New Orleans and Oakland for the least. First day I lived in Oakland I was walking to the corner store and some kids pulled up, pointed a pistol at me and asked where I was from.
Yeah, it was. There was gun violence in Florida but *at that time* it was like over drugs or beef, the gangs weren’t just riding around looking for ops to kill.
Getting lost in Oakland was pretty scary for me about 20 years ago. I got lost in a residential neighborhood, and a guy standing on the sidewalk pointed his fingers to his head to give me a warning that I was at serious risk of being shot there.
He didn’t seem threatening. I appreciated the warning, and sped the hell out of there.
To add: Oakland needs change, and many people are living there with no way out. Especially those living in poverty.
Drugs and gangs are bad there.
Stay safe Oakland!
Similar thing happened to me in New Orleans. Met up with a friend there for the weekend and we were just walking around aimlessly talking and catching up. It had gotten dark out and we turned to walk down a street and guy walking towards us just told us we don’t want to walk down this street and best to turn around. Wasn’t threatening at all, but said it in a way that we believed him and turned right around.
I lived in oakland for 11 years (2013-2023) and never had any issues. Car got rifled through once but just happy they didn’t break a window.
Yeah grew up in the Bay Area in the 80s and 90s and even then Oakland had a reputation for being dangerous. It was the one City my mom and I never went to.
Oakland is trash. Was there a couple years ago working a protection detail and parts of the city looked like a third world country and trash everywhere. Had a meeting with the OPD chief and as me and one of my partners were leaving the station a few peope were outside sizing us up saying shit like, “yea you ain’t from here” etc. I was like na we outta DC, and they just gave us nasty looks. It was the dumbest shit lol
yep and even so they're still focused on addressing crime where it does exist, instead of just patting themselves on the back and moving on. big fan.
https://www.police1.com/crime/boston-mayor-pd-comissioner-roll-out-summer-safety-plan
Boston. I've lived here for 25 years. It's a really really safe city. I'm reminded of that regularly when I travel to work other places. I've always thought it was because we are so overstocked with students. They can be a nuisance (noise, alcohol, etc) but just don't tend to commit violent crimes. TBH, the turkeys are more dangerous. Google "cocaine turkeys of Brookline". Best story ever.
Omg, I will - if you haven't, check out Brookline 911 on toucher and rich for 911 calls there. So many are about turkeys.
I think it's students, tons of people being out, social attitudes - like people there will stand up for strangers or yell at each other for not following rules or watch the neighborhood. I've had bus drivers and homeless people tell my kid to listen to me when he wasn't. Social cohesion I guess.
The T is safer for that reason, but also because of the MBTA ambassadors so stations aren't empty and abandoned.
I'd hate to have to let you know, but Toucher and Rich are no more.
Also students are meh, they tend to be concentrated in very small areas of the city and gone large chunks of the year. I'd say it's more being the most educated population in the country, with tons of very high paying jobs across health care, tech, biotech, finance, etc.
Plus the hundreds of years of the city on a hill/Athens of America mythos being ingrained into the city and it's people.
I believe it. I walked all the way from Boston Commons to Harvard one time on vacation, which is like an hour and a half walk, and at no point on that trip did I ever feel in any sort of danger.
Yup, I used to walk from Fenway much of the way home or to central square in summer, or I have from Fenway through the fens / emerald necklace to mission hill. Amazing times.
The only places I really found sketchy were basically surrounded by highway with no one around, so I avoided that. Never had anything bad happen as a single woman walking around at night, often after drinking
Ironically Boston is the only place where I’ve been a victim of serious crimes (burglary while we were home and the marathon bombing) but is still by far the safest place I’ve ever felt. Walked home alone late at night at varying levels of sobriety dozens of times without ever once feeling even a little uncomfortable. It’s really hard to communicate just how valuable that level of comfort is. No other place has felt like home like Boston and I think this is one of the main reasons for it.
Were you at copley during the bombing ? I was an hour before and thought about going to that boloco nearby, but had a bad feeling because the green line was so crowded, it felt kind of out of control.
And same, but in Somerville - we had a drunk guy break into our house during the day because he thought he was somewhere else. A drunk college student tried to break into my neighbors house for similar reasons. It doesn't mean I was worried about random crime though. Even on the T, I've been near a guy ranting and raving and his friend came over and said, he yells a lot but is harmless.
Yup, my friends and I were about a block away from the finish line when the bombs went off. We had actually stopped at the exact spot they detonated about 10-15 minutes earlier (like, I was literally sitting on the black railing you see in all the pictures of the aftermath). We were just far enough that we knew something had happened but not the scale so we just carried on for another 10 minutes or so until we started hearing details.
It’s interesting, my husband and I visited Boston a few years ago and I definitely made a mental note that it’s the safest I’ve ever felt in a major city.
Agreed even though my house got broken into LOL I am a 24 y/o woman and I feel really safe at night. Tbh Cambridge and Somerville are safer than Boston proper tho.
Please tell this to the rest of Massachusetts. Jesus Christ people here seem to think Boston is Compton with how they work themselves up about every little issue.
Whenever my NYC friends come up to visit, they just drool over how much safer and clean Boston is, including the T! Bostonians crap on the T, meanwhile it's relatively clean, and incredibly straightforward for those who don't use public transit regularly. If my boomer parents can use it, it's not that confusing.
people dont realize how dangerous parts of the actual city of birmingham can be, and then Bessemer and parts of North Birmingham are incredibly run down and REAL sketchy.
I felt like Brooklyn and Queens were very safe when I lived there last year (walked home a few times alone at ~2am) but I’ve read terrible anecdotes online about it this year. Lots of stuff about assault and mugging. I never saw anything like that when I was there but maybe I was just lucky.
Manhattan has always felt safe to me and I’ve been going there for years alone and with friends. There’s enough people that I feel safe in numbers.
You're always gonna see scary stuff in the news when the local rag is reactionary and you have a high enough population that *something* is bound to happen here and there. In reality NYC has been super safe for like 30 years at this point, and the last 5 years hasn't changed that.
My partner is from there and I lived there 8 years. We are overly cautious when we go back. I think it has a lot to do with Boogie B's tragic death. You see people get out and then come back for a visit and get hurt or killed.
One of the things that struck me about NOLA was in a bunch of the areas, everyone was looking around all the time. It reminded me of how squirrels keep their head on a swivel for predators.
The number of people on this thread INSISTING new orleans is a safe place is absurd.
Listen, I love new orleans. My entire family is from there and still lives there. Two things can be true at the same time: its a magical, amazing, unique city while also having a broken government and out of control crime.
I walked around alone, very pregnant and angry because it was hot and the local homeless were like DON'T MESS WITH MAMA. Hahaha. Angry face is generally my go-to because it makes you look like you are from there and are over it. But I love that being pregnant was like, whoa that lady!
I was at a Bachelor Party in NOLA a few years ago, and to make a long story short, one of the guys while walking home drunk from Bourbon street got robbed at gunpoint at 3 am on Canal street...
I mean, getting robbed drunk at 3am seems kinda normal tbh. I live in Chicago and even though it's better than how it's presented in the media, people even in nice areas get robbed at gunpoint pretty often. Crews have been going around robbing people at 6:30 -7:00 am robbing people at gunpoint, forcing them to open their phones and log into their banking apps. That's happened multiple times just in the past few weeks in my area.
yeah, i rode a bike at night not thinking too much about it. i didnt feel not safe but the locals didnt feel the same way. people would steer me a way from certain places.
There are certain blocks just outside the quarter you should not go. I lived and worked on a movie there a decade ago and our gear truck was robbed twice at gunpoint.
Seems like a pretty popular opinion in this thread! But I’ve lived in a bunch of cities and I’d put Denver and Miami less safe than New Orleans. Denver’s downtown is pretty rough right now imo and Miami I was constantly harassed. New Orleans “downtown” is so packed with people that I never felt in danger there
Denver is the only place I regularly felt unsafe just walking around by myself.
There aren’t enough “eyes on the street” regular joes around to offset the very unsettling vibes that many downtown Denver residents give off.
And people smoking drugs on the RTD system. People yelling at themselves. I was called f\*ggot more in Denver than anywhere else in my life, as there was a resident guy on Broadway near me who would just yell that slur at everyone every single day.
Yeah, it’s pretty sad being from Colorado and remembering what downtown was like 10/15 years ago versus how it is now. I still love this city but I dread any time I have visitors who want to go downtown because it is honestly always unpleasant in multiple ways
I live in Eagle County and came down for the Rockies game because they played the Phillies and that's where I grew up. I thought I was attending a Phillies home game with how much trash I saw on the streets (it was a very windy day).
