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Question About Safety in NYC

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miramogge
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wrist time wrist time
Had a coworker who was from Chicago. People would ask him what it was like to be from such a dangerous city or some variation of the question. He'd ask them if they knew where Chicago is on the top 10 most dangerous US cities list. They didn't so he'd ask them to guess and then look it up. They all had the same confused look when they realized it's NOT in the top 10. The whole team enjoyed watching this so much we'd always tried to find ways to mention that he was from Chicago when meeting outside people.
I just checked the murder rate of Chicago per 100.000 against a few European cities. I don’t understand what their is to enjoy. But each to their own
 
Keith88lx
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I enjoy living in the suburbs of Chicago. Took me while to warm up but I feel it’s home. I hate driving downtown but once I’m there I’m fine. BUT, my wife who I’ve now taught to be more aware of her surroundings have had people attempt to pick pocket her several times on the blue line. My cousin was randomly beaten downtown after work at like 6 pm in the summer while crossing a bridge with several other people. No reason just randomly punched. I used to travel to the south side to do audits. People always running up to me at a stop light trying to yell to get out.

just be aware of your surroundings. Look up and not stare at your iPhones. Someone suspicious around, make them aware you know they are there. Not stare but turn to let them know you know.

now I don’t have expensive Rolexes so I don’t know much of that. I have worn my speedy downtown and I’m not sure people even knew what it was.
 
wrist time
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miramogge miramogge
I just checked the murder rate of Chicago per 100.000 against a few European cities. I don’t understand what their is to enjoy. But each to their own
Cities in countries with strict gun laws have less murders than cities in the US? What a surprise.
 
miramogge
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Cities in countries with strict gun laws have less murders than cities in the US? What a surprise.
Oh I thought you “enjoyed” to bring up Chicago with “outside people” to surprise everyone on how safe it is. My bad
 
johnireland
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Anyone who claims NYC is safe should review the statistics released today. Year over year through July 24, rape up 11.3%, felony assault up 19%, robbery up 39.6%, and transit crime up 53%. I would personally stay out of the subways.
 
sxl2004
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NYC is a big city. Some of the crimes you listed are probably more common in other boroughs than Manhattan below 96th St, which seems commonly be referred to New York”.
 
vbrad26
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I lived in NYC from 2012-mid 2014. I realize this was 10 years ago, and things have possibly changed...but I never once felt unsafe.
Even in the later (or very early) hours.
Like others have said, I think it has a lot to do with where you actually are in the city.
I, however, was in the Manhattan bubble and did not stray much further up than about 83rd lol.
I did hear that things got worse during, and "after" COVID though.
I have not been back since 2016, however my wife and daughter are going up in December, which is why I've had my eye on this thread.
 
abrod520
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johnireland johnireland
Anyone who claims NYC is safe should review the statistics released today. Year over year through July 24, rape up 11.3%, felony assault up 19%, robbery up 39.6%, and transit crime up 53%. I would personally stay out of the subways.

Anyone who clearly doesn't live in New York and most likely hasn't been here for more than a week at a time in decades should refrain from fearmongering. Crime is up from historic, all-time lows and is still extremely low, but fearmongering politicians and suburbanites don't want it to look that way.

upload_2022-8-4_14-38-19.png upload_2022-8-4_14-38-33.png
 
abrod520
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sxl2004 sxl2004
NYC is a big city. Some of the crimes you listed are probably more common in other boroughs than Manhattan below 96th St, which seems commonly be referred to New York”.

Harlem, Inwood, Washington Heights are all really safe too. Most of the violent crime is in a small handful of chronically very economically depressed areas of the Bronx and Brooklyn, the same places that have always been problematic (and aren't places an outsider would go anyway, much less wearing expensive watches) .
 
wrist time
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miramogge miramogge
Oh I thought you “enjoyed” to bring up Chicago with “outside people” to surprise everyone on how safe it is. My bad
I'm not sure what point your trying to make. Yes we thoroughly enjoyed when our coworker found a clever and snippy way to respond to people who made comments about his hometown based on incorrect assumptions.
 
Dan S
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abrod520 abrod520
Anyone who clearly doesn't live in New York and most likely hasn't been here for more than a week at a time in decades should refrain from fearmongering.

