Jax: People Don't Feel Safe Walking Alone at Night

[JFman00]

Why People Perceive Some Cities as Safer Than Others

Jacksonville ties for 4th worst out of 50 largest metros for "Yes, safe" answers to "Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?"

[thelakelander]

Downtown? Although it can be a lonely walk, I've never felt unsafe walking in downtown.  The Southside?  I don't feel comfortable walking streets like Southside or Baymeadows in the day, much less the night.

[simms3]

I think it's a combination of factors (for explaining the bulk of dirty south cities at the bottom).

1) Hardly anyone is caught walking...so it's stepping outside of the norm for anyone when walking is a must...not to mention walking alone at night.

2) There is still a tinge of racism and unfamiliarity with different people and cultures among people who grew up in the south

3) Most of the south is relatively rural and unurban, so again walking and experiencing urban crap is foreign, unfamiliar, and potentially a little scary

4) It doesn't help that impoverished blacks in the south do tend to murder and rampage quite a bit...leading to the name dirty south (folks out here in Oakland are at least still rapping about community issues and "normal" things where hoodrappers out of Atlanta, Memphis and other southern cities have continued to stoop to new lows, simply disgusting people)


I think you ask someone in a large city this same question and you are likely asking someone accustomed to walking alone at night, someone who has developed more street smarts, someone who has seen a lot more, someone who has a higher threshold for uneasiness.  Hence why Chicago may have scored higher than it should...aside from the "white" parts that city makes New Orleans seem safe!

[thelakelander]

I'm not buying the impoverished blacks in the south tend to murder and rampage a bit thing.

From my observation living it and visiting other places, the impoverished neighborhoods tend to be where a higher percentage of the population is more dependent on their feet and mass transit.  Growing up in what most here would call a rough neighborhood, I'll also say that you pretty much know everyone in the hood (people actually grow up together there) and you tend to feel more comfortable there then walking in a gated community where the demographics don't match your skin color or bank account. Although I assume the same would be said of any situation that you personally happen to be more comfortable and familiar with.

As far as the crime aspect goes, people don't randomly murder others for the most part.  In the majority of the cases (in the core, burbs and secluded country clubs) the people engaged in the crime typically know each other.  If you want to cut down on your chances of being a statistic, stay on the good side of the law.  That works in Ponte Vedra and Moncrief.

Regarding the cities ranking lower on the list, I'd bet when we really take a look at the actual context people are forced to walk in, the majority don't have pedestrian scale streets.

[peestandingup]

Downtown? Although it can be a lonely walk, I've never felt unsafe walking in downtown.  The Southside?  I don't feel comfortable walking streets like Southside or Baymeadows in the day, much less the night.

True that. Should be titled: Jax People Don't Feel Safe Walking.

[peestandingup]

[Tacachale]

For all his cosmopolitan affectations, Simms is never more the silly insulated Ortega boy as when he pops off about stuff like this.

[Lunican]

Most of Jacksonville isn't safe for walking at all. Cross Southside Blvd on foot and there is a good chance you'll get killed. Just look at Southside and Beach. Cars coming off Beach Blvd have a yield sign and pedestrians have no protection.

http://goo.gl/maps/j0NPG

[Wacca Pilatka]

For all his cosmopolitan affectations, Simms is never more the silly insulated Ortega boy as when he pops off about stuff like this.

Which is saying something, if you've ever read his Emporis posts where he operates on the premise that saying how embarrassed he is to be from Jacksonville will ingratiate him with sophisticates.

[John P]

Downtown? Although it can be a lonely walk, I've never felt unsafe walking in downtown.  The Southside?  I don't feel comfortable walking streets like Southside or Baymeadows in the day, much less the night.

True that. Should be titled: Jax People White People Don't Feel Safe Walking.

Since most violent crime is black on black why would white people feel more unsafe? how do we know the demographics of who was surveyed anyways? I think this goes back to one thing: PERCEPTION

[Overstreet]

I don't walk alone at night. God and Rosco are usually with me. Most of my walking is at night. But not down town or any where near Moncrief.  I walk in Mandarin.

