I survived Cleveland!!! (Columbus, Cincinnati, Parma: violent crime, house, safe area)

[tribecavsbrowns]

Where does it look like a "war zone" downtown? The new bus line, along which rebuilding of the city's commercial buildings is commencing? The tidy, hip Warehouse District where the dudes in the yellow coats are always hosing down sidewalks and emptying garbage cans? The wide sidewalk of Ontario Street overlooking the river valley where Cavs fans walk to the Q to cheer on their team? Tower City, where hundreds of people are getting their hustle on (legally, dumbass) every day? If you're going to use a grossly overused, inappropriate simile, at least use it somewhere it has some basis in reality.

[Abasi]

Cleveland and Youngstown are both not scary places to be. I have lived in both and neither are scary. Both downtowns are great with tons of restaurants, bars and people.

[Cleveland_Collector]

ITT: Brian515 reveals that he has never been downtown.

War zone...WHERE?!?! I'm there almost every day. Yes, we need a little more stimulus. And, no, it's not perfect...but it's on the right track. Hopefully, when this credit rift has passed, some of the very promising renewal projects will resume. For the time being, I'll enjoy it for what it is. Progressive Field is a great place to be on a summer day. I'm imagining the Q will be even more pleasant the day the Cavs win the NBA championship. I guess I'll just have to brave the "war zone" to see it.

[FromSouthCentralLAtoCLE]

Try goin up by E99 and St. Claire. You business people that say you are in downtown everyday never venture to far from the safe spots, drive down to the hood one day.. It'll open your eyes. The city really is built and looks like a warzone.. The suburbs are bad and downtown can get really rough after dark depending where you are. There are too many people, too many police officers, and expensive resturaunts and store fronts near the quicken loans arena and, the now called, progressive field to see much crime there besides some minor pick pocketing. I came here from South Central Los Angeles.. Cleveland is, without a doubt, rough too. The biggest problem with cleveland is how dirty it is, there is trash everywhere.

[ColumbusNEWb]

Cleveland isn't that bad... I visit there bout once a month to hang out with my best friend and even this weekend I went out by myself parked my BMW on a semi-dark street just off the main drag in Ohio city and no one bothered me or my car... Everytime I've went out in Cleveland I've passed some questionable people but even then they didn't bother me in any way. I'm not downplaying the fact Cleveland has some rough areas but every city in america has rough areas...
My biggest issue is people intentionally walking out in front of you while you are driving... that seems to be my biggest concern... otherwise I don't feel threatened downtown or the surrounding areas. Now E. 99.... yea I'd have issues if I was out there walking around after dark.

[BelieveInCleve]

Cleveland is doing very bad and needs help. A city named 7th most dangerous and 1st poorest large city in the USA is worse than "isnt that bad". The suburbs are a different story for the most part though. Sadly, its doing much worse than Columbus.

[jam40jeff]

I disagree. If you look at the statistics in a simple-minded way, yes, it seems much worse. But when youj realize that "core Columbus" has similar statistics to Cleveland, it sheds a whole new light on the sittuation. Columbus has annexed its suburbs. To compare the crime rates is like comparing Cuyahoga County to Columbus, or the old boundaries of Columbus before annexation to the city of Cleveland. In fact, all of the "dangerous" cities are in the same boat. They are older cities which have not annexed, like Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Baltimore. The only cities not on the list which also have not annexed are the wealthiest cities like New York and Chicago. But there are plenty of cities across the country with inner cities very similar to Cleveland's (Miami, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Baltimore, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, etc.).

[LewLew]

It cracks me up that people are referring to Cleveland as a war zone etc. Any large city has its rough spots, ghettos and "hoods". I don't care if I spend the day in NYC, Los Angeles, Detroit, Ft Myers, Phoenix, Vegas, etc...you will find crime, potential for being assaulted etc. Common sense goes a long way. I don't want to argue the point with people who've grown up in the very bad parts of town, and who have been shot, robbed etc, as I didn't grow up in those parts of town, and have no experience in how you must watch your back while growing up there. I'm sure there are many streets in Cleveland that I wouldn't want to walk down at any time of the day, but truth be told...I wouldn't. It's common sense.
I don't feel that I'll be murdered the instant I go to a Browns game, Indians game, a downtown restaurant though...and to insinuate that is ridiculous. Cleveland's rough spots are just that "very rough", but the overall city is like most other large urban areas.

[ColumbusNEWb]

Originally Posted by jam40jeff

I disagree. If you look at the statistics in a simple-minded way, yes, it seems much worse. But when youj realize that "core Columbus" has similar statistics to Cleveland, it sheds a whole new light on the sittuation. Columbus has annexed its suburbs. To compare the crime rates is like comparing Cuyahoga County to Columbus, or the old boundaries of Columbus before annexation to the city of Cleveland. In fact, all of the "dangerous" cities are in the same boat. They are older cities which have not annexed, like Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Baltimore. The only cities not on the list which also have not annexed are the wealthiest cities like New York and Chicago. But there are plenty of cities across the country with inner cities very similar to Cleveland's (Miami, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Baltimore, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, etc.).

Columbus did NOT annex it's suburbs.... It annexed unincorporated areas that stretch as far out as the suburbs. Columbus Suburbs are their on cities, IE Gahanna, Westerville, Hilliard, Dublin, Grove City, Obetz and so on.... If Columbus annexed it's subrubs our population would well exceed 1 million.. Columbus is only 745,000 roughly, with Franklin county at 1,118,107... but I agree with you. Because Columbus now covers a much larger area than Cleveland the crime stats become diluted.

[jam40jeff]

Originally Posted by ColumbusNEWb

Columbus did NOT annex it's suburbs.... It annexed unincorporated areas that stretch as far out as the suburbs. Columbus Suburbs are their on cities, IE Gahanna, Westerville, Hilliard, Dublin, Grove City, Obetz and so on.... If Columbus annexed it's subrubs our population would well exceed 1 million.. Columbus is only 745,000 roughly, with Franklin county at 1,118,107... but I agree with you. Because Columbus now covers a much larger area than Cleveland the crime stats become diluted.

Suburb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Read the first sentence. The only point I will give you is that technically Columbus did not annex its suburbs, it annexed rural areas which became suburban. However, it is analagous to Cleveland having annexed what eventually became Westlake, Euclid, Beachwood, and North Olmsted, let alone Fairview Park, Lakewood, Rocky River, Parma, Cuyahoga Heights, East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, Unviersity Heights, South Euclid, Lyndhurst, etc. This is how Columbus has quadrupled in land area since 1950. Yes, there are a small few municipalities surrounding Columbus, but nothing like the 100+ around Cleveland.

They need to find a better way to compare ACTUAL safety in these cities and metro areas, but Forbes and their ilk are not interested in that. They are interested in big headlines lacking any substance that can grab people's attention when MSN slaps them on their home page.