25 Most Dangerous Cities in America for 2007

[dhalltoyo]

1. St. Louis, MO – I always feel creepy when going through the Gateway
2. Detroit, MI – As if the roads aren’t bad enough
3. Flint, MI – I was kind of surprised at this one
4. Compton, CA – Downtown Los Angeles so small wonder
5. Camden, NJ – Typical east coast high density population center
6. Birmingham, AL – I have always seen frequent visits by local, county and state police at the truck stops
7. Cleveland, OH – Cold, wet and very unfriendly
8. Oakland, CA – I thought it was bad even in the 60’s
9. Youngstown, OH – Steel mills left, very economically impacted area
10. Gary, IN – Private security teams at the truck stops that are armed like S.W.A.T. teams
11. Richmond, CA – Right next door to Oakland, CA
12. Baltimore, MD – A nice city back in the 50’s, but folks seem very uptight now
13. Memphis, TN – Makes you feel so welcome after deadheading in from Texas – I always feel weird there
14. Trenton, NJ – Another high density population area with infrastructure problems
15. Richmond, VA – This one surprised me too
16. Kansas City, MO – Another haven for deadheading, but be careful
17. Atlanta, GA – We all know about the traffic, but park at least 20 miles outside the city
18. Cincinnati, OH – I don’t even like picking up in the downtown area – Over-The-Rhine (Take a flack vest)
19. Washington, DC – Thank you government hand out programs
20. North Charleston, SC – I love Charleston, but I will be more on guard when sitting in company lots here
21. Reading, PA – Not sure as to why this one is so bad
22. Newark, NJ – Same as Camden and Trenton
23. Little Rock, AR – I thought Bill fixed all of the problems in Arkansas
24. San Bernardino, CA – Just an extension of Los Angeles
25. Orlando, FL – Anyone for Disney World

 

[ATeam]

Interesting list. I listened to Saint Louis people bristle about the report on a radio interview the other day. Their point, a good one I thought, was that crime is localized. There are good parts and bad parts of town. It's not like the whole city is crime-ridden. Reporting crime not by city but by zip code would be more accurate.

The one city in the nation that we will not go to is not on the list. That city is New Orleans. Since Katrina, New Orleans emergency services have not returned to full strength. I am not willing to go to a city where we might have to wait an hour for an ambulance and the police may not respond at all to what could be a major incident to you but a minor one to them. Until first responder response times improve to be on par with other cities, New Orleans is on our avoid list.

It's not a hard decision to make since very little of the freight we have hauled has delivered or picked up in New Orleans. It is a decision made not because there are so many bad guys (gals). It's made because there are too few good guys (gals).

 

[LDB]

Not that they're totally safe but it's nice to not see any Texas cities in the top 25. It helps significantly that anyone you approach could be armed and better qualified than police officers to put you down. It's too bad it isn't that way everywhere. I always use the Earle, AR. T/A or Olive Branch, MS. to stage for Memphis. A few of the others are also avoided as much as possible. Maybe soon we'll get the 25 safest list too.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB
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[arkjarhead]

Oak Grove,Mo is a good place to stage to stay out of KC. I actually like the Petro there, but each to his own.

 

[prescat]

It's always good to see my home city of Camden make one of these lists. Hey, atleast we are in the Top 10 of something.. lol.. Watch out St Louis, we're coming back next year to recapture our rightful #1 spot..

It's funny, how Camden has changed. My father was a police officer there for 31 years and when I was young, (and they had residency requirements for city employees), Camden was still a great place. Home to RCA and Campbell Soup, (we would shop at the company store, and watch 4 miles of TT's hauling tomatoes waiting to dump. It was cheap fun and as a kid I thought every tomato in the world had been harvested). Camden also had the first Drive-In Theater, and 7UP was in neighboring Gloucester..and the Shipyards were bustling, but the best was this time of year when old men sold hot roasted walnuts along Broadway..Now I'm sad...Sorry about going off..

