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I have heard that Monterrey is no longer a safe place to live. That people are always watching their backs and that they don't go out at nights like they used too. Their seems to be alot of crime happening. Do you recommend moving to Monterrey? Do you have any personal experiences?
Monterrey is a great metropolitan area. Lots of things to do. Culture, Night Life, Soccer teams, Football teams, great job market, its all there.
Why would Monterrey not be safe? It is very unsafe for drug dealers you can be sure of that. Other than that it is just like any other city. About watching your back and going out at night.... This applies to any city in the world, New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Shangai, Bangalore, Tokio, etc... you hae to watch your back, and you have to be careful at night. There is danger in the streets regardless of the city you live in. Just because the only thing you see in the news about Monterrey is bad, does not mean that is the only thing that is going on in the city.
I was speaking to a close friend in Monterrey today about this issue. Her family does not want her to go to the airport by herself to pick up family due to the crime. She routinely tells me that to be safe it is best not to wear a Rolex or drive a flashy car like a Porsche or Mercedes, because that will make me a target for criminals.
To suggest that this is normal in any city in the world is ludicrous. Any city has its crime and areas to avoid. But there are no other cities where kidnapping and express-kidnappings (until ATM card is maxed) occur in the world. Kidnapping has become a cottage industry that threatens locals and visitors alike. And the levels of corruption in the police and military is legendary.
For so long, Monterrey was a shining exception to the crime and corruption. But the dramatic expansion of drug cartels and the inherent crime that follows has impacted Monterrey significantly. The notion that you cannot enjoy life freely or travel everywhere safely is foreign to most visitors. To feel like you cannot drive into more remote areas or a single female cannot drive herself to the airport due to fear of the crime is sad indeed.
Unfortunately the political will and the dollars needed to fight the takeover of Mexican society by the criminal element is not present. I can only hope this will change over time
Monterrey for a long time was a safe, urban, cosmopolitan bastion of Mexican society. Monterrey was, in many peoples' eyes, what Mexico had the potential to be.
Unforuntately, the geographic proximity to the U.S. that aided in creating the booming industrial town of Monterrey has now become it's weakness, as drug lords have descended on the city with their violent minyons. Cartel leaders own multi-million dollar houses in the hills of San Pedro, and various public officials have been intimidated or threatened through various means of communication. As the local police get involved in either helping the cartels or combating them, police coverage in the city becomes scant and crime rates slowly (or quickly) inch up across town.
Is Monterrey at the levels of anarchy that Nuevo Laredo or Ciudad Juarez are at? No. But it won't take long. Monterrey is not safe to the wave of violence overtaking the whole country.
Moving to Monterrey: Weigh the costs and benefits. Monterrey is actually not a cheap city to live in, even by American standards. You can find affordable housing in questionable parts of town, but a nice apartment or even a nice house is going to cost u a pretty penny. Are you familiar with Mexico and the problems of living in the country (i.e. cell phones, utilities, property taxes, tenant rights, etc)? How much will your renumeration be.? Do you even have a job lined up? Unemployment in Monterrey has actually climbed in the past 2 yrs. What will your commute be like... Monterrey traffic is seconnd only to Mexico City's, except that public transportation in Monterrey is 1/10th of that in D.F. The considerations of moving to Monterrey go far beyond crime rates.
Sad because Monterrey was a boom town before, industrial for years and better wages than much of Mexico. Until very recently it was safe but now they've told USA students studying there to leave because of safety concerns. Losing tourism and legitimate business income will only make things worse.
What I think is that as they clamp down on certain border towns, the problems will shift into other areas.
I am a Regia, was born and raised in Monterrey, all my family in both sides (mom and dad) are 100% Regiomontanos.
Monterrey became the target of the SCUM from other cities from the rest of the Country. Regios we are very proud to be who we are and where we came from. Monterrey has became the city is right now thanks to all the "citizen trash" that start moving 20 yrs ago from other cities of the country to our beautiful Monterrey and this is the result.
I remember very clear one day walking on downtown and saw something that I never saw before in my city, just on T.V. and it shocked me. I saw a guy standing on a street waiting for the light to turned red for traffic and he stand up in the middle of the street put gasoline on his mouth and fire and spilled fire thru his mouth!! You didn't see such things on the streets back then. It was people moving from Mexico city, an overpopulated city with lost of delinquency and crime, that is what started changing our beautiful city! Add the drug dealers on top of it, they saw on Monterrey an scape from cities like Tijuana, Cd. Juarez, etc.
Monterrey still rocks! I haven't seen yet another people with the pride we as Regios have of our city of Monterrey. What is happening now is the result of years and years with a poor, deficient government. I am looking forward to the Monterrey from years ago, clean of crime and delinquency and that's what we Regios want, we need the SCUM out of our city!
