St. Louis Incorrectly Rated America's Most Dangerous City (neighborhood, safer)

[aragx6]

^Allowed? Freedom of speech.

[1greatcity]

Another big flaw with those city crime rankings is that they only consider cities with 75,000 or more residents. The list automatically excludes places like East St Louis, which is obviously more crime-ridden than pretty much every other city in the nation. So-- not only do the rankings compare cities vastly different in geographical size (Jacksonville's 885 sq mi compared to Camden's 10 sq mi, for example)-- they also exclude all cities with smaller populations.
They're comparing apples to oranges, and leaving out the small fruit!

[flynavyj]

As far as any outsider would care, seeing the word East St. Louis on a screen as the most dangerous city in America wouldn't do us any better than having St. Louis put up there..To someone from New York, Detroit, DC, Miami, Louisville, etc it's the same place....

[1greatcity]

^They're different cities in different states. No more the same than NYC and Jersey City.

[Aceter]

Originally Posted by aragx6

^Allowed? Freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech or not a lie is still a lie and should be debunked as such. This scenerio shows how CQ Press' math could reveal a most ridiculous lie. City A ranked 1st in murder, rape, assult, and rank 51st in robbery, burglary and car theft. while city B ranked 50th in murder, rape, assult, and rank 1st in robbery, burglary, and car theft, but city B would be ranked more dangerous as city A because their rankings in each of the 6 crime subcategories produced a lower number. That's the big flaw right there in front of you.

[LeoZ]

Originally Posted by moorlander

2009 Most Dangerous Metro's

#103 - St. Louis

That's all you need to know to realize how bogus this city vs city list is.
http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime/2009...9_Rank_Rev.pdf

I don't know. I'm not sure I think Arkansas when I think high crime. If anything, that metro list seems a bit blown out of proportion to me.

[flynavyj]

Originally Posted by 1greatcity

^They're different cities in different states. No more the same than NYC and Jersey City.

I agree that they're different cities, i agree that they're in different states (i'm a native, i should know these things). But if you try to think beyond what you know and put yourself in the shoes of an outsider.

Outsider - "Where do you live?"
You - "South St. Louis"
Outsider - "Oh, is that a nice area?"
You - "Yes"
Outsider - "Cool, i've heard bad things about East St. Louis"
You - "That's a whole different state"
Outsider - "Oh yea?"
You - "Yea, it's in Illinois, across the river."
Outsider - "Oh, ok."

Now that person could probably have a few different opinions after talking to you about that. To some a river could be something the size of a creek and that could could be jumped over, while to others it would represent the girth of the Mississippi. Basically what i'm trying to get at is when we describe a bad part of town as North St. Louis, and a good part as South St. Louis that an outsider isn't going to automatically reference East St. Louis with being in Illinois, separated by a major river, and only accessed by a couple of bridges that you have to make an effort to get across to get there. So while there is a difference, it isn't as apparrant as it is to us who live here.

[aragx6]

^From my experience, that's completely accurate.

[moorlander]

Originally Posted by LeoZ

I don't know. I'm not sure I think Arkansas when I think high crime. If anything, that metro list seems a bit blown out of proportion to me.

Well why would you? This list, for some reason, is never publicized.

[STL88]

I think it is wrong to dismiss the ranking. St. Louis is dangerous. That doesn't mean you can't walk outside your front door without getting shot. Now, St. Louis has around 350,000 residents within 61.9 square miles. We almost always have over 100 murders per year, and a nice count of robbery, assaults, and other violent crimes as well. Washington Ave, which is supposed to represent our downtown revitalization, now has to increase police presence, close down some clubs, and instill curfews and checkpoints because of the shootings on or near Wash ave. We've had 1 Police Officer killed and 4 or 5 shot, 2 of which were seriously wounded. The 2 weeks following the release of the #1 ranking saw outrageous violence, including several multiple-victim shootings in broad daylight. We wrapped up Nov with 25 murders in city limits. Now, for a city so small we sure have a lot of violence. Yes, a lot of it is confined to the north side with the parts of the south side coming close to frequency, but that's the point. We have several nice, peaceful neighborhoods, but one minute you can be driving in CWE and if you get lost and drive a few blocks in almost any direction you're in one of the busiest Police districts. If you're in the Tower Grove neighborhood rehabbing an old house your block is probably pretty safe, but once again venture a couple blocks and it's a horse of a different color (not a racial reference). Same if you're on any of the highways going through St. Louis, one exit you're in a safe neighborhood, within 2 exits you're likely in a high crime area. Pruitt-Igoe's destruction merely spread out the crime into neighborhoods that had no problems until the residents, and with it the thugs and social problems, moved southward. Yes, most of us will never be the victim of a violent crime, especially if we live a non-gang related life. But the fact remains that for most of us, there's an entire part of our city where we will not venture to because of the potential to be a victim. Instead of dismissing this ranking we should acknowledge that for our city boundaries and so-so population, we have way too much crime and way too little action to change it.