"Random" shooting in Pioneer Square leaves young woman on life support (Seattle: best cities, crimes)

[rainforest338]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

I made calculations. If in a 4 month period, there were 13 murders, then the city would be on pace for 39 murders, not 69.

I know I can't predict the future, but IMO the Seattle crime seems like it can't be predicted by the winter numbers. (similar phenomon to other cities) When summer rolls around and people start to get out more, it seems like the crime starts to spike upwards. From memory I seem to recall a lot of the bad stuff that happens downtown to be more of a summer thing. The rain lets off and the sun stays up until 10 pm, warm enough for the partiers to hit Belltown and Cap Hill, the crowds are out at alki beach, tourists wandering around most downtown. Someone else can probably describe how Seattle comes out of hibernation a bit better. Think the local news called it the summer surge.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by rainforest338

I know I can't predict the future, but IMO the Seattle crime seems like it can't be predicted by the winter numbers. (similar phenomon to other cities) When summer rolls around and people start to get out more, it seems like the crime starts to spike upwards. From memory I seem to recall a lot of the bad stuff that happens downtown to be more of a summer thing. The rain lets off and the sun stays up until 10 pm, warm enough for the partiers to hit Belltown and Cap Hill, the crowds are out at alki beach, tourists wandering around most downtown. Someone else can probably describe how Seattle comes out of hibernation a bit better. Think the local news called it the summer surge.

But how do we know that the number of murders will hit record numbers?

[rainforest338]

We don't. It could stop tomorrow or it could go the opposite, nobody knows for sure. I was just highlighting that since I've been in WA, the summers have seemed to have spikes in crime, murder included (especially the random, often gang related stuff).

[The Siobhan]

What's really disturbing to me is that Pioneer Square is still labeled as a tourist spot. Earlier this month, I talked a family out of visiting Pioneer Square because I knew that they were not going to be prepared for what they encountered. The family, a mother and her two daughters, were from the Northeast and they wanted to visit the historical sites.

Pioneer Square is much like O'Connell St in Dublin. Sure, it looks great on postcards, but the reality is much different.

[Ford Beebe]

Seattle's violent crime has dramatically increased in the past 15 years.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Ford Beebe

Seattle's violent crime has dramatically increased in the past 15 years.

Do you have any statistical proof of that? I'm just asking.

[Woof]

Originally Posted by Ford Beebe

Seattle's violent crime has dramatically increased in the past 15 years.

Well, not really. The main site has the Seattle crime figures at http://www.city-data.com/city/Seattle-Washington.html

If you scroll down, you can see the graph of City-Data's crime index underneath the chart of crime stats.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

I made calculations. If in a 4 month period, there were 13 murders, then the city would be on pace for 39 murders, not 69.

I wasn't actually being literal with the whole "on pace" comment. I was just pointing out, that our all time record is 69-- which as you pointed out to the OP, really isn't a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

Originally Posted by The Siobhan

What's really disturbing to me is that Pioneer Square is still labeled as a tourist spot. Earlier this month, I talked a family out of visiting Pioneer Square because I knew that they were not going to be prepared for what they encountered. The family, a mother and her two daughters, were from the Northeast and they wanted to visit the historical sites.

Pioneer Square is much like O'Connell St in Dublin. Sure, it looks great on postcards, but the reality is much different.

Seriously? Or did you mean they wanted to go during the night-time? Pioneer Sq. is pretty much safe in the daytime with some nuisance (drug dealings, homeless folks). Night-time is a different story.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Inkpoe

I wasn't actually being literal with the whole "on pace" comment. I was just pointing out, that our all time record is 69-- which as you pointed out to the OP, really isn't a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.



Seriously? Or did you mean they wanted to go during the night-time? Pioneer Sq. is pretty much safe in the daytime with some nuisance (drug dealings, homeless folks). Night-time is a different story.

Oh, okay. The grand scheme of things was part of my point. 69 sounds like alot for Seattle in its own grand scheme, when you look at the murder rates generally, but Seattle looks much safer when compared to other cities across the USA. 69 is a record for Seattle. Living in the Atlanta area, 69 murders for the city of Atlanta would be a 40 year low for us. Atlanta was once of the murder capitals. The city of Atlanta is much safer these days and alot has been done to get number of murders from 231 in 1990 to 80 in 2009. It still has a way to go before being as safe as Seattle. In fact, alot of other cities are more violent than Seattle, such as Milwaukee, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and even relatively safe cities, such as Denver.

[Woof]

Originally Posted by Inkpoe

...... Seriously? Or did you mean they wanted to go during the night-time? Pioneer Sq. is pretty much safe in the daytime with some nuisance (drug dealings, homeless folks). Night-time is a different story.

It's not even that bad at night if you stay out in the main streets where there are lots of people. Avoid those enticing alleys - people want to duck into them to make out or even get a bj, but that's where thugs wait. And secure your wallet even in the streets, don't just have it in your back pocket.

Seems like common sense, but so many don't have any of that.