Additions to budget: Bullet-proof vest and a case of mace

Mayor Francis Slay did not return calls to his office seeking comment Sunday.

I liked this part............ They wanted to appear to have tried to contact city officials, so they put a call into the mayor's office on Sunday.

The media just keeps getting better and better! :LOL:

Do you think this includes only the Missouri side or also that infamous den of thieves called East St Louis on the Illinois side of the river?
 
youbet said:
Do you think this includes only the Missouri side or also that infamous den of thieves called East St Louis on the Illinois side of the river?
Click to expand...

AFAIK, the statistics NEVER lump together our Eastern brothers and sisters, since there would never be anyone to unseat St. Louis/East St. Louis's dominant role at the top of the "most dangerous city" list for the next 100 years....also, East St. Louis is a city in Illinois, completely separate (thank God!) from our own problems in Missouri.
 
This article and thread are timely for me. My next-door neighbor (78yr-old widow) just got robbed in her home. She answered the front door, where two people kept her talking while another broke in through the back door. Got quite a wad of cash, apparently -- I guess older folks like to keep cash around?

Anyway, this certainly added a factor to my ongoing internal debate about where to retire. I live in a "transitional" neighborhood and it's certainly turned out to be a good investment. And the neighborhood IS improving nicely. However, there are still a few folks around who would like to "transition" residents' assets to themselves, by force if necessary.

How have others factored this type of crime and safety information into their decisions? Has anyone moved in search of a lower crime rate? Anyone worked longer to be able to afford a safer neighborhood? Anyone given up the excitement of city life in favor of rural security? Or has anyone stayed put because culture / weather / friends and family are too good to give up?

(I imagine that some have stayed put and armed themselves -- I'm not really looking for that type of discussion here, though I've contributed to same in the past. I'm wondering about folks who have relocated.)
 
Caroline said:
Anyway, this certainly added a factor to my ongoing internal debate about where to retire.

How have others factored this type of crime and safety information into their decisions? Has anyone moved in search of a lower crime rate? Anyone worked longer to be able to afford a safer neighborhood? Anyone given up the excitement of city life in favor of rural security? Or has anyone stayed put because culture / weather / friends and family are too good to give up?
Click to expand...

My observation is that crime is very much a neighborhood rather than city-wide issue. Analysis of high crime cities (e.g. St Louis took a beating in today's paper) is rarely helpful to an individual. Rural areas seem to attract their own share of crime, and some find the lack of physically close neighbors to be unsettling.

When we moved to Tampa, I read a statistic about very high auto theft statistics in the area where we bought. Only after moving did I realize that a couple miles from us are two of the biggest, fanciest shopping centers in the region. Virtually all the car thefts were in their parking lots, and were actually rather rare compared to other large shopping malls. So you have to know the city well before jumping to conclusions.

Personally, we have not had problems always having lived near the downtown areas of several cities. We take no extraordinary precautions (don't have a security system other than our cowardly but imposing Doberman). Part of it is that we are willing and able to pay more in order to live in lower crime neighborhoods. It has been a good strategy so far. But if our safety were jeopardized beyond a rare and isolated incident I'd certainly consider relocating.
 
I spent several years workin' in Detroit's inner city. I saw crime of all
sorts on a regular basis, including one shooting. A lot of folks I knew
were "packin". Who could blame them?

A brief story. When I was interviewing for the job, one of the salesmen
came up and asked if that was my car with Illinois plates. I said that it
was. He said I should take everything visible out of the car and lock it
in the trunk (this was broad daylight right off a busy street. Otherwise it
WILL be stolen. I thought he was kidding. He wasn't.

JG
 
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