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I would like some honest opinions on safety/crime. I don't care about the crime stats. We can all look those up. Most crimes seem to happen among criminals and usually in a very condensed area. That being said, crimes can happen anywhere as we all know.
I want to approach crime from a different perspective. In your neighborhood would you feel comfortable and get a good night sleep if you knew your front door was unlocked? When your small child (let's say 8) goes out to play with friends do you worry about them from a crime perspective or does that thought never cross your mind?
To me, peace of mind, tells me a lot about crime. We came from a neighborhood that was relatively safe but crimes happened and it was always something you had to think about. We now live in a neighborhood where I could fall into a deep sleep knowing my front door was wide open. Even though crimes still happen here it's an area where you just don't worry about it.
So that is what I'm trying to get at as we are picking a location to relocate with a toddler. So if you live in Durham, Cary, Apex, N. Raleigh, etc. do you have peace of mind where you live (or not) and if so where is that?
In your neighborhood would you feel comfortable and get a good night sleep if you knew your front door was unlocked? When your small child (let's say 8) goes out to play with friends do you worry about them from a crime perspective or does that thought never cross your mind?
I think these are totally unreasonable criteria in this century unless you live on 40 acres in North Dakota.
I'm in Chapel Hill and never worry about my kids from a crime perspective, as you put it, but we do lock the doors at night. We have had some break-ins in the neighborhood occasionally and I'm the type who likes things locked up tight. I wouldn't be shocked if some of my neighbors don't lock their doors and on occasion I have not locked my door if I just take the dogs for a quick walk around the block, but I usually do. I also lock my car almost every place I go, fwiw.
I'm using extreme examples here. That being said, we live 11 miles from a very large metro city in a suburb and if it weren't for mosquitos I really wouldn't be worried about leaving my front door open. It's in an area where you have peace of mind in terms of safety. Yeah, once in a blue moon a car might get broken into. But murders, rapes... they just don't happen. So we have peace of mind. Not to mention, we live in an area with a ton of stay at home mothers so you couldn't broke into our house if you tried without them noticing the color shoes you were wearing.
I'm just trying to get a feel for the different areas around the triangle from that perspective. I know safety can be a touchy topic. It gets into my neighborhood is better than yours and it gets into race and poverty and all that. I don't care about all that. I don't care about the crime stats. I just want to know if you have peace of mind in terms of safety and where is that.
I've never intentionally left my doors unlocked overnight, although I've done so my mistake before. Afterwards, I wasn't concerned or relieved, but felt foolish for forgetting. And my son, who happens to be 8, heads over to his friends houses to play all the time. FWIW, I live in in the Falls Lake watershed near Hwy 98 and Creedmoor Rd (a North Raleigh mailing address, although outside the city limits).
Thanks CHTransplant and poppydog, that is the type of info I was looking for!
Honestly, as we drove all over Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Cary/Apex on our visit I didn't really see a bad area. I sort of always felt safe just using the eyeball test. I was quite surprised honestly. Everywhere is so clean and just looks nice. It was a small sample size though. Just trying to get a feel for which communities give you the peace of mind and which ones can be a bit sketchy and which ones to really try and avoid with children.
I don't think they are unreasonable at all. I don't have any concerns in my neighborhood.
Sorry, but I live in a gated community, and I would never leave my doors unlocked at night. Further, I would always worry about an 8 year old child, especially from potential child molesters among his friend's parents. Perhaps your perception of danger is a lot less stressful than mine.
And I would never intentionally leave my doors unlocked at night. And I would always worry a little about my child when they leave the house. But if I did leave my doors unlocked I'd still be able to fall asleep. And in some neighborhoods I wouldn't worry all day about my child playing outside. I'm just trying to get a feel for the different areas. I was just trying to give "peace of mind" type examples.
Child molesters exist everywhere so that example does not help us determine what areas are safer than others, which is the point of my post.
I could never live with that much fear in my life such that I couldn't sleep if my door was unlocked (it usually isn't) and I couldn't let my kids play with their friends without worrying about them from a crime perspective.
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