7 ms·

The numbers do lie, though. When I first moved to NYC, it was a wet, slushy winter. My wife left her shoes outside our apartment door to dry off overnight, in

The numbers do lie, though. When I first moved to NYC, it was a wet, slushy winter. My wife left her shoes outside our apartment door to dry off overnight, in a locked building with about 12 other units. By 7am the next morning, they’d vanished. I had to go buy her replacement shoes. We didn’t report the theft; why bother? The police couldn’t and wouldn’t do anything about it. The next four years in NYC weren’t all that different; lots of petty theft and crime, all the time, everywhere. Unreported and unresolved. These days, I live in the mountains outside of Boulder. Absolutely zero crime over the past 10 years. Our yearly murder rate up in the hills is zero, and has been zero for decades.

woodruffw 4y ago
The plural of anecdote is data :-) I've lived here my entire life, and I've never had my shoes stolen from outside my apartment, whether the building was locked or unlocked. I'm sorry that that happened to your wife, but it's a single instance.
- teakettle42 4y ago
  Low-level quality of life crimes are a constant; I seriously doubt you haven’t been the victim of similar crime.
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    You're welcome to doubt, but it's true. I've never even had a bicycle stolen (in the city that is; someone stole one from me in the suburbs of Maryland once).
    - teakettle42 4y ago
      - woodruffw 4y ago
        That's a bummer!
bobsmooth 4y ago
But the hustle and bustle though.
Barrin92 4y ago
>We didn’t report the theft; why bother? Unless you're saying that people in New York disproportionately don't report crime that doesn't change much about the rankings. And also having lived very rural and very urban my intuition is that there is significantly more unreported law-breaking in the countryside (sometimes for the mundane reason that there barely is police in the first place).
- teakettle42 4y ago
  > Unless you're saying that people in New York disproportionately don't report crime that doesn't change much about the rankings. People in New York don’t report crime that disproportionately occurs in places like New York.
- gojomo 4y ago
  People in New York disproportionately don't report crime, because there's so much, and so little chance of effective investigation/prosecution/recovery, they have better things to do. It's just a cost of the city's other benefits.
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    It would be fantastic to have evidence that substantiates this claim.
    - gojomo 4y ago
      Indeed. But do those most responsible, such as local officials, really want to know, if a sort of learned-helplessness in residents has created an illusion of being safer than reality?
      - woodruffw 4y ago
        You can be absolutely positive that the NYPD knows that it's in their best interest for crime rates to appear as high as possible.
csdvrx 4y ago
> The numbers do lie, though. Really? > When I first moved to NYC, it was a wet, slushy winter. My wife left her shoes outside our apartment door to dry off overnight, in a locked building with about 12 other units. I kinda feel sorry for your wife shoes, but personally I wouldn't even list that in theft: unless you live in Japan, yes, things left outside your house DO tend to vanish, especially if left overnight! > The next four years in NYC weren’t all that different; lots of petty theft and crime, all the time, everywhere. Unreported and unresolved. Can you please share more? Because our definitions of theft seem so different that I seriously wonder what you call crime. Personally, I've always felt safe in NYC and NJ. Oh god I miss the good food from Palisades Park... > These days, I live in the mountains outside of Boulder I have visited Boulder and noticed quite a few things besides the obvious like how it's not welcoming to smokers (smoking is banned everywhere). Among the disturbing ones, the police force seems to enjoy harassing the homeless. I was told about that and didn't believe it until I witnessed it with my own eyes. That's far more concerning to me to have shoes stolen outside my home. Also, people felt kinda fake? As in, lots of virtue signaling, but I felt uneasy in a very creepy way. It's very hard to describe. It suffices to say there's no amount of money you could pay me to live in Boulder, while NYC stills feels like home even if I don't live there anymore. Maybe my few days of visit was just a fluke, but it's rare I've felt so bad about a city to say something as harsh.
- ceeplusplus 4y ago
  > things left outside your house DO tend to vanish, especially if left overnight That's quite a sad thing you've grown used to. I've lived in suburbs in several states and not one would have me saying that things left outside my house tend to vanish. You should expect more from your fellow citizens. Not stealing is a basic decency and sending thieves to jail should be a basic tenet of society.
- barry-cotter 4y ago
  > personally I wouldn't even list that in theft: unless you live in Japan, yes, things left outside your house DO tend to vanish, especially if left overnight! This is exactly analogous to blaming someone for walking home at 3am through a badly lit area while visibly having money, or being attractive and dressed to show it.