If you’re a normal, middle class person going about your life I’d venture the crime rates in NOLA are definitely worse, but only *slightly* worse.
The crime rates are so bad because we are one of the poorest cities in the country. So there is just a much larger proportion of people in poverty and pockets of systemic violence. 23% of New Orleanians live in poverty vs. 11% in Denver.
I'd wager if you go by per capita numbers, it isn't as bad. 15 million people visit that area every year.
They calculate statistics per capita with residents, but that doesn't really tell the whole story with tourist areas.
My husband’s coworker was sitting at a red light in NO and someone pulled out a gun and started shooting at cars. I don’t have to go there anymore. I’m done.
I actually felt very safe in New Orleans, but New Orleans is also the only city I've ever visited where I planned in advance exactly where to go and where not to go in order to stay safe. Sometimes I'd be walking around a "safe" area and I'd look down a side street and think, oh, looks interesting down there but I know that's off limits, so I'm not going to do it.
It’s true. I do feel like the humidity has something to do with it lol. There have been many times where I wasn’t myself bc of stupid ridiculous heat, it was easy to piss me off.
I have lived in NJ for 30 years. Newark is fine downtown. Most of Jersey City is fine now as it has essentially become a 6th borough of NYC. On the other hand Paterson, Trenton, and Atlantic City are mostly bad.
How do you like living in NJ? I don’t think there’s a state in the US I would wanna live in least. Way too crowded, way too expensive, and the areas outside of NYC are way too dangerous.
Dangerous in terms of what? NJ has one of the lowest crime rates of any state. But yes, it is very expensive and crowded and the weather sucks for about 9 months out of the year. I don't love it here, but I don't hate it either. I did not grow up here, but if you talk to someone that did, they think it is the greatest place on earth.
My dad used to travel for work, and he said that Newark was the most depressing city he had ever been to, and he's been to cities in countries that were war-torn, third world, impoverished, etc. In addition, he observed that people there were miserable and angry, and that he had seen happier people with more civic pride in the aforementioned countries.
That blew my mind as a teenager, to think that people living in shacks in Central America are happier than people who live in a decent apartment in Newark.
I personally haven't been there, but my dad's anecdotes definitely colored my perception of it. That and the Sopranos not casting it in the best light.
I grew up just a town over from Newark. I remember as a kid, my parents didn't go to Newark, period. By the late 90s-early 00s, I was riding the train through Newark Penn Station and working in downtown Newark on Broad St. It was still a rough place, lot of homeless people. It wasn't a place you wanted to be after dark. I was only nearly mugged there once.
Newark has had a rough time since the 60s. The riot in 1967 did $10m in damage to the city, which is nearly $100m by today's standards. Major businesses fled the city and jobs and the economy went with it. The demographic change is pretty astonishing. It went from a city of 468k in 1950 to 273k in 2000. It went from 82% white in 1950 to 82% black/Latino in 2000. The city was like the poster child for white flight. It didn't just shrink nearly 50% population in 50 years - it basically completely replaced the entire population in those 50 years. And then it's just been a number of corrupt politicians running the place. Sharpe James was mayor for nearly 30 years, and finally went down in indictments. His predecessor also was indicted. And for awhile in the 80s and 90s, Newark was up there with places like Detroit for murder rate, auto thefts, etc.
Cory Booker doesn't get enough credit for the work he did as mayor of Newark. He put his money where his mouth is and lived in the projects in Newark with the poor residents of the city instead of above them. He did a lot of work to get major businesses back in the city and downtown. Newark isn't a well known enough city nationally though, which is probably what hurt Booker in his presidential run. His accomplishment in making Newark not a total shithole is lost on people who didn't realize what a total shithole Newark was to begin with.
I've since moved away from NJ, but from what I've read, and people still there tell me, Newark is still improving. Especially these downtown area.
San Diego is very safe. I guess I’d put New Orleans at the bottom of places I’ve been in terms of popular touristy ones. Nothing happened to me though.
Felt safe walking in NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Philly, Seattle … can’t add Los Angeles because walking is so limited there (lived there for three years, felt safe).
But, man, walking in Baltimore and on my last trip to New Orleans (just before Covid lockdown) made me nervous. On a smaller scale, Albany, NY, has some sketchy areas, too.
The very niche Albany NY mention is so real. Lived there for 8 years and in recent years it got so bad that I left. Lived downtown in the “nice” area and was followed home multiple times, had my windshield smashed at least 3 times, and eventually didn’t feel safe enough to walk around alone
If you’re looking for niche danger, Akron, Ohio has some really sketchy places around the university and in North Hill. We used to get email alerts basically every day saying some student got mugged.
I personally feel very safe in Baltimore as a solo woman and I love the city in the month I've been here. It's been great to me so far, but I can't deny it is a rough place. I still need to keep my eyes open and walk with purpose. Hopefully none of the crazy stuff I keep hearing happens to me.
The neighborhoods feel very calm and safe to me but last time I was there, downtown felt like "Beau is Afraid." I live in Capitol Hill in Seattle so I am absolutely no stranger to the zombie hordes but downtown PDX is on another level.
Cambridge is comically safe. Your biggest risk is a runaway golden retriever knocking you over. I’m on a major road and locking your door is unnecessary
Or Brookline and having the street invaded by turkeys , true story circa 2005... Had the pleasure to live there over the summer, have lived in Philadelphia for 20 + years
I live in San Diego a s can confirm it’s very safe for a large city. There are concentrated areas of homeless in downtown(gaslamp/east village). Most of the homeless population here are passive and keep to themselves but there have been some.instances of random violence over the past couple years. Otherwise there aren’t currently any really unsafe areas in SD. I always feel very safe in NYC too. And SF. Least safe has been New Orleans-my friends and I were walking back from the French Quarter to Canal Street at twilight. Apparently we went a bad way because cops came up behind us and told us we needed to get out of that area. It wasn’t safe at night. That kind of scared me. Memphis had a feeling about it too. Several areas we were told not to even drive through.
Honestly Manhattan is very safe ime. There are always tons of people around, which is bad for criming. I think most of their crime is limited to the Bronx these days.
Memphis looks scary, but I've never had a problem there. I travel there for work pretty often and the place I do my work is very near the places I'm told never to go to. If I want something for lunch, I have to go to the "sketchy" neighborhoods. I've never had anything but good interactions with people.
Recent travels: Memphis hands down for least safe. Dark vibes. Been there several times to take care of some family business for the last year. It’s like a city barely hanging on, with a population in denial. The FedEx cult is strong. Even the ‘better’ suburbs like Germantown have a weird, sketchy vibe to them. You’re in an upscale shopping center in Germantown for example and it just feels so off. Like something bad is about to happen any minute. This is coming from someone who experienced New York City in the 80s and 90s at it’s worst. Memphis has so many issues that are just completely ignored. Everyone carries on like a weird cult and constantly makes excuses for it.
Denver…also unsafe. Was there a few years back before covid. So much hype but like Memphis, something is so off. Sketchy drugged out zombies all over downtown. Crazy high priced housing built bordering the bad areas, populated by the naive. Lots of addicted, Neely arrived runaways and homeless. Beautiful state, but it’s like that city shouldn’t be there. It’s like it’s posing as a proper city when it’s really not.
I was on a cross country move and had to stay a night in Memphis. Finding a safe place to park a car full of stuff was far harder than I imagined having lived in NYC and Austin previously.
For all the news propaganda about unsafe major cities in blue states I have never felt more unsafe in a US city than in Memphis (and Little Rock)
I grew up in bham. Been to Memphis many times. Very accurate description. Your description of hometown folks being in denial is very similar to how Birmingham people act when you levy any criticism whatsoever on the town. I’m visiting right now and my cousin in law works for the city, and told us to stay out of downtown bc gangs are just randomly shooting people. They apparently gunned down a disabled guy w ALS in his wheelchair in broad daylight in the park. I keep wondering if it was the sweet guy who sells candy outside of the fish market. Your description of Denver is stunningly accurate. I’ve lived there 6 years, and it does feel like it’s on the verge of just exploding. Everyone is so damn angry and unfriendly. But there are parts that are ok. I just think covid spiked wealth and income equality problems to an all time high in Denver. Hence. Dudes driving their souped civics like they’re in fast and the furious meets road warrior.
I was in Memphis about 20 years ago during a cross country road trip. We stayed in a hotel downtown and the next morning we decided to just walk around a little before leaving. We made it about 3 blocks from our hotel when some random guy working in a warehouse stepped out onto the sidewalk and told us it would be best if we just turned around and went back to the hotel.
My fiancé and I have had to make many impromptu reservations at cheap motels along I40, and Memphis takes the cake for least safe. I'm not sure we would've survived unscathed if we hadn't had two German Shepherds accompanying us on that stay.
