Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Florida > Fort Myers - Cape Coral area
 [Register]
Fort Myers - Cape Coral area Lee County
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 07-19-2016, 01:38 PM
 
179 posts, read 347,042 times
Reputation: 228

Advertisements

A recent study ranks Cape Coral as the 17th safest city in the United States. See link below. Even with all of the stats and hard facts that show Cape Coral to be relatively safe, it still seems that every few weeks, some on this forum insist on spreading the myth that Cape Coral is dangerous. Watch for them to come out of the woodwork at any time.
The 25 safest American cities to live in - Business Insider
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 07-21-2016, 07:22 AM
 
Location: Colorado Springs
15,219 posts, read 10,299,568 times
Reputation: 32198
When you consider the population of Cape Coral and compare it to the number of crimes it IS low. I lived there from 1985-1990 and then from 1999-2009 before moving to Fort Myers. My mother has lived there since 1987. Nobody in my family was ever the victim of any crime and I don't personally know anyone who has been.


I'm of the opinion if you obey the laws, don't get involved with the wrong people or drugs and stay aware of your surroundings you will most likely be safe. Sure there are random shootings for no discernible reason and robberies but those don't happen on a regular basis. Cape Coral isn't Dunbar where they are driveby shootings on a regular basis.


I don't care for the treeless landscape of Cape Coral which is why I love Gateway but if I had a choice of Cape Coral or Lehigh I would definitely choose Cape Coral.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-21-2016, 10:59 AM
 
179 posts, read 347,042 times
Reputation: 228
Quote:
Originally Posted by chiluvr1228 View Post
I don't care for the treeless landscape of Cape Coral which is why I love Gateway but if I had a choice of Cape Coral or Lehigh I would definitely choose Cape Coral.

I wouldn't call it "treeless", but it could certainly use more trees in several areas. Parts of south cape are okay, but there are many fairly barren areas in the northern cape. The real question is why aren't cape residents adding more trees / landscaping themselves to their own properties?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-22-2016, 06:25 AM
 
Location: Colorado Springs
15,219 posts, read 10,299,568 times
Reputation: 32198
Good question - I've planted trees in both houses that I owned. They are now huge shade trees. If everybody who had a house in Cape Coral did that it would be much prettier. The city also needs to put some pretty smaller shade trees in more of the medians. It would really beautify Cape Coral.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-22-2016, 07:33 AM
 
Location: Meredith NH
1,563 posts, read 2,872,864 times
Reputation: 2883
Ft Myers has a population of 70K or so...The Cape has 165K.Doesn't make sense that Ft Myers has so much more crime than the cape.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-23-2016, 06:51 AM
 
Location: Colorado Springs
15,219 posts, read 10,299,568 times
Reputation: 32198
You are referring to the city limits of Fort Myers while Fort Myers extends much further. When you get population figures it doesn't include anything outside those city limits so Fort Myers actually has a lot more people than 70K. Plus Cape Coral doesn't have the ghetto areas like Pine Manor or Dunbar like Fort Myers does and that's where most of the crime is concentrated.


Cape Coral also has a lot more rules and regulations so you're not going to get the dilapidated homes that become eyesores and crack houses.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-23-2016, 08:59 AM
wjj
 
950 posts, read 1,361,842 times
Reputation: 1304
Quote:
Originally Posted by chiluvr1228 View Post
You are referring to the city limits of Fort Myers while Fort Myers extends much further. When you get population figures it doesn't include anything outside those city limits so Fort Myers actually has a lot more people than 70K. Plus Cape Coral doesn't have the ghetto areas like Pine Manor or Dunbar like Fort Myers does and that's where most of the crime is concentrated.


Cape Coral also has a lot more rules and regulations so you're not going to get the dilapidated homes that become eyesores and crack houses.
The city limits define the population. All of the area outside the city limits of Fort Myers that may be generically called Fort Myers (because it has "Fort Myers" in the mailing address), is definitely not Fort Myers. But the point you are trying to raise (I think) is a valid one. The high crime rate in Fort Myers that some people stress over, is a reflection of the low population within the confined city limits. 70,000 is just a decent sized suburb in any major metropolitan area. As a stand alone city, it's tiny. Most (but not all) of the really bad high crime areas are within the city limits so you have a large numerator (number of crimes) and a small denominator (population) when the crime statistics are calculated. If you were to take into account all of the population that has a Fort Myers mailing address, the calculated crime rate would plummet (i.e., the numerator would increase a little bit but the denominator would sky rocket). But that is not how the statistics are calculated. It would be interesting to see what a "Fort Myers mailing address" crime rate would be. Even more interesting would be to see what the crime rate is during the season (say in March) and what it is in the summer. I'll bet there is a huge difference.