woodruffw 4y ago

The plural of anecdote is data :-) I've lived here my entire life, and I've never had my shoes stolen from outside my apartment, whether the building was locked or unlocked. I'm sorry that that happened to your wife, but it's a single instance.

teakettle42 4y ago
Low-level quality of life crimes are a constant; I seriously doubt you haven’t been the victim of similar crime.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  You're welcome to doubt, but it's true. I've never even had a bicycle stolen (in the city that is; someone stole one from me in the suburbs of Maryland once).
  - teakettle42 4y ago
    - woodruffw 4y ago
      That's a bummer!

bobsmooth 4y ago

But the hustle and bustle though.

Barrin92 4y ago

>We didn’t report the theft; why bother? Unless you're saying that people in New York disproportionately don't report crime that doesn't change much about the rankings. And also having lived very rural and very urban my intuition is that there is significantly more unreported law-breaking in the countryside (sometimes for the mundane reason that there barely is police in the first place).

teakettle42 4y ago
> Unless you're saying that people in New York disproportionately don't report crime that doesn't change much about the rankings. People in New York don’t report crime that disproportionately occurs in places like New York.
gojomo 4y ago
People in New York disproportionately don't report crime, because there's so much, and so little chance of effective investigation/prosecution/recovery, they have better things to do. It's just a cost of the city's other benefits.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  It would be fantastic to have evidence that substantiates this claim.
  - gojomo 4y ago
    Indeed. But do those most responsible, such as local officials, really want to know, if a sort of learned-helplessness in residents has created an illusion of being safer than reality?
    - woodruffw 4y ago
      You can be absolutely positive that the NYPD knows that it's in their best interest for crime rates to appear as high as possible.

csdvrx 4y ago

> The numbers do lie, though. Really? > When I first moved to NYC, it was a wet, slushy winter. My wife left her shoes outside our apartment door to dry off overnight, in a locked building with about 12 other units. I kinda feel sorry for your wife shoes, but personally I wouldn't even list that in theft: unless you live in Japan, yes, things left outside your house DO tend to vanish, especially if left overnight! > The next four years in NYC weren’t all that different; lots of petty theft and crime, all the time, everywhere. Unreported and unresolved. Can you please share more? Because our definitions of theft seem so different that I seriously wonder what you call crime. Personally, I've always felt safe in NYC and NJ. Oh god I miss the good food from Palisades Park... > These days, I live in the mountains outside of Boulder I have visited Boulder and noticed quite a few things besides the obvious like how it's not welcoming to smokers (smoking is banned everywhere). Among the disturbing ones, the police force seems to enjoy harassing the homeless. I was told about that and didn't believe it until I witnessed it with my own eyes. That's far more concerning to me to have shoes stolen outside my home. Also, people felt kinda fake? As in, lots of virtue signaling, but I felt uneasy in a very creepy way. It's very hard to describe. It suffices to say there's no amount of money you could pay me to live in Boulder, while NYC stills feels like home even if I don't live there anymore. Maybe my few days of visit was just a fluke, but it's rare I've felt so bad about a city to say something as harsh.

ceeplusplus 4y ago
> things left outside your house DO tend to vanish, especially if left overnight That's quite a sad thing you've grown used to. I've lived in suburbs in several states and not one would have me saying that things left outside my house tend to vanish. You should expect more from your fellow citizens. Not stealing is a basic decency and sending thieves to jail should be a basic tenet of society.
barry-cotter 4y ago
> personally I wouldn't even list that in theft: unless you live in Japan, yes, things left outside your house DO tend to vanish, especially if left overnight! This is exactly analogous to blaming someone for walking home at 3am through a badly lit area while visibly having money, or being attractive and dressed to show it.