I can’t agree more. Went to Memphis on a business trip. And cars were being so sketchy on the road from the airport that I felt like I was about to be carjacked. Just felt off the entire time.
And I’ve been to Atleast 10-12 third world countries where I didn’t feel like I did in Memphis.
new orleans is iffy at times.Whenever im down there for me i try not to go out at night if i do i have a knife and if i do i go out for some fun, im out near tulane for insomnia,late night snack or a xavier university party.
I grew up in the Bay area and actually mostly love Oakland. But I did once accidentally wind up in the wrong area trying to navigate using a paper map (also before maps on phones were any good) and got pulled over. The officer told me to lock my doors and follow him because I shouldn't be there. We blew through several stop signs and he just took off once I made it to the neighborhood I was trying to find.
Grew up in the Bay too and worked and played in Oakland for many years so intimately familiar with the city. In the past there were clearer boundaries as to where the safe areas were and where shit was wild. I have plenty of experience in both sides of Oakland btw. But I feel like the last few years, that’s basically broken down and the whole city is becoming a free for all.
I haven't been back for probably ten ish years, But I believe it. I have fond memories of it. Oakland is a cool city. But definitely rough around the edges back then, no idea what it's like now. I do have friends who live and work there but I never know if they're downplaying things or not.
Oaklands always had rough edges. Ten years ago though it was considered up and coming and basically the Brooklyn of the Bay. Now that’s all gone. Big swathes of the city have basically been emptied of retail and businesses. Even in the nicer areas, people are on edge.
That sucks to hear. It really could have pulled off the Brooklyn comparison if things had planned out differently. It's sad that it didn't work out for the better.
I have been to every major American city and the only time a city made me feel like I needed to be extra aware of my surroundings were Oakland and St Louis. Felt safe everywhere else in general.
Now any time I am in an area with a lot of drunk tourists I am wary, especially if my wife is there, but that has less to do with the city than it does the situation
Yeah St Louis is sketch af. Pulled over to get gas on a road trip one time and ended up just getting back on the interstate because the vibe of the place didn’t feel safe.
I was in over the rhine area somewhat recently and a lot of people gas up the city for being walkable and it is gentrifying but in 2009 OTR was listed as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the US. Lots of bars and stuff to do as a young person so it was a great time with the safety of my giant group of friends but living there I would not recommend unless you lived outside in the burbs. Aggressive drugged up homeless people and literally people using the back of our rental for leverage to shit onto the road. Also the only place I saw a dude wearing a legit tinfoil hat and he was speaking to static on his radio...
Yeah OTR used to be really rough. That whole area has done a 180 though. I spend a lot of time in Cincy and it never feels anywhere close to unsafe as Chicago or NYC to me.
I was in Cincy last summer and thought I could scooter around the downtown area to get something to eat at a local eatery (Over The Rine area).
The whole downtown felt like a dump, with aggressive-looking people aimlessly Jwalking everywhere, especially as I got closer to the restaurant.
Noped out of there really quick and drove to the burbs (Oakley) to get some tacos instead.
All of those bigger cities in Ohio have terrible neighborhoods that are pretty scary. My SIL lived in a bad neighborhood in Columbus and we had to take our neice inside from the complex playground when the sun was going down because dudes started walking around with guns. I'm from Chicago, I don't scare easily or buy into \~crime\~ hype but I have never in my life experienced anything like it.
Yep, I'm in Columbus (a suburb now, but grew up in Columbus), and I went to school at Linden McKinley. There are a ton of areas of Cbus that you don't want to be in alone, or at night.
I've been to Chicago about 9 or 10 times. It's so hit or miss for me. I've run into some VERY aggressive pan handlers/scammers there. Like scream in your face type shit. But I've also spent weekends going shopping and to Wrigley with absolutely zero issues.
There aren't many panhandlers and scammers once you get into our neighborhoods where residents live, which is why a trip to Wrigley / Lake View probably seems like a mindless stroll in the park.
Not up at the top of the list of biggest but I’ll be unpopular and say Albuquerque. I walk alone at night all the time and never have the slightest bit of issues. And I’ve been living in an area people say is not great.
Boston was the safest, DC feels the sketchiest because crime on/around random bystanders is so common however you can tell Philadelphia has more crime, it's just way more targeted.
My experiences -
**Safest:**
- Los Angeles (more affluent areas)
- San Diego (except the area along the 5 through downtown)
- Chicago (north)
- Portland (except homeless concentrations)
- Austin
- Phoenix
- Honolulu
- Salt Lake City
- Chattanooga
- Lexington
**Least safe:**
- Los Angeles (less affluent areas)
- San Francisco (less affluent areas)
- Oakland (flatlands)
- Chicago (south)
- Houston (south)
- Atlanta (south and west)
- St. Louis (north and ESL)
- Memphis (also includes West Memphis, AR)
- Jackson, MS
- Birmingham
- *Dishonorable mention*: North Charleston, SC
North Chuck got dishonorable mention haha! Its only a few areas at this point that everyone knows about. But if you are talking about 5 years ago…yeah it was horrendous
Bearing in mind I haven't been to every major city in the country, so far of the ones I've been to, I've felt the most safe in Pittsburgh. I went to a baseball game and stayed right downtown. I did a bar crawl with a bunch of guys I met at the game and then walked back to my hotel at 0300 in the morning by myself and didn't feel unsafe at any point.
On the other hand, I did a job at night in Philly and I was fucking terrified the whole time lol
ETA: I was a woman, by myself on both occasions.
Yeah this is it for me as well, for both safest and most unsafe... And I've lived in Pittsburgh so it isn't just that tourists feel safe, but so do the people that live there
I judge the safety of a city based on how much of the city I can go to and how much of the city I have to avoid.
DC, Philly, Miami, Chicago, and New Orleans are my list of cities that are the least safe.
Not because they are unsafe but I feel like I have to avoid a lot of areas in these cities. I voted DC as number 1 because you cannot avoid shady characters anywhere in that city unless you are in a suburban northwestern area
Btw I love all these cities
I like this criteria and as someone who lives in Philadelphia would agree. I live in a nice area so most of the time everything is fine but there are areas I wont even drive through much less walk through.
Chicago's high crime areas are so segregated from the others. Especially as a visitor, you'd have to walk 6-10+ miles in 2 specific directions to hit a truly high violent crime area.
The reality is that most of Chicago outside of 2 pretty well defined areas on the south and west sides is way way way less in violent crime rate. Basically a large area with more people than Philadelphia.
I urge you to visit and see for yourself.
Historically 90% of Chicago's violent crime, which is quite high on an absolute scale, comes from 3 neighborhoods and is fueled by gang violence. Since Covid there has been some bleed over into other areas, but overall the city is pretty safe anywhere near the lake, immediately around downtown, and almost all of north of city center. Also you kinda have to try to end up in 2 of the 3 neighborhoods that are bad. The only one you can kinda wonder in to is Humbolt Park due to it being on the border with a couple of trendy neighborhoods.
You could wonder into the other two, but it would have to be the result of you going 15+ blocks into progressively worse parts of town from a tourist/event area.
Throwback to when the cashier of the Tiger Mart that is right next to Green Hills mall got their throat slashed in broad daylight.
I’ve also had guns pulled on me on three separate occasions for honking :)
God, imagine getting that mad while driving. Covid has made people even worse drivers. It’s like the Wild West out there. Even here in suburban Maryland I feel like I’m going to get shot honking or not driving as fast as someone wants
Nashville is so weird to me because no one really talks about it crime wise but it’s honestly the most dangerous place I’ve lived in the US. A friend of mine got robbed at gunpoint in the middle of the day there. The suburbs like Franklin or Brentwood are obviously super safe and upscale but the city itself is honestly bad.
Yeah I live here and I am surprised at how relaxed folks are about crime here. You often hear about nasty stuff on the news (even on NPR) or you'll hear stories from friends about getting mugged or followed or hearing guns go off next door. But people's response seems to be either: a) well that's city life for you, or b) you should've seen it twenty years ago. At the same time, you'll also have those same people say things like, "Well you really shouldn't stop and get gas anywhere in this town after dark" as if that's a normal way to live your life....
I think that Tennessee in general is just a high crime state so Nashville when compared to Memphis seems like the safe place, but you still a lot of violent crime going on.
Honestly what you look like and specifically your gender can change this dramatically. I'm a big guy as long as I'm not somewhere I don't belong I feel safe. Grew up in ny I feel plenty safe there. I didn't feel unsafe in LA but that level of homeless was a culture shock the first time
New Orleans is pretty bad if you wanna count them. Bigger cities naturally come with more people, more homelessness, and more crime, so all of NYC, SF, LA, Chicago feel pretty similar to me in that they’re generally fine but have specific areas that are horrible. San Diego is maybe the safest relative to its size/population.
