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.
So? Those aren't cities, those are towns. The list only lists cities that people are somewhat more likely to visit.
And this list looks pretty accurate to me. Atlanta has always been one of the most dangerous cities... ditto for St. Louis/Baltimore/Birmingham.
What surprises me is that there's not a single west coast city on the list and that half of them are in the south. Only one's on the east coast I was expecting Newark to be on it.
They don't do generalized crime rankings. In fact, they specifically advise against it.
If you absolutely need a ranking, then you should break it down into categories. Wikipedia does this (using FBI data).
Atlanta ranks #15 in violent crime and #6 in property crime. It's not a low-crime city, but it's by no means exceptionally bad.
I don't know how the geniuses at US News twisted this into Atlanta being #2 in the nation. Their methodology is not provided.
"Crime risk" is also misleading. Places that have really high numbers of visitors and working populations in proportion to the resident population tend to suffer--there is a far larger group of people who are suceptible to crime divided out over the same resident population. For and extreme example, the Vatican, which has a tiny resident population but massive visitor population, coupled with a pickpocketing problem that mainly targets these visitors, might well score worse using this index than Mogadishu.
Once again, I'd like to stress that the property crime situation in Atlanta is bad. I've known several people who have had things stolen, including myself. Thankfully, violent crime is less of a problem for us.
These lists are lame and misleading. I once saw a list that said Minneapolis was one of the most walkable cities in America because of walking paths around lakes. Yeah - that's what I'm going to do: walk around a lake everyday and starve to death because I can't walk to a grocery store.
On that city list there is a link to a list of cities with the best public transit. Portland is number one. Salt Lake City is number 2. Austin and Minneapolis are on the list as well.
Chicago, Washington DC, and Philadelphia didn't make the list at all. These are cities with serious rail systems for commuters and city dwellers. And I know at least Chicago and Philadelphia operate many routes 24 hours a day, as opposed to say, the Twin Cities that shuts down transit overnight. As someone who doesn't own a car, and relies solely on public transit and walking, the list is a joke.
I like looking at these lists to - but for entertainment purposes, not for actual information about which cities are the best and worst at anything. I don't know what the actual violent crime rates for any of these cities are - but I wouldn't take any of it too seriously is the point.
As much as I hated living in Saint Louis, it is still a pretty safe city. The problem lays in certain neighborhoods that no one of semi-reasonable thought capacity should ever venture into.
min-chi-bus, st. louis is by and large as safe as any major city. people know which neighborhoods to avoid. you can't compare an urban city of 61 square miles to a suburban city that covers several hundred square miles and expect the urban one to look safe on paper. the crime stats are offset by some very high crime neighborhoods that skew the figures for the entire city. st. louis is a safe city, and most crime is not random. 9 times out of 10, it's drug/gang/domestic violence that does not put the average visitor or resident of st. louis at an elevated risk. do you seriously take everything you read at face value? you must be pretty sheltered.
a "dangerous" city would be kabul or baghdad or juarez, not an american city. are there sh*tty neighborhoods in every american city? yes, of course. does that make the entire city dangerous? no, and shame on you if you actually believe that. you remind me of people who support sarah palin just because "she says so."
You take my statement out of context and spin it your own way. St. Louis City is a dangerous place RELATIVE to U.S. cities. I know you now live there and you think you've found nirvana, but I have lived there too and I'm not naiive. The statistics back this up.
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.
I was expecting Newark to be on it.
