This will look great in the tourism brochures

[china-doll]

Camden, N.J., named most-dangerous city

Detroit relinquishes title just days after NBA melee

The Associated Press
Updated: 5:31 a.m. ET Nov. 22, 2004

TRENTON, N.J. - Camden has been named the nation’s most-dangerous city, snatching the top spot from Detroit, according to a company’s annual ranking based on crime statistics.

Officials in Camden, which was ranked third last year, downplayed the dubious designation Sunday, saying many steps have already been taken to reduce crime in the city.

“We must give our people jobs, training and opportunity,” said City Councilman Ali Sloan-El, who pointed out that Camden’s poverty is an important contributing factor to its high crime rate.

Atlanta, St. Louis and Gary, Ind. rounded out the top five in the most dangerous city rankings, which was to be released Monday by Morgan Quitno Corp. The company publishes “City Crime Rankings,” an annual reference book that will be published next month. Detroit fell to second in this year’s list.

However, company president Scott Morgan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in its Sunday edition that he had been unaware that St. Louis police omitted 5,760 crimes from their 2003 crime data. Provided with the correct data, Morgan found that St. Louis would have switched places with Atlanta.

The news wasn’t all bleak for New Jersey. The state’s Brick Township was rated the second-safest city for the third straight year, behind only Newton, Mass., while the Garden State’s Dover Township was ranked tenth. The other communities in the top five were Amherst, N.Y., which had been ranked as the safest city for the past four years, followed by Mission Viejo, Calif., and Clarkstown, N.Y.

The rankings look at the rate for six crime categories: Murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. It compares 350 cities with populations of 75,000 or more that reported crime data to the FBI. Final 2003 statistics, released by the FBI in October, were used to determine the rankings.

 

[oggbashan]

The US is not seen as an attractive tourist destination from this side of the Atlantic.

We are being bombarded with horror stories about tourists' reception by US immigration and security. Why book a holiday if you might be turned away at your destination because your name is similar to someone else on the 'wanted' list?

We welcome US visitors and charge them high prices for their dollars.

Og

 

[Colleen Thomas]

This is no surprise to anyone who has ever been to Jersey I personally add 2 hours drive time to a 19 hour trip, just to avoid the state.

 

[cantdog]

Unfortunately, Og...

It is not such a popular thing any more to travel in the US even if you live here. The security crapola changes all the time and is generally being operated by inexperienced people who can have many different bad attitudes. A certain amount of travel is unavoidable, but it is never easy any more.

I have taken to just driving there, even to Chicago from Maine, if I possibly can, and going by train if I can't, because air travel is so bad now. They strip you and so forth at the ping of a wand, these fellows. And some people they just turn away for no discernible reason.

But you are, I think, correct to believe that the points of entry into the US, as a traveler from abroad, are the most harrowing. They always were, if only because the opportunities to make money smuggling are greater between countries than between states of the union. But it is very intense now, and too many times, people wind up just going right home again, their travel plans in a shambles.

 

[china-doll]

This is no surprise to anyone who has ever been to Jersey I personally add 2 hours drive time to a 19 hour trip, just to avoid the state.

Oh come on! It's the "Garden State". (Wait, is smog grown in a garden?)

You probablly saved yourself about $65 in tolls to.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Oh come on! It's the "Garden State". (Wait, is smog grown in a garden?)

You probablly saved yourself about $65 in tolls to.

I won't drive there. They cannot figure out how to put up a road sign that helps you, there are multiple exits off the main roads with no way back on and no sign to warn you. The average drive got his liscence from a cereal box. Those who didn't took the fisher price driving course. And the cops...these guys make the SS look like the garden club.

 

[Guest]

 

[oggbashan]

I visited Boston, Lincolnshire, in September.

Boston, Mass, is named after Boston, Lincs.

I enjoyed a walk around the town, visited the Boston Stump (church tower) and talked to several locals. It struck me as a pleasant town.

This week one of the national papers did an expose on the drug problem in Boston (Lincs). Apparently the number is drug users is much higher than the national average and higher than some inner city suburbs. However the crime rate is still low because the locals can afford the drugs instead of turning to crime to finance their habit.

I still think Boston (Lincs) is a pleasant town to visit.

Og

 

[china-doll]

This reminds me of a city up north of Boston, (Massachusetts, that is). The city is named Lynn. It your typical run down old New England mill town. Not much industry left, not to many good jobs, depressed downton area, very high crime rate.

About 8 or 10 years ago they wanted to rename the City to try to break the bad image and also because of the City unofficial slogan: "Lynn, Lynn, City of Sin. You never come out the way you went in."

They tried, unsuccessfully, to rename it Ocean Park.

One of the local radio stations or papers had a contest to come up with a new slogan/song for the City. One of them I remember was: "Ocean Park, Ocean Park, don't go near it after dark. Ocean Park, Ocean Park, if Noah saw it, he'd build another Ark."

You can call it anything you want, but if it looks like shit and smells like shit... it's still shit.

 

[shereads]

Miami FL won Washington Post's "Rudest Drivers" last year. It's not much, but until cocaine prices stabilize it's all we've got.