DadTalk

St. Louis Most Dangerous City in 2005; Brick Safest

I was going to post about my birthday, which was on Saturday, but I’m going to delay a day or so because Morgan Quitno has come out with its safest/most dangerous city report, which is especially relevant to parents. Here’s my post last year.

St. Louis topped the list as the most dangerous city in the U.S., which The Washington Post explores here. What is shocking is that crime in this city surged 20 percent from 2004 to 2005 despite spending millions of dollars on urban renewal.

I’ve only been to St. Louis a couple of times two decades ago, but it seemed to me that city was heavily divided by haves and have-nots. Is that still the case?

I’ve never been to the coastal city of Brick, N.J., which was named the safest city in the nation, but it looks like a great place. Brick’s “safety record is impressive, with no murders or rapes reported,” says Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press through a news release. “Brick also boasts the lowest overall violent crime and robbery rates among cities across the nation.” Any readers who can tell us more about the Brick?

Ironically, the very city we moved to, Chicago, was left out of the safe city report because it failed to report rapes according to FBI standards. The town we used to live in, Upland, also seems to be missing.

Without further explanation, here are some key numbers:

10 Safest Overall Cities

1. Brick, NJ
2. Amherst, NY
3. Mission Viejo, CA
4. Newton, MA
5. Troy, MI
6. Colonie, NY
7. Irvine, CA
8. Cary, NC
9. Greece, NY
10. Coral Springs, FL

10 Most Dangerous Cities

1. St. Louis, MO
2. Detroit, MI
3. Flint, MI
4. Compton, CA
5. Camden, NJ
6. Birmingham, AL
7. Cleveland, OH
8. Oakland, CA
9. Youngstown, OH
10. Gary, IN

Possibly because of California’s relative size, it has six cities on the Top 25 Safest list and four in the Most Dangerous list.

Also, my former hometown of Gilbert, Arizona, placed 22nd. Washington, D.C., still remains a relatively dangerous place to live, coming in at 19th on the bad list.

West Palm Beach, Florida – the locale I met my wife – placed 7th in the Most Dangerous category for cities of similar size. Last year it was 2nd.

Below are the Top and Bottom 10 metro areas:

Top 10 Safest Metro Areas

1. Fond du Lac, WI
2. State College, PA
3. Bangor, ME
4. Eau Claire, WI
5. Appleton, WI
6. Sheboygan, WI
7. Bismarck, ND
8. La Crosse, WI-MN
9. Logan, UT-ID
10. Wausau, WI

Top 10 Most Dangerous Metro Areas

1. Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI M.D.
2. Memphis, TN-MS-AR
3. Pine Bluff, AR
4. Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
5. Florence, SC
6. Myrtle Beach, SC
7. Flint, MI
8. Stockton, CA
9. Jackson, TN
10. Shreveport-Bossier City, LA

As you can see, Wisconsin seems to be leading the pack with six metro areas in the Top 10. It only had five last year. The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area, where my mom still lives, continues to fare poorly, which is the 21st most dangerous place to live, though Scottsdale probably ranks higher by itself.

If you are a parent planning to move and you don’t find your city on the list, you can buy the complete digital report for about $2. Before buying the list, be sure to check the included cities list here.

SUVs Safe But Not Safer Than Cars, Study Finds

My mom had a penchant for big GM cars when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. They’re safer she said. It certainly seemed logical enough.

A lot of my friends feel the same way about SUVs. After all, the more metal around you the better, right? That would be true if some of these huge vehicles weren’t prone to rolling over, reports The Associated Press via The Washington Post.

It seems that children are about equally safe in either a passenger car or an SUV, according to the study published in the journal Pediatrics. “We’re not saying they’re worse or that they’re terrible vehicles,” Dr. Dennis Durbin tells The Post. “We’re challenging the conventional wisdom that everyone assumed they were better.”

I’m not sure why researchers were that surprised; Consumer Reports has been warning of rollover dangers for years. It’s partly why we favored the Odyssey Minivan over an SUV.

If you search the web for the safest cars you will find one thing is definite: few people agree on what constitutes a safe car. One useful list might be at Informedforlife.org. They seem to have a pretty good system for calculating risk.

