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Old 02-05-2011, 07:55 PM
 
139 posts, read 238,621 times
Reputation: 17

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WAIT! I TAKE IT BACK IM NOT 12! IM NOT 12! don't arrest me.......
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Old 02-05-2011, 08:24 PM
 
5,546 posts, read 6,844,257 times
Reputation: 3826
Quote:
Originally Posted by sls76 View Post
All I am doing is pointing out that there is a whole lot of energy being wasted on this forum by people who refuse to respect the fact that not everyone has to make the same choices as they do. Living in the city is statistically less safe than living in the suburbs. For some it is worth it, for others it is not. My sister just moved here from the NE and she lives in the city and loves it and I would never have discouraged her from living in Richmond--it's perfect for her but I would hate it. I just get tired of being judged for living in "soul-less" Short Pump by "open minded" people. As far as the ignorant statements of others, I find arguing with them tends to accomplish little.
Fair enough, but I don't know that I agree that living in the burbs is statistically safer. Crime statistics are highly misleading (and are often criticized for imposing a stigma on cities that are "ranked"), because most crime is localized to very specific areas of the city. This leaves the good areas with a very bad name. Combine that with statistics for those who are injured in vehicular accidents, and I'm not so sure what's safer. Just something that I've often looked at, being that I've spent a lot of my life in the burbs, making commutes in my car everyday.

I hear you on feeling tired of others throwing stigmas on where you live, as I'm generally on the end of hearing others say I live in a crime-ridden hole where it's not even safe to walk around during the day.

I do want to say that I respect your opinion, and again, no hard feelings.
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Old 02-05-2011, 08:38 PM
 
5,546 posts, read 6,844,257 times
Reputation: 3826
Quote:
Originally Posted by frank90 View Post
Perhaps you Richmond lovers wouldn't have to deal with so many people bashing Richmond if the locals actually vote and were politically active. I live in Richmond all of my life. I resided in Highland Park in the 90's, Chamberlayne Farms in the early 2000's and now Short Pump. I've seen different areas of Richmond and my opinion is not limited to one area. I've also visited to neighboring cities who does not have as much crime and is much more entertaining.

Yes crime have been decreasing but for how long? I can't see how people hold so much pride for Richmond when it literally not reaching it's full potential. Drugs are a major well kept hidden product of crime. It is easy accessible, I hear. I agree that every city has it's crime and drugs however

Richmond has 6x times the National average for Murders
Richmond has twice as many car thefts as the National average

(according to Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed)

Not to mention the reputation of being the 9th most dangerous city in the entire country. (as of 2009) City Crime Rankings by Population Group

I propose more community meetings and the questioning of local police enforcement funding and coverage. I also suggest more home owners associations and crime preventative laws. Perhaps more businesses and lighting in downtown areas. The RTD is reporting that Richmond is growing tired of the homeless particularly veterans. However as a VCU kid, I would be more than happy to see no homeless!

I don't feel safe riding my bike or walking the streets even in broad daylight! Perhaps if you guys would feel the frustration of the youth and college kids downtown than it would make sense. However middle age guys living in the surrounding areas wouldn't grasp the situation first hand.
I really didn't have to deal with the issue as I lived in Short Pump the past couple of years, but now I do!
Frank, I appreciate your thoughts on this as a life-long Richmonder. However, I do have to say that those crime statistics and rankings are universally criticized (by the police, the media, the communities, etc.), because they don't necessarily indicate the health of a whole city. 9 out of 10 of these crimes are committed in localized crime zones. For people living in the Fan, on the Northside, Museum District, etc, there is not a lot of crime. You have some very reasonable thoughts about what you think needs to happen more, but to say that you don't feel safe walking around in the day-time is not rational. You may not feel safe walking around during the day, but I'd like to know what makes you feel that way. If someone is harrassing you everytime you come into the city, then I can understand. I can also say that that's a very rare instance. Feeling unsafe because of what you see on the news or what you hear people say about the city is misleading to others on this forum. I've never known anyone who was attacked during the day in the city if they were just going about their business.

I think what needs to happen is that there need to be more jobs for people and more residential population downtown. Creating more foot-traffic from local workers and students is a well-accepted strategy for creating a safer environment. I believe that the city needs to put many of these brainstorming ideas on the back burner and create a great downtown business climate (like tax credits for businesses instead of stadiums). Most crimes are committed by young men who are out of work, and we need to minimize that situation.