The interesting thing is that the City of Fort Myers is aggressively expanding its borders into far more affluent areas (e.g., large parts of what was Gateway are now within the Fort Myers city limits with the expansion of Pelican Preserve and all the new construction along Treeline like Marina Bay and newer construction like Plantation is likewise within the city limits). In a couple of years, as these communities fill up, you will see the crime rate of Fort Myers decrease, maybe significantly, solely due to the math. The area north of Colonial would not be any safer, and might even become more dangerous, but the large new areas being pulled into the city limits will be pretty close to crime free (nothing is completely crime free).

Everyone needs to pay attention to how these statistics are compiled. Simple math can cause big swings in rates while the situation on the ground is unchanged.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-23-2016, 06:21 PM
 
179 posts, read 347,042 times
Reputation: 228
wjj - You have very valid points about the stats. What I don't know is whether they did use only the population within the city limits to do the calculations. It's possible that they actually did use anyone with a Fort Myers mailing address, and Ft. Myers still didn't make the top 25 safest nationally (a tough thing to do). Sometimes, you see various surveys that use MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas). I'm not sure what was used for this survey. Anyway, ... excellent points you brought up.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-24-2016, 09:46 AM
wjj
 
950 posts, read 1,361,842 times
Reputation: 1304
Quote:
Originally Posted by Living the Florida Dream View Post
wjj - You have very valid points about the stats. What I don't know is whether they did use only the population within the city limits to do the calculations. It's possible that they actually did use anyone with a Fort Myers mailing address, and Ft. Myers still didn't make the top 25 safest nationally (a tough thing to do). Sometimes, you see various surveys that use MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas). I'm not sure what was used for this survey. Anyway, ... excellent points you brought up.
I couple years ago in another thread I went through the math and proved that the Fort Myers crime rate was determined based only on the crime and population within the city limits. The rate tied exactly to the number of crimes over the population solely within the city limits.

I think the federal census MSA for this area is all of Lee County, so that would not advance the discussion very much (combining Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres, Estero, San Carlos Park, Gateway, South Fort Myers, northern Bonita Springs, FM Beach, Sanibel, Captiva, Mirromar, etc. probably would not be very enlightening).

We almost did not buy in the area 5 years ago, largely due to comments on this site, until I drilled down into all of the statistics being thrown about. We had been coming down to the Fort Myers area for many years and just did not see all the "horribles" being discussed by some (certainly not all) on this site and others like it. There was a clear disconnect between the positive experience we had in the 8 years we had been coming to the area and what people were saying on various message boards. It took a while, but after analyzing the various statistics, it finally became clear that the high crime areas were contained to a few areas (though more scattered about than I was used to coming from the Chicago area) and the rest of the area was very nice and much of it was quite upscale. So we bought in Gateway and have had no regrets.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-25-2016, 03:41 PM
 
Location: Florida
33,553 posts, read 18,143,148 times
Reputation: 15528
Quote:
Originally Posted by Living the Florida Dream View Post
I wouldn't call it "treeless", but it could certainly use more trees in several areas. Parts of south cape are okay, but there are many fairly barren areas in the northern cape. The real question is why aren't cape residents adding more trees / landscaping themselves to their own properties?

I did my share.. planted Royals, bushes, some tropical bird of paradise, and Christmas palms and other palms . And some flowers, geraniums , and vincas.. I bought the back lot behind my property so I am going to plant some shade trees that flower and maybe some caladiums and elephant ears.. Some people took every bush , every plant out from their home, they don't want the maintenance.. I don't mind.. I love yard work in the nice weather. A good hobby.

I love to ride around the neighborhoods that have many different palms and bushes to get ideas.. I am from NJ so I am still learning what to plant that would be suitable for certain areas.

Also had brick work around trees and some curbing.. still have many things I can do.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Florida > Fort Myers - Cape Coral area

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top