I have been charged by a big dog. I've had a pistol pulled in front of me. I've walked up on a sword swinging youngster (20s).  I've been approached by a guy in a subruban with smoked out windows.....cop, druggy, or just a nosy jerk(don't know). I've been in the dark near a dock listening to guys on the end chanting "death to america" . I've had tree limbs fall near the sidewalk during a tropical storm event.  But I ain't afraid to walk out there. 

Yes, there is traffic. But I grew up walking in traffic. It don't bother me. It is more predictable than people.

[fsquid]

hoodrappers out of Atlanta, Memphis and other southern cities have continued to stoop to new lows, simply disgusting people

as I always love to point out, a rap group from Memphis has the same number of Oscars as Martin Scorsese.

[simms3]

For all his cosmopolitan affectations, Simms is never more the silly insulated Ortega boy as when he pops off about stuff like this.

LoL...well thanks for assuming where I might have lived nearly a decade ago when I was living in Jax.  Besides, I know of an Ortega native who now lives in Soma in SF, and others in edgy parts of NYC.  In fact, it's really the Ortega/"rich" kids who seem to have branched out the most of people I knew growing up in Jax (to add to the snob factor I guess having parents who can afford to send you off to great universities in other cities so that you can then be on your way to live and work where you please will do that to you...)  I'd guess given where many of them ended up, they are a lot less "insulated" than your typical Jax native/still current resident.  Plus...I don't own a car and live in a neighborhood with a density of 35,000 ppsm in the central city of a "coastal" metro of 8 million people...I would have to guess I am exposed to a lot more on a daily basis than 99% of Jax is exposed to in a given year

I don't think there's anything controversial about what I said..."fear of walking alone at night" seems highlighted in the south.  Just look at the facts - racism (really amongst all groups) persists, crime IS elevated (usually black on black, but there is random violence that surges every now and again and it gets reported in the media), people ARE insulated moreso than people in the NE or on the West Coast (so it probably takes less to "scare" a less traveled southerner than a resident of Chicago, Baltimore, LA, etc)...bla bla bla.

Which is saying something, if you've ever read his Emporis posts where he operates on the premise that saying how embarrassed he is to be from Jacksonville will ingratiate him with sophisticates.

LOL What's Emporis?  I post on here and Skyscraperpage, where I have the same sn.  Lakelander and I are the only Jax natives on the latter, and neither of us posts anything about Jax, ever, except to showcase photos (Lake just did a week ago) or to add to the Projects & Construction thread (which I started and last posted in maybe 2 years ago).

Stephen, Lake, and maybe 3-4 other people even know who I am because I choose to remain anonymous and don't have any particular "name" anyway...would just assume be a "poster" and nothing more.  Don't try to pretend like you know me

[Wacca Pilatka]

 ^My mistake, I was inadvertently equating Emporis to SkyscraperPage.  I was specifically referring to the photo thread of SkyscraperPage in which you begin by going out of your way to talk about Jacksonville's "horrible reputation" and to state that you are embarrassed to be from there.

None of this is intended to take away from the validity of the points you were making about the city's ridiculous destruction policies in that thread.  None of this is intended to take away from the validity of the leasing data you often provide on these forums.  It's uncomfortable to read, but as Stephen said, it's reality and it's useful to know rather than to deny and to be deluded.

As much as I'm not in denial about Jacksonville's problems, and as much as it pains me to know that everything you said about the destruction policies is quite right, I don't particularly appreciate seeing departed Jaxsons announce to the world how repulsive and embarrassing it is to be from the city.  It goes against trying to instill the kind of pride and sense of place that will lead to positive changes to counter whatever negative reputations the city does have, and it led to comments in the SkyscraperPage thread that were negative about Jacksonville, including one from a person who said he/she now dreaded an upcoming first-time trip there.  It's not helpful to Jacksonville or sophisticated or uplifting to say that it's embarrassing to be from there.  In fairness, I'll note that you talked further down in that thread about the good work MetroJacksonville does and spoke positively of the urban core neighborhoods, but the overall effect of the start of the thread was "Look at this dump you should never visit!  But don't equate it to me, as I'm far more sophisticated."

[Wacca Pilatka]

Incidentally, this is Emporis, if anyone's interested.  A database of building photos and facts, searchable by building and city.  I mistakenly thought it and SkyscraperPage were under the same umbrella.

http://www.emporis.com/buildings