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the city that houses the PRESIDENT... shouldn't it be the SAFEST CITY IN AMERICA?
History is the answer. Until recently most of the rich, upper and middle class mostly populated the suburbs, allowing American cities to decay outside of business districts. So for a every long time, cities were used as a place to house the poor.
With low demand to live in cities, there was little incentive to invest $$$ into them. So they decayed since the poor neither had the education or resources to make any positive use of them. The result was crime, drugs and poverty bordering 3rd world conditions. This sorry state of American cities are often referred to as "The REAL DC" or "the REAL New York" by those who miss those conditions and hate gentrification.
With gentrification in recent years, the process is reversing as more middle and upper class people find cities desirable places to live. However, the process does not happen over night, so there is still a lot of poor people living in the city engaging in crime. They'll be gone soon enough though.
First off it is not "infested". There are parts of the city that are more dangerous, and others which are very safe. Specifically west of rock creek park is very safe, and east of the Anacostia river can be very dangerous. One cannot generalize about DC, the reality is the geographic dimensions have to be understood. Where there is high poverty, violence tends to be present. In those areas where poverty is concentrated, there you will find the crime.
The reality is DC is far safer than it was in the past and in many ways far less dangerous than Baltimore. There are far more dangerous cities than DC.
In the U.S., wherever you have a combination of low incomes, low educational attainment levels and a very high percentage of racial minorities, you also have a high crime rate.
It is a very standard correlation across the country. In fact, I am not aware of a single metro area where this doesn't hold true.
Last edited by BigCityDreamer; 05-09-2016 at 06:59 AM..
Why would the city where the President lives and low crime go together? That's a really weird way to look at it. It's not like the Secret Service are out patrolling the streets for local crime. The White House is safe, Sidwell Friends (where Sasha and Malia go to school) is safe, but the Secret Service have no reason to concern themselves with the impoverished, high-crime areas in DC where the president generally does not go and if he does, he has a huge security detail protecting him (as he does everywhere he goes).
With the exception of the Capitol Police and the US Park Police, which protect just a very small part of the city around the Capitol and the National Mall, respectively, crime in DC is handled by local authorities, just like any other city. Most of the crime in DC does not happen around the Capitol and the National Mall, most of it is in areas removed from federal government buildings.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Regardless, where there is poverty, there is crime, and as others have said, DC has its share of poverty.
Next question.
Last edited by Yac; 05-10-2016 at 01:47 AM..
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