Savannah Georgia Crime (Columbus, Arlington: hotels, neighborhoods, school)

[Ollie1946]

My understanding from some folks who live in Savannah is that the police department is incompetent and led by an incompetent. In other words, there is no comprehensive effort at enforcement and reducing crime. But, things are getting worse everywhere with this bad economy, overcrowded jails and clogged courts. I would not want my daughter in Savannah or son for that matter. But, here in Athens with the UGA we have crime against students and more particularly those who are downtown partying late at night and early morning. No commonsense especially after boozing it up.

Of course in Chapel Hill, a young coed was kidnapped and murdered. Ironically, she was a hometown girl from Athens. We still have several unsolved murders of young women here in Athens. Too many young people seem to feel they are immune from being victimized.

Good luck.

[mike0618]

Originally Posted by bellhead

Mike,

I grew up south of Toledo Ohio and have been to Detroit many times, people here don't know what poverty and urban blight is on a large scale until they see some of the larger rust belt cities in Michigan and Ohio. The population density was greater than what it is here in Savannah in many of these areas and almost overnight there was nobody there. This first happened in Detroit in 67 with the riots, the city never made it back, almost overnight Oakland and Macomb Counties were born, these are the counties north of Wayne and the city of Detroit. Almost all people of European descent moved out of Detroit during the next few years "aka white flight" and the city really never recovered. It was also cheaper for businesses to build new on farmland than to undergo urban renewal projects.

Having been to Detroit and driven around during the day just to see the city you cannot understand the amount of devastation there is there until you see it first hand. Imagine everything from the Historic District to Southside occupied by 2,000 people almost all of them on pensions or government assistant. Now throw in 2,000 homeless people who live in abandoned properties in this area, crumbling infrastructure, crime, and you can begin to see where Detroit is. Philly is also in a similar situation. When I was in the Navy in 92, I was at TPU Philly waiting on my plane to my duty station overseas. I was in downtown Philly on a Saturday with a couple of other sailors taking in the sites. We jumped on a bus going north and missed our stop, the next stop was 6 blocks north. I go to get off the bus and the driver noticed we didn't belong there and refused to let us off out of fear for our safety, she told us to wait 20 minutes as she would loop around up by Temple University. It was the first time in my life, that I saw abandoned buildings, people living in burned out cars, 50 gallon drums used as fireplaces with people huddled around the fire "it was March". Big eye opener.

Just wanted to say people here know poverty in some ways but don't in others.

thank you for adding to the understanding. I take offense to some comments about how bad savannah is from people who say its worse than a notrthern city like detroit. I dont want to talk bad about detroit and will always love where I came from but to put it as safer than savannah is doing a diservice to anyone who wants a true understanding of savannah and cities like detroit. Some areas of detroit are awesome and thats due to the white flight coming back downtown, but it is not safe to walk down abandoned streets where you dont know who is in or around the homes. You dont have that here in savannah. So I again say, the woerst areas of savannah are much better than most of detroit, flint, saginaw... I havnt been to any other northern cities to comment on them.

[RelocatingHoosier]

I think that if you take a look at Savannah's crime in relation to its size you will find that Savannah is much more dangerous than similarly sized cities. I have attempted to research this topic and if you look at any of my other threads you will see that I have argued that Savannah is more dangerous than it "should" be. During my research I discovered that the City of Savannah doesn't report certain crime statistics that many of the agencies that rank cities use in determining which cities in the US are dangerous. Of course Savannah isn't as bad as LA, Chicago, or Detroit but in my humble opinion, that is because Savannah isn't as big as LA, Chicago, or Detroit. We have the same problems as those cities, just not on that scale. This city is caught in a dangerous cycle as it has been for quite some time. Unfortunately with all of the cuts in the schools the cycle will continue this way until people wake up and realize that you can fix problems in a community by committing yourself to the education of said community.

