<p>i haven't visited the campus yet, so i don't know what the surrounding neighborhood is like. is it really as bad as everyone says it is?</p>
<p>and if so, how do you stay safe?</p>
<p>Yes, it’s bad, but in daylight with precaution - it’s safe. At night, it’s definitely not. </p>
<p>If you use common sense, you’ll be fine. A car would be nice so you can venture out into the rest of LA.</p>
<p>Suzan,
Please use the search function as this subject has been discussed endlessly. SC is an urban university. The unpleasant fact is in today’s world there is no campus that is completely safe. College students can be seen wearing expensive watches, listening with an I-Pod and carryring a valuable laptop. Unfortunately, they are targeted by criminals. Even small colleges in rural areas are not immune from crime.</p>
<p>After visiting parts of Philadelphia and Newark SC appears to be more of a working class neighborhood in comparison. Georgia Tech, Loyola of Chicago, Tulane, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Univ. of Chicago are all urban universities. </p>
<p>As in all urban areas one should take precautions after dark. SC has all sorts of security measures in place. Students who stroll blocks from campus late at night returning from a party…alone are not using common sense. Many prominent people send daughters to SC, including the Governor of California. </p>
<p>If you check out the common data set on representative colleges there is information about campus crime.</p>
<p>oh come on people! The surrounding isn’t that bad at all! I mean it depends on how far out you are going. Up to a couple blocks away from the campus, it is nice but if you go further than that, it is not really safe. The only thing I didn’t like about the surroundings was the abundance of junk food restaurants.</p>
<p>seriously… where are you all from? the neighborhood is not that bad at all, in fact pretty average for such an urban school! You just have to have common sense and don’t walk blocks away, ALONE, with white ipod headphones in and carrying a Gucci purse. If you need to go farther than a couple blocks call campus cruiser they’ll drive you, the campus itself is beautiful and great, and mostly gated off with security all over the place</p>
<p>im from Philadelphia… seriously guys… ANY CITY is going to have crime. just be aware of what youre dong and your surroundings… think about how many people go to USC… theyre still alive and fine. just be smart</p>
<p>common sense is the best weapon against any stupidity.
no offense to the people who have been a victim of crime at USC but sometimes they just ask for it?</p>
<p>IE.the girl who passed away from a hit n run
walking around at 3 am? what do you expect…?
RIP to her though. </p>
<p>or people getting their phones/laptops jacked when they walk around flashing their ipods and iphones. do you really have to respond to that text RIGHT NOW? </p>
<p>whats even funnier is that UCLA has a higher crime rate and they’re in a better area. LACK OF COMMON SENSE.</p>
<p>The area north of campus is heavy populated by students, most of the student housing is there and you will see people around almost 24/7. South of campus, there’s really no reason to be there. Definitely don’t go south of the Coliseum at night. West and East are kind of like North, except less so.</p>
<p>I was walking around the USC campus at about 4AM once for Explore USC, coming in from Hawaii. (The stupid airport shuttle didn’t want to reschedule.) I was literally scared out of my mind. I had my pen/stabbing tool on my hand and a phone with 911 already dialed–all i had to do was press the CALL button. But…nothing happened. 