 

[60MPH]

I can't believe that ft worth is not on the list If you have ever watched cops they seem to have alot of problems there, and new orleans has always been a rough city. and lets not forget miami. thats just my .02 cents

60MPH ALL DAY-EVERY DAY

 

[Moot]

I don't know who compiled this list or what criteria was used to rank these cities. From the gist of this thread it appears that crime is what makes these cities dangerous. I agree with Phil that most crime is concentrated in pockets and a ranking using zip codes would be more helpful in avoiding these areas rather than whole cities.

Are the cities listed, the cities proper or the entire metro areas? Two on the list come to mind that are separated by a river and a state line. Cincinnati/Covington, KY and St. Louis/East St. Louis, IL. Does anyone remember the Union 76 in East St. Louis?

A few years ago I was driving through Topeka and listening to the local news. There was a story about so and so getting shot to death, bringing the murder toll for the year to 8. This was late February or early March!

As an expediter a ranking of the most dangerous cities using a set of criteria (criterium?) that included traffic volume and flow, road conditions and designs, weather, bridge stability etc. would be of more concern to me. The threat of danger from fellow motorists is more apt to effect me than crime.

I guess the lesson for today is, be careful and alert to danger where ever you are. Even Bambi is out to get you.

 

[Jefferson3000]

Yeah. Back at the beginning of the year, my wife and I were shocked as was most of our city of Orlando to hear that we were added to the list. But if you figure it is ranked as THE #1 vacation destination in the world, it makes sense that cons, pick pockets and other thugs would make their way there to take advantage of tourists.

If anyone comes to the Orlando area to deliver, the area you want to not layover in is downtown. That's kind of a given for most places though. Surprisingly enough, you're probably safer on the south side near the airport that in the north metro area. It has its seedy areas as well, but generally it won't feel as remote at night

Drive Safe!

Jeff

Driver for 15 years
O/O for 13 years
OOIDA #829119

[em]"Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed." --Mark Twain[/em]

 

[DAN]

Sorry but you are wrong,#1 is DETROIT and #2 is ST.LOUIS.

 

[Lawrence]

>Not that they're totally safe but it's nice to not see any
>Texas cities in the top 25.

Leo,

I think the reason is simple...Texas is the #1 Capital punishment state. Take that Hillary!

Lawrence,
Expediters Online.com

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I hate the country, all those animals walking around un-cooked.




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[arkjarhead]

This is actually the second poll to come out this year. The first one had the top three a detroit,mi , memphis,tn , and pine bluff(crime bluff), ar respectivley. Is there more there one poll or more than one orginazation doing it or both?

 

[greg334]

I remember the idiot news people in Detroit were all over this news story.

Apparently someone put below the Detroit city limit sign - Welcome to Detroit.... Hope you survive.

The press was all over this as a racist sign but it is a lot closer to the truth than most will admit to. Just as there are places in different cities that are dangerous, but there are more places in Detroit where the cops will not respond to. About 12 years ago I had a building in one of these areas where you didn't see cops at night at all and a few of us were sitting on the roof one night and watched as there was an OD going on across the street, this guy was just crooking in front of us while EMS and the cops waited until everyone was gone from the scene before they even got out of their car. The day before an EMS driver was stabbed while sitting at the light, some Druggy opened his door and stabbed him.

 

[Jefferson3000]

Wow. I'm surprised that Laredo didn't make the cut.......


Drive Safe!

Jeff

Driver for 15 years
O/O for 13 years
OOIDA #829119

[em]"Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed." --Mark Twain[/em]

 

[are12]

I can't imagine why they would have Reading, PA on the list, I could see if it was Philly, that has always been a bad area. I think the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area is worse than Reading. Every time you turn around, there is a shooting! We have a lot of drug dealers coming in from NYC, NJ, Allentown and Philly so our crime rate is just booming.

 

[Falligator]

Youngstown's mottow should read "Come on vacation....leave on probation."

Did anyone even mention Warren, OH? They've had a city budget problem there for years.


ShawnF
located somewhere south of Y-town
11997