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As others have stated DC like Chicago is a tale of two cities and is one of the safest areas or dangerous depending on where you draw the line or cherry pick. Yes NW DC with Northern Virginia and western Montgomery county MD is the safest in the nation just like Northside Chicago with about 90 homicides with 2.2 million people which is less than average for the nation around 4.
Then of course the eastern portion is where the most things happen. In 2020 SE DC saw 90, NE had 55 total 145 in an area of about 250k. Thats similar to Baltimore and if you include SE/ NE DC + inner beltway PG county which had 88 theres about 233 in a continous area of around 600k people.
Of course outer beltway PG county only saw 11 with an area of 550k majority african american, which is extremely below the national average and similar to Montgomery county and Fairfax, VA. So PG county is also a tale of two counties where inside the beltway can have 88 murders with a population around 350k, or 11 with 450K and is why its characterized as inside or outside the beltway.
There is no logic in comparing that to Baltimore's worst hoods. They are incomparable
Those areas you posted are no where near DC's badlands lol there are much worse looking parts in SE than that. DC still has alot of housing projects but you wont find them driving down the main roads they are tuck away down one way streets that you would probably never see unless you're from there.
And no DC doesn't have the blight that baltimore has, but that is all about cosmetics, crime wise there are hoods that are comparable.
DC is similar to Chicago as in where there hood parts dont look that bad compared to other cities.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade
I would never bring suburbs into a conversation surrounding inner-city homicide myself. Its a totally different dynamic, socioeconomics, and criminal culture. It does this conversation no justice whatsoever. But this is what suburbanites do-include themselves and their towns in conversation regarding cities no matter what the topic is.
Not blaming you as I don't know you to typically do that- but it's annoying we have to address far-flung exurban locales on literally every topic dealing with CITIES. that has Warren County VA has nothing to do with homicide in DC nor does Dover, NH have anything whatsoever to do with Dorchester, MA. No one cares. We all know where the crime is and isn't so lets just talk about where it is and keep it simple. None of us can compare entire MSAs but we can compare neighborhoods.
Those areas you posted are no where near DC's badlands lol there are much worse looking parts in SE than that. DC still has alot of housing projects but you wont find them driving down the main roads they are tuck away down one way streets that you would probably never see unless you're from there.
And no DC doesn't have the blight that baltimore has, but that is all about cosmetics, crime wise there are hoods that are comparable.
DC is similar to Chicago as in where there hood parts dont look that bad compared to other cities.
They're very much near the badlands if not in them. But there are worse looking parts of SEDC for sure, there just arent many of them. Theyre few and far between.
The crime is the same which the whole point of this is. Why is crime so high in DC if it's the wealthiest black population in the world??? Even in the worst area the QOL and hoods are fairly high quality and chock full of black history and leadership and transit. Makes no sense whatsoever the level of social and economic destitution isnt on par with Bmore or areas in the midwest.
Chicago has some very bad-looking and abandoned areas though, DC really doesn't. And Chicago's economics are way worse and the black population is dwindling. DC's isnt.
On paper and on the eye test, DC should be Boston/San Fran crime levels- not Chicago/Philly ones.
They're very much near the badlands if not in them. But there are worse looking parts of SEDC for sure, there just arent many of them. Theyre few and far between.
The crime is the same which the whole point of this is. Why is crime so high in DC if it's the wealthiest black population in the world??? Even in the worst area the QOL and hoods are fairly high quality and chock full of black history and leadership and transit. Makes no sense whatsoever the level of social and economic destitution isnt on par with Bmore or areas in the midwest.
Chicago has some very bad-looking and abandoned areas though, DC really doesn't. And Chicago's economics are way worse and the black population is dwindling. DC's isnt.
On paper and on the eye test, DC should be Boston/San Fran crime levels- not Chicago/Philly ones.
