Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well DC has a long history of poverty and poor race relations, and the city was very much affected by the race riots in 1968. (something for you and others to read up on). It pretty much remained a shell into the 90s...
DC is not a perfect utopia of wealthy people. I find it shocking and a little sad at how easily people forget history. It might look shinier on the outside when compared to Chicago or Philadelphia, but its plagued with the same problems for largely the same reasons...
Two big differences:
1. DC hides is most impoverished (largely minority) neighborhoods due to natural geographic separation (rivers) and development pushing poorer people into a smaller confined area. Not really a good thing.
2. The national media paints pictures of American cities (often times false). DC NEVER gets painted in a negative light. Your post is a perfect example of the shock that DC actually has crime and poverty problems. Yet Chicago and Philadelphia (easy media targets) have their issues plastered on TV and largely exaggerated.
So try to understand that DC does in fact have its problems and the reasons are quite obvious if you do a little research. (not meant to be snippy, but this is an example of the media and soceity painting false pictures or hiding truth and logic).
Tons of city’s do the two things your saying. Not at all unique to DC. DC I’m also has a lower poverty rate than nearly every other major city in this country. It is significantly less poor than other major east coast cities.
I have friends in Shaw who regularly have alerts regarding crime. I think is spread throughout most of DC. I actually think heavy crime is more isolated in Chicago than DC.
In Philadelphia's case, many neighborhoods outside of Center City give off an older, slightly run-down vibe, BUT, people always equate that to dangerous, which is largely not the case.
I have friends in Fishtown, and until that neighborhood hit its development stride, it was mostly row-houses, cracked sidewalks with a general older wear and tear vibe, but no one ever complained of rampant crime or felt in danger. Whereas more neighborhoods in DC are cleaner and have trees, etc. yet the crime rate is still as high as say Fishtown.
Philadelphia needs to do a better job at repairing streets, sidewalks, planting trees, street sweeping, etc. But that set of problems doesn't go hand in hand with rampant crime.
In summary, DC is not "dangerous" but some people on here are giving it a little too much credit.
I always heard Philly's crime isn't really as isolated as other cities and a lot of crime spills over into Downtown and South Philly neigborhoods all the time, probably due to how close a lot of the Northern Philly neighborhoods are to Center City.
I always heard Philly's crime isn't really as isolated as other cities and a lot of crime spills over into Downtown and South Philly neigborhoods all the time, probably due to how close a lot of the Northern Philly neighborhoods are to Center City.
True. Philadelphia transitions from really nice to really not nice in a short distance.
The Center City boom is expanding outward in all directions (except East, Delaware River), but crime is definitely not as isolated when compared to say Chicago or New York. Main reasons are a shorter distance between good and bad areas, and less natural boundaries separating Center City from other parts of the city.
But, that is not to say Philadelphia is not a relatively safe city. I lived there for 6 years and never once had any issue with crime or feeling uncomfortable walking the streets. Everyone has different experiences, but being worried about crime in Philadelphia should be no different than any other major city.
True. Philadelphia transitions from really nice to really not nice in a short distance.
The Center City boom is expanding outward in all directions (except East, Delaware River), but crime is definitely not as isolated when compared to say Chicago or New York. Main reasons are a shorter distance between good and bad areas, and less natural boundaries separating Center City from other parts of the city.
But, that is not to say Philadelphia is not a relatively safe city. I lived there for 6 years and never once had any issue with crime or feeling uncomfortable walking the streets. Everyone has different experiences, but being worried about crime in Philadelphia should be no different than any other major city.
I agree with your sentiment, and to add on with my take...
Rittenhouse Square, NoLibs, Spring Garden and Society Hill are safe areas near or in Center City along with a few other neighborhoods. Philly residences tend to exaggerate and dramatize the overall crime leading to a negative representation of the city, with the old played-out notion that if you leave Center City, you'll get mugged.
Like any big city, crime is mostly avoidable if you're not into illegal activity. That's why I cringe whenever people bring up "Should I move to XYZ city, I heard it's dangerous. Crime here is localized into one neighborhood, or a block. The average person isn't looking to move or hangout on Front and Cambria, so the question of "Is Philadelphia safe" so there's no reason to have trepidations on moving to the city. It's common sense, stay out of bad areas, don't become involved with illegal activity, don't associate yourselves with criminals. Petty thefts and robbery happen anywhere and everywhere, like any city in the US.