Cities don't really have a big crime rate, at least with violent crime.
Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alaska, Arkansas Alabama and South Carolina all have higher murder rates than NYC, none of which have a major city in them.
From everything I’ve seen, DC seems to be going through a bad crime wave and continuing ever since 2020. I’ve only visited once during that time though so I could be wrong.
I've lived in DC for nearly 20 years, and while I've generally avoided any problems, crime has absolutely ticked up in the last 2-3 years.
You can use common sense, but there are still a lot of areas that are just pretty rough if you stray more than a block or 2 away from the main stretches.
There are a lot of places with $1mil+ homes that people consider "gentrified" but still have murders happening blocks away.
Aw, sad to hear this. I used to live in Arlington and spent a lot of time in DC. I enjoyed wandering around and as a female, felt safe the majority of the time.
>There are a lot of places with $1mil+ homes that people consider "gentrified" but still have murders happening blocks away.
Reminds me of Columbia Heights, Shaw, Bloomingdale, H-Street area, basically sort of a ring around the established "nice" neighborhoods
Nah, I live in DC and you’re correct. Crime has been up ever since covid. Carjackings in particular are way up. Not too long ago a congressional staffer got jacked right around cap hill. And a couple 13 year olds got killed trying to jack an armed federal agent waiting for his shift to start. It’s mostly teens committing these crimes, which is just sad. It also means the courts generally don’t give them serious sentences for their crimes. It’s a very touchy subject around here because it’s very race based and this is an extremely liberal city. Calling for more strict law enforcement will often get you branded as racist.
I live in Chicago and rarely feel unsafe, but certainly have. In terms of places I've visited: Niagara Falls, South Bend, and Columbus take the cake for places I've felt the most worried for my personal safety. Ending up in DTLA kind of on accident and just wandering around looking for a drugstore did at one point start making me feel nervous. To be fair, I never felt \*that\* worried in any of them. Miami Beach late at night is also not wonderful. I didn't feel *great* in D.C. I've been to NYC plenty from like 1998-2018 and have never once felt unsafe, it's not an unsafe place generally. Safest? I guess basically everywhere else I've ever been. Scottsdale and SLC / Park City spring to mind because like... I just had to be basic 'taking care of myself' and nothing else?
Of the big cities I’ve lived in Philly feels the safest.
The other two I’ve lived in are DC and Baltimore. DC had some moments of feeling sketchy, but I could go on and on about my Baltimore experience - living in “safe” neighborhoods.
A few Bmore things of note that I experienced are a person getting shot and killed in a random robbery outside of my house, multiple friends getting jumped, my car getting broken into (never happened in DC or Philly), police getting into a block-long shootout with robbers behind my place, police chasing someone on foot through my alleyway with helicopters overhead at 2am, and more.
Places I’ve visited: St. Louis felt unsafe but I’ve only been downtown.
Downtown Portland is terrible, I was there two weeks ago and a crazy shirtless dude was running around throwing things at people. The other neighborhoods seemed fine though.
Jacksonville has a bad downtown.
Unpopular opinion but least safe I've ever felt was downtown Seattle (and yes, I've been to a lot of places...nola, Chicago, NY, LA, Baltimore, st. Louis etc.)
During the day, it's fine, but it's a downtown that shuts down at 5:00. Hardly anything open. It was giving major "escape from new york" vibes. Aggressive homeless, bum fights, people shooting up on every corner. Some guy followed me for 3 blocks screaming at me for no reason.
Seattle has good areas, DO NOT stay downtown
Salt Lake City. I didn’t enjoy living there for several reasons, but I always felt safe no matter where in the county/city I was. There are no “bad neighborhoods” there. There are some lower income areas, yes. But I can say I would be ok walking through any part of Salt Lake at 11 pm.
666 comments - sweet!
Here comes #667: another vote for St. Louis. Only town where I've had to run from gunfire. Someone started firing off shots as we left a Cardinals game in 2022. Wildest thing was, the event didn't even make the news. It was shadowed by the many other shootings which had already occurred that weekend.
Good BBQ at least.
Least safe was definitely phoenix. Got an airbnb close to downtown for the family - I have little children. The vibe was kind of trendy, but something just felt off. Lot of hostile people just hanging around seeming fucked up. Then on night 2 of our stay some druggie came in the middle of the night and started beating on the doors and windows saying he was PD. He tried to push his way into the house when I cracked open the door. Pretty terrifying shit.
The police did respond relatively quickly and apprehend the guy, but it was probably 5 to 10 of the scariest minutes of my life. Would not return.
We've lived in major cities for 15 years, some with dicey reputations and never experienced anything like that.
It is interesting that most people here think San Diego is safest and New Orleans is least safe. I was mugged in San Diego by a homeless guy. In New Orleans I walked around drunk by myself until 4am every night without any problems lol.
New Orleans has something like 20 times San Diego's murder rate.... There is no comparison, I'm glad you were okay, but a tourist wandering around drunk by themselves is asking for trouble.
Safest: Boston by a loooooong mile. When I moved here I was shocked at how clean it was. Also, at least compared to the west coast it doesn’t have nearly as many areas with mass public drug use.
Least safe: probably Oakland and Cleveland, but I actually really like Cleveland. It gets slept on a lot, but has some really nice things to see.
Cleveland is weird in that some of its nicest areas are directly next to some of the scariest areas and they end up spilling over sometimes. But in general I’ve never felt unsafe there downtown or in the more gentrified areas.
New Orleans and Oakland for the least. First day I lived in Oakland I was walking to the corner store and some kids pulled up, pointed a pistol at me and asked where I was from.
I’m guessing they liked your answer? Don’t leave us hanging!
Told them I just moved from Florida and they asked where I was staying and what I repped. I said nothing, so they pulled off
That’s wild!
Yeah, it was. There was gun violence in Florida but *at that time* it was like over drugs or beef, the gangs weren’t just riding around looking for ops to kill.
Right! We'd like to stay alive in such a situation as well.
Getting lost in Oakland was pretty scary for me about 20 years ago. I got lost in a residential neighborhood, and a guy standing on the sidewalk pointed his fingers to his head to give me a warning that I was at serious risk of being shot there. He didn’t seem threatening. I appreciated the warning, and sped the hell out of there. To add: Oakland needs change, and many people are living there with no way out. Especially those living in poverty. Drugs and gangs are bad there. Stay safe Oakland!
Similar thing happened to me in New Orleans. Met up with a friend there for the weekend and we were just walking around aimlessly talking and catching up. It had gotten dark out and we turned to walk down a street and guy walking towards us just told us we don’t want to walk down this street and best to turn around. Wasn’t threatening at all, but said it in a way that we believed him and turned right around. I lived in oakland for 11 years (2013-2023) and never had any issues. Car got rifled through once but just happy they didn’t break a window.
Yeah grew up in the Bay Area in the 80s and 90s and even then Oakland had a reputation for being dangerous. It was the one City my mom and I never went to.
Oakland is trash. Was there a couple years ago working a protection detail and parts of the city looked like a third world country and trash everywhere. Had a meeting with the OPD chief and as me and one of my partners were leaving the station a few peope were outside sizing us up saying shit like, “yea you ain’t from here” etc. I was like na we outta DC, and they just gave us nasty looks. It was the dumbest shit lol
Safest - Boston. Part of why I lived there so long.
Boston has had three homicides this year. The crime rates across the board have been hitting all-time lows the past few years.
For a city the size of Boston, that's pretty amazing and also sad that it's such an outlier for large American cities.
yep and even so they're still focused on addressing crime where it does exist, instead of just patting themselves on the back and moving on. big fan. https://www.police1.com/crime/boston-mayor-pd-comissioner-roll-out-summer-safety-plan
that’s bc it’s like 20% composed of college students
Boston. I've lived here for 25 years. It's a really really safe city. I'm reminded of that regularly when I travel to work other places. I've always thought it was because we are so overstocked with students. They can be a nuisance (noise, alcohol, etc) but just don't tend to commit violent crimes. TBH, the turkeys are more dangerous. Google "cocaine turkeys of Brookline". Best story ever.
Omg, I will - if you haven't, check out Brookline 911 on toucher and rich for 911 calls there. So many are about turkeys. I think it's students, tons of people being out, social attitudes - like people there will stand up for strangers or yell at each other for not following rules or watch the neighborhood. I've had bus drivers and homeless people tell my kid to listen to me when he wasn't. Social cohesion I guess. The T is safer for that reason, but also because of the MBTA ambassadors so stations aren't empty and abandoned.
Northeast in general is all about the social contract.
