<p>NEW HAVEN, Conn. (1010 WINS/AP) -- An early morning shooting has left two people dead and a third critically wounded in New Haven.</p>
<p>Police say the shootings happened between 3:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. Saturday on County Street. Two of the victims were transported to a local hospital by ambulance, the third arrived in a private car.</p>
<p>Police have not released any details about the shooting, or the names of the victims. They say all of those shot were in their 20s.</p>
<p>i dont know how people will respond but i would guess some will say new haven is not safe etc etc</p>
<p>look on the news and see how many people have been shot in NYC, philly, la, chicago etc
not saying new haven is beautiful- but its not what id call a dangerous city</p>
<p>Wneckid, i understand where you are coming from (the countless threads bashing the town surrounding yale), but you still can't justify the fact that two people were murdered by saying oh well it happens more in nyc, philly, etc. A murder is a murder, no matter where it happens, and it would be right to raise the issue of the safety of the particular town it happened in.</p>
<p>This obviously didn't happen "near yale." We get campus wide police report emails every time there's violent crime anywhere near campus, and i got no such email. Something happening in new haven does not mean it happened near yale... new haven is a big city, and yale is in the safest part of the city (because of the security measures yale takes). There are always going to be murders in cities, that doesn't mean that yale students are in mortal peril or people should be afraid of violent crime at yale. Obviously whoever wrote this post is trying to scare people by sensationalizing an unfortunate inevitability of urban life. Personal safety shouldn't be a worry when considering yale. While errant burglaries do happen (although mostly in off campus housing), these are in no way yale specific. People make new haven seem as if it's some sort of seething nest of crime. Having lived here for a year, i can assure you that it's as safe as any other city, and if you're smart you're extremely unlikely to have problems. Lock your doors, don't walk alone at night, don't get mixed up in illegal activities (ie, basic common sense), and you're not going to have problems. </p>
<p>College Yahoo, i don't appreciate you trying to distort the truth and make Yale seem unsafe. It's deceitful and patently false.</p>
<p>Yeah it's a little unfair to say that all of New Haven = Yale...believe it or not, Yale does not take up the entirety of the city...</p>
<p>Like any city, New Haven has "good areas" and "bad areas"...the area where that shooting happened (near County St. and Whalley) is a well-known not-so-great neighborhood, and really not anywhere where Yale students go, let alone live. The actual Yale campus is pretty safe. Generalizing the whole city is like saying that a crime in Morningside Heights happened near NYU. Different neighborhoods are like different worlds in cities...</p>
<p>I agree with kwijiborjt that Yale is safe if you pay attention to safety and use some common sense. That said, I think it's worth pointing that these murders did NOT happen very far from the Yale campus - just about three or four blocks up from the Payne Whitney Gym. Which should serve as a reminder that if you wander off campus in the wrong direction, you can end up pretty quickly in a neighborhood where you don't want to be. </p>
<p>The Yale campus is well policed, and there are a number of areas off campus that are fine, but there are other areas not too far from campus that are not safe at all and that you should absolutely avoid. I don't mean to suggest that anyone should not go to Yale because of safety concerns. But if you're going to Yale (or any other college in an urban environment), please figure out early on where you should and shouldn't be.</p>
<p>Good advice, but it is also important to remember the relative dangers. You are much worse off going to a suburban or rural campus, where you will be tempted to drive more often, than you are going to an urban school like, say, Harvard, Yale, Northwestern, Georgetown, NYU or Columbia (even though a student was murdered right by the Morningside Heights campus just a few weeks ago in a robbery). Overall, your risk of death or injury in a motor vehicle accident is 100-200 times greater than your risk from random street crime. Of course, crime and auto accidents can happen anywhere, whether you are on an urban or a rural campus, so you have to be careful regardless. But, to be completely rational, the best way to be safe is to go somewhere where you won't be tempted to set foot in a car.</p>
