safe areas of eugene/springfield (Portland, Dallas: real estate, credit card, home)

[Steve Pickering]

Actually I know a lot of South Eugene residents who have been burglarized, and "lots" is not an exaggeration.

[Mr Eugenified]

@likerofeugene: Here's the link I mentioned in an earlier post. To quote myself from another thread:

"There's a nice crime map on the Register Guard website. It shows crimes by the day, so you need to page through a couple weeks of results in order to see a clear trend. You can also left click on any little red dot and get a quick idea of the type of crime. For example, a "patrol check" red dot is obviously not anything as serious as a "theft" red dot. It takes some time to wade through the numbers, but it's worth it to know the true story. Eugene police call log (beta) | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon "

[Steve Pickering]

More crime in one area does not mean there is not crime in another. Also some area like South Eugene have so many crimes many are not reported.

[1208]

Originally Posted by Mr Eugenified

Hmmm...So, just about everyone you know in South Eugene has had their houses broken into...let's see...uhhh...the prime suspect might be...uhhh...nevermind.

Ha! Now I know why they never tell me when they are going on vacation anymore.

[Steve Pickering]

I am leaving on vacation.





Oh, did I mention my Brother lives in my attached apartment and he is a three tour ex marine?

[haggardhouseelf]

LOL You guys are funny...

I was thinking about this, though... and the 5 families we do know who live in the South Hills area (we don't know too many people in that area because we're not from here and we have always lived in the FSB area...) have all had break-ins. Two of them have super nice houses, like... really nice houses... the other three are just typical 60's style ranch homes that are nothing special. All of them had their garage doors closed and locked and all their windows closed and locked. One home had a dog door on their back patio door... the guy crawled through that! It wasn't very big, but neither was he... He had to break the lock on their gated metal fence, enter their backyard, and squeeze himself through their dog door... One of the super nice homes was broken into through a skylight in the roof.

Anyway - property crime is way high here, I totally agree. But I hear conflicting reports on violent crime. For a town this size, it seems it happens too often.

I don't have any kind of agenda... I love Eugene. I'd love to say nothing but good things about it. But I don't want to lie to people. People come to city-data asking questions and they don't want BS rose-colored answers. People should realize no place is 100% paradise. Bad stuff can happen anywhere and Eugene is no different. There's a lot of good that happens here, too, though!

[Steve Pickering]

It's the METH.

[1208]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

It's the METH.

Meth for the property crime

Violent crime...well Eugene only has 2 or so homicides a year, which puts it on a completely different level than most cities its size, especially in the East. Eugene doesn't have much in the way of gangs or serious ghettos. I have never once been a victim of violent crime in Eugene and have not known many people who were.

If the courts would administer serious sentences on repeat thieves they could probably curb the property crime problem fairly quickly. I think part of the problem is many people have too much of a liberal mindset and dislike punishment. Except that by failing to punish the criminals they are allowing good, normal people to suffer.

[Steve Pickering]

Catch and release is not even good for trout.

[haggardhouseelf]

A Eugene police detective told me that Eugene does have a gang problem, and until recently the city was trying to keep it swept under the rug. The Register Guard did some stories on the gangs here.

If you think about it, the gang issue should come as no surprise. We are right on I-5, a college town with customers wanting meth and pot (and other things) from suppliers... we are just a pit stop for the meth and pot suppliers that come up from Mexico via California on their way to PDX and Seattle... and on to BC.

We also have the train-riding homeless people gangs - the Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA). If you google them you can learn more about them and learn how to recognize their tattoos and the graffiti tags you'll see around town and especially of course on the train cars themselves.

All that being said, though... We have lived in Eugene for a total of about 8 years now (3 years the first time, and going on 5 years this time) and we have never had any real problems. There have been a few minor things which have happened on the bike trails, and there have been times when my mom radar went off and informed my gut not to do something because it didn't feel safe or right because of certain elements that were around at the time, and I do always find homeless people digging through our recycling and garbage (I mean this is like every other day... at two different residences... it's very consistent...) and I'm almost always having to deal with beggars coming up to me when I go to the grocery store... various stores... yesterday it was Albertsons on Coburg Rd and a couple of days ago it was the Winco in Eugene... I just tell them no with a "f-off" kind of look on my face and they leave me alone. But, we've never experienced any violent or property crime personally.