I agree with your sentiment, and to add on with my take...
Rittenhouse Square, NoLibs, Spring Garden and Society Hill are safe areas near or in Center City along with a few other neighborhoods. Philly residences tend to exaggerate and dramatize the overall crime leading to a negative representation of the city, with the old played-out notion that if you leave Center City, you'll get mugged.
Like any big city, crime is mostly avoidable if you're not into illegal activity. That's why I cringe whenever people bring up "Should I move to XYZ city, I heard it's dangerous. Crime here is localized into one neighborhood, or a block. The average person isn't looking to move or hangout on Front and Cambria, so the question of "Is Philadelphia safe" so there's no reason to have trepidations on moving to the city. It's common sense, stay out of bad areas, don't become involved with illegal activity, don't associate yourselves with criminals. Petty thefts and robbery happen anywhere and everywhere, like any city in the US.
Exactly. And as you mentioned, there are plenty of other nice areas outside of Center City, and the dots between Center City and Northern Liberties and other areas are connecting one by one, which is what I meant earlier about the general Center City sphere expanding outward each year.
But yes, I roll my eyes over that question, if you have to ask if its safe to move to X city, then you probably shouldn't move to any city.
True. Philadelphia transitions from really nice to really not nice in a short distance.
The Center City boom is expanding outward in all directions (except East, Delaware River), but crime is definitely not as isolated when compared to say Chicago or New York. Main reasons are a shorter distance between good and bad areas, and less natural boundaries separating Center City from other parts of the city.
But, that is not to say Philadelphia is not a relatively safe city. I lived there for 6 years and never once had any issue with crime or feeling uncomfortable walking the streets. Everyone has different experiences, but being worried about crime in Philadelphia should be no different than any other major city.
But Chicago doesn't really have anymore natural boundaries than Philly. I think that what may make its bad parts more isolated is simply that they're a bit farther away from downtown, and some near south areas in the buffer zone (back of the yards is becoming safer) aren't being moved onto by many well to do people yet.
What's also notable is that Baltimore's bad neighborhoods being not really isolated at all doesn't make the city any more safe.
Last edited by KoNgFooCj; 06-04-2020 at 09:23 PM..
New York City 144
Los Angeles 112
Chicago 241-------same time it was 224 in 2019
Houston 156
Philly 169
Dallas 75
Baltimore 135
Kansas City, MO 79
Nashville 49
Oklahoma City 38
Minneapolis 21
Detroit 101
New Orleans 64
Phoenix 52
Indianapolis 85
Memphis 89
DC 68
Atlanta 38
San Antonio 62
Las Vegas 29
Charlotte, NC 41
Milwaukee 71
Boston 20
San Francisco 20
Louisville, KY 53
Columbus, Ohio 46
Pittsburgh 16
Birmingham, AL 44
Pine Bluff, ARK 13
Little Rock, Arkansas 22
Montgomery, AL 26
Columbus, GA 17
Jacksonville, FL 71
Fresno, Cali 14
Richmond, VA 30
Sacramento, Cali 18
Newport News, VA 6
Fort Lauderdale, FL 8
Springfield, Mass 7
Aiken, SC 4
North Braddock, PA 1
Bakersfield, Cali 13
Saint Paul, Minnesota 14
Peoria, IL 6
Akron, Ohio 9
Wilkinsburg 5---Pittsburgh area
North Little Rock, AR 9
Chattanooga, TN 7
Kansas City, Kansas 16
Anderson, SC 5
Trenton, NJ 15
Des Moines, Iowa 12
Omaha, Neb 15
Aurora, CO 6
Billings, MT 3
Lima, Ohio 4
KALAMAZOO, Michigan 5
Gary, Indiana 22
Chicago making up for all its reductions from the covid. Like a week or two ago Chicago was 10 down from same time last year, now it's 20 ahead. Whatever happened in Chicago in the last 2 weeks was a catastrophic failure of the law enforcement arm of the city's government as well as the neighborhood watch and violence interruption programs. Hopefully it doesn't pull farther ahead from 2019. I'm losing hope for the city staying below 500 though.
I just came up with something on a whim. I didn't even really think on it much but I remember a few weeks back when I was picturing what cities would hit 100 this year.
Right Now my assumption is that any city that is at about 44 homicides right now will end the year with about 100. Now this isn't perfect, but you can take a city's current homicides and divide it by 44, then multiply by 100, and that may be close to what it will have at the end of the year.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
