The rugged adventurers at Outside magazine have named their “Best Towns in America,” and topping the predictably outdoorsy choices like Ithaca, New York and Crested Butte, Colorado, is, inexplicably, Washington, D.C. “The magazine said one of the things it was looking for is towns that have turned things around.”
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Kerry D. | 05-Jul-08 at 5:22 pm | Permalink
Washington D.C. has a lot of attractions, but I have failed to see that there has been a great deal of improvement in their slum areas which are rife in criminal activity that includes shootings, crack use, and armed robbery. Show me the FBI crime reports and I’ll believe it when I will see it.
Pants Rule | 06-Jul-08 at 10:04 am | Permalink
How about two sources?
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the murder rate’s dropped from a high in 1991 of 80.6 per 100K residents to 29.1. Forcible rape has dropped (but held more or less steady for the last two years). There’s more, but you can take a look for yourself.
If you want to look at REPORTED offenses (likely an underestimate of actual crime), check out http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/index.html. Reported crime is down, too. DC is by no means perfect, but it’s much better than it used to be. Sure, you have to watch your back, but no more than St. Petersburg, FL or Little Rock.
Young Urban Amateur | 07-Jul-08 at 11:13 am | Permalink
Who needs mountains (or hills, for that matter) when you have “the Revolutionary War in rap”? Now *there*’s something worth DC’s housing prices and traffic!
Odd that they didn’t put DC on the list w/ NOLA, Oakland, Sacramento, or Seattle.
D'Arcy | 09-Jul-08 at 11:25 pm | Permalink
D.C. is the headquarters for the Olympic kayaking team.