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.
I agree. I grew up in the highest crime neighborhood in San Francisco in Lakeview during the late 80's and early 90's. It was very rough back then. We didn't go outside much in our own neighborhood back in the day because there was so much violence outside of our doors. We moved to the Baltimore area in the 90's and were shocked at how much worse crime was out here. Our neighborhood in SF even during the crack epidemic was like the Candyland boardgame compared to the toughest hoods in Baltimore City at any time during the 90's. My parents refused to buy property in Baltimore City. Unlike many world class American cities like New York and San Francisco, high crime rates in Baltimore have never leveled out or subsided.
If anything, Baltimore is one of the ugliest examples of what White Flight and ghettoization can do to a major American city. Because of this, Baltimore has always been a poor city without viable commercial resources. Instead, Baltimore has a thriving local underground economy based in trafficking hard drugs, most notably potent South American Heroin that is not available in other major cities.
Last edited by goldenchild08; 09-26-2010 at 06:21 PM..
L.A. has MORE gangs but some of the gangs are very small and not that dangerous, the worst 10% of the gangs commit 80% of the gang related crimes. I don't think you'd find a gang of 15 people in Chicago like you do in L.A., the Chicago gangs are all really massive.
Not all Chicago based gangs are big in numbers. There are some I wouldn't never even heard of if it wasn't for the chicago gang website. The smallest gang I heard about in Chicago was the Arabian Posse, which has as few as a dozen members in Bridgeview(a suburb) and 100 regional. Other small localize gangs in Chicago are the Almighty Saints, La Razas, Bishops, Black Souls, Ashland Vikings, Spanish Vice Lords to name a few. A vast majority of the small gangs(fewer than a 1,000 members) in Chicago are latino or mixed while the black gangs are large with the exception of the Black Souls.
Last edited by Chicagoland60426; 09-26-2010 at 08:35 PM..
NYC pre-guliani was a hellish place, borderline 3rd world in some parts. Don't get me wrong, there were still nice wealthy areas, but NYC for the most part was a very different kind of place back then.
And throw everything else into the mix down there from San Bernadino to Compton and you had a pretty bad mess. I'm glad its improved as much as it has. Oakland's come a long way too, regardless of where it ranks now. It was way worse in the 90's.
Some of the northern Orange County cities also had terrible gang problems in the 90's. The city I grew up in was on a list of the worst gang cities in the nation according to one of my high school teachers. It's population was only about 150,000 and is considered one of the better cities of the surrounding four or five cities. Most of the cities are much safer now then they were then, though.
I agree. I grew up in the highest crime neighborhood in San Francisco in Lakeview during the late 80's and early 90's. It was very rough back then. We didn't go outside much in our own neighborhood back in the day because there was so much violence outside of our doors. We moved to the Baltimore area in the 90's and were shocked at how much worse crime was out here. Our neighborhood in SF even during the crack epidemic was like the Candyland boardgame compared to the toughest hoods in Baltimore City at any time during the 90's. My parents refused to buy property in Baltimore City. Unlike many world class American cities like New York and San Francisco, high crime rates in Baltimore have never leveled out or subsided.
If anything, Baltimore is one of the ugliest examples of what White Flight and ghettoization can do to a major American city. Because of this, Baltimore has always been a poor city without viable commercial resources. Instead, Baltimore has a thriving local underground economy based in trafficking hard drugs, most notably potent South American Heroin that is not available in other major cities.
Baltimore has been getting its act together. Some of the worst neighborhoods in the city are gentrifying; I realized that when i started seeing white people at mondawmin lol.. i was like
Newark was the most dangerous city in the nation in 1996.
It was the auto theft capital of the nation (it might still be, IDK), and violent crime rates were serious. It was a hell hole, they did a lot of cleaning up ever since, but I'd like to see it clean up even more- specifically the western half of the city.
The thread title screams New York City, saw my first body there in South[side] Jamaica Queens.
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.
