeshirley

what are the sights that tell you the crimes committed in certain neighborhoods. Also what is the sight that tells you the walking score of certain neighborhoods.

[aragx6]

I think you mean sites.

In which case

everyblock.com and www.walkscore.com

[JustJulia]

Lincolnparker had some common-sense answers. I'll add a couple more. I look at the sidewalks, gutters and streets themselves ... although I guess this could be part of lincolnparker's "cleanliness" answer. If the gutters are filled with trash, if the streets are cracked and obviously haven't been repaired in a long time, if the sidewalks are broken and full of weeds, it's a good bet not much money is spent in that neighborhood. To me, that says that the police and fire department are going to take a long time to get there, and any repairs or renovations that have to come from taxes are going to take a long time to happen. Run-down streets indicate lower income and a lack of pride in the area. Lower income by itself is not bad, because a neighborhood can be poor and quiet, but if the residents do not take care of their own neighborhood, the city certainly isn't, and those areas can mean trouble.

The other thing is that lots of places can look tolerable or even pleasant in the daytime, but if you drive there at night and don't want to get out of your car, it's unsafe. Is it spooky? Are there weirdos hanging around? What kind of noises do you hear--shouting? Crying? Dogs barking for a long time? My neighborhood has very few streetlights and is unusually dark, compared to where I lived before, but it's very, very quiet.

[Chicago60614]

I had an idea there was crime near me when I saw in the paper that a man was beat to death with a 2X4 a block from my condo.

[Chicagoland60426]

The basic signs of an area that have crime.

1. Boarded up houses on almost every block.
2. boarded up businesses.
3. gang graffitti on stop signs, houses/apartments, and any public place(public restrooms included).
4. street loitering
5. above average number of liquor/corner stores
6. few occupied houses on some blocks.
7. People posted on corners, house/apartments, and stores.

I didn't name all of the signs of a bad area but these are pretty obvious.