Box Cutter Robberies in Castro/Mission... at 10PM? Is this normal? (Los Angeles: apartment, crime)

[rascal-c]

Hey guys,

Still planning a potential move to SF, and was kind of shocked to see this article:

Cadillac-Driving Suspects In Box Cutter Slashings And Robberies Arrested: News: SFAppeal

Now this is the neighborhood I am planning to move to, because it seems happening and fun and relatively safe. But getting robbed by someone with box cutters at 10 freaking PM? If it was 2 or 3 AM I would be like, fine, okay.

But is this normal? Can you really not walk home in this neighborhood before midnight without worrying about something like this happening? For the record, I have lived in NYC (manhattan, brooklyn and queens), Boston and Los Angeles, so I have had my fill of city life and borderline shady neighborhoods. But never have I lived somewhere where walking home as early as 10PM posed a threat.

Any responses from residents of the neighborhood? Ladies? Do you walk home alone at 10PM in SF?

[gone down south]

It was unusual enough to warrant a write-up in the paper, so.....

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by rascal-c

But getting robbed by someone with box cutters at 10 freaking PM? If it was 2 or 3 AM I would be like, fine, okay.

But is this normal? Can you really not walk home in this neighborhood before midnight without worrying about something like this happening?

10PM? Are you kidding? This is Frisco. How about 12:30 in the afternoon?

Another iPod theft (http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/blotter/Another-iPod-theft-103260219.html - broken link)

Or 11 am on the bus?

Man visiting SF struck by golf club on Muni (http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Man-visiting-SF-struck-by-golf-club-on-Muni-105434318.html - broken link)

Do not carry a phone or an Ipod while being oblivious to your surroundings.

Rash of tech device thefts continue unabated (http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Rash-of-tech-device-thefts-continue-unabated-102545599.html - broken link)

Youth gang charged in crime spree (http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Youth-gang-charged-in-crime-spree-99816974.html - broken link)

[The Land]

San Francisco has this type of thing happen all the time, just ride the bus, there's a ton of random crime happening all day everyday. I can't tell you how many Muni fights & stabbings I've seen. The media likes to sweep the crime in SF under the rug.

[mayorhaggar]

It's a LOT better west of Mission Street than east of it. East of Mission there is a shooting very frequently at night, often several in a single night.

Again West of Mission it's a lot better but it's only a few blocks from the ghetto east of Mission. You really won't see much crime there even at night but it does happen. I remember a few years ago a middle school student was shot on the Muni bus around 17th and Church in the middle of the day right by the middle school there.

But by and large not much happens, if you're used to Brooklyn then you'll probably find it pretty quiet and peaceful. It's a pretty great part of the city.

[rascal-c]

I lived in Brooklyn for years, in a few different neighborhoods, and people getting robbed with box cutters at 10PM was definitely not in the norm. It seems like the SF crime reports make SF seem, even in the west of Mission neighborhood, was more dangerous than most of what I experienced in Bklyn.

[mayorhaggar]

Well I lived at 18th and Church for 2 years and any crime of any sort was not the norm in that whole area from Castro to Mission that is between Market and Noe Valley. The kid getting shot on a bus is the main thing I can remembe, as well as a fatal hit and run on Sanchez, other than that I don't remember reading about anything on sfgate, and I certainly wasn't the victim of any crime. In the day there's a ton of people in the area and at night it's pretty quiet but doesn't feel creepy or desolate.

Meanwhile I lived at 18th and Capp for one year before that, and that is a really crappy area. Nothing bad happened to me, but there were (not sure if there still are) junkies and drug dealers lined all up and down Mission Street from 16th to around 18th, junkies and crazy people wandering around, and frequent shootings within a few blocks of where I was, especially around South Van Ness. One night I heard gunshots when one of the dealing Salvadorans next door was shot in the foot in a drive-by while he was sitting on the stoop probably dealing drugs or smoking crack.

Comparing the area west of Mission and the area east of Mission is like comparing night and day. Come here and check it out and you'd see. I was so glad when I moved to Church and 18th and got out of that crappy area around Capp, I felt a hell of a lot safer. The apartment on Church was a lot crappier than the one I was in on Capp though but it didn't really matter to me.

[rah]

No where in SF is immune to crime. My mom was robbed by some guys in Noe Valley. An irish tourist was shot during a robbery in Pacific heights. A woman was hit by a stray bullet after an attempted robbery, also in pacific heights. A boy was shot in a robbery in forest hill (these incidents are from the past few years, all in nice neighborhoods. Pacific heights has to be one of the most affluent areas in the country)..SF's robbery rate is actually higher than most US cities, and as of 2008 came in at 17th highest out of the country's 76 cities with 250,000+ people. Crime isn't reported on that consistently in SF (at least not by the SF Chronicle, which is notorious for ignoring crime stories in SF), and the SFPD has even been caught screwing up their crime stats, making them appear lower. The Castro unfortunately is not immune to violence/crime either, though overall its pretty safe. It's certainly NOT a ghetto or anything. But: Someone was robbed at gunpoint at an ATM on Castro and 18th a few months ago (heart of the Castro district). A man was shot and killed and two bystanders wounded at Castro and Market earlier this year, after a fight broke out during Gay Pride, there was a string of robberies/assaults/rapes a couple years ago, and i actually heard gunfire late one night in the castro several months back...and that's just what i know about. I'm sure plenty of crime happened near you in Brooklyn that you never heard about, so it is also about perception.

Anyways, SF is dense and physically small, so crime bleeds a lot as good/bad are so close together, making it easy for criminals to travel to nice neighborhoods for easy targets. The average safety level of many parts of the city does drop at night too...but most crime of any kind in SF never makes it to the news. SF has averaged 3,500-4,000 reported robberies a year since 2005. You can bet that probably not even 100 of them make it on to the bigger news outlets on any given year though.

[EastBayDefector]

Originally Posted by The Land

San Francisco has this type of thing happen all the time, just ride the bus, there's a ton of random crime happening all day everyday. I can't tell you how many Muni fights & stabbings I've seen. The media likes to sweep the crime in SF under the rug.

WORD!

[mayorhaggar]

Let me put it this way: if you can't handle living around Dolores and 15th, you can't handle living in any big city. It's very tame. Take it from someone who lived near there.