What will it take for you to consider NYC safe? (New York: crime rate, home)

[minibrings]

I lived in the many years (12) in the city until December 2006. I never felt unsafe anywhere and never had any untoward incidents towards me, not even a mugging or theft. Only parts of the city I did not venture to included Spanish Harlem and Washington Heights. I did not go to the boroughs (sorry).. okay to catch flights and maybe a few times in Brooklyn Heights.

[Moderate Guy]

As others have pointed out, I concur that safety or relative safety, unfortunately, is sometimes dependent on specific neighborhoods or even specific blocks within a given neighborhood.

[justfarr1030]

And even more unfortunate, race.

[SeventhFloor]

Originally Posted by justfarr1030

I think an even more relevant question is, how do we go about achieving safety in all areas of the city not just desired ones?

it is not possible. there is too broad a spectrum of income range in the city to achieve this.

[DITC]

Its safe now. I dont know what everyone is afraid of.

[StrugglingMusician91]

Originally Posted by SuperMario

I'll consider it safe when I am able to walk down 183rd street without having to look at drug dealers, gang members, or stick up kids. Or when I can go down stairs in front of my building and not have like 10 guys standing in front smoking weed or selling drugs. This doesn't always happen, but it happens way too much for the so called safest big city.

When I am able to walk down any block without fear of getting jumped or robbed, then I will feel safe. Unfortunately, there are many blocks I cant walk through.

And I dont even live in the worst part of the Bronx. I can only imagine kids living around Guy's way. I definitely can't go through those hoods unarmed or undermanned (sp?).

It's a city. Get over it. Sorry but all big cities have some trace of things like that. Im white and stick out like a soar thumb in tons of so-called "unsafe" neighborhoods. Im not scared to walk down any block alone let alone "unarmed". This isn't Rio or NYC in the 80's for that matter. i keep my wits about me. I wasn't alive during the 80's when NYC was crime central but I hear the stories and I just always keep in mind how far the city has come. Truth is there are 8 million people here, I don't expect a city this large to get a whole lot safer than it is now. Its a big city for god sakes. To a certain degree things like smoking weed in the hallway are just part of the culture. Also, I wouldn't consider that to be dangerous. Go to any suburb in the country and you'll have that many kids congregating smoking weed. Some neighborhoods are sketchy. But I still consider NYC safe.

[Coolhand68]

Any city with a population of millions is never completely safe. You have to be diligent when you walk the streets, and do your best to avoid dangerous neighborhoods when you can. There are some sections that are much safer than others, and compared to the warzone days of the early 90's, things have improved. But any city, NYC, LA, DC, Boston, has it's bad neighborhoods. Often I see folks from out of town who are drawn to the cheaper rents of Bed-Stuy and similar neighborhoods, and I just think to myself, it's a matter of time before they become victims. Of course not all have been crime victims, but extend your commute to Bay Ridge or Canarsie and you'd be in a much safer neighborhood.

In my experience, you are most vulnerable when the streets are empty. If you want to feel safe, move someplace busy like Astoria or Bay Ridge, where people are always out and there's more activity. Even the safest places like Forest Hills can be sketchy at night because the streets are dark and empty. Back in the 60s Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death in what was considered the most upscale part of Forest Hills, neighbors ignored her screams.

I have a knack for seeing trouble before it starts, so I feel relatively safe wherever I go. Back in the 80's and 90's I would walk every dangerous neighborhood at night and ride the subways at all hours, had several close calls. I lived in Bushwick and Ridgewood and commuted to the city. My old stomping grounds were Alphabet City and Hells Kitchen when they were still fairly dangerous places. Now I avoid the more dangerous parts of the city at night like East New York, Jamaica, Bushwick and Coney Island.

[NooYowkur81]

I think for a lot of people it would mean less out in the open drug-related crime. When people go to certain neighborhoods and see how obvious and apparent it is, they don't feel safe.

[justfarr1030]

Originally Posted by NooYowkur81

I think for a lot of people it would mean less out in the open drug-related crime. When people go to certain neighborhoods and see how obvious and apparent it is, they don't feel safe.

Exactly. Another interesting thing is there are also other big cities with low crime rates.

Toronto - 2.5million (Chicago has almost 3milion and they have very high crime).
San Diego - 1.3million (not too far from LA distance wise and with 3.8 million) and Detroit (almost a million people and about the same population wise) has high crime.

Both these big cities do not have a crime problem and while I am sure they're ghettos aren't any different from any others, the murders (etc) are virtually non-existant for cities of those sizes. I know people will say "Well NYC has 8million people) so that's why I compared both of those cities to Chicago (because they aren't that far apart population wise and Chicago (Detroit also) has a higher crime rate than those cities I mentioned. What is about LA and San Diego that makes them low wit crime but Chicago and Detroit can't find the answer?

So you're right, we can't just say because "it's a city for crying out loud" that we should automatically expect high crime and lots of murders because as other cities have shown there is not always a direct relation.

[graciously]

Originally Posted by justfarr1030

San Diego - 1.3million (not too far from LA distance wise and with 3.8 million)

guess it depends but distance to sd is far from la. Might not have drove and been there but it ain't local at all. Its not part of la metro area partly because its out of distance.