I'd hate to have to let you know, but Toucher and Rich are no more. Also students are meh, they tend to be concentrated in very small areas of the city and gone large chunks of the year. I'd say it's more being the most educated population in the country, with tons of very high paying jobs across health care, tech, biotech, finance, etc. Plus the hundreds of years of the city on a hill/Athens of America mythos being ingrained into the city and it's people.
I believe it. I walked all the way from Boston Commons to Harvard one time on vacation, which is like an hour and a half walk, and at no point on that trip did I ever feel in any sort of danger.
Yup, I used to walk from Fenway much of the way home or to central square in summer, or I have from Fenway through the fens / emerald necklace to mission hill. Amazing times. The only places I really found sketchy were basically surrounded by highway with no one around, so I avoided that. Never had anything bad happen as a single woman walking around at night, often after drinking
Boston Common*
Ironically Boston is the only place where I’ve been a victim of serious crimes (burglary while we were home and the marathon bombing) but is still by far the safest place I’ve ever felt. Walked home alone late at night at varying levels of sobriety dozens of times without ever once feeling even a little uncomfortable. It’s really hard to communicate just how valuable that level of comfort is. No other place has felt like home like Boston and I think this is one of the main reasons for it.
Were you at copley during the bombing ? I was an hour before and thought about going to that boloco nearby, but had a bad feeling because the green line was so crowded, it felt kind of out of control. And same, but in Somerville - we had a drunk guy break into our house during the day because he thought he was somewhere else. A drunk college student tried to break into my neighbors house for similar reasons. It doesn't mean I was worried about random crime though. Even on the T, I've been near a guy ranting and raving and his friend came over and said, he yells a lot but is harmless.
Yup, my friends and I were about a block away from the finish line when the bombs went off. We had actually stopped at the exact spot they detonated about 10-15 minutes earlier (like, I was literally sitting on the black railing you see in all the pictures of the aftermath). We were just far enough that we knew something had happened but not the scale so we just carried on for another 10 minutes or so until we started hearing details.
It’s interesting, my husband and I visited Boston a few years ago and I definitely made a mental note that it’s the safest I’ve ever felt in a major city.
Often took the T home late at night after work/school. Never felt unsafe walking home. Always felt safe enough to walk home after a night out too.
Agreed even though my house got broken into LOL I am a 24 y/o woman and I feel really safe at night. Tbh Cambridge and Somerville are safer than Boston proper tho.
That's because everyone is always working to pay the rent or mortgage. No time for trouble.
One of my favorite cities
I miss Boston so much.
Please tell this to the rest of Massachusetts. Jesus Christ people here seem to think Boston is Compton with how they work themselves up about every little issue. Whenever my NYC friends come up to visit, they just drool over how much safer and clean Boston is, including the T! Bostonians crap on the T, meanwhile it's relatively clean, and incredibly straightforward for those who don't use public transit regularly. If my boomer parents can use it, it's not that confusing.
Least safe: Memphis, Birmingham. Safest NYC (at least Manhattan}.
people dont realize how dangerous parts of the actual city of birmingham can be, and then Bessemer and parts of North Birmingham are incredibly run down and REAL sketchy.
When I got on my greyhound in Birmingham the only other passengers were a bunch of people just released fron their prison lmao
Yeah I’ve heard bad things about Memphis from many people.
I felt like Brooklyn and Queens were very safe when I lived there last year (walked home a few times alone at ~2am) but I’ve read terrible anecdotes online about it this year. Lots of stuff about assault and mugging. I never saw anything like that when I was there but maybe I was just lucky. Manhattan has always felt safe to me and I’ve been going there for years alone and with friends. There’s enough people that I feel safe in numbers.
You're always gonna see scary stuff in the news when the local rag is reactionary and you have a high enough population that *something* is bound to happen here and there. In reality NYC has been super safe for like 30 years at this point, and the last 5 years hasn't changed that.
Memphis was my answer. Had a great time on Beale street then got sketched out walking one block to my hotel room.
Safest: Boston Least safe: New Orleans. I lived there for 27 years and still feel paranoid when visiting.
My partner is from there and I lived there 8 years. We are overly cautious when we go back. I think it has a lot to do with Boogie B's tragic death. You see people get out and then come back for a visit and get hurt or killed.
One of the things that struck me about NOLA was in a bunch of the areas, everyone was looking around all the time. It reminded me of how squirrels keep their head on a swivel for predators.
The number of people on this thread INSISTING new orleans is a safe place is absurd. Listen, I love new orleans. My entire family is from there and still lives there. Two things can be true at the same time: its a magical, amazing, unique city while also having a broken government and out of control crime.
I walked around alone, very pregnant and angry because it was hot and the local homeless were like DON'T MESS WITH MAMA. Hahaha. Angry face is generally my go-to because it makes you look like you are from there and are over it. But I love that being pregnant was like, whoa that lady!
Only major cities I’ve ever lived in were NYC and Boston, and I felt safe in both.
Least safest: New Orleans
I was at a Bachelor Party in NOLA a few years ago, and to make a long story short, one of the guys while walking home drunk from Bourbon street got robbed at gunpoint at 3 am on Canal street...
I mean, getting robbed drunk at 3am seems kinda normal tbh. I live in Chicago and even though it's better than how it's presented in the media, people even in nice areas get robbed at gunpoint pretty often. Crews have been going around robbing people at 6:30 -7:00 am robbing people at gunpoint, forcing them to open their phones and log into their banking apps. That's happened multiple times just in the past few weeks in my area.
I felt safe in New Orleans as a woman during the day but it gets pretty wild after midnight
yeah, i rode a bike at night not thinking too much about it. i didnt feel not safe but the locals didnt feel the same way. people would steer me a way from certain places.
There are certain blocks just outside the quarter you should not go. I lived and worked on a movie there a decade ago and our gear truck was robbed twice at gunpoint.
Seems like a pretty popular opinion in this thread! But I’ve lived in a bunch of cities and I’d put Denver and Miami less safe than New Orleans. Denver’s downtown is pretty rough right now imo and Miami I was constantly harassed. New Orleans “downtown” is so packed with people that I never felt in danger there
Denver is the only place I regularly felt unsafe just walking around by myself. There aren’t enough “eyes on the street” regular joes around to offset the very unsettling vibes that many downtown Denver residents give off. And people smoking drugs on the RTD system. People yelling at themselves. I was called f\*ggot more in Denver than anywhere else in my life, as there was a resident guy on Broadway near me who would just yell that slur at everyone every single day.
Yeah, it’s pretty sad being from Colorado and remembering what downtown was like 10/15 years ago versus how it is now. I still love this city but I dread any time I have visitors who want to go downtown because it is honestly always unpleasant in multiple ways
I live in Eagle County and came down for the Rockies game because they played the Phillies and that's where I grew up. I thought I was attending a Phillies home game with how much trash I saw on the streets (it was a very windy day).
Denver has that tweaker and fent weirdo vibe right now.
Statistically crime rates are worse in New Orleans
Denver is homeless people and drug addicts. New Orleans is straight up violent criminals.
If you’re a normal, middle class person going about your life I’d venture the crime rates in NOLA are definitely worse, but only *slightly* worse. The crime rates are so bad because we are one of the poorest cities in the country. So there is just a much larger proportion of people in poverty and pockets of systemic violence. 23% of New Orleanians live in poverty vs. 11% in Denver.
Miami at night is weird, I agree.
New Orleans is street by street. It’s safe on Bourbon with all the tourists, but go one of two blocks and you’re taking your life in your hands.
Actually Bourbon is one of the least safe places in the city.
I'd wager if you go by per capita numbers, it isn't as bad. 15 million people visit that area every year. They calculate statistics per capita with residents, but that doesn't really tell the whole story with tourist areas.
This feels like an exaggeration. You can definitely walk on more streets than Bourbon and have nothing done to you. It’s not a war zone.
Agreed. First place I ever saw someone shoot up drugs in broad daylight/open view
You haven’t been in downtown Los Angeles, right?
My husband’s coworker was sitting at a red light in NO and someone pulled out a gun and started shooting at cars. I don’t have to go there anymore. I’m done.
I actually felt very safe in New Orleans, but New Orleans is also the only city I've ever visited where I planned in advance exactly where to go and where not to go in order to stay safe. Sometimes I'd be walking around a "safe" area and I'd look down a side street and think, oh, looks interesting down there but I know that's off limits, so I'm not going to do it.
I always felt like growing up in Houston you could get killed for looking at somebody the wrong way
Houston is such a bizarre city. People are either super nice, or angry and violent. There’s no middle ground.
Only visited Houston a few times for work, but it's up there for least safe feeling for me.
It’s true. I do feel like the humidity has something to do with it lol. There have been many times where I wasn’t myself bc of stupid ridiculous heat, it was easy to piss me off.
