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I think there's a big difference between crime rates and the likelihood of getting mugged if I'm walking down the street minding my own business. What I mean is, alcohol is a big contributor to violence. Cities with a lot of bars are going to have higher crime rates. It doesn't mean they're unsafe towns.
But if you're going to believe crime stats like those found on city data, then I guess West Orange (a town frequently recommended here as a good place for families) is more dangerous than Union City.
A lot of these towns are places where they may be higher crime rates but it’s concentrated in a very small area. For instance Vineland is a very large community the vast majority of it is beautiful farmland. The relatively small downtown area is where there is crime, but very few people who live in Vineland will be touched by it as it’s pretty much “poor on poor” crime.
Wildwood as well remains one of the most popular vacation areas in South Jersey. I live down the shore for 18 years and I don’t remember hearing any incidents were tourists were victims of crime, which again mainly affects low income people.
But even the bad areas of these towns are not like cities like Camden , where gunfire is common and gangs roam streets. It’s still pretty rare in places like Vineland and Wildwood and many other towns on the list.
There's a lot of theft and robbery in Vineland. That makes the crime rate look bad at a glance.
You said that you'd never go to Camden, but I've been there many times. The Waterfront, Rutgers campus, and around City Hall all seem safe to me.
My niece and I came very close to getting mugged/attacked leaving a free all-day/night country music concert at the waterfront there (I think it's called the Sussquehanna Bank center now but's changed names several times) For that concert, they (cops directing traffic) made some people turn right away from the venue to another lot they had opened, which was about a 2-3 block walk, in darkness at 11pm with no one in sight (we were tired and left before it ended at midnight) and no security anywhere, past bombed out buildings with no windows, and it took maybe half a block for me to turn around in time to see a man quietly running up behind us from across the street in a half-squat. It was terrifying to see. When he saw me see him, he stood all the way up and started following us, taunting us and asking how much our clothes cost, and if it weren't for a police car that showed up that second at the intersection a block away to get ready for the end of the concert, I don't know what would have happened.
I still go to concerts there at times but will never park where we have to walk through the city again. I certainly wouldn't live there, while I would have no problem living in Wildwood (can't afford it), Vineland, Woodbury, etc. These are all towns where crime is concentrated in individual areas, but there are many areas that are safe that I would live in in those towns.
We recently moved from the border of Deptford and Woodbury and never had any concerns about crime. Traffic accidents yes, there were sirens every night for those, but we never knew anyone who was a victim of crime in Woodbury and have many friends there. Again, there are areas there where there is crime, but everyone knows where those areas are and they are reflected in home prices in those sections. While other sections have multi-million dollar mansions (love the really old ones) and other areas everything in between.
I cannot say there is anywhere I would live in Camden.
City hall I'm sure is safe in the daytime, but again I wouldn't want to be there at night. I used to work in Camden, too. I once took my route to a firehouse and asked them to route me as I didn't know which order I should start (home service) and the firemen looked at my list, looked at me, and said "You can't go to these areas". That was 30 years ago, and while the addition of attractions to the waterfront area brings more tourists, most would not venture out of the immediate area nor should they.
That's scary! I get you about the post concert walk. My husband and I once showed up for a concert a bit late and were directed to a parking garage at least a few blocks away. I wasn't happy about that. Thankfully, we stayed until the end of the concert and found other people going there. I asked the two 20 something guys to walk with us so that we'd have a group. The two young women ahead seemed to be nervous about us. I spoke to them a couple of times and told them that we should stay together. They didn't respond, but stopped walking as fast. We didn't see anyone on the walk over, but I didn't welcome walking into that shadowy area. The four of us made sure that the young women got to their car safely.
The only other times I've been in Camden at night was for two other concerts, two baseball games, and the fireworks. For one concert, we arrived very early and got a great parking spot. We were so early that we had time to walk over to 20 Horse Tavern for a drink and a bite to eat. The next time we parked at a PATCO station and took the train. We parked at the stadium for Riversharks games.
When my sister visited for a few weeks in July of 2010, she wanted to go to every fireworks display in the area, which included Camden. When I told her that it was a dangerous city, she said that everything would probably be fine because thousands of people would go to watch them. She was right.
I certainly wouldn't live there.
Woodbury, huh? My son knows a couple of people who live there, and they've never had a problem with crime. It doesn't look great on paper, but it's far from the worst place in the area.
I'm about to move to Lawrence, near Colonial Lake which seems far enough north of Trenton to not get any spillover. SpotCrime appear to concur. Thoughts?
Oh that's okay, thanks. It's about 20 minutes northeast of Trenton. I think it's fine, but wasn't sure about spillover.
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