Lorain is a Joke (Cleveland, Youngstown: for sale, safe neighborhoods, community college)

[BelieveInCleve]

Originally Posted by s_pjr

As for the numbers, per capita is some bull****, look at total numbers. Per capita would make any place look like a ****ing warzone. If you say 67 per 100k thats great, but Elyria and Lorain don't have 100k people so. . .

Dont want to extend this argument anymore, but I cant resist this. I need to correct you.

The per 100k rate doesnt mean the place you are referring to actually has to have a certain amount of people, its just a rate. You can use the rate for neighborhoods or a place with any amount of people. Camden, NJ was ranked as the most dangerous city before and they were talking about how high its murder rate per 100k is, and the city is only about 80k. It doesnt matter how many people a city or area has, the 100k thing is a formula to figure out the homicide rate. Im going to assume you didnt know that.

[WeSoHood]

Total number of crimes isn't a good representation at all. Per capita shows how crimes affect individuals. The "don't use per capita" argument is really absurd.

The purpose of per capita is to show how crime is in a certain city, so you can compare it to other cities. If you didn't use per capita, cities with the highest population would always have the most crime - which is true... but that doesn't show how it actually has an impact on the people.

[BelieveInCleve]

Heres a thread on another site that I recently ran into that is very similar to what I was talking about in my first post: The City Of Lorain

The first post (bizbiz):

"OK, I need some insight on anyone who lives in or near Lorain. Or anyone who knows the area well. I simply can NOT believe what I see when I visit Lorain. This has to be the most rundown and crummy area in all of NE Ohio. I am not referring to the entire city of Lorain though, just part of it. I am talking about anything surrounding downtown Lorain. That would go from 1st Street all the way to about 20th, and maybe as far as 30th St. particularly near Broadway, Lexington, and Reid. This area is full of the following:

1. stray animals everywhere - cats and dogs all over. the kind that just hang around and don't run from anything.
2. almost all of the major violent crimes in Lorain take place here - not my opinion, but documented info.
3. 2 of the 3 sex predator retreat houses (just adding more convicts to an already bad area).
4. at least 3 fairly large public housing sites - 500-600 people total living in these.
5. boarded up houses: i saw a large number that were fully boarded up.
6. un-maintained properties: grass 3 feet high, garbage all over the yard, etc.
7. abandoned/un-used industrial sites, full of grafitti and damaged windows.
8. more people walking in the street than there are cars. no, i don't mean a lot of pedestrian traffic, a lot of people just straddling around because they have no where else to go.
9. people standing in their front lawn (or someone elses front lawn) staring at you. i would say this is people claiming their territory, as i would be considered an outsider.

In addition, I was in Lorain this week and at W. 14th St./Lexington, I witnessed 6 men fist fighting in the street. At first, I thought this was 6 young men fooling around with each other. But when I saw one guy laying on the ground being kicked in the face, I began to freak out. There were children across the street playing like this was nothing to even pay attention to. They didn't notice me stopped in my car watching either. And then as I drove away, one block over, 2 men in the street cursed at me as I drove by. And I have seen a lot in my life, but this is pretty bad. Especially, since this area is supposed to be part of "downtown Lorain". Especially since you have libraries, schools, and hospitals within a block from here. I almost felt like I was inside of a micro-ghetto that nobody seems to give a f$&k what happens here.

It's obvious that Lorain and Elyria have a large Hispanic population and that the area has been a major drug thoroughfare for many years, but can someone elaborate on this a little bit? How can Lorain have such a hard time controlling such a small area? Is this really *THAT* bad of an area, or am I just imagining things that way? How long has it been this way? Where is this city headed?"


-Now you people who dont know about Lorain can see that Im not making this stuff up, its no exaggeration. Its sad that I actually have to prove all of this stuff. Some people are just ignorant and dont know what there talking about. Check the replies on the thread also, this is no joke. This is Lorain. Anyways the thread is interesting though. Lorain has made many bad choices and the city really really needs help and needs to improve. Things are a joke around here and its just ridiculous that they could let the city get into the shape that its in now. And WeSoHood, you are right about the per capita thing. s_pjr was just uneducated on the topic. No harm in correcting people.

[WeSoHood]

You shouldn't have to really let people know about how bad it is. I've been there, I've been a victim, I know.

People are going to believe whatever they want, and chances are they won't change there mind after everything you've posted.

