Many of my out of town friends say Washington DC is just to dangerous to visit! (apartments, crime rates)

[Weekend Traveler]

Coming from the Midwest I still have a number of friends who express an interest in coming out to visit. I tell them come out but please stay at a hotel if you have a large family, my small house has no room.

Most of the people I know tell me they would like to visit the Nations Capital but are afraid it is not safe for the family. I tell them where I live it is very safe and where a tourist would go in Washington DC (Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, The Mall, Downtown, Embassy Row and Upper Northwest) is extremely safe and mostly full of tourists, students and office workers.

They do not believe me and tell me about all the murders and muggings. I tell them that is in Southeast and Northeast DC miles and miles from the tourist and business zone. They still do not believe me.

Is a huge fear of crime in the DC area still common with your out of town friends? Was DC ever that dangerous?

[JimGriffith]

Originally Posted by Weekend Traveler

Is a huge fear of crime in the DC area still common with your out of town friends?

No, I think it's silly and borderline wimpy and paranoid to not visit one of the most heavily traveled tourist cities in the world because you saw too many episodes of "The District" featuring Craig T. Nelson.

Originally Posted by Weekend Traveler

Was DC ever that dangerous?

The 80's were a nightmare. But even then, you could stay in a hotel in town, see all the sights, eat at some great restaurants and have a swell time of it all.

[ffknight918]

Originally Posted by JimGriffith

No, I think it's silly and borderline wimpy and paranoid to not visit one of the most heavily traveled tourist cities in the world because you saw too many episodes of "The District" featuring Craig T. Nelson.

That's the big thing to remember. "Most heavily traveled tourist cities in the world". If it was really that dangerous, and that many people visit, don't you think that it would be a known fact and is constantly on the news to not come here? People don't get that DC is one of the most gentrified cities in the nation. This isn't the mid-80s where it was the murder capital. It has its troubled areas like every other city, but they are in areas that visitors have no business in anyway.

My friends said the same thing when I was moving out here. They brought up how I am going to be living in a place with rats and roaches. Then how I'm going to be putting out big fires every day because the place is such a ghetto where everything is falling apart. I always just told them that they are wrong and that DC is easily one of the top cities in the nation these days.

[Moth]

Originally Posted by Weekend Traveler

Coming from the Midwest I still have a number of friends who express an interest in coming out to visit. I tell them come out but please stay at a hotel if you have a large family, my small house has no room.

Most of the people I know tell me they would like to visit the Nations Capital but are afraid it is not safe for the family. I tell them where I live it is very safe and where a tourist would go in Washington DC (Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, The Mall, Downtown, Embassy Row and Upper Northwest) is extremely safe and mostly full of tourists, students and office workers.

They do not believe me and tell me about all the murders and muggings. I tell them that is in Southeast and Northeast DC miles and miles from the tourist and business zone. They still do not believe me.

Is a huge fear of crime in the DC area still common with your out of town friends? Was DC ever that dangerous?

Then abstain from coming here. I just took a walk through our dangerous downtown and there are more than enough tourists.

[juniperbleu]

Originally Posted by Weekend Traveler

Is a huge fear of crime in the DC area still common with your out of town friends?

No, but most of my friends are either from this area or are from Philadelphia, so urban areas don't scare them.

DC had the reputation of being a "murder capital" for a while, so the danger reputation still holds. In terms of crime rates, DC still is fairly "dangerous", but most crime is concentrated in specific areas (which are all far from main tourist areas).

[ceejamon]

DC used to be far more dangerous than it is today, and the crime was less concentrated than it is today. The stigma remains because people aren't rational and are more convinced by stories they've heard than facts: a family member or friend being mugged in DC 15 years ago is more convincing than crime stats.

Humans are not wired to evaluate risk very well. We're more scared of flying than driving because airplane crashes make the news, but auto accidents don't. We're more scared of being raped, assaulted, or killed by a stranger when the fact is that those things are most commonly committed by people the victim knows. If you're interested in this kind of thing, check out Daniel Gardner's The Science of Fear. It's a good read.

When I first moved to the Baltimore area, I was never even ventured into DC because I'd been told it was dangerous. I never bothered to check it out or look into it myself. I just took a relative's word for it. Once my wife finally talked me into a museum trip, my perspective changed and I started exploring on my own. Now I love it here.

[dominus]

DC's crime is only in certain neighborhoods in the southeast and northeast and in parts of Maryland that border it, and even there it isn't even as bad as many other cities like Detroit or Newark. The parts of DC that are actually worth visiting basically have zero crime.

[Legs1357]

It doesn't completely surprise me. My mom told me the other day that she was happy I wasn't looking for apartments in DC proper because of "the crime rate" (and that's not my reason...I just can't afford it).

[DustyButt]

You guys are lying! A few months ago the President went for a ride through DC and they had to have armed escorts and security to keep him from getting robbed! I saw it with my own eyes!

[/sarcasm]

Seriously... they'll be safe as safe can be touring the city. Don't let THEM be robbed of one of the best trips they could make.

...Unless they try to score some heroin when they visit, then things might get dicey.

Hey, I don't judge.

[joejitsu]

I used to live right outside of DC. DC is NOT dangerous. If anything NW DC where all the tourist go is VERY safe with the exception of a few isolated areas at night. When I was kid NW was full of hustlers trying to sell fake Oakleys and Rolexs but they are gone. DC like any big city has dangerous parts, mainly SE which I doubt you would ever go to except to see a baseball game.