What is attracting California and west coast folks to Northwest Arkansas? (Little Rock: sale, to buy)

[sav858]

It just amazes me how people from certain states complain about Ca having high crime when their own states have HIGHER CRIME RATES!

So many leave for NV and AZ to get away from crime or come to AR when all of those states are more dangerous than CA. CA isn't the safest state of course but according to stats it's safer than NV, AZ, and your beloved AR.

Most Dangerous States 2008 - AOL Money & Finance

Little Rock has a higher murder rate than Los Angeles!

//www.city-data.com/forum/gener...y-murders.html

I think people leaving CA b/c of high crime really need to do some better research before they leave.

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by sav858

It just amazes me how people from certain states complain about Ca having high crime when their own states have HIGHER CRIME RATES!

So many leave for NV and AZ to get away from crime or come to AR when all of those states are more dangerous than CA. CA isn't the safest state of course but according to stats it's safer than NV, AZ, and your beloved AR.

Most Dangerous States 2008 - AOL Money & Finance

Little Rock has a higher murder rate than Los Angeles!

//www.city-data.com/forum/gener...y-murders.html

I think people leaving CA b/c of high crime really need to do some better research before they leave.

You do realize that this report ranks states on a per capita basis and as such you get a very distinct bias against states containing one or two cities with a high crime rate but a pretty large rural population, right? Very simple statistics and easily manipulated.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

You do realize that this report ranks states on a per capita basis and as such you get a very distinct bias against states containing one or two cities with a high crime rate but a pretty large rural population, right? Very simple statistics and easily manipulated.

Per capita takes population into account and doesn't skew stats in favor of large or small states.

The Little Rock metro area accounts for around 30% of AR's population. The LA metro area account for about 40% of CA's population. Throw in San Diego and the SF Bay Area and all three account for about 70% of CA's population. So Little Rock is not throwing off the stats anymore than LA, SF, or SD. Nice try to spin it though, stats are stats just b/c you don't like what they say doesn't make them wrong.

[Clay Lady]

Little Rock is not in Northwest Arkansas. LA, SF, and SD are very large cities compared to LR and certainly any city in NW Arkansas. The life style is so different I don't see how you can compare them. Comparing Little Rock and NW Arkansas is like comparing Santa Barbara and LA.

I love Santa Barbara and NW Arkansas. I find both places safe places to live.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Clay Lady

Little Rock is not in Northwest Arkansas. LA, SF, and SD are very large cities compared to LR and certainly any city in NW Arkansas. The life style is so different I don't see how you can compare them. Comparing Little Rock and NW Arkansas is like comparing Santa Barbara and LA.

I love Santa Barbara and NW Arkansas. I find both places safe places to live.

I was comparing crime rates of each state, not lifestyles.

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by sav858

Per capita takes population into account and doesn't skew stats in favor of large or small states.

The Little Rock metro area accounts for around 30% of AR's population. The LA metro area account for about 40% of CA's population. Throw in San Diego and the SF Bay Area and all three account for about 70% of CA's population. So Little Rock is not throwing off the stats anymore than LA, SF, or SD. Nice try to spin it though, stats are stats just b/c you don't like what they say doesn't make them wrong.

No SPIN here. Simple facts of statistical data analysis. This analysis is overly simplistic. Never said it was WRONG. In fact, you support my assertion. By your stats, only 30% of Californians live rurally while 60-70% of Arkansans live outside a major city and yet the vast majority of Arkansas' violent crime takes place in only 2 cities: Little Rock and Pine Bluff. When that crime is applied to the state as a whole it produces a significant bias. The vast majority of Arkansas is extremely safe. I'm not saying anything at all about how "safe" Little Rock is compared to LA statistically or otherwise. If you REALLY want to know how "safe" or "unsafe" a state may be on the whole, I would suggest taking the per captia crime rates for each individual county and then determining the standard deviation. If the standard deviation is very high, then the entire state as a whole could not be deemed dangerous. If the standard deviation is low and the per capita rate is high then obviously, crime rates are fairly uniform across the entire state. In Arkansas, you have about 4 or 5 counties with high per capita rates and the rest quite small comparatively. The average per capita rate may appear high but when you calculate the standard deviation, the fact there is a wide disparity will become apparent. If the standard deviation is low and the per capita rate is low, then you have an obviously safe state overall.