[mike0618]

stats wise yes savannah has a high per capita crime rate. But going off of stats can be a little misleading. as I have said before if you have 5 murders in a city of 100k your crime rate will be higher than a city with 5 murders in 1mil people, but both ways 5 murders is 5 murders. I dont want them in my city either way. You have to look at is it random acts, innocent bystanders, a crazy nut, or is it people who knew each other? plus is it drug related (savannah's problem), is it at certain times of day? If you can go into areas at certain times of day with little problems you can live with that. But if you cant ever go into an area regardless time of day or day of week. then thats a real problem. I have been on EVERY street in savannah because of my work and there are very few streets I feel unconfortable going on. There are areas of detroit I will never go on. There are areas of flint I feel very unconfortable on, and you couldnt pay me enough to work saginaw ever!!! you go with what you see and feel. How are the locals acting or saying to you when you go down a street, stop and park, get out. I work in these areas and did in flint michigan too. I get out here in savannah and can talk and joke with anyone!!! In flint there were areas that I didnt want to lose site of my car due to the heavy presence on the street and the feeling you would get that you shouldnt be there. The gang grafettii on homes that were not tagged the day before. The grafettii saying get out.. etc. driving past boarded up homes, police tape by a home and lots of newly burned down homes... there is no comparision. And flint is about the same size as savannah. There is no comparision. Flint north side/ mt morris is a hole compared to savannah (any area of savannah) go to the michigan threads on the site and read for yourself. Some go back 3 yrs and say dont buy there!! you dont have a scale till you have seen worse. I have and can say savannah is alot better than those 3 michigan cities. I wish I didnt have to say that but I have to, its the truth.

[bellhead]

I remember watching Micheal Moore's Farenheit 911 and he was interviewing a soldier from Flint who had just came back from Iraq, and the soldier mentioned that Baghdad had nothing on Flint and we should have been spending the money there instead of Iraq...

Here's a comparison for the relocating Hoosier. Which similar sized city in Indiana right outside of Chicago compares to Savannah in population and economics, but the crime there is much worse....

Gary

Which is worse for crime...

I worked for a utility for many years in Cincinnati as a field service person and have seen it all....

[mike0618]

Originally Posted by bellhead

I remember watching Micheal Moore's Farenheit 911 and he was interviewing a soldier from Flint who had just came back from Iraq, and the soldier mentioned that Baghdad had nothing on Flint and we should have been spending the money there instead of Iraq...

Here's a comparison for the relocating Hoosier. Which similar sized city in Indiana right outside of Chicago compares to Savannah in population and economics, but the crime there is much worse....

Gary

Which is worse for crime...

I worked for a utility for many years in Cincinnati as a field service person and have seen it all....

michael moores a joke.. yes I have met him. he used our movie theatre to review and cut one of his movies (cant remember which one since i dont care for any of them). he isnt very popular in his so called home town. (hes from davison about 10 mins outside of flint.. very affulent town) and just as close to lapeer as it is flint.

[RelocatingHoosier]

I grew up right outside of Gary, I know that it is one of the worst places in America. When I was a child it was the most dangerous place in the world. I'm not saying Savannah is more dangerous than Flint, Detroit, Gary, Cincy, or Baghdad for goodness sake. All I am saying and have always said is that for the size of this city there is WAY too much crime. I understand there are similar sized cities that are more dangerous than Savannah but that doesn't mean Savannah is the end of the rainbow either.

[bellhead]

Savannah's biggest problem I have seen is like many American cities there is a cycle of poverty in which only 10% will escape from. There is a whole industry built around poverty and it will never be dismantled within our lifetimes.

By this I mean government:

1.) Social Services
2.) Police
3.) Politicians

Businesses who's focus is on the poor "pay day lenders, title max, pawn shops, booze shops oh and a underground drug problem."

The only way to break this cycle is to education the crap out of them and hope to help more of them out of poverty than the previous generation.

[mike0618]

3 ways out of poverty.

education, motivation, and oppertunity. you have to be qualified and willing to take advantage of your oppertunities.

[RelocatingHoosier]

If anybody is interested here is a good resource that shows when and where homicides took place in Savannah from 2008-2010.
Homicides Database | savannahnow.com