Minneapolis Crime? (Virginia, Cleveland, Viking: house, rental, school)

[warmweather!]

Here is an interesting fact. NYC is always depicted as having lots of crime. People in LA complain about the horrible crime, about how it's the worst ever. The whole nation thinks about how LA has such terrible crime rates... Well guess what? Did you know that Minneapolis has higher crime rates than BOTH New York City and LA?! Check it out for yourself on city-data.com! I read the stats, I double checked- Minneapolis is truely "Murderapolis". This is even harder to believe because of the fact that it's extremely difficult to commit crimes in Minneapolis for half the year due to the unbearable cold! What can we do to stop the crime? To be honest, I have no idea. Does anyone else have any thoughts about this?

[Minnehahapolitan]

Firstly, I don't see NY and LA being safer as a bad thing. I know alot of places in Metro LA aren't in city limits, for ex. East Los Angeles is unincorporated. New York cleaned up its act as of recent, it is one of the safest metros of any large size in the nation. Mpls. has its problems and it is unfair to compare cities in the manner you did. Mpls. has very specific problems that are actually pretty easy to fix.
1. Most crime is committed by young men. Make after school programs, enforce truency.
2. The problem is mostly confined to the Northside. This is not an excuse as much as an important fact. It has implications both good and bad.
3. Mid-sized metros have experienced a wave of crime as criminals move out of now safe cities like New York and Los Angeles. Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Denver all experienced crime waves at the same time we did.
4. Generally, Mpls. isn't dangerous to the common citizen.
5. Crime, while up from the last year or so, is substantially down from the 90's. It is an important consideration.
6. Crime does not stem from poverty. Anyone who tells you differently has fallen for fallacy. West Virginia is a very safe state.
With that lined out, here's what I would do. Crack down on truency. Keep updated information on young boys who commit menial crimes. Increase Local Government Aid to major cities to pay for police and services. (Mister Pawlenty hurt more than libraries, I feel he disdains the inner city) Use technology to fight crime. The new city-wide Wi-Fi system I know will be used in this manner. 1 copper watching a series of cameras is walking many beats at once. Also, police should walk, bike and be on horse back. Police in squads are only responding, they need to learn the area they are patroling. I subscribe to the broken windows theory. Perception is more important than reality and the crack-looking house on the corner doesn't help the situation. Simple things help alot. It isn't as hard as you think

[nick is rulz]

West Virginia doesnt have any really densely populated areas either. Compact a lot of poor people into a small area, and you'll get a high crime rate.

[Minnehahapolitan]

/\Then why isn't Phillips more dangerous than the northside? South Mpls. is more dense and more poor. The truth is that criminals happen to be poor, not the other way around. I have a friend who lives around Southdale. That area is packed with cheap rentals in three and four story apartments. Yet there is NO crime there. Curious, huh?

[2blessed2stress]

I have a thought about the SAME issue being rehashed over and over and over again. Why don't you DO something about it.

[phillips neiborhood]

man phillips a couple years ago was just like northside it used to be worse but it got cleaned up a lot you used to not even be ablree to walk franklin

[talktobrent]

what is up with all this fear mongering on this board? Minneapolis is really not that bad. Ok, yea theres more crime than the nice suburbs surrounding it but that's true of almost any city. I have relatives from the burbs that come in for Vikings games and such... they see "sexworld" and they assume the warehouse district is a bunch of prostitutes. they see kids in baggy jeans and headphones and assume "its a gang". people think they "see" things but they don't get the whole story.

[M504]

**sigh**


if you look at the 25 most dangerous cities you will see 90% of them are small cities with 150k-400k people

i say that because these smaller cities have higher rates than big cities because the big cities have a much bigger population therefore more of a population of people who dont cause crime

Minneapolis doesnt have any out of control neighborhoods and its crime is really not bad. neighborhood for neighborhood minneapolis doesnt have a true ghetto or a rundown area

there are neighborhoods of LA and NYC that are out of control with crime and no hope for change, minnesotta as a state doesnt have 1 hood like that

ive been to Minneapolis 4 times and its like disneyworld to cities with real bad problems

and for those who say look at the 90's that doesnt hold weight because EVERY major city had a huge crime problem back then because of crack cocaine.

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by M504

**sigh**


if you look at the 25 most dangerous cities you will see 90% of them are small cities with 150k-400k people

i say that because these smaller cities have higher rates than big cities because the big cities have a much bigger population therefore more of a population of people who dont cause crime.

That is why crime rates are given in per capita mode. I personally think that smaller towns do have a higher crime rate per capita, but that is for petty crimes like theft. Look at Detroit; 450 murders out of a population of 900,000 is really small potatoes if you think about it (these numbers are a WAG).


Minneapolis doesnt have any out of control neighborhoods and its crime is really not bad. neighborhood for neighborhood minneapolis doesnt have a true ghetto or a rundown area
There are one or two, and they seem to move from one neighborhood to the next every couple of years. Yes, there are places in LA, NO, Chicago, the Bay Area, NY, Atlanta, and others that make Minneapolis's worst areas seem like a walk in the park on a sunny day holding a kitten; but there are a few places that would probably change your mind.


there are neighborhoods of LA and NYC that are out of control with crime and no hope for change, minnesotta as a state doesnt have 1 hood like that


For many years, the strategy in Minneapolis was to 'break it up' and force gang members/thugs/and the like to move through out the city. That is why so many neighborhoods very from block to block. Now the Minneapolis Police Department is taking an LA approach to the situation and is trying to contain it to one area, mainly North Minneapolis. It's not so much as to squash the situation as it is to keep it in one spot. It will only get worse.

ive been to Minneapolis 4 times and its like disneyworld to cities with real bad problems


Four times? That is not long enough to make a total assessment of a local unless those four times equal some years.

and for those who say look at the 90's that doesnt hold weight because EVERY major city had a huge crime problem back then because of crack cocaine.

The crack problem was in the 80's, by the way.

[nick is rulz]

Minneapolis population also tends to be peppered with old stubborn Scandinavians who didnt leave when certain areas got bad. A lot of them play "trash duty" on certain blocks (Ive seen it several times). This is a big part of the reason why a lot of areas in North may seem okay from the visual standpoint but not so great when you plot the crimes.