Interested in comments on relevant perceived and real crime in Savannah - particularly historic district. Son has been accepted to SCAD and he is hearing all sorts of horror stories about safety of city. I am really not acting like nervous mother - he is also considering school in Boston, NYC - and he is actually more concerned than I.

To put it in perspective, we live north of Boston and he is accustomed to traveling into Boston by car and public transportation - so he is not unaware about how to act in a city environment.

Already checked site that offers crime statistics on US colleges, but since college is rather spread out, info on city in general might be useful. Thanks.

Most importantly, anyone with the savvy which comes with living in a major metro area (assuming your son has spent at least some time in the city, rather than only in suburbia) is statistically likely to be fine in a city like Savannah.
That said, the crime rate in Savannah is very high. It's a very poor city with a great deal of poverty--though the historic district is comparatively safe if you break down the city by district.
Savannah's 2002 murder rate was 5 times the national average, aggravated assault slightly higher than the national average, burglary 2X, robbery 3X, vehicle theft 3X.
For reference, San Francisco reported 62 homicides in 2002, Savannah had 32 (of course Savannah only has a population of 130,000).

But crime exists everywhere, and it's ususally concentrated in geographic pockets. A little prudence will go a long way. He'd face the same issues in Chicago, New Orleans, LA etc.

ttt

We live in Chicago and we there over the summer, mostly in the historic district, and didn't feel concerned for our safety at all. We did notice SCAD busses shuttle students from different buildings everywhere as well.

When we were there last summer, I felt very safe...granted that I didn't venture out of the historic district. SCAD is scattered all over the city, but in the nicer parts of town.

Coming from Boston, I'm sure he'll be fine

LOL our family from Georgia (we are from Boston) went to schools up north....One of the reasons is that there is such a diversity of students from all over the world going to B.U.,Northeastern. One of the reasons Boston is such a vital city day and night is because of the students who study in Boston/Cambride and never want to leave. Stick to Boston or NYC schools...

To ParrotMom - didn't the weather of past 2 weeks want to make you leave the northeast forever? Since son is applying to primarily schools south of NE, he spent the past 2 weeks telling us this was the last full winter he was ever going to live through. Although we are all from north and both husband and I went to schools in Boston and Providence, son does a specialized form of art (computer art and animation) that is only available at limited number of schools.

Savannah is way to far for my liking, but it is time for the baby bird to leave the nest - and I have always wanted to visit Savannah, so now I get my chance.

It's been 7 years since we've moved away Gail, but at that time, I felt pretty safe walking around the historic district in the daytime. We were cautious at night however. I didn't mind walking River St or City Market, but that was the extent of our travels on foot after dark, which is a shame as the city is so pretty at night and the weather wonderful for walking. It's not as if there were criminals everywhere, but that generally would be the time you might have trouble so why risk it?

The problem is that there is a housing project immediately to the east of the historic district and another a short distance to the west. The area bounding the southern portion of the district is in very very poor condition and you wouldn't walk through there any time (or not comfortably anyway). He will have no difficulty recognizing the safe boundaries of the historic district and there is no reason to go beyond them on foot. Kids from SCAD normally went everywhere in small groups at night, not for protection, but that's just the way they traveled and that would most likely be fine. I don't know if things have changed radically since we've been gone, but we get back to visit and I haven't heard of a big increase. There is a new mayor, who has as a priority improving the safety of the city, as did the last mayor, so at least they recognize the need for improvement.

It's a terrific school by the way, and the kids are all welcomed by the city and residents of the historic district!