And maybe just stay wherever they live ... you know, to avoid being affected by all the crime and woke-ness. 😉
 
vbrad26
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I had friends in Harlem (not too deep) as well as Washington Heights, and while most of the time they came down my way to hang, the few times I would go up that way wasn't bad at all.
I remember thinking to myself, jeez I thought these places were supposed to be a little rough lol.
Before moving there, I was in NYC the summer of 2011...I hadn't been to NYC since 1999 at that point, and that was the only other time I had been there and I was 11.
Anyway, I was staying at a place in the low 90's and 1st Ave. I was getting on the subway to go downtown, but since I'm directionally challenged and also not paying attention, I got on the uptown instead and did not really realize it for a few stops which put me well into the 100's at that point.
I ended up just getting off and going back up to the street and I was glad I did.
It was really cool. It was VERY hot, and there were kids planing in the street with the fire hydrants wide open just having a good ol time.
Stuff that I thought only happens in movies lol.
I ended up just walking all the way back down to where I started, and then tried again.
 
abrod520
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vbrad26 vbrad26
I remember thinking to myself, jeez I thought these places were supposed to be a little rough lol.

There's a Target and a really nice movie theater on 125th St. There's also excellent food up there and the days of it being really dangerous are super long gone.

vbrad26 vbrad26
It was VERY hot, and there were kids planing in the street with the fire hydrants wide open just having a good ol time.
Stuff that I thought only happens in movies lol.

Oh that's actually official practice - you can walk into the local firehouse and ask, and the fire dept will come and open them up. They even have special spray caps to make them more like sprinklers
 
Larry S
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miramogge miramogge
I just checked the murder rate of Chicago per 100.000 against a few European cities. I don’t understand what their is to enjoy. But each to their own
Well … you are welcome to come and find out. You will be pleasantly surprised. Oh BTW:

“Time Out revealed its 53 best cities in the world list on Monday. Chicago ranks second following Edinburgh and is the only U.S. city that made the top 10, beating out New York, San Francisco and other domestic metropolises.

The global media brand’s annual list is based on poll responses from readers around the world along with input from contributors and experts. The Time Out Index 2022 asked respondents to rank their city’s bar and restaurant scene, its art and cultural offerings, whether its amenable to dating and meeting new people, its natural beauty and even its collective resiliency.”
Edited:
 
johnireland
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abrod520 abrod520
Anyone who clearly doesn't live in New York and most likely hasn't been here for more than a week at a time in decades should refrain from fearmongering. Crime is up from historic, all-time lows and is still extremely low, but fearmongering politicians and suburbanites don't want it to look that way.

upload_2022-8-4_14-38-19.png upload_2022-8-4_14-38-33.png

It's easy to say felony assaults have gone down when you simply make them misdemeanors. It isn't that there are more criminals, it's that they are being let out of jail in less than 24 hours of their arrests (often as little as 4 hours). It is logical that crimes goes up when you don't enforce laws or punish criminals. Those facts aren't fearmongering, they are just fair warning.
 
Olhenry56
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johnireland johnireland
It's easy to say felony assaults have gone down when you simply make them misdemeanors. It isn't that there are more criminals, it's that they are being let out of jail in less than 24 hours of their arrests (often as little as 4 hours). It is logical that crimes goes up when you don't enforce laws or punish criminals. Those facts aren't fearmongering, they are just fair warning.
According to that article's data, the drop (and the recent rise) in felony assaults is pretty closely mirrored by the trends in homicide rates. I don't think falling homicide rates can be attributed to reducing charges to misdemeanors, unless I don't know the legal definition of homicide, which is possible certainly true.
 
abrod520
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johnireland johnireland
It's easy to say felony assaults have gone down when you simply make them misdemeanors. It isn't that there are more criminals, it's that they are being let out of jail in less than 24 hours of their arrests (often as little as 4 hours). It is logical that crimes goes up when you don't enforce laws or punish criminals. Those facts aren't fearmongering, they are just fair warning.

Felony assaults are still felony assaults. Bail reform has nothing to do with the way crimes are charged, only with whether people are held for certain nonviolent low-level crimes. In fact, bail reform laws started being put into place as early as 2011 and most took effect years before the pandemic. Yet crime rates stayed the same back then, suggesting bail reform has absolutely nothing to do with the recent nationwide (read: everywhere, not just places that instituted bail reform) pandemic-related spike in crime rates. Here's Chicago, for instance:

upload_2022-8-5_7-57-15.png


The recent surge in crime rates has more to do with the stress the pandemic caused, both economic and emotional. We've also had a period of increasing economic inequality thanks to the previous presidential administration slashing social program funding resulting in tons more homeless people all over the place.

tl,dr - feelings aren't facts.
 
yipeeyo
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Just stay vigilant and be careful in crowded areas and you should be fine.
 

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