There was a report the other day that crime on the New York City subway system is down to 6 felonies per day, from 17 in 1990-something. Are you kidding me? Not misdemeanors, or anything petty, but felonies. Felonies are things like assault, rape, murder, armed robbery, etc. Six per day? On the subway? I gotta move.
Or, as Mike might say, I gotta stop taking the subway.
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same old adjective, brand new citrus.
10 comments:
Yeah but, the subway system is HUGE. Hundreds of thousands (or even millions?) take it every day. Percentage-wise, that's tiny. And per day means, can mean 4am at the last stop of some line, in the middle of nowhere. They're not talking about Manhattan. You don't know what it means, this 6 per day. I say that's incredibly tiny, any way you slice it, considering how big the system is and the city is and that the subways runs 24/7.
dig it.
I concur with Dan. All points. i think this means the subway is fairly safe and I certainly do not feel unsafe (even at those moments when I have been drunk and alone,coming back from Brooklyn at 2am, or sleeping on the A at 1am to get to Port Authority). It's all about being attentive (even when inebriated).
Those stats are pretty good. Seriously. Check out the stats in Camden and you will feel much better.
yes, from a "relative" point of view 6 is insignificant.
but to write it off as such is to accept such crimes as part of life. yes, pragmatically they are a part of life, but should they be?
should we be 8.1 million people crammed into such a tiny space? why do we want to do this? are we willing to risk becoming a victim of our fellow men/women just to cram onto this island?
it is just absurd to me. sure, if we look at a place like north conway (NH), there is virtually no crime because the population is small. i won't argue that it is for any other reason (although there are probably some.)
i will argue that there are many fewer ways to die in north conway. auto accidents become relatively more frequent, but nyc has those too. and that's it for ways to die in north conway: auto accidents and natural causes. unless you injure/kill yourself hiking, skiing, climbing, etc. however, those risks will always be a part of my life wherever i live, because i will always take part in outdoor activities.
but in nyc, you have auto accidents, construction accidents, ferry accidents, the threat of terrorism, gang violence, wacked-out homeless people with knives, falling onto the subway tracks, random electrocutions from light poles (remember that story?), illnesses imported via airplanes from the world over, etc etc.
most of these deadly occurrences can be avoided simply by removing excess people from your life. many become a non-threat once you remove public transportation from your life. did i mention stress? stress is a serious threat to life.
anyway, i should look up the numbers. i would not be surprised in the least to find that the daily risk of death is many times higher in a metropolitan area than a rural area.
and for what? the "benefits" of nyc that i rarely experience because i am always working and have no money? it's just not worth it, in my opinion.
While it may be true that "the daily risk of death is many times higher in a metropolitan area than a rural area," the inverse holds true if you replace the word "death" with "boredom."
And those 6 felonies are probably people like me, known to assault people stealing their seats on the 75 minute daily commute from Bay Ridge to Midtown.
haha laura. sure, now it's people who don't even live here who are coming in and killing us residents. even better.
as for your "boredom" comment, well to each their own. i find nyc boring because there is no place for me to hike, rock climb, ice climb, mountaineer, or just go camping. at night, i have only seen about 16 stars at once, and that was on the clearest night in the past year. up to that point my record was 11. but who's counting.
i find that i enjoy myself most when surrounded by mountains and glaciers and trees and a lack of people. i do not particularly enjoy being surrounded by blocks of concrete and steel and cars and people. i just don't find it as picturesque.
but what do i know about aesthetics; i'm a scientist.
and laura, the irony of the situation (you telling me that new york is great) is not lost on me. :)
John Stossel had an entertaining piece on 20/20 Friday about fears, needless worries, etc... and the chances of most of us becoming one of the stats is slim to none. Basically the theme was, Live, take risks, because doing nothing out of fear is not living.
i concur ainslie. however, there are acceptable risks and there are unacceptable risks. living in nyc is an unacceptable risk, in my opinion. (by "unacceptable" i mean that it is a risk not worth taking; the risk outways the benefit.)
i do not live in fear, but i used to question myself for even moving here. "what was i thinking?" i no longer do that, because if i hadn't moved here i probably wouldn't have met yilin. once i graduate the question will become "what am i still doing here?" ;)
Josh,
Tongue-in-cheek m'dear, tongue-in-cheek. You know I feel your pain about the lack of nature in this city.
But I must call you on one thing: "people who don't even live here?" Is Brooklyn no longer part of New York City? harrumph.
just bustin' ya. :P
i am one of the few manhattanites (i can't believe i just wrote that) who will defend brooklyn, the bronx, queens, and staten island as being part of nyc. most people use "manhattan" and "nyc" interchangeably. i find it arrogant. just like when people say "the city" instead of "new york city". there are other cities out there.
of course, your mail address is "new york, ny" only if you live in manhattan. correct? and i don't know what's going on with yonkers, but they have some kinda crazy extra taxes or something.
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