50 Most Dangerous Cities
Discussion
Only 3, St. Louis, Atlanta and New Orleans. Of those 3, NOLA genuinely felt the more dangerous of the 3. St Louis I've done twice, no issues, stayed both with a friend near the airport and also in a hotel in the centre next to the St Louis City MLS stadium, and Atlanta was fine too. Went for an NFL game last year in Atlanta and stayed overnight, chatted with a lot of fans, people were friendly, always curious about an Englishman watching NFL. Whereas when I went for a game in NOLA - granted I was there as an away fan (Tampa), I got heckled and sworn at.
5
Lima, Kingston, Oakland, Marseille and Birmingham.
I can tell you from personal experience that Lima was by far the most iffy place out of the 5 - but still felt fairly safe.
I am amazed San Francisco is not on that list as I saw more crime there in a week happen in front of my eyes than I have ever seen in the UK in my entire life.
Not sure how they come up with the numbers.
Lima, Kingston, Oakland, Marseille and Birmingham.
I can tell you from personal experience that Lima was by far the most iffy place out of the 5 - but still felt fairly safe.
I am amazed San Francisco is not on that list as I saw more crime there in a week happen in front of my eyes than I have ever seen in the UK in my entire life.
Not sure how they come up with the numbers.
12; probably the only time I felt uncomfortable was Chicago (waiting for a bus somewhere I really shouldn’t have ended up) and Johannesburg (in a locals only type shop) getting a bottle of water). Of the other 10, most I could see might be an issue in the wrong part of the city, but not if being somewhat sensible. The remainder though I am very surprised at.
Only 2, I can confirm Port of Spain in Trinidad really does deserve to be number 11 on that list. And when we visited the country was going through a massive crime wave!
We visited once when the carnival was on, absolutely spectacular event (2nd largest carnival in the world) and it felt largely peaceful during the day, but the atmosphere changed as the afternoon went on due to the all day drinking. We were advised to leave before it got dark, as the crowd will be more drunk and trouble is more likely. 13 people were murdered that night while at the carnival, including shootings, stabbings and machete attacks. A local hospital was closed so one victim was simply thrown over the fence, those who found him wanted to carry on partying. He was found dead the next morning..
Another time we visited relatives in a suburban area on the edge of Port of Spain, every house had irons bars across all windows and multiple guard dogs. The whole area had the constant sound of dog barking. Nobody was around on the street but you were watched by everyone, people were always watching from a house window. We were also treated to the occasional sound of gun fire in the distance while we had dinner...
There are a few local roads that you are advised to avoid at night due to carjackings and kidnappings.
My brother recently returned from Rio De Janeiro, and one of the hotel staff took him on a tour to one of the local favelas while picking up some smokes. In his own words that was f**king wild (not in a good way) and the whole atmosphere changes when you get near one.
We visited once when the carnival was on, absolutely spectacular event (2nd largest carnival in the world) and it felt largely peaceful during the day, but the atmosphere changed as the afternoon went on due to the all day drinking. We were advised to leave before it got dark, as the crowd will be more drunk and trouble is more likely. 13 people were murdered that night while at the carnival, including shootings, stabbings and machete attacks. A local hospital was closed so one victim was simply thrown over the fence, those who found him wanted to carry on partying. He was found dead the next morning..
Another time we visited relatives in a suburban area on the edge of Port of Spain, every house had irons bars across all windows and multiple guard dogs. The whole area had the constant sound of dog barking. Nobody was around on the street but you were watched by everyone, people were always watching from a house window. We were also treated to the occasional sound of gun fire in the distance while we had dinner...
There are a few local roads that you are advised to avoid at night due to carjackings and kidnappings.
My brother recently returned from Rio De Janeiro, and one of the hotel staff took him on a tour to one of the local favelas while picking up some smokes. In his own words that was f**king wild (not in a good way) and the whole atmosphere changes when you get near one.
Edited by RichFN2 on Saturday 7th November 17:36
I lived in Baltimore in 1999... it was amongst the top few cities in the US for murders per capita at the time.
It felt perfectly safe (even at night) around the harbour (Canton) where I lived. But I wouldn't have ventured 2 blocks 'in land' at any time... wasn't anything out of the ordinary to hear distant gun fire in the early hours, and multiple murders in one night were common place.
Don't think I've ever seen more police in a city centre, other than maybe NYC. There was literally a police car on every street corner!
For all of that, I moved there from LA, and that felt much more sketchy... in Baltimore you could at least avoid most of the risk by staying out of the poor areas. In LA, you could get yourself shot in what would be considered a decent area just by saying the wrong thing to the wrong person.
It felt perfectly safe (even at night) around the harbour (Canton) where I lived. But I wouldn't have ventured 2 blocks 'in land' at any time... wasn't anything out of the ordinary to hear distant gun fire in the early hours, and multiple murders in one night were common place.
Don't think I've ever seen more police in a city centre, other than maybe NYC. There was literally a police car on every street corner!
For all of that, I moved there from LA, and that felt much more sketchy... in Baltimore you could at least avoid most of the risk by staying out of the poor areas. In LA, you could get yourself shot in what would be considered a decent area just by saying the wrong thing to the wrong person.
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