Moving South? It's not all it's cracked up to be (Detroit: home, rent)

[Michigan Aaron]

Originally Posted by joenc

The source is the FBI

Yeah....well then someone at the FBI is either smokin' somethin' they confiscated, or gettin' a green stuffed envelope from the southern mayors to improve the image of their cities. Like I would REALLY feel safer walking the streets of Atlanta than Kansas City........what a joke!

[ChunkyMonkey]

Originally Posted by joenc

Those are proper stats.

2005 Homicides per 100,000

Baltimore 41.3
Flint 38.4
Detroit 37.2
St Louis 37.6
Newark 35.5
Kansas City 28.3
Cincinnati 23.8
Cleveland 22.8

Atlanta 21.6
Durham 18.7
Houston 17.1
Dallas 17.0
Miami 14.9
San Antonio 7.5
Raleigh 6.9
Austin 4.0

The source is the FBI

There's one problem with this list, it is unfair to cities with smaller city limits (most of the cities in the north cannot annex neighboring towns). For example, Houston has annexed a ton of land around it, so its numbers are diluted with the surrounding suburbs. So you are not comparing apples with apples.

The more fair comparison is metro to metro. Now you see, Newark is actually safer than Houston. I threw in Boston and NYC to show that some Northern cities are much safer than southern ones.

Baltimore 12.7
Flint 12.8
Detroit 9.8
St Louis 7.5
Newark 9.0
Kansas City 9.8
Cincinnati 5.6
Cleveland n/a
NYC 5.0
Boston 2.7

Atlanta 6.9
Durham 10.5
Houston 9.1
Dallas 6.8
Miami 5.5
San Antonio 5.7
Raleigh 3.3
Austin 2.9

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_06.html#b

[joenc]

Originally Posted by Michigan Aaron

Yeah....well then someone at the FBI is either smokin' somethin' they confiscated, or gettin' a green stuffed envelope from the southern mayors to improve the image of their cities. Like I would REALLY feel safer walking the streets of Atlanta than Kansas City........what a joke!

You're just full of good arguments.

[michiganmoon]

Originally Posted by ChunkyMonkey

There's one problem with this list, it is unfair to cities with smaller city limits (most of the cities in the north cannot annex neighboring towns). For example, Houston has annexed a ton of land around it, so its numbers are diluted with the surrounding suburbs. So you are not comparing apples with apples.

The more fair comparison is metro to metro. Now you see, Newark is actually safer than Houston. I threw in Boston and NYC to show that some Northern cities are much safer than southern ones.

Baltimore 12.7
Flint 12.8
Detroit 9.8
St Louis 7.5
Newark 9.0
Kansas City 9.8
Cincinnati 5.6
Cleveland n/a
NYC 5.0
Boston 2.7

Atlanta 6.9
Durham 10.5
Houston 9.1
Dallas 6.8
Miami 5.5
San Antonio 5.7
Raleigh 3.3
Austin 2.9

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_06.html#b

Great Points...and once again southern states as a whole have a higher murder rate than northern states as a whole, so I don't know why southerners feel the need to rip on our murder rates, since the south is actually worse...

Top States for murder rates in 2005:
#1 Louisiana 9.9
#2 Maryland 9.9
#3 Nevada 8.5
#4 Alabama 8.2
#5 Arizona 7.5
#6 New Mexico 7.4
#7 South Carolina 7.4
#8 Mississippi 7.3
#9 Tennessee 7.2
#10 California 6.9
#11 Missouri 6.9
#12 Arkansas 6.7
#13 North Carolina 6.7
#14 Georgia 6.2
#15 Texas 6.2

[magellan]

Originally Posted by jeanj28

You guys that are decided to stay in Michigan must be crazy. This state is going down hill you all should start moving now before its too late.

We must be dumb as logs, since we're "decided" to stay in Michigan. Uhhhhuh

Great analysis Michiganmoon. You also have to look at "violent crime rates", which constitute the greatest number of crimes. I'd almost rather be murdered than raped or or beaten/robbed at gunpoint.