You have to know the history of the DC it cant be fixed in one decade. DC was worse in the 70's than it is today and certainly in the 80's 90'and 2000's and if you read another post was always up there going back to the 40's and 50s. Remember DC had some police districts with 80k with 140 murders in the 90's and also had 88, and 94 murders in total during some of the Obama years (but there's no way I can correlate his presidency to the lower rates during his tenure even though he had nothing to do with DC directly) DC certaintly isnt going to be the same as Boston or San fran bc its not build like those cities and the mentality is totally different with different neighborhoods, schools in despair, broken homes and an almost evil element to the streets is a recipe for disaster. Most folks are just now getting to know the recent gentrified renaissance version.
Last edited by boreatwork; 04-27-2021 at 02:43 PM..
You have to know the history of the DC it cant be fixed in one decade. DC was worse in the 70's than it is today and certainly in the 80's 90'and 2000's and if you read another post was always up there going back to the 40's and 50s. Remember DC had some police districts with 80k with 140 murders in the 90's and also had 88, and 94 murders in total during some of the Obama years (but there's no way I can correlate his presidency to the lower rates during his tenure even though he had nothing to do with DC directly) DC certaintly isnt going to be the same as Boston or San fran bc its not build like those cities and the mentality is totally different with different neighborhoods, schools in despair, broken homes and an almost evil element to the streets is a recipe for disaster. Most folks are just now getting to know the recent gentrified renaissance version.
The first part of your post is something I totally agree with and said earlier. The last and bolded part of your post is just conjecture and I dont think it's true or any worse in DC than Boston or San Fran.
Most of the DCPS schools are noticeably newer and more well maintained, physically than BPS, by far and away.
I don't know why you think homes are more in despair or more broken than in cities with higher poverty/rents/lower education levels/more immigrants and less of a black middle class. That doesn't add up. Unless you're talking about residual trauma from homicide fueling more homicides. But I dont see how that equates to a "totally different mentality" than other gang plagued areas. It's just a more pervasive mentality.
But as you said there was a time not too long ago when DC was at 88 homicides(2012) and Boston was at 73(2010). So fundamentally I dont know that they're soo different especially given every possible non-crime-related metric in Boston is worse. Do DC's bad neighborhoods have a "totally different mentality" than NYC's?
The first part of your post is something I totally agree with and said earlier. The last and bolded part of your post is just conjecture and I dont think it's true or any worse in DC than Boston or San Fran.
Most of the DCPS schools are noticeably newer and more well maintained, physically than BPS, by far and away.
I don't know why you think homes are more in despair or more broken than in cities with higher poverty/rents/lower education levels/more immigrants and less of a black middle class. That doesn't add up. Unless you're talking about residual trauma from homicide fueling more homicides. But I dont see how that equates to a "totally different mentality" than other gang plagued areas. It's just a more pervasive mentality.
But as you said there was a time not too long ago when DC was at 88 homicides(2012) and Boston was at 73(2010). So fundamentally I dont know that they're soo different especially given every possible non-crime-related metric in Boston is worse. Do DC's bad neighborhoods have a "totally different mentality" than NYC's?
I would say so most "cats" that came from NY to DC to do street activity in the 90's would describe the different mentality of the game and streets in DC vs NY. DC's mentality is definitely different as most cities allow gangs to infiltrate and influence and follow other citiy's gangs where that concept is beyond DC. The neighbor pride is heavily entrenched in the culture and wont change anytime soon. The act of following a national gang from another city is blasphemous and silly. The hood is the hood regardless of where you are but theres no borrough that has a higher rate than DC individually then nor now unless you have that year it was. The same especially goes for Boston and San Fran worst areas.
Yea its really not all that poor or blighted even where people dont go. It's better than Boston that respect. SO that doesn't account for it. It objectively has less poverty or whatever than corresponding areas in NYc or Boston. I debunked that whole premise earlier. You can break it down by zip code and see that true.
Ask for a comparison and I will show you.