I believe that getting good public transportation is another step to ensuring that people can get into and out of the city easily, which also does wonders for people wanting to live and visit the city. That combined with more street lighting, good police coverage and strong community fabric will certainly improve things.

I'm not a life-long Richmonder, but I have seen this city's crime situation improve. Despite the bad economy, many neighborhoods are gentrifying. I see many people living in the city with kids, and I think Richmond has a ton of potential. Its history, the James River, great architecture, charming neighborhoods, etc. I certainly think that it has a lot of room for improvement, but the city has to have a strategy (which is backed by funds). I think it will continue to get better, and I think people that hardly ever come into the city should make a trip in to see that it's not so dangerous.

Last edited by Yac; 02-16-2011 at 07:04 AM..
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Old 02-05-2011, 08:52 PM
 
68 posts, read 118,088 times
Reputation: 31
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tej147 View Post
do you live to criticize richmond jason? cuz i think you're in some way related to skratch and anders15
Until Richmond improves itself and be able to regain credibility as the state Capitol then I would be less critical.

However at this point Richmond is a poor city filled with crime, drugs, homeless, and overweight uneducated scum.
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Old 02-05-2011, 09:12 PM
 
139 posts, read 238,621 times
Reputation: 17
at frank: grrrrr......uneducated my foot! WHO GIVES A CRAP THESE DAYS ABOUT EDUCATED OR UNEDUCATED? JUST CUZ U DIDN'T GO 2 SCHOOL DOESN'T MEAN U CAN'T START A BUSINESS! AND WHAT DOES OBESITY HAVE TO DO WITH CRIME?!? RICHMOND'S CRIME RATES ARE DROPPING, RICHMOND IS GETTING BETTER AND AWESOMER. END. OF. DISCUSSION.
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Old 02-05-2011, 09:24 PM
 
68 posts, read 118,088 times
Reputation: 31
Post lack of infrastructure and opportunity

Quote:
Originally Posted by AJNEOA View Post
Frank, I appreciate your thoughts on this as a life-long Richmonder. However, I do have to say that those crime statistics and rankings are universally criticized (by the police, the media, the communities, etc.), because they don't necessarily indicate the health of a whole city. 9 out of 10 of these crimes are committed in localized crime zones. For people living in the Fan, on the Northside, Museum District, etc, there is not a lot of crime. You have some very reasonable thoughts about what you think needs to happen more, but to say that you don't feel safe walking around in the day-time is not rational. You may not feel safe walking around during the day, but I'd like to know what makes you feel that way. If someone is harrassing you everytime you come into the city, then I can understand. I can also say that that's a very rare instance. Feeling unsafe because of what you see on the news or what you hear people say about the city is misleading to others on this forum. I've never known anyone who was attacked during the day in the city if they were just going about their business.

I think what needs to happen is that there need to be more jobs for people and more residential population downtown. Creating more foot-traffic from local workers and students is a well-accepted strategy for creating a safer environment. I believe that the city needs to put many of these brainstorming ideas on the back burner and create a great downtown business climate (like tax credits for businesses instead of stadiums). Most crimes are committed by young men who are out of work, and we need to minimize that situation.

I believe that getting good public transportation is another step to ensuring that people can get into and out of the city easily, which also does wonders for people wanting to live and visit the city. That combined with more street lighting, good police coverage and strong community fabric will certainly improve things.

I'm not a life-long Richmonder, but I have seen this city's crime situation improve. Despite the bad economy, many neighborhoods are gentrifying. I see many people living in the city with kids, and I think Richmond has a ton of potential. Its history, the James River, great architecture, charming neighborhoods, etc. I certainly think that it has a lot of room for improvement, but the city has to have a strategy (which is backed by funds). I think it will continue to get better, and I think people that hardly ever come into the city should make a trip in to see that it's not so dangerous.




Well I may have been a bit over the top yet I do still feel uncomfortable and unsafe during the night and daytime in the City. It is the homeless and unemployed. I've had people come up to me while walking, asking for change and even people coming up to my friend's car on East Broad St and knocking on the window. I was embarassed when my friend came up to visit and we seen homeless sleeping outside the Marriot downtown and crowds of unclean gruggy people standing around.

Other places I've visited will not tolerate such acts such as loitering. There are places who have tighter rules and laws on how daily activity can deter crime. Ordinances can make revenue for the City to provide greater tax cuts. A simple noise ordinance can prevent the annoyingly loud bumping cars beside you and make it easier to guide house parties elsewhere.

