<p>Everyone seems to be obsessed with the latest i-whatever, and doesn't care.</p>
<p>well I know I read that people were upset that Phillys mayor was in line the other day- They have had 200 murders.</p>
<p>Philly is up to 202 killings so far this year, but it is a bit larger than Baltimore (not that that is any excuse for also having murder rates higher than anywhere else in the civilized world).</p>
<p>As a City of Baltimore native, I'm especially sad to read about this. I felt, growing up, that Baltimore was a city with northern problems and a southern pace to address them. </p>
<p>But why is this posted on a college chat-site, I wonder?</p>
<p>^^^ Lots of people here are interested in JHU.</p>
<p>JHU is located on upper Charles Street in one of the wealthiest, classiest neighborhoods in Baltimore, "Roland Park." </p>
<p>The JHU hospital and medical school are located downtown in a very tough neighborhood where it could be an issue walking to parking lots late at night.</p>
<p>But a world of difference between these two locations.</p>
<p>This is how it was when I grew up in the l960's. </p>
<p>Updates much appreciated.</p>
<p>The area around JHU is very safe still. Two blocks in certain directions, though, will take you into some sketchier parts of town. That said: </p>
<p>Baltimore's high homicide numbers come from places 99.9% of people at JHU will never see. Parts of the city are like a third world country...but not anywhere college students would be venturing. The hotspots for students in Baltimore are the inner harbor, Fells point, Mount Vernon, Little Italy, etc. The best concert venues and restaurants are in excellent parts of town, and there are so many safe, up-and-coming neighborhoods with tons of things to do. That said, it's disheartening to see that while so much of Baltimore is becoming "yuppie-ized", the worst places are just getting worse.</p>
<p>B-more is safe, just don't walk anywhere. There no bad side or good side, instead there are bad corners and good corners. Also the County cool and it's not far.</p>
<p>Only because PosterX appears fixated on crime statistics in Philly, Baltimore and NYC, he may want to take another look at New Haven. <a href="http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-ap-nh-shooting-0702,0,4363549.story%5B/url%5D">http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-ap-nh-shooting-0702,0,4363549.story</a>
<a href="http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-13074618.apds.m0506.bc-ct--newhjun13,0,5441638.story%5B/url%5D">http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-13074618.apds.m0506.bc-ct--newhjun13,0,5441638.story</a>
Again I attended Columbia at a time of record crime in NYC and was never a victim or a witness to violence. Its about being street smart and aware. I've been to JHU 7 or 8 times and never felt unsafe in or around campus even late at night.</p>
<p>I agree that it's about being street smart and aware: I have also lived in "bad" sections of New York and have had no problems. While we are on the topic of murders, why not expand the analysis so it covers the whole country: here are murder rates by 200 major metropolitan areas. Iowa, Connecticut, Maine and Nebraska are the only multi-metropolitan states that have all of their cities among the 50 safest cities in the country. <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=3998177&postcount=30%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=3998177&postcount=30</a>. Of course, the above information is a year or two out of date - places like Providence, Baltimore and Philadelphia are now much worse. Regarding just this year, New Haven, a metro with nearly a million people, has only had six or seven killings so far - a VERY far cry from the:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>At least 203 so far in Philly,</p></li>
<li><p>At least 160(?) in Baltimore (see <a href="http://www.baltimorecrime.blogspot.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.baltimorecrime.blogspot.com/</a> for the latest in dozens of shootings and killings, including a 13 year old gunned down and killed at her mother's ice cream truck), not to mention several dozen in the surrounding "County" area,</p></li>
<li><p>200+ in New York (including tons over the weekend, and two people shot on a playground right in the Upper East Side),</p></li>
<li><p>Dozens of killings in Boston (they are up to about 35 so far). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Also, you have to consider that in a larger city, a much larger proportion of killings are random and about 50% go unsolved; killings in smaller cities and towns are almost always among people who know each other very well (i.e., family or gang members) and nearly 100% are solved.</p>
<p>"New Haven, a metro with nearly a million people"
No the 6-7 killings are in a population of 130,000. Statistics are for New Haven itself. I live here in CT. My point is that this is College Confidential. These are scary statistics especially if you are Black and poor. Back in the 1970s my friend got mugged twice(!) on the way to his interview at Yale. He had to explain to the second mugger that the first one had taken all his money. However I would not hesitate to send my child to Yale today as I consider it to be very safe. Note that New York City is on track for its lowest murder rate ever and yet also has drug and unemployment problems. Perhaps the key here is for sociologists to study what NYC is doing right and what Baltimore is doing wrong.</p>
<p>Five more dead this weekend, bringing the number of Baltimore murders to 175 so far this year (after another yesterday). Plus, leaving Baltimore to go out to the 'burbs is no walk in the cake, either: there were another half dozen murders in the surrounding county. </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.baltimorecrime.blogspot.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.baltimorecrime.blogspot.com/</a> , 20 Baltimore children have been killed recently (see Sept. 12th entry) and the homicide total is around 220 just for the first half of the year.</p>
<p>However, Philadelphia just had its 300th murder of the year. New York's homicide total is up to about 330 this year, but it is 4x the size of Philly. </p>
<p>The safest cities are still tending to be in New England, e.g., Boston, with "only" 52 murders so far this year, and Providence, Stamford, Cambridge, New Haven, Northampton, Ithaca, etc., all with 10 or fewer.</p>
<p>People aren't going to move in when the violence is so bad, unfortunately. There are more vacant buildings than in New Orleans!!! Released today, in a NYT story:</p>
<p>"Top" ten cities in the U.S. in terms of Vacant Houses per 100 people:</p>
<p>St Louis 3.7
Buffalo 3.4
Baltimore 3.2
Gary, Indiana 2.5
Philadelphia 2.5
Pittsburgh 2.4
New Orleans 2.2
Dayton 2.0
Savannah 1.8
Kansas City 1.8</p>