I'm not comparing DC to other cities in that post, I'm mostly referencing that the outcomes of the average person in DC differ widely when you at location/race etc. Someone in 20032 has much different outcomes than someone in 20016. The demographics/median income/poverty rates/educational attainment are completely different although they are in the same city. Like other cities, DC has areas of concentrated poverty. Unlike other cities, DC has almost an exclusively wealthy white population. For those reasons, and others, I say DC is essentially two cities.
I'm not comparing DC to other cities in that post, I'm mostly referencing that the outcomes of the average person in DC differ widely when you at location/race etc. Someone in 20032 has much different outcomes than someone in 20016. The demographics/median income/poverty rates/educational attainment are completely different although they are in the same city. Like other cities, DC has areas of concentrated poverty. Unlike other cities, DC has almost an exclusively wealthy white population. For those reasons, and others, I say DC is essentially two cities.
I will soon share evidence to the contrary. DC's white population isn't head and shoulders above comparable cuyued like Seattle SF and Boston. Also, how do you think life outcomes work by zip code in other cities like NYC or Boston ? That it's more equal than DC?? I can say with a high degree if cingudence NUC BOS and SF are a tale two cities. Same with Chicagi and maybe LA (multiple cities)
I'm not comparing DC to other cities in that post, I'm mostly referencing that the outcomes of the average person in DC differ widely when you at location/race etc. Someone in 20032 has much different outcomes than someone in 20016. The demographics/median income/poverty rates/educational attainment are completely different although they are in the same city. Like other cities, DC has areas of concentrated poverty. Unlike other cities, DC has almost an exclusively wealthy white population. For those reasons, and others, I say DC is essentially two cities.
Boston:121k per household
Seattle 112k per household
New York 101k per household
Black incomes:
NYC: 51k per household
Boston: 49.4k per household
SF: 49.3k per household
DC: 48.6k per household
Seattle: 43.5k per household
Latino incomes:
DC: 99.9k per household
Seattle: 78.6k per household
SF: 78.2k per household
NYC: 47.1k per household
Boston:43.4k per household
Asian incomes:
Seattle: 112kper household
SF:104k per household
DC: 103k per household
NYC 75.2k per household
Boston: 52.6k per household
It appears in DC there black Dc- then everyone else is rich. In Boston it appears theres white Boston and everyone else is broke. An argument could be ade that the black white income gap is 2nd largest in DC (SF has so few blacks it doesn't much count). Still the income is the same as Boston with a lower COL, and more opportunity throughout the metro, and in terms of governance/power/culture
I dont see evidence here that DC is so much worse than Boston SF Seattle in terms of black-white inequality. But you are right in this much only 5.0% of White DC residents is poor compared to 9.8% in Boston and 10.1% in NYC. 6.5% in SF and 7.2% in Seattle. None of these are particularly high. Even Baltimore only clocks in at 7.3% white poverty, same as Seattle. (Philly is big dawg in the northeast with 12.7% white poverty)
DC just has 2x as many black people as Boston, but about 3x as many homicides. That difference could be explained in culture and history, I buy that. I don't buy its such a stark divide compared to other places though, not at all
also as for areas of low opportunity, you can see a clear concentration in Boston. In fact, it ranked 6th lowest for African American childhood opportunities of all major US metros. It has the lowest rate of childhood opportunity for Hispanics (42% of our public school system, by far the largest group) of ANY major US metro. This graphic shows how majority-minority cities immediately north of Boston do a much better job with opportunity for Black/Latino children than Boston itself.
In fact this map shows DC as a metro. has much much higher levels of black childhood opportunity (47 -black 57-Hispanic) than Seattle Boston San Francisco or NYC. https://www.npr.org/2019/12/18/78888...-of-color-lags
In city proper you'll see similar shares of Black Children living in very low opportunity neighborhood in DC as in NYC Boston and LA (SF and Seattle are much different) https://www.diversitydatakids.org/ma...-71.093/11.27/
Ive never seen anything to indicate that DC (today) is inherently more hard knock than other cities Ive listed. And countless metrics corroborate that. Its just a different culture in regard to gun violence specifically.
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boredatwork
