Safety in McKeesport (Pittsburgh, York, Liberty: how much, live, statistics)

[pghlibrarian]

Originally Posted by PPG

Yeah, I saw the wire. Kinda reminded me of webster ave in the hill district. Ever been there?

I have, and trust me Webster Ave. is a walk in the park compared to West Baltimore. Remember, the Wire is fiction and while it doesn't portray Baltimore in the most flattering of lights, it still pales in comparison to the real thing.

I do agree with you that bad is bad no matter where it is. I doubt anyone would move from West Baltimore to the Hill District and say "Thank God! We finally got out of the ghetto!". I was just trying to give some comparisons using actual data (all of which I found on city-data.com except the Baltimore data which I took from the Baltimore Police Department).

Still, I'd rather live in the Hill District or McKeesport any day than live in West Baltimore. Well, maybe not Homewood.

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by pghlibrarian

I have, and trust me Webster Ave. is a walk in the park compared to West Baltimore. Remember, the Wire is fiction and while it doesn't portray Baltimore in the most flattering of lights, it still pales in comparison to the real thing.

I do agree with you that bad is bad no matter where it is. I doubt anyone would move from West Baltimore to the Hill District and say "Thank God! We finally got out of the ghetto!". I was just trying to give some comparisons using actual data (all of which I found on city-data.com except the Baltimore data which I took from the Baltimore Police Department).

Still, I'd rather live in the Hill District or McKeesport any day than live in West Baltimore. Well, maybe not Homewood.

I think it is pretty much impossible, too, to "compare ghettos". I mean what do you compare? Well, in West Baltimore there are 18,392 graffiti tags, but in Homewood there are only 2,293. In West Baltimore there are on average 239 people loitering on the street corner at any one time, and it Homewood there are 199. These aren't real numbers, but if they were would it make any difference? Again- I've said it before 100 times and I'll say it again... If you're wondering if this "bad place" is worse than that "bad place" you're too close to a bad place. Does it really matter "how bad"? On my infamous scale of 1-10 we're trying to figure out the difference between a 2 and a 2.5 here. I think we could leave it at this:

Neither West Baltimore or McKeesport are particularly nice or safe places, neither would be good for kids to experience. If you've got to pick one over the other, pick based on weather or something like that- because "a murder every 5.1 days vs. every 2.4 days" or whatever it was, in the real world, means nothing. You're trying to compare rotten apples to rotten oranges. They both taste terrible- and if you HAVE TO eat one of them, the only guarantee is that you'll hate it.

Captain

[PPG]

Originally Posted by pghlibrarian

I have, and trust me Webster Ave. is a walk in the park compared to West Baltimore. Remember, the Wire is fiction and while it doesn't portray Baltimore in the most flattering of lights, it still pales in comparison to the real thing.
I do agree with you that bad is bad no matter where it is. I doubt anyone would move from West Baltimore to the Hill District and say "Thank God! We finally got out of the ghetto!". I was just trying to give some comparisons using actual data (all of which I found on city-data.com except the Baltimore data which I took from the Baltimore Police Department).

Still, I'd rather live in the Hill District or McKeesport any day than live in West Baltimore. Well, maybe not Homewood.

Pure BS! smh!

[PPG]

Right on cue.......

No arrests after two teens shot in McKeesport - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

No arrests after two teens shot in McKeesport
By The Tribune-Review
Thursday, July 12, 2007


Two men were shot last night in McKeesport, and police believe they knew their attackers.
The male victims, a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, were standing on a friend's porch in the 800 block of Woodward Street at about 8 p.m., when they were approached by at least two, possibly four men, police said. The 17-year-old was shot in the face and the 18-year-old was shot in the hand, police said. Both were taken to a Pittsburgh hospital, but their names and conditions were not available from McKeesport police today.

Police said at least five shots were fired, and the attackers approached and fled on foot.

No arrests had been made this morning, police said.

[Hopes]

That story screams gang violence without outright stating it. Thanks, Pimps.

[pghlibrarian]

Originally Posted by PPG

Pure BS! smh!

One man's BS is another man's fertilizer. Lighten up!

[pghlibrarian]

Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

I think it is pretty much impossible, too, to "compare ghettos". I mean what do you compare? Well, in West Baltimore there are 18,392 graffiti tags, but in Homewood there are only 2,293. In West Baltimore there are on average 239 people loitering on the street corner at any one time, and it Homewood there are 199. These aren't real numbers, but if they were would it make any difference? Again- I've said it before 100 times and I'll say it again... If you're wondering if this "bad place" is worse than that "bad place" you're too close to a bad place. Does it really matter "how bad"? On my infamous scale of 1-10 we're trying to figure out the difference between a 2 and a 2.5 here. I think we could leave it at this:

Neither West Baltimore or McKeesport are particularly nice or safe places, neither would be good for kids to experience. If you've got to pick one over the other, pick based on weather or something like that- because "a murder every 5.1 days vs. every 2.4 days" or whatever it was, in the real world, means nothing. You're trying to compare rotten apples to rotten oranges. They both taste terrible- and if you HAVE TO eat one of them, the only guarantee is that you'll hate it.

Captain

And that's why I said "bad is bad no matter where it is". Listen, there is crime everywhere, and you're much more likely to get killed on the highway in an accident than be a victim of a gun crime.

It just ticks me off when people on this forum, many of which have never set foot outside of the Pittsburgh metro area, spout off about how rough Pittsburgh is or how bad things are around here. Yeah, we get the point, many people think Pittsburgh is a festering craphole with tons of crime. My point is just that once you have lived in other festering crapholes, which, trust me, are much worse than this one, Pittsburgh and it's environs, no matter how bad they get, seem to look a lot better.

[PPG]

Originally Posted by pghlibrarian

One man's BS is another man's fertilizer. Lighten up!

I apologize for the mad face, I meant to use the frown.

It ticks me off when people try to say that this ghetto is worse than that ghetto. Also we are talking about certain Pittsburgh neighborhoods not Pittsburgh as a whole. I think it is pure BS to say that Baltimore is worse than The Wire or The Corner portrays. If this were the case they wouldn't even be able to film there. To suggest that film makers wanted to under-exagerate Baltimore's story is off. Every film exagerates the story, if not then it's considered a documentary. To say Webster ave. is a walk in the park compared to west Baltimore is ludacris when in fact the exact same thing is going on. What makes it different? Are they (in Baltimore) in the middle of the street eating decayed corpses? Do they toss bombs at every passing car? Do they kill cops and hang them from the street lights?
My point is - poor/black/american/projects = the same. Some are just bigger.
Thank you.

[Drover]

Some ghettos are worse than others. They all suck in terms of general quality-of-life, there's no doubt. But some are statistically, verifiably more dangerous than others. I don't know why that's such a controversial concept.

[PPG]

Originally Posted by Drover

Some ghettos are worse than others. They all suck in terms of general quality-of-life, there's no doubt. But some are statistically, verifiably more dangerous than others. I don't know why that's such a controversial concept.

Yeah but those statistics can be very misleading. To me, Pittsburgh ghettos are just as bad as north philly, it's just that pittsburghs ghettos aren't all stuck together like north philly, which may make it seem worse. Pittsburgh has a lot of natural bounderies that prevent this. Also, I don't give much weight to stats.