Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35782

Detroit needs to act or it'll be out of the game.

quote:

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Group ranks most dangerous U.S. cities

Camden, New Jersey, named at top of list

CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) -- For the second year in a row this destitute city of Camden, New Jersey, has been named the nation's most dangerous, according to a company's annual ranking based on crime statistics.

Last year, the distinction seemed to hurt city boosters' feelings more than it harmed revitalization efforts. This time, city leaders are offended by the ranking, calling it unfair.

"We're doing so many nice things now. It's unfortunate that somebody always wants to bad-mouth Camden," Mayor Gwendolyn Faison said.

The city took the top spot last year from Detroit, which remained No. 2 in the most dangerous city rankings, to be released Monday by Morgan Quitno Press.

The Lawrence, Kansas-based company publishes "City Crime Rankings," an annual reference book.

Listed as the most dangerous cities are: Camden, New Jersey; Detroit, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; Flint, Michigan; Richmond, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana; Gary, Indiana; Birmingham, Alabama.

At the other end of the scale, the safest are named as: Newton, Massachusetts; Clarkstown, New York; Amherst, New York; Mission Viejo, California; Brick Township, New Jersey; Troy, Michigan; Thousand Oaks, California; Round Rock, Texas; Lake Forest, California; Cary, North Carolina.
Development projects

Camden, a former industrial city across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, is known for a history of corrupt politicians, drug-dealing and murders. It has been among the Top 10 in the most dangerous city rankings in each of the eight years Morgan Quitno released them. By most measures it is also among the nation's poorest.

The state has poured $175 million into the city to spur development projects and take over parts of its government, the city's aquarium doubled in size and a new library and technology center were built. Tourism continues to increase along the river, home to the aquarium, an amphitheater, a minor-league baseball park and a retired battleship.

But about 100 fewer prospective students than expected attended Rutgers University's downtown campus last year, something Provost Roger Dennis attributes to the crime ranking and a serial rapist who assaulted women near and on campus last fall.

Police are now using computers to try to track crime trends, and more officers are patrolling the city's neighborhoods.

Authorities say that has helped drive down the most serious crimes by 18 percent in the first 10 months of 2005 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Some residents say their neighborhoods feel a bit safer.

"I haven't heard that many gunshots," said Gracy Muniz, 22, a mother of three who lives in North Camden.

Critics note that Morgan Quitno's ranking is based on data from last year, when the city of 80,000 averaged a murder a week. Murders from January through October were down by 45 percent compared with the same period in 2004.

Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno, said Friday that while the numbers may not be perfect, they are one of the only ways to compare crime in different cities.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 25502

Those Camdenites sure know how to solve problems.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15074

Why did they move it from London?

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Erehwon
Posts: 7543

because it couldn't compete with Lambeth

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 3102

I'm from Camden!!!

My Camden's better than yours.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: China
Posts: 11795

I saw some local politician on TV blaming it on the fact that there's a subway line between Camden and Philadelphia, and PA has less stringent gun control laws.
Right.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Disgusting den of creepitude
Posts: 10840

Do you think the fact it's in New Jersey has anything to do with it?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35782

One of the safest ten towns in the US is in NJ, too.

Camden is basically between Philly (shithole) and Trenton (shithole), so that presumably doesn't help much. It's poor, too (unlike quite a lot of NJ); Trenton, as state capitol, at least has the benefit of the banditry that the NJ state government practice on the rest of the state, but Camden's not got much of anything (although I do think that the USS New Jersey is there, losing money).

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Denver
Posts: 19781

Oddly enough, on my way home from work today, a car in front of me had a bumper sticker that read "On the New Jersey turnpike, NO ONE can hear you scream."

No real reason for contributing that other than New Jersey.

-m

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Registered: Feb 2004
Location: in colorado somewhere!
Posts: 26797

quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git's article
At the other end of the scale, the safest are named as: Newton, Massachusetts; Clarkstown, New York

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Vote for OBAMA so Wonder can FLY!!!!!!!!!

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Boston, MA, Center of the Universe
Posts: 4538

I lived next to Newton a couple years back. It's exactly the kind of town where you'd love to see some violent crime.

Oh, and this ranking is from the fine folks who brought us the smartest state rankings. According to their website, they're located in Kansas. I was fully expecting to see a Massachusetts address.

At least on the "smartest state" ranking, they made passing mention of the data that were used to formulate their composite index. This one doesn't give any such indications.

Last edited by Cage on 11-22-2005 at 06:39 PM

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35782

On the CNN page that I got it from there was a link to the data (at the time that I looked), but how they weighted it, I'm not sure (presumably a murder counts for more than a rape, for example).

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Boston, MA, Center of the Universe
Posts: 4538

Ah. I just read the abstract on their site.

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