I am always truly amazed at how clueless American society can be to such simple aspects of data analysis as the impact of disperse population sets and outliers on average value.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by sav858

I was comparing crime rates, not lifestyles.

as has been said, little Rock isn't NWAr or Ft Smith or many of the other places. I was born and raised in Calif, never thought I would see the day I would not want to live there. I went to San Diego State Universiy. Our kids also grew up there and all thought they would live there for the rest of their lives.Now, none of us would move back. Of course the crime rate is high as well as cost of living, traffic, smog (oh I know you don't have smog, it is just heavy fog) illegals, do I need to continue?

This isn't saying Calif is all bad. I don't think anyone would claim that. The climate, most of the year is great, the state is diverse, the beauty is certainly there (here as well I would add) Every state has pros and cons, but the problems in Calif, especially SO Calif are worse than many other places.

For those who love living where everything is within 5 miles of their home, those who buy the liberal way of life, who like a fast pace, places like AR, NM, Ok and other, smaller states wouldn't be happy, but for those who want to slow down and enjoy life it is a wonderful experience. I think, as well as cost of living people are leaving for a cleaner, happier and slower life style.

Nita

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

No SPIN here. Simple facts of statistical data analysis. This analysis is overly simplistic. Never said it was WRONG. In fact, you support my assertion. By your stats, only 30% of Californians live rurally while 60-70% of Arkansans live outside a major city and yet the vast majority of Arkansas' violent crime takes place in only 2 cities: Little Rock and Pine Bluff. When that crime is applied to the state as a whole it produces a significant bias. The vast majority of Arkansas is extremely safe. I'm not saying anything at all about how "safe" Little Rock is compared to LA statistically or otherwise. If you REALLY want to know how "safe" or "unsafe" a state may be on the whole, I would suggest taking the per captia crime rates for each individual county and then determining the standard deviation. If the standard deviation is very high, then the entire state as a whole could not be deemed dangerous. If the standard deviation is low and the per capita rate is high then obviously, crime rates are fairly uniform across the entire state. In Arkansas, you have about 4 or 5 counties with high per capita rates and the rest quite small comparatively. The average per capita rate may appear high but when you calculate the standard deviation, the fact there is a wide disparity will become apparent. If the standard deviation is low and the per capita rate is low, then you have an obviously safe state overall.

I am always truly amazed at how clueless American society can be to such simple aspects of data analysis as the impact of disperse population sets and outliers on average value.

30% of CA's population is not rural, I just said 70% live in those three metro areas and there are many more smaller metro area's in the state like Sacramento (2 mill), Fresno (1 million), Bakersfield (600k) and some other smaller metros. CA is something around 95% urban population. The vast majority of Californians live in safe areas too and just b/c a place is rural doesn't make it safer at all. Some rural areas can have fairly high crime rates. If you want to do your own analysis go ahead but I'm going to go with an institution that actually did a study over someone that didn't.

[uncut]

NWA = *****z With Attitude.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by nmnita

as has been said, little Rock isn't NWAr or Ft Smith or many of the other places. I was born and raised in Calif, never thought I would see the day I would not want to live there. I went to San Diego State Universiy. Our kids also grew up there and all thought they would live there for the rest of their lives.Now, none of us would move back. Of course the crime rate is high as well as cost of living, traffic, smog (oh I know you don't have smog, it is just heavy fog) illegals, do I need to continue?

This isn't saying Calif is all bad. I don't think anyone would claim that. The climate, most of the year is great, the state is diverse, the beauty is certainly there (here as well I would add) Every state has pros and cons, but the problems in Calif, especially SO Calif are worse than many other places.

For those who love living where everything is within 5 miles of their home, those who buy the liberal way of life, who like a fast pace, places like AR, NM, Ok and other, smaller states wouldn't be happy, but for those who want to slow down and enjoy life it is a wonderful experience. I think, as well as cost of living people are leaving for a cleaner, happier and slower life style.

Nita

I never said LR was NW Ar, I was just comparing it to LA since they are each their states largest cities.

High crime rates in San Diego? SD is one of America's safest large cities.
And I already understand why people move from CA to AR and I wasn't even talking about that, don't read so much into it. I was just mentioning crime stats that show AR isn't any safer than CA.