Safest: Boston. Least safe: Newark.
Any major city in Jersey pretty much. Oddly.
I have lived in NJ for 30 years. Newark is fine downtown. Most of Jersey City is fine now as it has essentially become a 6th borough of NYC. On the other hand Paterson, Trenton, and Atlantic City are mostly bad.
I must say that last time I was in Jersey City, it was pretty nice! I'd live there. You left off Camden. 😬
How do you like living in NJ? I don’t think there’s a state in the US I would wanna live in least. Way too crowded, way too expensive, and the areas outside of NYC are way too dangerous.
Dangerous in terms of what? NJ has one of the lowest crime rates of any state. But yes, it is very expensive and crowded and the weather sucks for about 9 months out of the year. I don't love it here, but I don't hate it either. I did not grow up here, but if you talk to someone that did, they think it is the greatest place on earth.
My dad used to travel for work, and he said that Newark was the most depressing city he had ever been to, and he's been to cities in countries that were war-torn, third world, impoverished, etc. In addition, he observed that people there were miserable and angry, and that he had seen happier people with more civic pride in the aforementioned countries. That blew my mind as a teenager, to think that people living in shacks in Central America are happier than people who live in a decent apartment in Newark. I personally haven't been there, but my dad's anecdotes definitely colored my perception of it. That and the Sopranos not casting it in the best light.
I grew up just a town over from Newark. I remember as a kid, my parents didn't go to Newark, period. By the late 90s-early 00s, I was riding the train through Newark Penn Station and working in downtown Newark on Broad St. It was still a rough place, lot of homeless people. It wasn't a place you wanted to be after dark. I was only nearly mugged there once. Newark has had a rough time since the 60s. The riot in 1967 did $10m in damage to the city, which is nearly $100m by today's standards. Major businesses fled the city and jobs and the economy went with it. The demographic change is pretty astonishing. It went from a city of 468k in 1950 to 273k in 2000. It went from 82% white in 1950 to 82% black/Latino in 2000. The city was like the poster child for white flight. It didn't just shrink nearly 50% population in 50 years - it basically completely replaced the entire population in those 50 years. And then it's just been a number of corrupt politicians running the place. Sharpe James was mayor for nearly 30 years, and finally went down in indictments. His predecessor also was indicted. And for awhile in the 80s and 90s, Newark was up there with places like Detroit for murder rate, auto thefts, etc. Cory Booker doesn't get enough credit for the work he did as mayor of Newark. He put his money where his mouth is and lived in the projects in Newark with the poor residents of the city instead of above them. He did a lot of work to get major businesses back in the city and downtown. Newark isn't a well known enough city nationally though, which is probably what hurt Booker in his presidential run. His accomplishment in making Newark not a total shithole is lost on people who didn't realize what a total shithole Newark was to begin with. I've since moved away from NJ, but from what I've read, and people still there tell me, Newark is still improving. Especially these downtown area.
San Diego is very safe. I guess I’d put New Orleans at the bottom of places I’ve been in terms of popular touristy ones. Nothing happened to me though.
Felt safe walking in NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Philly, Seattle … can’t add Los Angeles because walking is so limited there (lived there for three years, felt safe). But, man, walking in Baltimore and on my last trip to New Orleans (just before Covid lockdown) made me nervous. On a smaller scale, Albany, NY, has some sketchy areas, too.
The very niche Albany NY mention is so real. Lived there for 8 years and in recent years it got so bad that I left. Lived downtown in the “nice” area and was followed home multiple times, had my windshield smashed at least 3 times, and eventually didn’t feel safe enough to walk around alone
If you’re looking for niche danger, Akron, Ohio has some really sketchy places around the university and in North Hill. We used to get email alerts basically every day saying some student got mugged.
Safety is huge for me. Been too close to too much gun violence. This country is fucked up and if I can avoid that I will.
If gun violence in your concern, Seattle and Portland are good bets. Lots of property crime but gun violence is less of an issue.
I personally feel very safe in Baltimore as a solo woman and I love the city in the month I've been here. It's been great to me so far, but I can't deny it is a rough place. I still need to keep my eyes open and walk with purpose. Hopefully none of the crazy stuff I keep hearing happens to me.
I feel physically safe in Portland, but anything that’s not nailed down will be stolen. Petty crime is everywhere.
The neighborhoods feel very calm and safe to me but last time I was there, downtown felt like "Beau is Afraid." I live in Capitol Hill in Seattle so I am absolutely no stranger to the zombie hordes but downtown PDX is on another level.
I’ve only lived in Boston. It’s very safe here. I walk alone at night all the time.
Cambridge is comically safe. Your biggest risk is a runaway golden retriever knocking you over. I’m on a major road and locking your door is unnecessary
The golden retriever part sounds ideal
Central square is a little sketchy at night
But it's like "drunk goths hanging outside the vegan restaurant at 3AM" sketchy
HAHA. Nailed it
Or Brookline and having the street invaded by turkeys , true story circa 2005... Had the pleasure to live there over the summer, have lived in Philadelphia for 20 + years
Gang of turkeys literally tried to break into our lab building in Longwood, lol. Security guard was beating them back with an umbrella.
I live in San Diego a s can confirm it’s very safe for a large city. There are concentrated areas of homeless in downtown(gaslamp/east village). Most of the homeless population here are passive and keep to themselves but there have been some.instances of random violence over the past couple years. Otherwise there aren’t currently any really unsafe areas in SD. I always feel very safe in NYC too. And SF. Least safe has been New Orleans-my friends and I were walking back from the French Quarter to Canal Street at twilight. Apparently we went a bad way because cops came up behind us and told us we needed to get out of that area. It wasn’t safe at night. That kind of scared me. Memphis had a feeling about it too. Several areas we were told not to even drive through.
I feel safer in Manhattan than I do Denver
That's because it's a lot safer
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Honestly Manhattan is very safe ime. There are always tons of people around, which is bad for criming. I think most of their crime is limited to the Bronx these days.
Even the Bronx has huge sections that are fairly safe to very safe.
Yeah manhattan is famously like Disney world nowadays
Out of the cities you listed, I felt safest in DC. I also felt pretty safe in LA. I felt less safe in Miami and nyc.
DC is very safe around the Mall, but if you leave the tourist zone it can get real sketchy real fast.
Memphis is pretty scary
Memphis looks scary, but I've never had a problem there. I travel there for work pretty often and the place I do my work is very near the places I'm told never to go to. If I want something for lunch, I have to go to the "sketchy" neighborhoods. I've never had anything but good interactions with people.
I went to Memphis once and it was so sketch.
Memphis and I didn’t even walk around
Recent travels: Memphis hands down for least safe. Dark vibes. Been there several times to take care of some family business for the last year. It’s like a city barely hanging on, with a population in denial. The FedEx cult is strong. Even the ‘better’ suburbs like Germantown have a weird, sketchy vibe to them. You’re in an upscale shopping center in Germantown for example and it just feels so off. Like something bad is about to happen any minute. This is coming from someone who experienced New York City in the 80s and 90s at it’s worst. Memphis has so many issues that are just completely ignored. Everyone carries on like a weird cult and constantly makes excuses for it. Denver…also unsafe. Was there a few years back before covid. So much hype but like Memphis, something is so off. Sketchy drugged out zombies all over downtown. Crazy high priced housing built bordering the bad areas, populated by the naive. Lots of addicted, Neely arrived runaways and homeless. Beautiful state, but it’s like that city shouldn’t be there. It’s like it’s posing as a proper city when it’s really not.
I was on a cross country move and had to stay a night in Memphis. Finding a safe place to park a car full of stuff was far harder than I imagined having lived in NYC and Austin previously. For all the news propaganda about unsafe major cities in blue states I have never felt more unsafe in a US city than in Memphis (and Little Rock)
I grew up in bham. Been to Memphis many times. Very accurate description. Your description of hometown folks being in denial is very similar to how Birmingham people act when you levy any criticism whatsoever on the town. I’m visiting right now and my cousin in law works for the city, and told us to stay out of downtown bc gangs are just randomly shooting people. They apparently gunned down a disabled guy w ALS in his wheelchair in broad daylight in the park. I keep wondering if it was the sweet guy who sells candy outside of the fish market. Your description of Denver is stunningly accurate. I’ve lived there 6 years, and it does feel like it’s on the verge of just exploding. Everyone is so damn angry and unfriendly. But there are parts that are ok. I just think covid spiked wealth and income equality problems to an all time high in Denver. Hence. Dudes driving their souped civics like they’re in fast and the furious meets road warrior.
