travleis

Since Myrtle Beach is a vacation hot spot, and since relocation issues seem to pop up at this forum with great regularity, I thought I'd post this info from the FBI crime index, found this AM on MSN.

I was surprised to see that Myrtle Beach was deemed to have the highest overall crime rate in the USA. Here's the quote: "Myrtle Beach has the highest total rate of crime in the nation, due to a high rate of violent crime and the nation's highest rate of property crime. In particular, the rates of assault, burglary and larceny are particularly high".

Tucson AZ was labeled "worst large city for crime".

Lowest overall crime rate: Danbury CT and Stamford-Norwalk CT. And

For the rest of the highs and lows:
http://houseandhome.msn.com/Move/Bes...sforCrime.aspx

wendy_wetson

This post hit close to home because my cousin's daughter recently moved into an apartment in Van Nuys, California and she (my cousin) was in a panic because someone described it to her as an urban warfare zone. Through family connections she was able to contact state, local and government officials. Interestingly enough the feds told her that she should get her daughter out of there immediately because she was within 1/4 mile of 2 rival gangs. The locals told her that there are 8 known gangs in the Van Nuys area and that as long as she exercised caution and vigilance she would be in no greater danger than anyone else. Finally, the state officials told her that just about everyone in LA county is within 1/4 mile of gangs or gang activity and that anyone who believes otherwise is living in denial. As it was put to her, drugs are their primary source of income and there is no shortage of affluent customers coming from Hollywood and its environs to buy them. We're hoping to move her in the very near future into a gated 24/7 security complex, but guess what? Some of the realtors have told us that the young single women get hit on constantly by the security guys. I guess my point is not to obsess as Buckeyemom advised and always be aware of your surroundings and don't go where you don't belong.

rjw_lgb_ca

Now wendy, although I don't doubt that what you and your family were told is true (I live in Long Beach, and we certainly have gangs in some parts of the area), blaming the drug problem on those awful rich Hollywood types is a bit ridiculous, isn't it? Rich and poor alike are buying drugs, so it's not just limited to communities located near wealthy neighborhoods. And I can appreciate that your cousins want to protect their daughter, but locking her up in a gated community doesn't lock out the problems. And she's going to have to learn to deal with the outside world at some point. Still, a nice security building in Sherman Oaks might be the ticket...!

wendy_wetson

Message to rjw lgb ca:
I never meant to imply that the rich and the famous are responsible for the drug problem in LA nor did the authorities who spoke to my cousin. The only difference is that the rich have the money to support their habit and the poor don't so they usually resort to robbery. We are well aware that anything can happen anywhere and a 24/7 gated community isn't a guarantee of anyone's safety. As a matter of fact there's a very nice complex in Sherman Oaks that has a large security turnaround because of complaints from the young women. My cousin's daughter was born in New York City but was raised for the majority of her childhood and teen years in Bergen County, New Jersey so she has some street smarts. It's just that she didn't have to deal with lines of demarcation. So, the bottom line is now she's better informed about her surroundings and hopefully that will benefit her.

Anonymous

When you're looking at crime rates, remember that the RATE is per *resident*.

"Vacation hot spots" and other tourist-laden areas are going to have inflated crime rates, not only because there are more opportunities (bewildered people wandering around the streets, rental cars wtih goodies visible inside, etc.) but also because the denominator (bottom half) of this fraction is the local permanent population, not the number of people who are actually IN the area in one day.

To a lesser degree, the same caveat applies to all downtown crime statistics, where tourists and 9-to-5 commuters can contribute to the numerator of the rate as victims but not to the denominator.

missjanna

Traveleis, I saw that same article this morning, and if you read it carefully, you'll see that it was stated most of the statistics were from 2002, and some were pulled from the year before that! A lot can happen in a year, so it's not an entirely accurate standby.

rjw_lgb_ca

Wendy: Understood. Just wanted to make sure...! I find that outsiders have a bizarre image of the LA area in their minds before they actually come to visit. We're NOT shooting indiscriminately at each other on the freeways as a regular daily exercise, we don't have Old West shootouts on the streets every day, and even in Van Nuys there are some very nice places to live. Not far from some pretty rough gangs in Long Beach sits California Heights, a neighborhood "Sunset" magazine voted the Best in the Western US. Like you say: You just have to do some research and some exploration, and you can find wonderful, safe places to live.

travleis

Janna and anonymous: both very good points.
The reason I posted this was because I was surprised by the Myrtle Beach stats and because it's a popular vacation destination.
Sure, there are many, many problems with using stats of the type included to proclaim an area crime-ridden vs. safe.
I would not have posted the info if the highest crime cities had been places like Detroit, Savannah, LA or Oakland, just because I don't think that would surprise most people.
I don't usually think of Tucson as a high crime town.
Many of the New Jersey suburbs were among the safest.
Just FWIW.

puddy

I wouldn't put 'street smarts' and Bergen County in the same sentence.

Leona

In which two sentences would you put "street smarts" & "Bergen County", Puddy?

Or would that be 4 sentences?

hsv

rjw,

"We're NOT shooting indiscriminately at each other on the freeways as a regular daily exercise [...]"

I always thought that Steve Martin's Freeway Hunting Season scene in L.A. Story was a bit over the top (but still funny)!