Of 2006 models (pdf), the safest 10 are:

• Acura RL 4-DR w/Side Airbags + w/ESC (Electronic Stability Control)
• Ford Crown Victoria 4-DR w/Side Airbags
• Lincoln Town Car 4-DR w/Side Airbags
• Mercury Grand Marquis 4-DR w/Side Airbags
• Volvo S80 4-DR w/Side Airbags + w/ESC
• Nissan Quest Van w/Side Airbags (Van) + w/ESC
• Acura MDX 4-DR w/Side Airbags + w/ESC (SUV)
• Ford Five Hundred 4-DR w/side airbags
• Mercury Montego 4-DR w/side airbags
• Chrysler 300 4-DR w/Side Airbags + w/ESC

Cars at the bottom of the 2006 list include:

• Honda Insight 2-DR
• Toyota Scion xB 4-DR Station Wagon+ w/ESC
• Mazda B-Series 2-DR (PU)

A number of cars were left off the list because of insufficient data.

Our car, the 2005 Odyssey, came in ninth for its year, so I guess my mom would be proud. Besides, I like knowing my kids are as safe as possible.

Some Cities Are Safer to Raise Kids Than Others

In my life plan, there were several cities I wanted to never live in. The Los Angeles area, where I’ve lived for the last seven years, was one of them.

That may partly explain why I love “quality-of-life rankings.” Here are some factors I take into consideration, though not necessarily in this order:

• Education – preschool to college
• Pollution – clean air
• Access to outdoors, hiking, exploring
• Access to a lake, river or ocean
• Access to arts
• Weather
• Housing
• Employment
• Family friendliness/good neighbors
• Access to our scattered family

But one factor can make all the others collapse: safety. It doesn’t matter how much a town has to offer if parents have to worry about their kids being shot down in the street.

Take Camden, N.J., for example. While the town may be improving itself, there is no way I’d move my family to the nation’s Most Dangerous City, according to Morgan Quitno Press.

Each year this organization compiles crime reports to determine which cities are safest and which are most dangerous. Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb west of Boston, rated safest in this year’s report, which uses 2004 numbers.

“Newton outshines other cities when it comes to fighting crime,” Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press, writes in a press release. “With no murders, as well as the lowest overall crime and motor vehicle theft rates, it ranks as the clear winner in this year’s survey.” Here are some of the results:

Overall Safest Metropolitan Areas
1. Logan, UT-ID
2. Fond du Lac, WI
3. Glens Falls, NY
4. Appleton, WI
5. Sheboygan, WI
6. Columbus, IN
7. La Crosse, WI-MN
8. Oshkosh-Neenah, WI
9. Bangor, ME
10. Bismarck, ND

My brother is going to be very happy to see that his home state of Wisconsin is represented five times on this list.

Overall Most Dangerous Metropolitan Areas
1. Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI M.D.
2. New Orleans, LA
3. Memphis, TN-MS-AR
4. Sumter, SC
5. Miami-Dade County, FL M.D.
6. Stockton, CA
7. Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
8. Florence, SC
9. Hot Springs, AR
10. Myrtle Beach, SC
15. Tucson, AZ
16. Modesto, CA
17. Albuquerque, NM
23. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
25. Los Angeles County, CA

I’m disturbed to see Scottsdale, where my mom lives, on this list, though I suspect Phoenix or Mesa brings down the overall rankings.

Safest Large Cities (over 500,000)
1. San Jose, CA
2. El Paso, TX
3. Honolulu, HI
4. New York, NY
5. Austin, TX
6. San Diego, CA
7. Louisville, KY
8. San Antonio, TX
9. Fort Worth, TX
10. Jacksonville, FL

I would really, really like to live in the San Diego area. Can someone lend me $5 million for a shack?

Most Dangerous Large Cities (over 500,000)
1. Detroit, MI
2. Baltimore, MD
3. Washington, DC
4. Memphis, TN
5. Dallas, TX
6. Philadelphia, PA
7. Columbus, OH
8. Nashville, TN
9. Houston, TX
10. Charlotte, NC

My wife will be sad to know that West Palm Beach, FL, is the second most dangerous city for a town of under 100,000 people.

Other California cities that placed in the top 10 safest include: Thousand Oaks, Irvine, Sunnyvale, Simi Valley, Glendale, San Jose, San Diego, Mission Viejo and Lake Forest.

Most dangerous California towns include: Richmond, Compton, San Bernardino and Oakland.

Anyone planning to move yet?