Any cities that ignore major problems? (sales, real estate, condos)

[MattDen]

I am just wondering are there any cities that ignore major problems or people are condemned for bringing up the fact the cities for some pretty large issues going on.

For example, Minneapolis and Cincinnatti great cities, great attributes but they ignore those extremely high violent crime rates which are several times the national average. And its not just opinion, its fact.

It seems like some very high violent crime rate cities like Minneapolis, Cleveland and St. Louis which have their high violent crime overwhelmingly in certain sections and are relatively affluent metropolitan areas were seriously they would put in thousands of security cameras, have metropolitan sales tax for metropolitan police because despite Cleveland, St. Louis and Minneapolis having decent metropolitan area crime rates the cities themselves have extremely, extremely high violent crime rates. Minneapolis was around 1700 per 100,000 violent crime rate last year (triple the national average) and Cleveland if their trends continue could end up with around 30 homicides per 100,000 people which is about 7 times the national average and would far surpass any other Ohio city even Cincinnati.

Here in Lincoln, Nebraska its this real estate valuation crisis where assessed values for so much of the city are so low that property tax rates have to be so high (double the national average, four times that of much of Colorado) and yet they have a very difficult time with the most basic of services keeping things mowed and still have huge, huge structural budget deficits.

I was wondering have any other states been rather light on the real estate property tax crisis forcing people out of their homes in many high property tax states (Wisconsin, New Jersey, New York)?

All and all, its suprising how politicians like to ignore issues, the people who have alot of pride in their towns like to ignore them also and civic boosters have an oh well its like that everywhere mentality.

I was wondering is this ignoring major problems widespread?

[Minnehahapolitan]

You are kidding me, right MattDen? The Mpls. forum tore you a new one on this.

[akronbball]

Related to the crime rates, I think it can be a little skewed if it is based on the central city (not metro area) and on per capita rates. Central cities that are smaller in area will generally be more more susceptible to higher crime rates, since they contain the larger concentration of crime in the metro area, but are relatively small in area & population, so the per capita rates are higher.

The cities below have roughly the same metro populations from around 2.5-3.5 million. The size of their central cities changes drastically as seen below. Not trying to say cities like St. Louis and Cleveland don't have higher crime rates, but I find stats unreliable when cities like Minneapolis are considered high crime.

Minneapolis 55 sq/mi
St. Louis 62 sq/mi
Cleveland 78 sq/mi
Seattle 84 sq/mi
Denver 153 sq/mi
San Diego 324 sq/mi

[MattDen]

Seattle has a small land area, Manhattan has a small land area and they dont use it as an excuse. Cleveland, Minneapolis and St. Louis shouldnt use the small land area as an excuse either, because thats all it is. The low-key politicians who overwhelmingly dominate midwestern cities just sit and laugh their extreme social issues off.

And Minneapolis in 2006 had 6,483 violent crime episodes for 372,000 people thats a violent crime rate of 1,738.85 and the national average is around 500 per 100,000. So Minneapolis is at least three times the national average on violent crime rates. Perception is often different from reality and reality shows in the statistics that Minneapolis one of the most violent cities in America.


I have been in Minneapolis many times they have some great neighborhoods, its dense for a midwestern city and well-planned. Its just got a very high violent crime rate it ignores. Its not the people who are from Minneapolis fault overall 95% of which who are encountered there are great, its the lazy mayor and police chief who run the city and worry about things like light-rail tickets for elderly old ladies over the extreme problems the northside of that city has.

This whole region the (midwest) has a severe apathy problem except Chicago and Madison (which seems to be the perfect city) they just sit there and laugh every thing off as a joke. Its like Michigan and Ohio slow to respond to economic problems and look at where they are now economically.

I guess the only other cities besides Chicago and Madison that dont have very low apathy, are Columbus and maybe Louisville here in the midwest. Eastern and Western cities dont seem to have apathy problems and take problems seriously unlike a vast majority of midwestern cities (hence lower violent crime, fewer social problems, less infrastructure backlogs)

Huge budget deficits, no problem in Nebraska just tax the seniors out of their homes (I am sure Missouri would love to have them with their low property tax rates and prestine lakes) and let the infrastructure like they have here in Lincoln rot. Its just incredible being in a city now that has a property tax rate double the national average, four time the rate of Colorado, ten times the rate of parts of Alabama that when I run in the evening because they have taxed so much industry and potential industry away that they cant clean the streets (except near their university) and and they have collapsed sidewalks and yet still huge deficits well into the future!

Tremendous violent crime rates in Minneapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City and they are high by national standards compare them to New York and Los Angeles for example. But yet, they dont worry about the apathy is just incredible and they dont even care about image for the tourists either in alot of these midwestern cities.

[compelled to reply]

MIAMI,FLORIDA!!!! The corrupt city commission just sits around, pretends its a world class city, allows more high rise condos to move in to some of the most dangerous neighborhoods, and disregards that is has what is probably the lowest quality of life, worst employment opprutinitues, and the most stunning examples of inequality of any "First world" city. Actually, it is more like a third world city, as is most of Miami-Dade county. The residents wear rose colored glasses, pretending that thier kids are not in gangs, the city commission will lower taxes, the security bars on their neighbors windows are normal, and the language barrier is not a big deal. In fact, they vote for politicians based on race, not qualifications.

