Yes thats my point for the most part, but this my bad experience wasn't far from Trafalgar and Leicester Squares which are pretty touristy. As for cities, DC is really bad from what I hear. I almost took a job out there and one of the biggest detractors was the crime near the office I would be working at. Again big cities in general could all fit this list. Its subjective to a large extent. People have different experiences. Saying that, New Orleans is a $#!+hole.
I visited New Orleans several times in college. It’s okay as long as you stay in the Quarter (or very near it). We were dumb college kids and picked a hotel in a bad part of town to save money. We figured we would just take the bus downtown… Big mistake. We got off at the wrong stop and were almost robbed before we jumped on the next bus while they were yelling at us. We should’ve known something was wrong when we ordered a pizza and they told us they don’t deliver to that part of town… I lived in Candlelight Oaks Village in Houston. That’s right near Antoine and Tidwell… and Acres Homes. My little neighborhood was okay, but I sure didn’t like driving around at night. Police helicopters flying overhead were a nightly occurrence. Whoever said Houston was filled with nice neighborhoods that were a few feet away from bad neighborhoods nailed it. That’s Houston in a nutshell.
I thought, statistically, Paris wasn't too bad on violent crime. I've never felt particularly unsafe anywhere, but that might be the immortality of youth talking. I've been to many of the places mentioned here -- East St Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Paris, Mexico City, etc -- but never had much trouble nor felt vulnerable. From personal experience, the only time I was threatened with a gun was in Houston and the only time I was physically accosted (outside elementary school) was in Bordeaux. And those both turned out fine.
Umm, the crime in Atlanta is not bad at all. I lived there for 4 years; in fact, I'm in Atlanta right now, just for a day-stop while I'm driving to Houston. Although I hear cars are broken into frequently in downtown Atlanta, there's nothing pervasively violent though.
Last year there were alot of discussion in the european media about gang violence in London but it was mainly in some suburbs I think like in Brixton or Essex (not sure though).
Cali................ Colombia, Right now I'm living in Bogota and its a much safer city. That in itself, says alot.
New Orleans isn't as bad as everyone's making it sound to be. I've never had an issue here. Like all big cities, avoid bad areas and you'll be fine. It's not rocket science.
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Naples, Italy in 1971. Around midnight, while we were having a party in one of our hotel rooms (very old, pretty rundown pensione, not the best part of the city, but cheap), one of us walked out onto the balcony and realized several dudes were trying to break into the VW minivan that belonged to the five guys from Baltimore, plus a fellow from Spain, that I'd become friends with. Having three rooms in a row on the 3rd floor, the eight of us (I had a chick staying with me) quickly lined the railing of a couple of balconies, yelling at the gang to leave the ****ing van alone. They ignored us. All of us, except for the girl, ran down and chased them off, going back upstairs to continue working on a huge glass bottle of wine. It was several liters worth that we'd bought at a wine shop a block over and took a couple of us to carry (I didn't realize it was sold in a "bottle" that large until we discovered it!). They came back. We chased them off again and went upstairs. They came back again. By this time, we were all getting pretty loaded. To my astonishment, one of the guys from Baltimore had a speargun in the back of the van and proceeded to lead a charge after the Italians. We chased them into a bar and the scene quickly turned ugly. A crowd of Italians started yelling at us and, thank god, the Baltimore guy with the speargun decided the better part of valour is discretion, and we all hauled ass, being now chased by a bigger bunch of Naples finest. Two of my friends figured that driving off in the van into the country until morning was a good plan and the rest of us made it into the pensione. The next day, moving on from Naples seemed like a good idea. I still can't figure out how none of us got hurt. I guess the speargun made the difference. I wonder if they ever went diving with it? We split up not long after that, although I saw the Spanish fellow later in Madrid.
That is near Columbia U. I am going to NYC next week and plan to visit there. Is it that bad? Or is it just the time of day?