Since the majority of people moving South are moving to Sprawlsburb USA, you really should look at metro areas, not cities (national average 469.2 per 100,000):


http://www.morganquitno.com/met05a.pdf

Amarillo TX 676.3
Anderson SC 621.4
Baton Rouge, LA 719.2
Jacksonville FL 741.9
Nashville - Davidson TN 894.1
Greater NYC 453.2
Niles- Benton Harbor MI 487
Tampa St. Petersburg 749
Grand Rapids - Wyoming MI 447
Ann Arbor 344
Orlando 824.1
Greenville SC 705.6
Charlotte - Gastonia NC 837 (yikes, I had heard that from a friend)
Flint 859 (Charlotte and Flint in the same class together, how cute)
Little Rock AR 863.5
Philadelphia 720.3
Miami Dade 989.1
Raleigh-Cary 330.9
It's poor cousin Durham 497.7
Greater Detroit 736.3 (in fairness, Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn is 1250.7)
Dallas 550
Houston 712.6
Los Angeles County 663.3
Holland - Grand Haven MI 194.4

Maybe someone can take the rankings in the left column of that link and break out the top 50. That would be interesting to see.

So just be careful moving South: it's super hot, poverty is everywhere (unless you hide away in a gated community in Cary or the ATL suburbs), and people are being raped and robbed (at least, that's the perception I get). Maybe it is the heat, or the yearly hurricane wipe outs.

[aurora1626]

Just wanted to say from a fellow former Midwestener (lived most of my growing up years in Missouri, Nebraska and Indiana), y'all are welcome in the Raleigh area of NC. I live in Apex, a smallish town a bit south of Raleigh, and my husband works in Research Triangle Park. Beautiful houses, beautiful scenery, sweet down-to-earth people.

I enjoyed the Midwest muchly growing up, and enjoy many of the same kinds of things about NC. Only it's growing here.

[sumwunzma]

First of all the top ten fattest cities are:
Chicago
Las Vegas
Los Angeles (which also showed up as one of the fittest)
Dallas
Houston
Memphis
Long Beach, CA
El Paso, TX
Kansas City
Mesa, AZ

Only four of the top ten are in the south, which is surprising considering that the food is so bland north of the Mason Dixon line. That brings up another point - I can't imagine why you would want to live in Atlanta. I have to say some of the worst cities I've been to have been in the south but all the best ones have been too. You've obviously never been to New Orleans, Michigan Aaron because there is NO place like it in this country. The food, "culture" and history in the north are just dull.....

[ChunkyMonkey]

Originally Posted by sumwunzma

First of all the top ten fattest cities are:
Chicago
Las Vegas
Los Angeles (which also showed up as one of the fittest)
Dallas
Houston
Memphis
Long Beach, CA
El Paso, TX
Kansas City
Mesa, AZ

Only four of the top ten are in the south, which is surprising considering that the food is so bland north of the Mason Dixon line. That brings up another point - I can't imagine why you would want to live in Atlanta. I have to say some of the worst cities I've been to have been in the south but all the best ones have been too. You've obviously never been to New Orleans, Michigan Aaron because there is NO place like it in this country. The food, "culture" and history in the north are just dull.....

Sorry, your list is old. Here's the latest
http://www.mensfitness.com/polls/205

2007 Ranking Rank Last year
1. Las Vegas 2
2. San Antonio 12
3. Miami 14
4. Mesa, Ariz. 10
5. Los Angeles 3
6. Houston 5
7. Dallas 4
8. El Paso 8
9. Detroit 15
10. San Jose 24
11. Long Beach 7
12. Memphis 6
13. Chicago 1
14. Arlington, Tx. 22*
15. Oklahoma City 17
16. Indianapolis 11
17. Fort Worth 13
18. New York 25
19. Fresno, Ca. 22
20. Wichita, Ks. 19
21. San Diego 21
22. Phoenix 15*
23. Jacksonville, Fl. 24*
24. Kansas City 9
25. Cleveland 18
*Ranking in the top 25 fattest cities in 2006

Looks like this year 5 is in the south, the most of any region. However, it probably doesn't have anything to do with food quality. Most likely is that the people in the top cities do not exercise since all are car oriented cities.

[wanderer74]

I don't think most people want to move to the south because they expect the crime rate will be lower or that they will be magically more fit and healthy. That's where the jobs happen to be, and I'm willing to bet that the lack of jobs is what's driving most of us OUT of Michigan and those other factors are the trade-offs we're willing to take.

[Sioux Flay]

Originally Posted by khfar

Oh, you poor thing. NM is a PIT. I hate that state, with the exception of Santa Fe. Even Albuquerque is nasty, to me. My husband is from NM originally, and his relatives all live there. I DREAD going to visit.

As much as I dreaded moving to MI, my husband and I did joke that it could have been worse: it could have been New Mexico. Actually, there could have been a lot of places that would have been worse than MI, in my mind!

LOL Thanks. I plan on starting therapy in Nebraska... just kidding.

Seriously after living here I cannot for the life of me figure out what the draw of living here is! I'll miss the cultural diversity... but that's about it.