[akronbball]

Here is a list of the 25 most dangerous cities as reported by MSNBC last oct.
St. Louis tops dangerous U.S. cities - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com

6 of the top 10 are in the midwest, but about half of the 25 are in the south and west.

1. St. Louis
2. Detroit
3. Flint, Mich.
4. Compton, Calif.
5. Camden, N.J.
6. Birmingham, Ala.
7. Cleveland
8. Oakland, Calif.
9. Youngstown, Ohio
10. Gary, Ind.
11. Richmond, Calif.
12. Baltimore
13. Memphis, Tenn.
14. Trenton, N.J.
15. Richmond, Va.
16. Kansas City, Mo.
17. Atlanta
18. Cincinnati
19. Washington
20. North Charleston, S.C.
21. Reading, Pa.
22. Newark, N.J.
23. Little Rock, Ark.
24. San Bernardino, Calif.
25. Orlando, Fla.

I don’t necessarily think it’s always an apathy problem. It’s not always an easy and quick fix for the inner cities to solve these issues, especially in cities where people and jobs are fleeing and they have less tax base to deal with these problems. I do think something does need to be done. Violent crime seems to be a much larger issue in the US than many other developed countries. I was in Singapore last month and they seemed to have zero crime, maybe if we were as strict as them crime would go down?

[TheHarvester]

Originally Posted by Minnehahapolitan

You are kidding me, right MattDen? The Mpls. forum tore you a new one on this.

That was hilarious --- MattDen claims Minneapolis has high violent crime, you respond with "The Mpls. forum tore you a new one..."

Oh well, maybe it's just my warped sense of humor.

I must admit I was surprised that anyone would claim Mpls had high violent crime. I guess most of that violence takes place in web forums where the residents tear people a new one.

OK, now that I've beaten that dumb joke into the ground, I want to add an interesting study which I cannot, unfortunately, cite due to the fact that I read it about 15 years ago. The study concluded that the number one factor contributing to violent crime was income disparity. Holding all variables constant across cities, one at a time, and seeing which one accounted for the most crime, it was the gap between rich and poor.

This seems obvious to me. In a world where people's needs are met, there is less need for crime, less of the desperation that leads to extreme drug addiction, less gang activity, etc.

I'm not in favor of Socialist methods, but I'm definitely in favor of their objectives. Egalitarian economies are marked by less crime, as long as the people have freedom. That's the trick with Socialism, it's a great set of objectives with a tendency towards authoritarian centralized governance. In those places where socialist ideals are achieved via the most democratic libertarian means, the best results are achieved. But that's a huge topic for another thread, perhaps...

[TheHarvester]

Forgot to respond to the original thread title: problems that are ignored.

Austin is known for being very progressive relative to Texas and surrounding states. But it's racially segregated and that seems to be getting worse. I mean, it's severe.

The only integration I see in Austin is when white people move into minority neighborhoods that are becoming trendy and gentrified. I don't know the causes for this problem, I certainly don't know the solution, all I know is that it's much worse than people pretend it is.

One more city with an under-stated problem: San Francisco. It's the city where you can be anything you want, it's the city of tolerance for diversity --- or not. "Diversity" in SF is defined as "you can look however you want, as long as you're politically correct and leftist." It's rare to find a place where there is tolerance for diversity of IDEAS. That's at the core of our nation's foundation, the notion that this is a place where people can worship, vote, live, think, and speak as they please. Unfortunately the Left and Right and many in the middle are all rather intolerant of those who say anything that doesn't conform to their concept of right and wrong.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by akronbball

Here is a list of the 25 most dangerous cities as reported by MSNBC last oct.
St. Louis tops dangerous U.S. cities - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com

6 of the top 10 are in the midwest, but about half of the 25 are in the south and west.

1. St. Louis
2. Detroit
3. Flint, Mich.
4. Compton, Calif.
5. Camden, N.J.
6. Birmingham, Ala.
7. Cleveland
8. Oakland, Calif.
9. Youngstown, Ohio
10. Gary, Ind.
11. Richmond, Calif.
12. Baltimore
13. Memphis, Tenn.
14. Trenton, N.J.
15. Richmond, Va.
16. Kansas City, Mo.
17. Atlanta
18. Cincinnati
19. Washington
20. North Charleston, S.C.
21. Reading, Pa.
22. Newark, N.J.
23. Little Rock, Ark.
24. San Bernardino, Calif.
25. Orlando, Fla.

I don’t necessarily think it’s always an apathy problem. It’s not always an easy and quick fix for the inner cities to solve these issues, especially in cities where people and jobs are fleeing and they have less tax base to deal with these problems. I do think something does need to be done. Violent crime seems to be a much larger issue in the US than many other developed countries. I was in Singapore last month and they seemed to have zero crime, maybe if we were as strict as them crime would go down?

Note the absence of NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston. Houston, Dallas, Phoenix.

[M TYPE X]

There's a difference between "ignoring" a problem and "being overwhelmed" by it, due to poor policy previously set into motion.