I love opportunity and diversity. There should be ways for more people to set up business downtown and also live. My outside friends have been telling me that there are numerous chances for outside projects to be developed and benefit Richmond. However the politicians turn them down for one reason or another, which contributes to the unemployed. Not all politicians, because the board of commisioners and/or the board of economic development can approve projects or businesses coming however money can go elsewhere as far as NOVA.

I commend Carytown for establishing more business and opportunity. I enjoy seeing mixed used developments and various choices of ethnic food.

I don't mean to go off subject about safety however this all has something to do with why people are commiting crime in one way or another. It is beyond racial. It is also should be beyond tolerated by anyone. Some of us Richmond bashers, actually love Richmond enough to critize so it can grow to it's best potential.
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Old 02-06-2011, 08:25 AM
 
5,546 posts, read 6,844,257 times
Reputation: 3826
Quote:
Originally Posted by frank90 View Post
Well I may have been a bit over the top yet I do still feel uncomfortable and unsafe during the night and daytime in the City. It is the homeless and unemployed. I've had people come up to me while walking, asking for change and even people coming up to my friend's car on East Broad St and knocking on the window. I was embarassed when my friend came up to visit and we seen homeless sleeping outside the Marriot downtown and crowds of unclean gruggy people standing around.

Other places I've visited will not tolerate such acts such as loitering. There are places who have tighter rules and laws on how daily activity can deter crime. Ordinances can make revenue for the City to provide greater tax cuts. A simple noise ordinance can prevent the annoyingly loud bumping cars beside you and make it easier to guide house parties elsewhere.
It would be ideal if there were no homeless in any city (or anywhere), but the fact remains that most every city I've ever been to has them. Maybe other cities you've been to didn't have homeless where you visited, but I assure you, there were homeless. I find Richmond to be "not so bad" compared to other places like Portland, OR, San Fran and NYC. These are cities that are considered some of the best.

And just to be thorough, cities do not breed the homeless. Job-lessness, addiction and mental illness breed the homeless. There are rural homeless and poor, and I find that to be even more of an issue, as they can't even walk to a shelter or someplace else to get help.
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Old 02-06-2011, 08:38 AM
 
5,546 posts, read 6,844,257 times
Reputation: 3826
Quote:
Originally Posted by frank90 View Post
Until Richmond improves itself and be able to regain credibility as the state Capitol then I would be less critical.

However at this point Richmond is a poor city filled with crime, drugs, homeless, and overweight uneducated scum.
I would hardly consider Richmond a poor city, as the GDP per capita is in the top 20 of the country:

http://www.demographia.com/db-gdp-metro.pdf

A small city? Yes. A city with drugs and crime, just like any other city? Yes. Overweight uneducated scum? Yes, some, but no more than the rest of America. America's education system is something like 37th in the world now...our jobs are dwindling, and our citizens are largely provicial (IMO) because they're convinced the only place in the world with freedoms and safety is the US.

People in this country need to wake-up and realize that we're falling behind the rest of the world because of a sense of entitlement, our allowance of career politicians, and distractions like Hollywood. We allow our government to do what it does, which creates poverty and class division, and then we wonder why we have poverty and a lack of education. Richmond is but one of 200+ examples of a place where there is too much crime and not enough jobs. If you point the finger at Richmond, you should continue to point the finger all around the US.

My wife and I are looking to potentially move to Switzerland for a job, and my grandmother's advice was "don't leave the US, it's not safe outside the US". She had no idea that Switzerland's crime rates are far far far below the US's. This is a common theme with people in the US. They think we're so safe, and that the cities are the exception to the rule. In reality, our country is a great place to live, but it's falling further behind the rest of the world in education, jobs, etc....which will lead to even more crime in the future.
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Old 02-06-2011, 09:00 AM
 
Location: Richmond, VA
55 posts, read 141,480 times
Reputation: 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by AJNEOA View Post
I would hardly consider Richmond a poor city, as the GDP per capita is in the top 20 of the country:

http://www.demographia.com/db-gdp-metro.pdf
Gee I wonder who/what is contributing to this?
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Old 02-06-2011, 09:01 AM
 
Location: Richmond, VA
55 posts, read 141,480 times
Reputation: 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tej147 View Post
im only 12
ask your parents before using the internet please
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