Stay away from PG County! (Bowie, Fort Washington: crimes, best school, taxes)

[PGC301]

Originally Posted by vivo

I think this has been asked but what are the demographics including median HH income of PG outside the beltway?

The areas outside of the Beltway tend to be wealthier than the areas inside of it. The most affluent parts of the county (Mitchellville, Woodmore, Lake Arbor, Upper Marlboro, Fort Washington, etc) are all outside the Beltway. The Census Bureau website can tell you the median income for these areas. All the areas I mentioned are predominately black, but most white people in PG live outside the Beltway (Laurel, Bowie, Glenn Dale), but none of those areas are predominately white (as of 2007, Laurel: 41% white, 44% black, Bowie: 48% white, 44% black, Glenn Dale: 40% white, 48% black). Actually, the only 3 areas in the county that are over 50% white are inside the Beltway (College Park, University Park, Berwyn Heights).

Also, the crime rate outside of the Beltway is much lower than the areas inside of it. So far this year, there have been 73 murders in the county. Of those, 25 have happened outside the Beltway, and the rest occured inside of it.

[thefatkid]

Ah well. Bowie is great as far as I'm concerned. That's all I can really say, I live next to Allen Pond, it is quiet, nice neighbors, mixed racially. Sometimes ya hear some rap, sometimes ya hear some country, it's all good!

[PGC301]

Originally Posted by thefatkid

Ah well. Bowie is great as far as I'm concerned. That's all I can really say, I live next to Allen Pond, it is quiet, nice neighbors, mixed racially. Sometimes ya hear some rap, sometimes ya hear some country, it's all good!

I agree, I've lived in Bowie for 20 years and I love living here. The location is great, I love the fact that I can be in DC in 15 minutes, Annapolis in 15 minutes, and Baltimore in 45 minutes. Also, like you said, I enjoy the diversity of the area. I grew up in SW DC during the 80's (the only white family in the neighborhood), and have spent some time in areas that are 99% white, and didn't really feel comfortable in either one. I like that there is a mix of different people here.

I know PG County as a whole has a bad reputation for crime, but in 20 years, I have only been a victim once (in 2006, robbed at gunpoint at the Safeway at Bowie Town Center when I worked there). But that can and does happen anywhere. I've never felt unsafe anywhere in my neighborhood. The only complaint I can think of about the neighborhood is that all the houses tend to look the same (ranchers, cape cods, colonials)

[Mommyof2lilboys!]

Originally Posted by MarylandMan

Would you please quantify what you mean by "safe"? Using National crime rate averages, here's where these "safe" towns compare:

Lanham: 2.99x more crime than the national average, 4.7x more for murder risk, 5.2x more for robbery risk, and 4.69x more for motor vehicle theft

Fort Washington: 2.27x more crime than national average, 4.24x more for murder, 4.7x more for robbery, and 4.61x more for motor vehicle theft.

Bowie: 2.84x more crime than national average, 3.79x more for murder, 5.77x more for robbery, and 7.39x more for motor vehicle theft

Mitchellville: 1.53x more crime than the national average, 4.79x more for murder, 2.1x more for robery, and 2.63x more for motor vehicle theft.

If this is what you consider safe, that's fine, but personally I don't see these figures as "safe" in any way shape or form.

Here's the averages for Maryland as a state:

Maryland: Total crime is 1.12x the national average, 1.7x for murder, 1.74x for robbery, and 1.48x for motor vehicle theft.

So, that means that Maryland crime rates are slightly higher than the national average, but every "safe" city in PG County you mentioned is much riskier!

BTW, all of the data I pulled came from CLRSearch.

Lanham, MD Crime Rate Statistics - CLRSearch.com

Clearly you're blinded by ignorance so um, carry on.

[MarylandMan]

Originally Posted by Mommyof2lilboys!

Clearly you're blinded by ignorance so um, carry on.

What's so ignorant about wanting to consider safety concerns by looking at crime rates? I would have thought that higher crime rates=less safety, no? Everyone here seems to equate the better areas as the higher income regions rather than the lower crime regions.

Is the desire to live near rich people suffering higher crime rates so strong that people will marginalize lower income neighborhoods with less crime in order to justify their wish to live near the affluent? Sounds fairly vapid in my playbook, but whatever floats your boat, right?

[PGC301]

Originally Posted by MarylandMan

Would you please quantify what you mean by "safe"? Using National crime rate averages, here's where these "safe" towns compare:

Lanham: 2.99x more crime than the national average, 4.7x more for murder risk, 5.2x more for robbery risk, and 4.69x more for motor vehicle theft

Fort Washington: 2.27x more crime than national average, 4.24x more for murder, 4.7x more for robbery, and 4.61x more for motor vehicle theft.

Bowie: 2.84x more crime than national average, 3.79x more for murder, 5.77x more for robbery, and 7.39x more for motor vehicle theft

Mitchellville: 1.53x more crime than the national average, 4.79x more for murder, 2.1x more for robery, and 2.63x more for motor vehicle theft.

