Areas in Houston that are similar to Southern Orange County, California (The Woodlands: low income, violent crime)

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Htown2013

I've lived in many different places. The problem with the crime in Houston is that while the overall numbers may not be as bad as other cities, it seems to impact more people in good areas than other cities. In other places, there are pockets where the majority of crime is concentrated in "bad areas", where most people just avoid, and relatively small amount spills over to the "good areas".

Houston crime seems much more random and widespread, with much more spilling over into "good areas" than any other city I've lived in. I personally know multiple people here who have been victimized, but I do not know a single person victimized anywhere else I lived.

I do not know why that seems to be such a problem here vs. other places.

Good and bad areas are more intermixed in Houston than in other places. Bad guys also travel to commit crimes all over the city.

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by Htown2013

I've lived in many different places. The problem with the crime in Houston is that while the overall numbers may not be as bad as other cities, it seems to impact more people in good areas than other cities. In other places, there are pockets where the majority of crime is concentrated in "bad areas", where most people just avoid, and relatively small amount spills over to the "good areas".

Houston crime seems much more random and widespread, with much more spilling over into "good areas" than any other city I've lived in. I personally know multiple people here who have been victimized, but I do not know a single person victimized anywhere else I lived.

I do not know why that seems to be such a problem here vs. other places.

Houston is more mixed economically due to no zoning and huge amounts of unincorporated areas (equal to the City of Houston's size). This creates a stretched thin police force (Houston has one of the lower cops per citizen in the US).

Originally Posted by WRM20

Good and bad areas are more intermixed in Houston than in other places. Bad guys also travel to commit crimes all over the city.

Bad guys travel to commit crimes in every city. Houstons reason for more widespread crime are unique to Houston. No zoning, unincorporated areas, low number of police.

[Htown2013]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

Houston is more mixed economically due to no zoning and huge amounts of unincorporated areas (equal to the City of Houston's size). This creates a stretched thin police force (Houston has one of the lower cops per citizen in the US).



Bad guys travel to commit crimes in every city. Houstons reason for more widespread crime are unique to Houston. No zoning, unincorporated areas, low number of police.

Well that makes sense, but to an outsider who has lived elsewhere, the widespread randomized crime significantly reduces the quality of life for average law abiding folks.

In other cities I've lived, typical middle class families (not even upper middle class), never worry about crime and just live normal happy lives.

Here I personally know 2 people who have been carjacked , one robbed at gunpoint, one had a catalytic converter stolen, one had a house broken in to in a very good area, one had a house A/C stolen, too many to count have had car windows smashed and broken into, and a brother of a friend was murdered in a garage in downtown Houston.

These are all law abiding citizens where this was random. This does NOT seem normal if you've lived elsewhere in the USA - the crime seems more like a third world country.

[Htown2013]

Originally Posted by WRM20

Good and bad areas are more intermixed in Houston than in other places. Bad guys also travel to commit crimes all over the city.

The Galleria area in particular REALLY seems to have a crime problem.

[Houston Area Man]

Originally Posted by Htown2013

I've lived in many different places. The problem with the crime in Houston is that while the overall numbers may not be as bad as other cities, it seems to impact more people in good areas than other cities. In other places, there are pockets where the majority of crime is concentrated in "bad areas", where most people just avoid, and relatively small amount spills over to the "good areas".

Houston crime seems much more random and widespread, with much more spilling over into "good areas" than any other city I've lived in. I personally know multiple people here who have been victimized, but I do not know a single person victimized anywhere else I lived.

I do not know why that seems to be such a problem here vs. other places.

Good areas have white collar crime but not dangerous to physical harm.

[Houston Area Man]

Overall Houston is one of the safest cities given its population size.

[Htown2013]

Originally Posted by Houston Area Man

Good areas have white collar crime but not dangerous to physical harm.

Most of that is cyber and irrelevant to location.

[Htown2013]

Originally Posted by Houston Area Man

Overall Houston is one of the safest cities given its population size.

That is on average. In other cities it is more concentrated to really bad areas that most law abiding citizens even lower end of middle class and up can entirely avoid. But I cannot deny that the "better" areas in Houston have much more burglaries and robberies of both homes and vehicles, and carjackings in "good areas" than any other place I've lived. Lots of jugging here too, especially in the Galleria area.

[NigerianNightmare]

As other's have pointed out, it's really how intermixed the city is. Gulfton is in between Hillcroft, Galleria, Bellaire/West U. and Meyerland Which are all destinations or relatively high end areas to live/socialize. The poor are not isolated in Houston but intermixed. I think this leads to more income diversity and also racial diversity being seen throughout the city of Houston. Sugarland border's Alief, even Katy isn't too far from Alief, and northern Katy especially far north has many sketchy spots. The Woodland's Springwood Village is just up the highway 7 miles from Cypress Station.

All of this will lead to far more random crime towards people of higher income in Houston. The only other cities, I've heard of similar things happening are Atlanta and Miami with randomized crime. Even with this theirs still North Atlanta. On the other hand the entirety of the NE and Midwest often have miles of semi-rural suburbia with no destinations or even denser suburbia that are miles from the core city that has crime rates only 1 or 2 neighborhoods in Houston can match.

Houston used to be much worse with this semi-randomized crime pattern

I do think in a scenario, 20+ years from now where the U.S as a whole is much safer, this model does lend to Houston becoming more like London, while legacy cities become much more like Marseille where hyper-concentration of poverty remains even if it's reduced significantly.

[DoBetterHouston]

The nastiest parts of Santa Ana are just a couple of miles from South Coast Plaza... It's the same thing in most of O.C. South O.C. is much more safe though, but there are still pockets of nastiness around Mission Viejo...