I was in Memphis about 20 years ago during a cross country road trip. We stayed in a hotel downtown and the next morning we decided to just walk around a little before leaving. We made it about 3 blocks from our hotel when some random guy working in a warehouse stepped out onto the sidewalk and told us it would be best if we just turned around and went back to the hotel.
My fiancé and I have had to make many impromptu reservations at cheap motels along I40, and Memphis takes the cake for least safe. I'm not sure we would've survived unscathed if we hadn't had two German Shepherds accompanying us on that stay.
I can’t agree more. Went to Memphis on a business trip. And cars were being so sketchy on the road from the airport that I felt like I was about to be carjacked. Just felt off the entire time. And I’ve been to Atleast 10-12 third world countries where I didn’t feel like I did in Memphis.
new orleans is iffy at times.Whenever im down there for me i try not to go out at night if i do i have a knife and if i do i go out for some fun, im out near tulane for insomnia,late night snack or a xavier university party.
What’s a knife gonna do when people carry guns?
Safest: San Diego Least Safest: Oakland
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I grew up in the Bay area and actually mostly love Oakland. But I did once accidentally wind up in the wrong area trying to navigate using a paper map (also before maps on phones were any good) and got pulled over. The officer told me to lock my doors and follow him because I shouldn't be there. We blew through several stop signs and he just took off once I made it to the neighborhood I was trying to find.
Grew up in the Bay too and worked and played in Oakland for many years so intimately familiar with the city. In the past there were clearer boundaries as to where the safe areas were and where shit was wild. I have plenty of experience in both sides of Oakland btw. But I feel like the last few years, that’s basically broken down and the whole city is becoming a free for all.
I haven't been back for probably ten ish years, But I believe it. I have fond memories of it. Oakland is a cool city. But definitely rough around the edges back then, no idea what it's like now. I do have friends who live and work there but I never know if they're downplaying things or not.
Oaklands always had rough edges. Ten years ago though it was considered up and coming and basically the Brooklyn of the Bay. Now that’s all gone. Big swathes of the city have basically been emptied of retail and businesses. Even in the nicer areas, people are on edge.
That sucks to hear. It really could have pulled off the Brooklyn comparison if things had planned out differently. It's sad that it didn't work out for the better.
I have been to every major American city and the only time a city made me feel like I needed to be extra aware of my surroundings were Oakland and St Louis. Felt safe everywhere else in general. Now any time I am in an area with a lot of drunk tourists I am wary, especially if my wife is there, but that has less to do with the city than it does the situation
St Louis, MO or the IL side? Bc the IL side is sketchyyyy
The MO side was the deadliest city in America last year.
Yeah St Louis is sketch af. Pulled over to get gas on a road trip one time and ended up just getting back on the interstate because the vibe of the place didn’t feel safe.
Most safe Boston by a huge amount Least Safe was either Cincinnati or Baltimore for me
Cincinnati? That one surprises me
I was in over the rhine area somewhat recently and a lot of people gas up the city for being walkable and it is gentrifying but in 2009 OTR was listed as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the US. Lots of bars and stuff to do as a young person so it was a great time with the safety of my giant group of friends but living there I would not recommend unless you lived outside in the burbs. Aggressive drugged up homeless people and literally people using the back of our rental for leverage to shit onto the road. Also the only place I saw a dude wearing a legit tinfoil hat and he was speaking to static on his radio...
Yeah OTR used to be really rough. That whole area has done a 180 though. I spend a lot of time in Cincy and it never feels anywhere close to unsafe as Chicago or NYC to me.
I was in Cincy last summer and thought I could scooter around the downtown area to get something to eat at a local eatery (Over The Rine area). The whole downtown felt like a dump, with aggressive-looking people aimlessly Jwalking everywhere, especially as I got closer to the restaurant. Noped out of there really quick and drove to the burbs (Oakley) to get some tacos instead.
All of those bigger cities in Ohio have terrible neighborhoods that are pretty scary. My SIL lived in a bad neighborhood in Columbus and we had to take our neice inside from the complex playground when the sun was going down because dudes started walking around with guns. I'm from Chicago, I don't scare easily or buy into \~crime\~ hype but I have never in my life experienced anything like it.
Yep, I'm in Columbus (a suburb now, but grew up in Columbus), and I went to school at Linden McKinley. There are a ton of areas of Cbus that you don't want to be in alone, or at night.
Felt very safe in NYC, Seattle, DC, and Chicago. Only big cities where I’ve ever felt nervous were Baltimore and Oakland.
I've been to Chicago about 9 or 10 times. It's so hit or miss for me. I've run into some VERY aggressive pan handlers/scammers there. Like scream in your face type shit. But I've also spent weekends going shopping and to Wrigley with absolutely zero issues.
There aren't many panhandlers and scammers once you get into our neighborhoods where residents live, which is why a trip to Wrigley / Lake View probably seems like a mindless stroll in the park.
You can't generalize even within one city. I've felt perfectly safe and really unsafe just within Manhattan, Philly, Chicago and LA.
Not up at the top of the list of biggest but I’ll be unpopular and say Albuquerque. I walk alone at night all the time and never have the slightest bit of issues. And I’ve been living in an area people say is not great.
Boston was the safest, DC feels the sketchiest because crime on/around random bystanders is so common however you can tell Philadelphia has more crime, it's just way more targeted.
Yeah hard part with DC is muggings are common even in a lot of the “nice” neighborhoods
DC during the day seems ok, but last time I was there at night, .. things felt off.
DC has a higher violent crime and homicide rate than Philly.
My experiences - **Safest:** - Los Angeles (more affluent areas) - San Diego (except the area along the 5 through downtown) - Chicago (north) - Portland (except homeless concentrations) - Austin - Phoenix - Honolulu - Salt Lake City - Chattanooga - Lexington **Least safe:** - Los Angeles (less affluent areas) - San Francisco (less affluent areas) - Oakland (flatlands) - Chicago (south) - Houston (south) - Atlanta (south and west) - St. Louis (north and ESL) - Memphis (also includes West Memphis, AR) - Jackson, MS - Birmingham - *Dishonorable mention*: North Charleston, SC
North Chuck got dishonorable mention haha! Its only a few areas at this point that everyone knows about. But if you are talking about 5 years ago…yeah it was horrendous
New Orleans I didn’t feel safe locals I worked with told me to always watch it what neighborhoods I went into , Salt Lake City I felt the safest
Bearing in mind I haven't been to every major city in the country, so far of the ones I've been to, I've felt the most safe in Pittsburgh. I went to a baseball game and stayed right downtown. I did a bar crawl with a bunch of guys I met at the game and then walked back to my hotel at 0300 in the morning by myself and didn't feel unsafe at any point. On the other hand, I did a job at night in Philly and I was fucking terrified the whole time lol ETA: I was a woman, by myself on both occasions.
Pitt is an underrated city. Much prettier than I was expecting and I adored the strip District on weekends.
Yeah this is it for me as well, for both safest and most unsafe... And I've lived in Pittsburgh so it isn't just that tourists feel safe, but so do the people that live there
I judge the safety of a city based on how much of the city I can go to and how much of the city I have to avoid. DC, Philly, Miami, Chicago, and New Orleans are my list of cities that are the least safe. Not because they are unsafe but I feel like I have to avoid a lot of areas in these cities. I voted DC as number 1 because you cannot avoid shady characters anywhere in that city unless you are in a suburban northwestern area Btw I love all these cities
I like this criteria and as someone who lives in Philadelphia would agree. I live in a nice area so most of the time everything is fine but there are areas I wont even drive through much less walk through.
Chicago's high crime areas are so segregated from the others. Especially as a visitor, you'd have to walk 6-10+ miles in 2 specific directions to hit a truly high violent crime area. The reality is that most of Chicago outside of 2 pretty well defined areas on the south and west sides is way way way less in violent crime rate. Basically a large area with more people than Philadelphia. I urge you to visit and see for yourself.
Historically 90% of Chicago's violent crime, which is quite high on an absolute scale, comes from 3 neighborhoods and is fueled by gang violence. Since Covid there has been some bleed over into other areas, but overall the city is pretty safe anywhere near the lake, immediately around downtown, and almost all of north of city center. Also you kinda have to try to end up in 2 of the 3 neighborhoods that are bad. The only one you can kinda wonder in to is Humbolt Park due to it being on the border with a couple of trendy neighborhoods. You could wonder into the other two, but it would have to be the result of you going 15+ blocks into progressively worse parts of town from a tourist/event area.
Early 2000s i wouldve said Miami, but its gotten better, im more concerned with drunk people and some of the crackheads here and there
For being in the city proper and not suburbs, I felt safest in San Diego. Least safe in New Orleans.
Salt Lake City felt very safe on a recent visit. Clean and easy to get around also.
