Raleigh Listed as One of the Safest Cities in America (Article) (Charlotte: rental car, rental)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Did you bother to notice the methodology? Three factors highlighted in the preface: earthquake risk, unemployment rate and fraud complaints. To say nothing of road quality, hail risk and retirement plan access. I wouldn't bring Sheriff Taylor out of retirement just yet.
That's interesting. The factors involved in creating this list is interesting, but still Raleigh wouldn't be there without many redeeming qualities.
Some quick research (for what internet research is worth), multiple studies show Raleigh crime declining faster than the national average, but at this time at the approximate 65 percentile (higher than average) in safety as compared to other cities. Not too shabby, but could still be better. I would've included sites I visited but I used many to come to a general conclusion.
It seems as if Raleigh had much more crime than the national average up to 25 years ago. I would be interested in this forum reasons why it has been able to bring that rate down faster than many other cities, and what it may need to do to continue that movement in the safer sense.
In my view and travels about the city, like many others it has it's safer and less safer sections. But I don't really feel as stressed as I do in other cities I've lived in or visited.
I'm a New Englander. Nashua, NH at #1? Warwick, RI at #5? In the country? Ahead of all the amazing Greater Boston suburbs? I wouldn't rank either as top 5 in their own state. The list is as completely useless as most others grasped at on the internet. Raleigh is on the way up but it's ascendancy isn't preordained. I never thought I'd live to see Boston shedding human beings.
That's interesting. The factors involved in creating this list is interesting, but still Raleigh wouldn't be there without many redeeming qualities.
Some quick research (for what internet research is worth), multiple studies show Raleigh crime declining faster than the national average, but at this time at the approximate 65 percentile (higher than average) in safety as compared to other cities. Not too shabby, but could still be better. I would've included sites I visited but I used many to come to a general conclusion.
It seems as if Raleigh had much more crime than the national average up to 25 years ago. I would be interested in this forum reasons why it has been able to bring that rate down faster than many other cities, and what it may need to do to continue that movement in the safer sense.
In my view and travels about the city, like many others it has it's safer and less safer sections. But I don't really feel as stressed as I do in other cities I've lived in or visited.
I'm still trying to think of a redeeming quality for Warwick, RI.
It seems as if Raleigh had much more crime than the national average up to 25 years ago. I would be interested in this forum reasons why it has been able to bring that rate down faster than many other cities, and what it may need to do to continue that movement in the safer sense.
In my view and travels about the city, like many others it has it's safer and less safer sections. But I don't really feel as stressed as I do in other cities I've lived in or visited.
Excellent post
I am interested in this as well as a fairly recent transplant.
When researching landing spots several years ago, I narrowed down the finalists to Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh. I was able to spend a decent amount of time visiting and getting out and about to get a good feel for each.
As for the feeling of safety, it was no contest; particularly compared to Atl as my rental car was broken into and the nightly news there was filled with shootings, carjackings, and other mayhem. Charlotte seemed like Atlanta Lite. But Raleigh felt much more calmer, safer, and friendlier (obviously being a smaller city is a major factor).
Not putting these down, both great metros: there is a big trade off in big city amenities and culture for lower crime and more peace. It's all about what's important to each.
I am interested in this as well as a fairly recent transplant.
When researching landing spots several years ago, I narrowed down the finalists to Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh. I was able to spend a decent amount of time visiting and getting out and about to get a good feel for each.
As for the feeling of safety, it was no contest; particularly compared to Atl as my rental car was broken into and the nightly news there was filled with shootings, carjackings, and other mayhem. Charlotte seemed like Atlanta Lite. But Raleigh felt much more calmer, safer, and friendlier (obviously being a smaller city is a major factor).
Not putting these down, both great metros: there is a big trade off in big city amenities and culture for lower crime and more peace. It's all about what's important to each.
Like you, when we came down we looked at three cities that we narrowed down to. Raleigh stood out but we wanted suburbs and ended up in Four Oaks.
There's much to be said about really getting to know the area you're coming to. For us, we rented for about a year to find the exact town/neighborhood that fit our life.
Darius, we both approached our big move with research and real time on site learning. I truly believe that's why you and I are happy where we are, and why many might be feeling they made a mistake.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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Raleigh is kind of in a similar situation as Virginia Beach. More a suburban setting (though Raleigh’s economy is far more sophisticated than Virginia Beach’s) with a more city-like city next door being a main anchor as far as jobs (Raleigh helped by Durham, Virginia Beach helped by Norfolk/Portsmouth.) This dynamic definitely serves Raleigh well as far as crime rate.
I also think the news media makes a lot of cities seem more dangerous to than they actually are. Particularly if you turn on Wavy TV in Virginia Beach, you’d think it was Baghdad Iraq during the Iraq War, though it is one of the safer large (400k-500k) cities in the US. IMO even Charlotte gets this “questionable” treatment. Living here for two years now, I feel far safer in Charlotte than I did in Washington DC.
Discussion here is mainly around crime, but the actual WalletHub ranking uses crime stats for less than 50% of the ranking methodology. 30% of the ranking was Natural Disaster risk for example, which ruled out any city in California, most of the Florida coast, or Tornado Alley ranking anywhere in the top 20. So cities like Irvine, CA ; Santa Clarita, CA; Hialeah, FL, et... had strong rankings for "Home & Community Safety" (#2, #3, and #14 respectfully), but terrible scores for Natural Disaster risk due to earthquake, fire, or hurricane risk (#150, #168, and #128).
Raleigh's score was that goldilocks in this methodology of not being the best in any category, but also not the worst.
#42 for Home & Community Safety Score
#55 for Natural Disaster Risk
#34 for Financial Safety
Overall rank = #18
While Raleigh wasn't Top 20 in any individual category, it ranked #18 by not having a very bad ranking in any one category (such as the cities more prone to natural disasters) or the cities that had a lower 'Financial Safety' rank, which hit the scores of some of the smaller metros that had high physical safety rankings, but not great unemployment rates, job growth, median credit scores, et. (example Pembroke Pines, FL ; #15 for Home & Community Safety, but #168 for Financial Safety.)
Like all rankings, methodology changes things dramatically. I think WalletHub tried to define a broad ranking of safety beyond just crime / homicides / theft, but I think most people associate "safety" with crime as opposed to debt to income ratios or earthquake chances. Definitely an interesting way to frame it.
It seems as if Raleigh had much more crime than the national average up to 25 years ago. I would be interested in this forum reasons why it has been able to bring that rate down faster than many other cities, and what it may need to do to continue that movement in the safer sense.
In my view and travels about the city, like many others it has it's safer and less safer sections. But I don't really feel as stressed as I do in other cities I've lived in or visited.
The answer is a simple dilution of the cocktail. More and more and more and more population growth of the type that's on the right side of the statistics.
Driving around within Raleigh city limits there is far more new, suburban development than most cities its size.
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