Reply to City people... when is enough enough re: crime

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t quite understand the argument that people should leave the city due to crime, when suburbs also have troubling crime? People are cherry picking a scenario where a family is living in east Capitol Hill (which, yes, has seen a troubling crime uptick) and moving to, like, Olney or Potomac or somewhere with less crime.

We live in NE DC and while there is crime and we don’t like it, the suburbs we can afford and that make sense in terms of commute have similar crime problems. There are upsetting violent crimes in places like Wheaton, Hyattsville, Arlington, etc., all the time. Our friends in the suburbs complain about carjackings and shootings near their homes. The gun laws in VA make a lot of people (me included) anxious about gun violence there.

We are looking to move out of DC due to the school issues, [b]but don’t view there to be a clear difference in crime between where we live in DC and where we might move in MD or VA.[/b] Many close in suburbs have fairly similar crime stats to where we live now, and moving very far out means spending a lot more time commuting (plus worrying about traffic accidents with all the added car time).[/quote]

There is absolutely a difference between urban areas and suburbs with mostly educated families.  White flight is a real thing.  If you move to most suburbs or towns you’ll find a local government that does everything it can to fight and prevent crime along with zoning and other laws to keep crime out.  The best way to avoid crime is to not live anywhere close to public transportation and to not live where there is inexpensive housing.  [/quote]

This is contradictory. If public transit and density lead to crime, then your point about how there’s “absolutely” a difference between the city and suburbs in this respect is false.

Many parts of MoCo are denser and have more public transit than parts of DC. Foxhall has lower crime than Wheaton. But someone who can afford to live in Foxhall isn’t going to move to Wheaton, and vice versa.

But someone who lives in Petworth and is tired of crime probably can’t afford Foxhall or, importantly, its suburban counterparts (Falls Church). The could probably afford a neighborhood like Homewood, between Kensington and Wheaton. It’s less dense than Petworth but only a bit, and crime in and around Wheaton metro will be on their radar. How much have the won in terms of less crime in this deal? Maybe a bit. But say it adds 30 minutes to their commute daily. Worth it? For many people: no.

This is not the no-brainer y’all make it out to be.[/quote]
As someone who used to live in Homewood, there is a big difference between a neighborhood like that and Petworth. It is about 2 miles from the Wheaton metro station so there is a buffer from the crime there, it is also basically equidistant to the much safer Forest Glen station. The crime at Wheaton mall would be a much bigger issue (although I went to that Target and Costco all the time), but you could avoid that by not shopping at that Giant, going to the Starbucks on Connecticut instead, and going to the Target just off Rockville Pike. You can walk your dog at after dark in the neighborhood without being fearful. The only crime that was persistent in the neighborhood in all the years I lived there was cars being rifled through if you left them unlocked. All of this is a far cry from Petworth. [/quote]

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