Iowa City 2008 crime, 2009 (Waterloo, Dubuque, Ames: section 8, apartments, house)

[timeofseasons]

I could possibly be staying in Iowa City for college this fall and was concern when I notice for 2008 the crime was high and increased all across.
//www.city-data.com/city/Iowa-City-Iowa.html
I thought it was relativy high for a college town and its population, can anyone emphasize on this?
Also what was the crime like in 2009?
Thanks

It also would be nice if anyone could tell me what you know about Iowa City, and the University of Iowa.

[Joefan1]

Never been there, but crime is up because people are out of work and are unabled to feed their kids right now. I blame the illegal aliens destroying our country.

[timeofseasons]

I find it hard to believe that Iowa city had 0 murders in 2007, but 8 in 2008, wow it makes me imagine for 2009.

[SharpHawkeye]

The murder statistic you've cited is a bit misleading. Five of those eight murders occurred in a single act, as a local bank executive under investigation murdered his wife and four children before committing suicide.

The USA Today story is here.

Not counting that horrible crime, the number of murders in Iowa City in 2009 was 3, not out of the ordinary for a city that size. I guess 2007 just must have been a really easygoing year.

Overall, the crime in Iowa City looks to me to be below the U.S. average. I'm not sure what other college towns you're comparing it to.

[timeofseasons]

That makes sense ( horrible story), well I was not comparing but interesting reference to see other college towns:
//www.city-data.com/city/Ann-Arbor-Michigan.html
//www.city-data.com/city/Champaign-Illinois.html and //www.city-data.com/city/Urbana-Illinois.html

[iowegian]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Yes, you have to be aware of your surroundings, but I don't think anyone lives in fear in Iowa City. Not to mention that the worst part of town is far from campus. There are the occasional muggings and fights downtown, but they are pretty rare, and if you're paying attention (i.e. not wasted and wandering around at 2 AM, as Iowa students tend to be sometimes) to what is going on around you, you will be fine. I go to downtown Iowa City fairly often and have never even seen a crime, nor do I know anyone who has.

Despite the fact that Iowa City has seen increased crime in the past few years, it is still safer (as of 2008, according to your link) than comparably-sized (or even smaller) Iowa cities like Dubuque and Waterloo. It's even safer (by 2 points!) than Ames, which actually surprises me quite a bit.

Iowa City is really a great place. If you haven't visited, you should go and get a feel for it. I think you'll know whether it suits you once you see it.

[iowegian]

Originally Posted by timeofseasons

That makes sense ( horrible story), well I was not comparing but interesting reference to see other college towns:
//www.city-data.com/city/Ann-Arbor-Michigan.html
//www.city-data.com/city/Champaign-Illinois.html and //www.city-data.com/city/Urbana-Illinois.html

And Iowa City is definitely a lot safer than Champaign-Urbana. Wow.

[Chicago60614]

Iowa City basically had NO crime when I was growing up there in the 80's and 90's. It would go years without a single murder. I remember there was a double homicide there in the 90's and it was honestly big news for a few years. Even in the 2000's - Iowa City had ZERO homicides in 6 of the 7 years ending 2007.

Then in 2008 everything got randomly crazy. One of the homicides was a wasted college kid who went into an old mans house and started choking him when confronted. The kid remembered nothing. Then a bank exec killed 5 members of his family and himself in a bizarre crime in March. Another was a young man who was playing chess really drunk with a good friend, and they started arguing and the man put his friend in a headlock and accidentally killed him.

Last year I believe had 1 murder in Iowa City - which was a straight up homicide of a maintenance guy on the southeast side of town.

I think Iowa actually had over TWICE as many murders in 2008 compared to 2007. 2009 returned to normal levels.

There's been a LOT of talk lately about the crime picking up in Iowa City. It's certainly not an epidemic or widespread, but it's still something new for the city. The biggest issue is that a vast majority of the violent or major crimes being committed are being done by a lot of people from Chicago who are moving to the southeast side of town because of city services and cheap section 8 housing. It's started turning into a racial issue, because almost every single robbery or stabbing or reports of shots fired tend to be black people from the west or south side of Chicago. It's unfortunate because it's really giving "diversity" a bad name in town. It's not a general cross reference of black people moving to town. Most of them are coming from Chicago because the projects were town down, and then their friends are following. It's an extremely troubled group of people (certainly not all though!), and unfortunately a few of them are just picking up right where they left off on the streets of Chicago. Robbing cabbies, stabing friends/significant others over stupid arguements.

90% of the city is still perfectly fine, it's just this new situation that's popped up on the edge of the city where it's almost turning a little ghetto.

It will be interesting to see how it's handled - especially when it starts affecting the local schools more than it has.

[timeofseasons]

That was very informative thanks.
Yeah I was just looking at cities like Ann Arbor, much larger city and metro and the city tends to have 0 murders. I'm sure Iowa City is safe thn most places, just a little surprisng not only for the city itself but this is a city where its largely made up of college students in which murder cases are usually rare.

[hawkeye2009]

Originally Posted by timeofseasons

I could possibly be staying in Iowa City for college this fall and was concern when I notice for 2008 the crime was high and increased all across.
//www.city-data.com/city/Iowa-City-Iowa.html
I thought it was relativy high for a college town and its population, can anyone emphasize on this?
Also what was the crime like in 2009?
Thanks

It also would be nice if anyone could tell me what you know about Iowa City, and the University of Iowa.

Criminal elements from Chicago have moved in to Iowa City to reap the benefits of a liberal town. They perpetuate most of the crime in Iowa City. They live mostly at Lakeside Apartments and on the south side of town near K-mart. The new criminals also prey upon college students walking home from the bars at night. I have a friend who grew up in IC as well who is 6'5'' and 350 lbs who says that IC makes him a little nervous as well now. It is not a racial issue- he is black. The cops need to get a little tough on these types to clean up the town. This, however, will never happen in an enclave of liberalism. Having grown up in Iowa City and attended the U for all my education, I will not let my kids go to school there until things are cleaned up.