Steve Spencer
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 p.2 #1 · Best Locations to shoot/visit in the USA for a visitor. | |
Two23 wrote:
Crime is up in both places, and it is affecting the quality of life. Last time I was in SF (two years ago,) several times I saw people actually pooping on the sidewalk and was constantly beset by aggressive beggars. A link to crime statistics from 2015:
http://kron4.com/2016/03/16/san-francisco-police-release-2015-year-end-crime-statistics/
"But theft from vehicles saw the biggest increase from 2014. Those crimes were up 30.62 percent in 2015, the report indicated."
http://sfist.com/2016/04/25/sf_now_has_highest_per_capita_prope.php
"San Francisco now has the highest increase of property crimes in the U.S."
As for Chicago, I've been going there once or twice a year for about the past 25 years. The past two years it has been noticeably more dangerous. I was last there in mid March 2016 with my wife. We were constantly (every 15 minutes) accosted by very aggressive bums/panhandlers. These weren't the mentally ill people who sit on the sidewalk and rattle cups--they don't bother anyone. These were people who would try to block our path, and one grabbed my wife's arm. I punched him in the face and he went away. A more serious incident happened the next night. We were on a crowded red line train when a guy came up from behind and grabbed my camera. I held on tight and he dragged me holding camera off the train as it began to move. My wife began hitting him and he tried to shove me under the moving train. ASSHOLE! I hung onto his leg so he couldn't kick me. He finally worked his way loose and ran off with $2,400 worth of camera & lens. In my city if anyone had done that, everyone nearby would have piled on him and kicked his ass. Or shot him. Not Chicago! Police took the report, told me this happens all the time and there was nothing they could do about it. I'll be staying away from Chicago until Rahm is no longer in charge.
Some of these cities are very dangerous. Things can turn very violent in mere seconds. I've not seen anything like this in the European or Canadian cities I've visited. Sure, there are pickpockets in Italy and Spain, but they don't try to kill you. I would bet crime in China and Japan is even lower than Canada and Europe. I think it's irresponsible to give foreign visitors a false sense of assurance rather than giving an accurate idea of what they might get in to.
Kent in SD
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Kent,
You are only looking in a short window, and if you look longer as in the link I provided you get a very different picture. You can also cherry pick things like property crime vs. violent crime but that can give a misguided perspective too. I like this post better because you at least cited evidence, but I still think it is a misrepresentation, so let's just leave it that we have different views. I have been going to San Francisco regularly for over 30 years (my brother lived there until a few months ago) and the city has always had it seedy sections and not much has changed in that regard in my view, but that is different from the crime rates. It is true that crime rates in the US are substantially higher than Europe and Canada, but that doesn't exempt even cities like Minneapolis, which has almost triple the murder rate (7.7 people per 100,000) of Toronto (2.85 per 100,000 people). So yes there are big national crime rate differences but if we are talking within the US, the changes in crime rate are pretty consistent across the country. For example, the trend in crime rate in San Francisco is mirrored pretty exactly in Minneapolis. See this link: http://www.startribune.com/as-year-s-end-violent-crime-up-in-minneapolis-for-fifth-straight-year/363508991/
And Houston one of the cities you mentioned as a good place to visit had a 33% increase in the murder rate in 2015 and shows the same pattern and is in the top five in the total number of murders with a higher murder rate than San Francisco. In fact, Houston has more than twice the murder rate (11 people per 100,000) versus San Francisco (5 people per 100,000). San Francisco has about a 14% higher rape rate than Houston, but Houston has a 19% higher robbery rate, and a 30% higher assault rate than San Francisco. So, it sure looks to me like the "safe" city that you listed--Houston--is at least as dangerous as the "dangerous" city--San Francisco. So, on violent crime San Francisco isn't great, but my view is that it doesn't need to be avoided. You may feel differently, but if you do then you shouldn't go to Houston, our Nashville either (it has a higher murder rate, rape rate, and assault rate than San Francisco). Oh, and Chicago which you said should be avoided has a lower murder rate than Houston, Nashville, and San Francisco, a lower rape rate than Nashville, a lower robbery rate than Houston, and a lower assault rate than either Houston or Nashville. In fact, even Minneapolis is more dangerous than San Francisco with a higher murder rate, rape rate, burglary rate, and assault rate. So, what I think is absurd is when people tell guests to this country that some cities are safer when in fact the crime rates or those specific cities suggest they are if anything more dangerous than the cities they are told to avoid.
By the way, here is a nice link to compare the crime rate in individual cities:
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/mn/minneapolis/crime/
This is a national real estate service, so I don't think there is any reason to think anybody has any particular political axe to grind.
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