<p>I have looked very closely at traffic safety and crime statistics to form this opinion. I've also taken my own experience as an example - of the hundreds and hundreds of college students & college graduates that I know well, I can name at least 10 who died or were seriously injured in auto accidents, almost all of whom were driving in suburban or rural areas (where not only do you drive more, but speeds are higher; just three or four MPH = exponential increase in death risk). It is very sad to lose your friends in this way. I only know of one person who was injured in a crime -- he was punched randomly while walking through Harlem late at night. I know people who have lived in the "worst" neighborhoods of various major cities including New York, New Haven, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Syracuse, New Orleans, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles for decades, and have never had a problem with crime. As long as you aren't a drug dealer or prostitute, etc., you are very unlikely to be affected by crime. You can reduce your risk even more if you just pay close attention to your surroundings, whether you are in a deserted suburban campus or in a vibrant, thriving downtown area like NYC, Boston or New Haven with million dollar condos, 24/7 eateries and hundreds upon hundreds of restaurants lining the streets.</p>
<p>So bottom line, be careful out there no matter what you do, but don't have completely irrational fears (like the OP seems to).</p>
<p>You should also avoid colleges near rivers, because if you get drunk and fall off a bridge, you could drown. That's why Harvard is so dangerous.</p>
<p>It's definitely all a matter of common sense.
When you start sensing that the buildings around you are getting seedier and seedier, get out.
The immediate area around Yale is safe. Just a few days ago I was out with friends at 3AM on the Broadway strip eating pizza :)</p>
<p>Okay, I know I'm being a nervous parent-type here, but when I see advice like Halcykon's, it makes me worry. The Broadway strip, which literally borders the campus, is okay, but if you go up Whalley or Goffe just a few blocks from there, you're right where the murders occurred. Please don't trust your sense of when the buildings around you are "getting seedier". Figure out in advance what areas you should be avoiding, and avoid them. Don't make your mother worry! :)</p>
<p>I just mean in general. There's always a vibe to the immediate environment, so you should know what your next decision is.</p>
<p>Of course it's always best to prepare in advance, but the resources to obtain that information isn't always so easy to come across. I have never found a map that told me the boundaries of crossing from non-seedy to seedy areas. (Isn't that relative, anyhow? And what about the areas that are in between?)</p>
<p>cosar, my point was that every time you're out on the streets, you should always be aware of the surroundings (use those street-smarts!)
And as always, travel in a group.</p>
<p>Yale students are unlikely to be wandering unfamiliar streets in New Haven in the middle of the night, anyway. Where would they be going? Most Yale students will never set foot in the area in question.</p>
<p>'You should also avoid colleges near rivers, because if you get drunk and fall off a bridge, you could drown. That's why Harvard is so dangerous.' -Hunt</p>
<p>Yeah...that area is a 10-15 min walk from the edge of campus, and more from where students actually live. There's nothing in there that students would want to go to anyway. To be honest, the off-campus areas that students frequent are (click on the map link) west out to Howe Street, south down to George, and east to Orange. Everyone here knows that if you walk down Dixwell far enough you get into some pretty bad neighborhoods. I don't know any reason why some Yale undergrad would walk down that way. </p>
<p>Also, cosar, the actual Broadway area is safe, especially if you're in a group. Yes, if you walk a few blocks away on Whalley you get into some bad neighborhoods, but honestly no one does that. There's nothing there that students would want, especially at odd hours at night. A healthy dose of common sense is all you really need...like, don't walk alone at night off-campus and don't wander into areas that are really sketchy. It's the same as any city.</p>
<p>Yes, I thought that was what I had said. The Broadway area is fine. And you're right that most any Yale student will know not to go wandering from there up Whalley or Dixwell or Goffe. But that's because they've been told or figured out that it's not safe to do so - and, as you point out, because there's nothing to draw them in that direction. As a general rule of thumb, I would say you should not be wandering into any neighborhood you're not familiar with if you're not sure whether it's safe. So yes, basically just a healthy dose of common sense.</p>