There are some homeless people around, but they’re nothing to be scared of. In the end, I found a gas station and the uber nice gentleman let me loiter around there. ^_^</p>
<p>Yeah Mid-City/Crenshaw isn’t an awesome area and I wouldn’t hang around there with expensive stuff at night, but really, white people are pretty safe compared to blacks and hispanics. There is a much lower chance of white people being banged on since they are not included in the gang culture while blacks and hispanics are. </p>
<p>Exposition and West Adams are a lot safer to be out on at night than the neighborhoods, stay away from those. Really though, its not that bad. LA has really cleaned up since the riots.</p>
<p>I’ve lived around here my whole life. My friends have been banged on a couple of times because they were black wearing some cap that identifies with a set. So yes avoid baseball caps if you are black. Also no dominant blue and red clothes when you’re out walking around at night if you are black. The USC red is a bit of problem, be warned. If you have a car don’t drive around slowly <– big mistake.</p>
<p>I’ve always heard that “USC’s in the ghetto” and “It’s such a bad neighborhood” etc. but honestly when I was at Explore, I felt extremely safe so some of these posts (from current students I’m assuming) do surprise me. Granted, I didn’t walk around outside of campus at nighttime while I was at Explore, but I got to see a bit of the immediate surrounding area through the neighborhood bus tour. And from what I saw (in the daytime), the IMMEDIATE area seemed pretty normal, not sketchy or anything. But yes, I would agree with everyone that if you wanted to go farther from the school whether during the day or at night, the wise thing to do is to take a car, campus cruiser, etc. Isn’t that pretty much the logical thing to do anyway? (Forgive me if I’m assuming, but I’ve only grown up in mid-sized cities where people just don’t walk around that much.)</p>
<p>I have been living around the USC area for almost 6 years, and I don’t necessarily agree with the 2 above posts. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Let’s talk about the area USC students stay, play and whatever. There is no more than a couple of homeless people hanging around. I mean it, within the 2 miles by 2 miles square of UV.</p></li>
<li><p>We are not in the MidCity/Crenshaw area. There is some non-student black/Hispanic young people living in the area students live, but they are nice to USC students, and they are not necessarily bad people. I never heard people getting hurt because they wear a cap or red clothes around USC campus.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are driving around slowly, you most likely get hunted down by LAPD or USC DPS. So, you can, if you don’t mind being questioned. In fact, 99% of crimes are committed by people driving by here from other places. And they are very few. I saw many times a couple of kids got circled by DPS or LAPD cars, even they are just playing with their long boards. They are identifiably different from students and other working class people living here. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>cowman809 must be talking about a different place.</p>
<p>blissfulting,
Your feeling is correct. The posts which surprised you also surprise me. It’s like they are telling me I don’t know the place I have been living the whole time. The only answer is they are not living here, they are not the students here, and they don’t really know.</p>
<p>Edit: Also, that airport shuttle story is extremely contradictory to my experiences. Let’s say this way, NO shuttle driver from the airport doesn’t know where to drop people coming to USC. The couple of “homeless” people may be some Indian or Chinese international students working overnight in the library?:)</p>
<p>Is figueroa/ the area around radisson safe? I have a class that ends at 10 and i was wondering if that counts as late.</p>
<p>I know about all of the warnings about safety in the nearby area, but I do have a question as well. I’m really into running. Usually I run for say 6 or so miles and I really like to run outside through whatever area I’m in. Do you think that the neighborhoods around USC that are safe enough to run around by myself in during the morning/daytime? If anything, is there enough of an area of USC-cushioning (I guess the term I’m inventing to describe areas where it’s strictly USC students and I shouldn’t feel threatened in) around USC to comprise a decent amount of distance?</p>
<p>@BitteOrca Your best bet is probably north of campus, a good boundary would be a little past the Row on 28th street (maybe on Adams?) and west of Figueroa, where most of the student apartments/houses are. Directly west of campus there are also some student houses but there are also many commercial stores, which would attract non-students (which might make the area a little less safe). East of campus I would not suggest past Figueroa… pretty sketchy since it is towards the warehouse areas. South of campus is the Science Center / Coliseum and museums. I would not go south of that area.</p>
<p>a lap around campus (expo/fig/jefferson/vermont) is about 2 miles. if you were go further north and weave through some of the blocks directly north of campus you’d probably be ok during the daytime.</p>
<p>Common sense should be able to dictate what’s safe and what is it. Danger is very low in the daytime, though going off campus in a group instead of alone is always a good idea, no matter what the time. The area north of campus, which is almost completely student housing, is probably the safest, even after dark. There’s a lot of volunteer watchmen and women who have direct lines to the police, and with one on every corner, crime is much lower. There’s also a well lit walkway between campus and the row, and with those folks patrolling, I’ve walked safely home alone from a party that way at 2 am (though in hindsight this was probably a poor choice and I wouldn’t recommend it).</p>
<p>Your bet to get anywhere after dark is Campus Cruiser. I’m a driver and you want our number (213-740-4911) on your speed dial! We’ll get you safely home from a party, late night studying, or evening classes. Using cruiser after dark and common sense about certain areas in the day will guarantee safety.</p>
<p>There is definitely crime in the neighborhoods surrounding campus, but for the most part folks causing trouble leave students alone. There were several large-scale riots in the 60s and 90s, and campus and students were left untouched, because the university brings in so many positive things for the neighborhood, and residents respect that. </p>
<p>My biggest complaint is that there’s little shopping or fine dining around campus. There’s cheap stores in the UV and mostly fast food on Figueroa. Safety-wise, just use Cruiser and a little common sense and you’ll be fine!</p>
<p>My Cruiser friends would also say that you should take a tram if there’s one available. What’s your number?</p>
<p>As for running, Expo to Fig to adams and them back down on Vermont looks good.</p>