This year, New Orleans tops CQ Press' lists of most dangerous cities in America. The top 10 are:
1. New Oreans
2. Camden, N.J.
3. Detroit, Mich.
4. St. Louis, Mo.
5. Oakland, Calif.
6. Flint, Mich.
7. Gary, Ind.
8. Birmingham, Ala.
9. Richmond, Calif.
10. North Charleston, S.C.
The complete list of 385 ranked cities is here. Some controversy exists over how the data is interpreted. CQ Press bases its rankings on FBI reports of the previous year's crime statistics, and the FBI even warns about using the data to make city-to-city comparisons because cities gather crime information differently. Population also may greatly affect this data and CQ Press notes that severe changes in population in post-Katrina New Orleans may have affected the data.
San Diego, where I'm based, is ranked 184.
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Comments
2. Camden, N.J. - one word, gangs.
3. Detroit, Mich. - Always in the top 5, always will be.
4. St. Louis, Mo. - believe it or not, I used to work for a company based out St. Louis and Kansas City and I didn't realize what gang problems they have there too.
5. Oakland, Calif. - gangs
6. Flint, Mich. - gangs
7. Gary, Ind. - probably just tired of living in a Red State (Ooooops, FORMER red state.)
8. Birmingham, Ala. - crackas and poverty
9. Richmond, Calif. - no idea.
10. North Charleston, S.C. - poverty and segragation
I can't believe Atlanta and Memphis aren't on the list. I've lived in one and visit the other often and they are HIGH crime areas. I guess it's per capita.
rated
Gangs.
What does that say about us?
Oakland is too close to some other great places for me.
Were you raised in Oakland? That would explain it.
We have a very long weekend planned for May, crime or no crime.
When I go international the Athens airport must be the first stop ;0)
Maybe I can stop worrying about whether the car is locked up or not now.
"The methodology for determining America’s Safest City and Metro Area involves a multi-step process. First, 2006 city and metro area crime rates per 100,000 population (the most recent comparable final numbers available, released by the FBI in September 2007) for six basic crime categories — murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft — were plugged into a formula that measured how a particular city or metro area compared to the national average for a given crime category. The outcome of this equation was then multiplied by a weight assigned to each of the six crime categories. Each of the six crimes was given equal weight. By weighting each crime equally, cities are compared based purely on their crime rates and how they stack up to the national average for a particular crime category. These weighted numbers then were added together for a city or metro area’s final score. Finally, these scores were ranked from lowest to highest to determine which cities and metropolitan areas were safest and most dangerous."