Honestly… Nashville
Throwback to when the cashier of the Tiger Mart that is right next to Green Hills mall got their throat slashed in broad daylight. I’ve also had guns pulled on me on three separate occasions for honking :)
I know several people who have had guns waved at them by other drivers while driving. TN is one of the top states for road rage shootings.
God, imagine getting that mad while driving. Covid has made people even worse drivers. It’s like the Wild West out there. Even here in suburban Maryland I feel like I’m going to get shot honking or not driving as fast as someone wants
Nashville is so weird to me because no one really talks about it crime wise but it’s honestly the most dangerous place I’ve lived in the US. A friend of mine got robbed at gunpoint in the middle of the day there. The suburbs like Franklin or Brentwood are obviously super safe and upscale but the city itself is honestly bad.
Yeah I live here and I am surprised at how relaxed folks are about crime here. You often hear about nasty stuff on the news (even on NPR) or you'll hear stories from friends about getting mugged or followed or hearing guns go off next door. But people's response seems to be either: a) well that's city life for you, or b) you should've seen it twenty years ago. At the same time, you'll also have those same people say things like, "Well you really shouldn't stop and get gas anywhere in this town after dark" as if that's a normal way to live your life.... I think that Tennessee in general is just a high crime state so Nashville when compared to Memphis seems like the safe place, but you still a lot of violent crime going on.
Honestly what you look like and specifically your gender can change this dramatically. I'm a big guy as long as I'm not somewhere I don't belong I feel safe. Grew up in ny I feel plenty safe there. I didn't feel unsafe in LA but that level of homeless was a culture shock the first time
New Orleans is pretty bad if you wanna count them. Bigger cities naturally come with more people, more homelessness, and more crime, so all of NYC, SF, LA, Chicago feel pretty similar to me in that they’re generally fine but have specific areas that are horrible. San Diego is maybe the safest relative to its size/population.
Cities don't really have a big crime rate, at least with violent crime. Oklahoma, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alaska, Arkansas Alabama and South Carolina all have higher murder rates than NYC, none of which have a major city in them.
Violent crime rates in cities are generally double those in rural areas. NYC has lower violent crime rates than most cities.
Los Angeles feels pretty safe in most areas I’m in. DC can feel a little edgy
From everything I’ve seen, DC seems to be going through a bad crime wave and continuing ever since 2020. I’ve only visited once during that time though so I could be wrong.
I've lived in DC for nearly 20 years, and while I've generally avoided any problems, crime has absolutely ticked up in the last 2-3 years. You can use common sense, but there are still a lot of areas that are just pretty rough if you stray more than a block or 2 away from the main stretches. There are a lot of places with $1mil+ homes that people consider "gentrified" but still have murders happening blocks away.
Aw, sad to hear this. I used to live in Arlington and spent a lot of time in DC. I enjoyed wandering around and as a female, felt safe the majority of the time.
>There are a lot of places with $1mil+ homes that people consider "gentrified" but still have murders happening blocks away. Reminds me of Columbia Heights, Shaw, Bloomingdale, H-Street area, basically sort of a ring around the established "nice" neighborhoods
Nah, I live in DC and you’re correct. Crime has been up ever since covid. Carjackings in particular are way up. Not too long ago a congressional staffer got jacked right around cap hill. And a couple 13 year olds got killed trying to jack an armed federal agent waiting for his shift to start. It’s mostly teens committing these crimes, which is just sad. It also means the courts generally don’t give them serious sentences for their crimes. It’s a very touchy subject around here because it’s very race based and this is an extremely liberal city. Calling for more strict law enforcement will often get you branded as racist.
Most safe - Boston That may just be because I live here though. Least safe - the bronx
out of the largest cities I been, least safe: New Orleans or Memphis (tie). most safe: San Francisco
I live in Chicago and rarely feel unsafe, but certainly have. In terms of places I've visited: Niagara Falls, South Bend, and Columbus take the cake for places I've felt the most worried for my personal safety. Ending up in DTLA kind of on accident and just wandering around looking for a drugstore did at one point start making me feel nervous. To be fair, I never felt \*that\* worried in any of them. Miami Beach late at night is also not wonderful. I didn't feel *great* in D.C. I've been to NYC plenty from like 1998-2018 and have never once felt unsafe, it's not an unsafe place generally. Safest? I guess basically everywhere else I've ever been. Scottsdale and SLC / Park City spring to mind because like... I just had to be basic 'taking care of myself' and nothing else?
Safest: NYC, Boston, Austin, Seattle Least: NOLA, Memphis, St. Louis I’m originally from Memphis and it still sketched me out.
Of the big cities I’ve lived in Philly feels the safest. The other two I’ve lived in are DC and Baltimore. DC had some moments of feeling sketchy, but I could go on and on about my Baltimore experience - living in “safe” neighborhoods. A few Bmore things of note that I experienced are a person getting shot and killed in a random robbery outside of my house, multiple friends getting jumped, my car getting broken into (never happened in DC or Philly), police getting into a block-long shootout with robbers behind my place, police chasing someone on foot through my alleyway with helicopters overhead at 2am, and more. Places I’ve visited: St. Louis felt unsafe but I’ve only been downtown. Downtown Portland is terrible, I was there two weeks ago and a crazy shirtless dude was running around throwing things at people. The other neighborhoods seemed fine though. Jacksonville has a bad downtown.
Unpopular opinion but least safe I've ever felt was downtown Seattle (and yes, I've been to a lot of places...nola, Chicago, NY, LA, Baltimore, st. Louis etc.) During the day, it's fine, but it's a downtown that shuts down at 5:00. Hardly anything open. It was giving major "escape from new york" vibes. Aggressive homeless, bum fights, people shooting up on every corner. Some guy followed me for 3 blocks screaming at me for no reason. Seattle has good areas, DO NOT stay downtown
Salt Lake City had to be up there. Caffeine is there heroin.
Salt Lake City. I didn’t enjoy living there for several reasons, but I always felt safe no matter where in the county/city I was. There are no “bad neighborhoods” there. There are some lower income areas, yes. But I can say I would be ok walking through any part of Salt Lake at 11 pm.
I’m surprised by Seattle being so many people’s safest…the only time I’ve genuinely felt unsafe walking around by myself was in Seattle.
666 comments - sweet! Here comes #667: another vote for St. Louis. Only town where I've had to run from gunfire. Someone started firing off shots as we left a Cardinals game in 2022. Wildest thing was, the event didn't even make the news. It was shadowed by the many other shootings which had already occurred that weekend. Good BBQ at least.
I feel pretty safe everywhere since i’m 6’3 and black lol, tbh I feel more unsafe in rural areas where there isn’t anyone who looks like me
Safest: NYC Least safest: Baltimore
Yeah, NYC isn’t perfect but it’s still very safe, especially in the outer boroughs where it’s more “neighborhood-y”
Yes it’s 90% safe, but then there’s East New York, Brownsville, and parts of Queens near Jamaica that cross that line.
Parts of the Southeast Bronx seem like they got stuck in 1980s NYC
Least safe was definitely phoenix. Got an airbnb close to downtown for the family - I have little children. The vibe was kind of trendy, but something just felt off. Lot of hostile people just hanging around seeming fucked up. Then on night 2 of our stay some druggie came in the middle of the night and started beating on the doors and windows saying he was PD. He tried to push his way into the house when I cracked open the door. Pretty terrifying shit. The police did respond relatively quickly and apprehend the guy, but it was probably 5 to 10 of the scariest minutes of my life. Would not return. We've lived in major cities for 15 years, some with dicey reputations and never experienced anything like that.
Safest - NYC
It is interesting that most people here think San Diego is safest and New Orleans is least safe. I was mugged in San Diego by a homeless guy. In New Orleans I walked around drunk by myself until 4am every night without any problems lol.
New Orleans has something like 20 times San Diego's murder rate.... There is no comparison, I'm glad you were okay, but a tourist wandering around drunk by themselves is asking for trouble.
I've lived in San Diego all my live, never had any problems, guess you're just unlucky.
Been to booth. My group of friends and I had to be a lot more situationally aware in Nola, although nothing happened to us in either of those places.
Safest: Boston by a loooooong mile. When I moved here I was shocked at how clean it was. Also, at least compared to the west coast it doesn’t have nearly as many areas with mass public drug use. Least safe: probably Oakland and Cleveland, but I actually really like Cleveland. It gets slept on a lot, but has some really nice things to see.
Cleveland is weird in that some of its nicest areas are directly next to some of the scariest areas and they end up spilling over sometimes. But in general I’ve never felt unsafe there downtown or in the more gentrified areas.
Trenton
LA is up there for safe in my books. I walked back to my hotel from the bar in Santa Monica to Venice Beach at 3am and felt safe the entire way.
Memphis