Reply #11: Well... [View All]

[UdoKier]

" No matter how you design it, an area with higher population density is going to bring with it more crime, more traffic, and more congestion."

I don't think that's really true. PER CAPITA crime rates are actually lower in many high-density cities than they are in many low-density suburbs. As I mentioned before, the per capita crime rates in Dallas are much higher than in SF. Of course a city of 1 million like SF will have more overall crimes than a town with only 162,000 like Ft. Lauderdale, FL.


Crimes per 100K.....Natl. average......San Francisco, CA.......Fort Lauderdale, FL

Population..................114,967.............763,146.....................162,900

Violent crimes.............506.1................851.6..........................1,081.6

Property crimes...........3,617.9.............4,674.8.......................6,764.9

Murder.........................5.5....................7.7.............................8.0

Forcible rape................32.0..................30.0...........................40.5

Robbery.......................144.9................452.9.........................466.5

Aggravated assault.......323.6................361.0.........................566.6

Burglary........................728.4................746.3........................1,386.7

Larceny-theft................2,475.3..............3,199.5.....................4,520.0

Motor vehicle theft.........414.2................729.0.......................858.2


Not to bash Ft. Lauderdale. It's a relatively nice, relatively upscale, suburban-sprawl model midsized city, and you can see clearly that in all areas, the crime rate is higher there than in diverse, high-density, full-of-mass-transit San Francisco.

Source:

http://www.bestplaces.net/html/crimecompare3.asp?lcity=8483&rcity=8700&view=T