My intention is not to offend anybody but to speak out on behalf of my home town.
I am a Regia, was born and raised in Monterrey, all my family in both sides (mom and dad) are 100% Regiomontanos.
Monterrey became the target of the SCUM from other cities from the rest of the Country. Regios we are very proud to be who we are and where we came from. Monterrey has became the city is right now thanks to all the "citizen trash" that start moving 20 yrs ago from other cities of the country to our beautiful Monterrey and this is the result.
I remember very clear one day walking on downtown and saw something that I never saw before in my city, just on T.V. and it shocked me. I saw a guy standing on a street waiting for the light to turned red for traffic and he stand up in the middle of the street put gasoline on his mouth and fire and spilled fire thru his mouth!! You didn't see such things on the streets back then. It was people moving from Mexico city, an overpopulated city with lost of delinquency and crime, that is what started changing our beautiful city! Add the drug dealers on top of it, they saw on Monterrey an scape from cities like Tijuana, Cd. Juarez, etc.
Monterrey still rocks! I haven't seen yet another people with the pride we as Regios have of our city of Monterrey. What is happening now is the result of years and years with a poor, deficient government. I am looking forward to the Monterrey from years ago, clean of crime and delinquency and that's what we Regios want, we need the SCUM out of our city!
My intention is not to offend anybody but to speak out on behalf of my home town.
I think that's a very myopic view of what has actually happened in Monterrey.
Monterrey was always the nation's industrial city, and many people from other parts of Mexico have always gone to Monterrey to work. It was never a cultural heartland, just a place to work. (it's often referred to as the Pittsburgh of Mexico) I always like Monterrey precisely because the people were hard working, industrious, and there wasn't a whole lot of panhandling and beggars in the streets.
However...
..Jobs in the last couple decades have dried up (some have gone to the maquilas in the border, others to China, and others just weren't needed anymore), and much of the rise in crime was homegrown. Unemployment and crime have a positive relationship: when unemployment goes up, so does crime. Are there people from out of town that go to Monterrey to cause trouble? You bet. But it would be unfair to lay the blame solely on those 'out of towner scum'. Many of the criminals in MTY are indeed native 'regios'.
Same thing has been said about the situation in Juarez. "It's all the out of towner scum bags that did it! They brought the war here"... same thing could be said about Mexico City. It's a broken Mexican record, and I am simply tired of hearing it. If all the criminals are from another town, enlighten me where they are from? They aren't native chilangos, they aren't native regios, they arent native juarenses? Are they all just country folk?
Monterrey was NEVER exempt from the corruption and cronism that plagued the rest of the nation. Like I said before, that is the base for a wave of criminality to overtake a city, and Monterrey always had that, just didn't have a flame to light it up. And now, the flame is burning.
Monterrey was NEVER exempt from the corruption and cronism that plagued the rest of the nation. Like I said before, that is the base for a wave of criminality to overtake a city, and Monterrey always had that, just didn't have a flame to light it up. And now, the flame is burning.
As Monterrey citizen i can tell that this is the main reason things as changed in our city, now we have to see the way of get out of this, back to our roots as a hardworking society. I hope we can make it.
For the OP yes Monterrey in this moment is insecure.
I think it is probably people from elsewhere the are the biggest problem because I hear that a lot by various people. Massive migration of people results from social injustice and instability but it results in more social injustice and instability.
When many people become uprooted from their roots, their traditions, their safety nets of family and village or neighborhood, they can become lost and disconnected. It's not the poor people from rural areas that are the problem but when many poor people uproot and relocate and try to raise children in an environment quite different from one they knew such as urban slum instead of rural ranch, it can be devastating. The result is a social upheaval.
And they aren't the country folk - because the country folk was humble and hard working and decent when they worked the farms, and when you talk to people who grew up on ejidos, they will tell you how no one locked their doors, there was nothing for anyone to steal but the ejido life was simple. They weren't killing each other on the ejidos and law and order was about basic things, how problems like someone's pig getting loose and eating up their neighbor's corn or garden and the ejido jefes kept everyone in line and if you didn't obey the rules you could be forced out.
But many are the citified offspring of country folk, kids who didn't grow up on a farm and never saw hard work or worked alongside their parents and learning the traditional values. Urban slum kids who see their parents as uneducated peasants and don't respect them and the parents don't know enough about city-slum life including drug use or how to guide their children.
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I have heard that Monterrey is no longer a safe place to live. That people are always watching their backs and that they don't go out at nights like they used too. Their seems to be alot of crime happening. Do you recommend moving to Monterrey? Do you have any personal experiences?