[BelieveInCleve]

Yes, thats the sad part about it. People are sometimes afraid to accept the reality of things. They cant accept the truth. Just because they hope and believe one thing doesnt always mean that thing is true.

Some of these people did get educated on these topics and I hope that they do understand it now, but even then a lot of them are afraid to admit they were wrong. This just goes with what I always say about the Ohio forum arguments, almost all of them start because some people dont know what theyre talking about. Worst part about it is that they almost never admit that they were wrong, even if they were proved wrong over and over again. I dont like getting in debates and arguments, I believe its a waste of time, but if somebody says something and I know for a fact that what they said is wrong, Im going to correct them.

Im just hoping that we can get back to Lorain and what I started this thread for.

[juju53126]

lorain, isn't even close to being ghetto! we just have alot of broke individuals, who have nothing better to do sometimes than claim an area and be big dog in front of their boys. but behind the whole persona, the aint got the heart to commit crimes so violent and outrageous for us to consider this place a ghetto. i've lived here my whole life and feel safer here than in cleveland or chicago although as a whole our city could use updating and an economic boost, we have no worries in this place runnin a muck, uncontrollable, or a lost cause. as for borded up homes and large housing projects, what city doesnt have these? our town is just so small you notice it more. im not saying lorain is an outstanding place to live, but if your not a shady individual, you have nothing to worry about.

[BelieveInCleve]

juju53126,

I respectfully disagree. Im guessing you just havent been outside of the city much.

The rest of this thread explains what I was talking about so no need to say too much. All I will say is this: I spent half my life from ages 6-22 in Central Lorain and I had to carry a weapon at almost all times. Ive had friends and family who were randomly beat up, stabbed, or shot, just for walking down the street. Most of those people were not involved with drugs or anything illegal. Ive been jumped several times, and directly shot at twice.

I once thought like you also, before I realized Lorain is not nice at all or even close to being average. Central Lorain and South Elyria (and Cleveland) were all I knew so I thought that was normal, or not that bad. Once I got outside of the city, I saw the ways we were living in most of Lorain was horrible. I wouldnt consider the entire city of Lorain the ghetto, but it does have many ghetto areas. Lorain is however a very poor city with very high crime and unemployment. If the people who run the city had any idea what they were doing at least they couldve made a few better choices so Lorain would be a better city than it is today. Its sad.

[WeSoHood]

Originally Posted by juju53126

lorain, isn't even close to being ghetto! we just have alot of broke individuals, who have nothing better to do sometimes than claim an area and be big dog in front of their boys. but behind the whole persona, the aint got the heart to commit crimes so violent and outrageous for us to consider this place a ghetto. i've lived here my whole life and feel safer here than in cleveland or chicago although as a whole our city could use updating and an economic boost, we have no worries in this place runnin a muck, uncontrollable, or a lost cause. as for borded up homes and large housing projects, what city doesnt have these? our town is just so small you notice it more. im not saying lorain is an outstanding place to live, but if your not a shady individual, you have nothing to worry about.

You've lived your whole life there.. exactly. You don't know anything differently.

[BelieveInCleve]

I spent a lot of time telling the truth about the bad in Lorain, so I would like to say a couple good things.

There are nice areas in the City: SW- S of Meister and W of Falbo is all pretty nice. W of downtown- N of the tracks and W of Oberlin is nice also. Far Westside- W of Leavitt is all pretty nice. On the lake- the whole city on the lake up to 3 blocks from it is nice excluding right around downtown. Eastside- N of the tracks is mostly nice S of the tracks has some okay areas but its sketchy. Far SE- S of E36th and E of Clinton is pretty nice although its somewhat sketchy now.

Those are all pretty nice or average areas. However the other 2/3 of Lorain...not so much. But thats just Lorain and the way things are. There is really no other city in the midwest like it. I doubt you could find a city in the midwest (excluding Chicagoland) the size of Lorain thats as diverse as it.

[octongue]

Hello There People,
I grew up in Lorain and graduated from one of the last classes at Lorain High School in '93. I haven't been back there with the exception of a) visiting my mom, who lives near Admiral King (not a bad area) and b) to my dad's funeral last year, which was down town. I remember being a boy there, and I can't say that i've ever been in a more depressing place, ever in my life. Getting out of there is the best thing that can happen to someone that is still there! We lived on the East side, both on McKinley St. and on Missouri Avenue, both of which are pretty run down as I remember them. I live in Columbus, OH now, which is by no means Utopia...but still...