DC homicide rate down over 20% to lowest level in decades (apartment complex, violent crime)

[TheseGoTo11]

about halfway through the year, DC has recorded 65 homicides, compared to over 80 at this time last year, a rate of 130 or 140 for the year will put us right around 20-25 per 100,000 people, which is not great, but lower than Baltimore, Philly, New Orleans, Detroit, etc.

Baltimore has recorded nearly twice as many as DC - 110, so they will likely top 30 per 100,000 this year, sad to see what's happening up there

[PGC301]

Murders are down in Prince George's County this year too. I posted this in the Maryland forum the other day- http://www.city-data.com/forum/maryl...gain-year.html. They're actually down in Baltimore this year too, but barely though (Bmore is on track to record about 220 this year as opposed to 234 last year).

DC and PG County have made remarkable progress in getting their numbers down in the past few years. For example, PG County has completely razed what had been the most violent neighborhood in the county (Suitland Manor). In 2005, there were 8 murders in that single apartment complex, even with half the buildings being vacant/boarded up. I was down there a few weeks ago and apparantly they finally got around to tearing all of the buildings down. I remember hearing a while ago that they're going to replace it with mixed-income housing. If they can do something similar with the Glassmanor neighborhood in Oxon Hill and the 14th Ave/15th Ave/Kanawha St area of Langley Park, the numbers would drop even further.

In case anyone is curious, this site burgersub.org - maps of murder keeps track of all the homicides in DC, Maryland, nothern Virginia, Delaware, parts of West Virginia and New Jersey, and southern Pennsylvania up to Philadelphia.

[14thandYou]

This is certainly positive news, although I would caution against using the murder rate as a barometer for a city's "safeness" (I know no one on this thread has explicitly done that, but invairably some people reading this will come to that conclusion.) So-called "quality of life" crime remains a significant issue for the District, even in more gentrified, well-to-do areas. For example, Logan Circle has seen a 25% increase in street muggings and robberies this year. In Columbia heights, the increase in violent crime over the past few years is particularly troubling.

Which is to take nothing away from the tremendous strides the city and surrounding areas have made in bringing crime levels down. Giuliani and Dinkins received a lot of credit for the significant drop in crime in NYC during the 90s, but DC's downward trajectory has been no less incredible. An annual homicide total of 130 for a city of 600,000 is still high, but is remarkably lower than the 400+ high water mark in th early 90s, when the city was smaller than it is today.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by 14thandYou

This is certainly positive news, although I would caution against using the murder rate as a barometer for a city's "safeness" (I know no one on this thread has explicitly done that, but invairably some people reading this will come to that conclusion.) So-called "quality of life" crime remains a significant issue for the District, even in more gentrified, well-to-do areas. For example, Logan Circle has seen a 25% increase in street muggings and robberies this year. In Columbia heights, the increase in violent crime over the past few years is particularly troubling.

Yeah. Murders really do not tell you if a city is safe or not. If the city has a high number of muggings and robberies, that's when you know that you shouldn't be there. How does DC fare in regards to that. I am happy to hear that DC's murder total is going down. Most cities are but it's great to hear that for DC.