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Home Sweet Crime and Prostitution.
11 Dec 2003 by Sarah Hatter
The most dangerous cities in America have been ranked and the ghetto that is North Charleston has been ranked #12. North Charleston has been practically abandoned by all quality of life since the closure of the Naval base a decade ago, and has been overrun by drug squats, prostitution and homelessness. Ironically, it’s a mere 6 miles from what most people call the most beautiful city in America and my new home, a place where I’m routinely woken by the sound of horse-drawn carriages clopping down my street. (4 of the most dangerous cities are in SC! Geez!)
The list boasts some other stepchildren cities: Parma, OH, the #18 safest city, sits just outside Cleveland, the #19 most dangerous. Hamilton Township, NJ , the #22 safest, is near Trenton, NJ, the #15 most dangerous. And Fremont, CA, home to the Shellen clan and the #25 safest city sits not too far from Oakland, the # 21 most dangerous city.
Interesting. Also, some of the cities *I* would have thought would make the list didn’t: Chicago and Manhattan are absent from the most dangerous, and New York, NY ranks among the safest!
21 comments so far (Post a Comment)
11 Dec 2003 | David S said...
Fremont is hardly close to Oakland. It's far enough away not to be able to be affected by it at least.
Speaking of safe, San Jose, CA, (close to Oakland too, but, again, not close enough to count) is as safe as big cities come.
11 Dec 2003 | yikes said...
Awesome my city ranks 3rd dangerous and this is coming off of a scandal of the city under-reporting violent crimes. You can definitely tell where Charleston ends and North Charleston begins.
11 Dec 2003 | Sharif said...
Great...I'm in the 14th most dangerous. I could have done with out knowing that.
But, I think things have improved. About 10 years ago, Richmond was third in murders per capita (behind Detroit and New Orleans, I believe). Back then, I remember watching the news on New Year Day and inevitably, some guy had always murdered someone at 12:01 or 12:02 AM, in an attempt to have the first murder of the new year. Oh, the holiday spirit lives on!
11 Dec 2003 | Sarah said...
Fremont hardly close to Oakland? 25 minutes is too far to be affected by another city? So all those suburban areas of America won't be affected by jobs, crime, or the politics of the major metros they surround?
11 Dec 2003 | Hagbard Celine said...
Well, Fremont is a about 18 miles from downtown San Jose (the "safest" of the big cities) and about 26 miles from Oakland, so one could argue that San Jose would have more influence.
Also, San Jose is larger, population-wise, than Oakland. As of last July, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal:
"The U.S. Census Bureau has quietly revised how it refers to the Bay Area. It now calls the region San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, instead of leading with San Francisco.
The bureau says it's based on population. San Jose's is 900,443 to San Francisco's 764,049."
11 Dec 2003 | yikes said...
About a decade ago, Savannah, Georgia was the murder capital of the US. It was a terrible time to live in such a beautiful city. I would come home, lock my doors and listen to gunshots all night long - and I lived in a relatively good part. One New Years Eve, a bullet came through the windshield of my car and out my car stereo narrowly missing my friends shoulder. Happy New Year indeed!
11 Dec 2003 | Don Schenck said...
Yikes: Sounds like a good reason to carry.
11 Dec 2003 | One of several Steves said...
I live adjacent or one suburb over from three of the top 25 safest cities (Irvine, Mission Viejo and Lake Forest, Cal.)
Of course, that means I'm in Orange County, where everything looks the same, is soulless and cookie-cutter, and boring as hell. I'd gladly embrace a little "danger" to be somewhere that offers a bit more character, like any of several neighborhoods in LA.
But then, I'd have to drive 90-120 minutes one-way to work, or leave for work at silly times. Gotta love southern California traffic.
12 Dec 2003 | nick said...
Woot! St. Louis is back down to #2 most dangerous! I feel safer already. I think crime would go way down here if we fired the police. Or something.
Actually, as I understand it, our violent crimes are going way down (lowest in decades) but our property crmes are going way up (two break-ins in two months for me!), so I guess it's a give-and-take and we'll just always be at the top. I'd rather have someone steal the jack out of my trunk than shoot me, so it's cool.
12 Dec 2003 | shawn said...
It says that Chicago was excluded due to a lack of data, so you never know, you may be living in the most dangerous city in the world!
12 Dec 2003 | half full said...
Or the safest!
12 Dec 2003 | subimage said...
Yeah, I live right in downtown SJ and I can't walk outside at any time without seeing AT LEAST 3 cops in 5 minutes.
12 Dec 2003 | half full said...
better than 3 robbers...right?
13 Dec 2003 | Hagbard Celine said...
I live in downtown SJ also. The police are very good about having a representative at our neighborhood meetings and addressing our concerns. SJ has had its share of scandals but apparently the police are doing something right.
The police are also very good about raiding the house down the street from us every month or two. I wish the owner of the house was as good about renting to someone other than drug dealers.
13 Dec 2003 | Cameron said...
I would be interested to see where Atlanta ranks. I drove by a Pizza Hut on the home today that was surrounded by cop cars and sectioned off with caution tape. Here's to living in the ghetto. Cheers.
15 Dec 2003 | aubs said...
I've lived in 3 of the top 25 most dangerous in the last 10 years - Cleveland, Washington DC & now Atlanta. (So proud to be #3...we even beat out Compton!)
Yet I'm more interested in your point re: Parma being the bastard stepchild of Cleveland. Growing up in Northeast Ohio, Parma is more of a strip-mall blemish on an already-struggling metro area. Give me your car dealerships, your white stonewashed cuffed jeans and your perms (yes, even today) and you've got Parma. Interesting that it's safe...maybe only b/c it's too tacky to have crime there.
16 Dec 2003 | A DIFFERENT SETH said...
In a town like Charleston, where inequality has been SO visibly evident for around 300 years, it is no suprize that such a huge polarization would eventually exist. It's the beautiful tragedy of that city. You can't fully appreciate the city's greatness and wonder without being made keenly aware of the horror and dispair that exists just a few blocks away.
16 Dec 2003 | Grant said...
Fremont is relatively close to Oakland, yes. But it's much closer to Newark, the little "can-do" town that probably has one of the highest per-square-inch crime rates around.
11 Jan 2004 | Steve said...
As you look at the list its almost amazing to see how the cities highest crime have the most racial tension. Atlanta and Detroit are famously known for racial tension with the Detroit Riots of the 60's and Atlanta's and the rest of the south's Civil rights movement. St. Louis my also be effected even thought segeration was minimal in the past. But the city of its self 65% black. Detroit - 73.4 %, and Atlanta - 89.6 %.
The cities of the south have the uneducated presence of poor people living there for years. But in Atlanta one of America's Apsiring cities the 2nd fastest growing city in the country, while they continue to drains jobs from Chicago, New York, LA, and other southerners come here to look for succes like immigrants in the early 19th century to New York. Crime is being more compact. New Orleans is a Suprise seeing them do a complete 360 from americas most dangerous to a middle city. Atlanta could learn. DC is turning themselves around also.
16 Jan 2004 | Digory said...
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