Safety of 1st floor flats in Russian Hill (apartments, crime)

[lisaonthemove]

Hi all
I am looking at flats in this neighborhood and am a little leery of taking one that is on the first floor. Anyone have feedback on the break-ins, etc. in the neighborhood? I can look up SF's overall crime stats here on CData but that of course is an average across all neighborhoods.
Thanks
Lisa

[mayorhaggar]

As with any apartment in a big dense city like SF, make sure places with windows close to the ground have bars over them, even if they are kind of high, like around 6 or 7 feet up--if they're low enough for a crackhead to climb on the shoulders of another crackhead and climb in, you'll want bars. Most apartments in SF have them especially in the denser eastern part of the city--out by the beach in the west you don't see it as much. And make sure the apartment building is blocked off well, like it doesn't have any open rear entrances that would be easy to get into. Russian Hill is a pretty ritzy area but it's close to the Tenderloin.