Seattle to Remain Famous for Coffee and Rain
Well, we can’t be number one at everything. Washington, DC-based CQ Press has just released its list of the most crime-ridden cities, and Seattle didn’t even crack the top 100. Seattle ranked 183rd on the list, right after fluffy-sounding Downey, CA. Our neighbor to the South, Portland, managed to top us, coming in at 173.
So who are the winners losers in all of this? Rounding out the top ten most dangerous cities are:
1. Camden, NJ
2. St. Louis, MO
3. Oakland, CA
4. Detroit, MI
5. Flint, MI
6. New Orleans, LA
7. Birmingham, AL
8. Cleveland, OH
9. Jackson, MS
10. Memphis, TN
Encouragingly, New Orleans lost its number one seat from last year and fell to the number six spot. Of the top ten, the only West Coast city that made the list was Oakland, CA although Compton, CA wasn’t far behind at number 12.
How does CQ arrive at these seemly arbitrary rankings? Well, almost the same way the Princeton Review does. The authors examine FBI statistics for violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, property crime, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. They then use those numbers to calculate a numerical ranking. This ranking is published just in time to ruin the mayor of Camden, NJ's Thanksgiving holiday.
We think it’s safe to assume the reason Seattle wasn’t ranked higher was the lack of an excavator hijacking metric in calculations. Perhaps this will be remedied next year, but for now, let’s all just bask in the glow of not living in Detroit. Now there’s something to give thanks for.