If this is what you consider safe, that's fine, but personally I don't see these figures as "safe" in any way shape or form.

Here's the averages for Maryland as a state:

Maryland: Total crime is 1.12x the national average, 1.7x for murder, 1.74x for robbery, and 1.48x for motor vehicle theft.

So, that means that Maryland crime rates are slightly higher than the national average, but every "safe" city in PG County you mentioned is much riskier!

BTW, all of the data I pulled came from CLRSearch.

Lanham, MD Crime Rate Statistics - CLRSearch.com

I don't know where that site gets its information from, but it's wrong regarding the crime rates and the demographics of almost every city I checked on there. Maybe it's just me, but I'll take the data from the Census Bureau over that site regarding the demographics.

Their info about the crime rates is even more off. For example, Bowie, which has almost 60,000 people, averages 1-2 murders a year. How does that equate to being almost 4 times the national murder rate? Also, Mitchellville hasn't had a murder in almost 3 years, but that site says that the murder rate there is almost 5 times the national average.

It's pretty obvious that you don't live in PG County. Anybody who has spent any amount of time here will tell you that areas like Suitland, Capitol Heights, Landover, Oxon Hill have a LOT more crime than Bowie, Mitchellville, Fort Washington, etc

[MarylandMan]

Originally Posted by PGC301

I don't know where that site gets its information from, but it's wrong regarding the crime rates and the demographics of almost every city I checked on there. Maybe it's just me, but I'll take the data from the Census Bureau over that site regarding the demographics.

Their info about the crime rates is even more off. For example, Bowie, which has almost 60,000 people, averages 1-2 murders a year. How does that equate to being almost 4 times the national murder rate? Also, Mitchellville hasn't had a murder in almost 3 years, but that site says that the murder rate there is almost 5 times the national average.

It's pretty obvious that you don't live in PG County. Anybody who has spent any amount of time here will tell you that areas like Suitland, Capitol Heights, Landover, Oxon Hill have a LOT more crime than Bowie, Mitchellville, Fort Washington, etc

Okay, residents say there's more crime there, but where are the statistics showing there is more per capita crime in one place than the other? I'm not saying that you're wrong, but where is this information, aside from "residents say so"?

I've found several websites that claim to be pulling census data all showing higher than average rates in bowie.
ex:
Bowie, MD demographic data, home prices, neighborhoods, population counts, crime statistics, employment trends and local real estate market values.

MONEY Magazine: Best places to live 2007: Bowie, MD snapshot

If CNN and money magazine etc. are all wrong, then who is right? I'd be more than willing to accept that lanham, bowie, etc as safer area than hyattsville, capitol heights, etc. If there was some proof behind the statement.

[PGC301]

Statistics regarding crime in the county can be found on the Police Department's web site. http://www.pgpolice.org. Click on "Newsroom" at the top right, then Police Department on the left. Any time a murder happens in the county, they report it on their site. You can look month by month, the data on there goes back several years. Check the addresses where most of them happen, and you'll see that very few of the murders in the county happen in the more affluent areas like Bowie, Upper Marlboro, Mitchellville, etc.

Also, this site burgersub.org - maps of murder shows a map of where all the homicides in Maryland and DC have happened over the past few years. Again, you can see that most of the homicides in the county happen inside the Beltway.

I'm not saying that there is no crime outside the Beltway. As a whole the county does have a high crime rate. And like I said earlier, I've been robbed at gunpoint in Bowie a few years ago. However, I've been here for 20 years and that's the only crime I've experienced. I've never felt unsafe in my own neighborhood.

Edit- I noticed they just updated the police website saying that they made an arrest in Bowie's only murder this year. Turns out the guy was killed in Langley Park (inside the Beltway) and dumped in Bowie. So technically, no murders have happened in Bowie this year.

[Pikantari]

Aww I grew up in PG county.

[live_strong28]

Originally Posted by juxtapos

I would say the main problem is the county _was_ poorly managed in the late 80s and early 90s by catering to lower income residents while every other jurisdiction was catering to upper income residents. At least the planning for the county is much better now.

What do you expect from a county that until 1996 required developers to include affordable housing for EVERY new residential development (coined "moderately priced dwelling units") and had in its 1993 master plan a category of development that "includes a bank and a liquor store, in addition to ... dairy store, dry cleaners, video store, small fast-food establishment"?

The current county leadership gets a lot of crap, but they have continued to incrementally improve a county that was set up for failure.

http://www.mncppcapps.org/planning/P...%20Element.pdf

(go to the last page and see the potential Oxon Hill, or see the attached thumbnail... that's at least heading in the right direction)

Both Montgomery Cty and FFX Cty. also require low income set asides.

I've seen almost no traffic on this website with discussion on the PG Cty High School Class Scheduling software that resulted in HS kids being put in the gym the first week. What's up with that?