St. Louis No. 1 On Dangerous City List

(AP)  Just days after the St. Louis Cardinals won the top honor in Major League Baseball, their hometown jumped to first place on a list no one wants to lead: the most dangerous cities in the United States.

This Midwestern city has long been in the upper tiers of the annual ranking of the nation's safest and most dangerous cities, compiled by Morgan Quitno Press. Violent crime surged nearly 20 percent there from 2004 to last year, when the rate of such crimes rose much faster in the Midwest than in the rest of nation, according to FBI figures released in June.

"It's just sad the way this city is," resident Sam Dawson said. "On the news you hear killings, someone's been shot."

The second most dangerous city was Detroit, followed by Flint, Mich., and Compton, Calif.

The rankings, released early Monday, came as the city celebrates Friday's World Series victory at the new Busch Stadium. St. Louis has been spending millions of dollars on urban renewal even as the crime rate climbs.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay did not return calls to his office seeking comment Sunday.

Among Ohio cities, Cleveland was ranked as seventh most dangerous; Youngstown at No. 9 and Cincinnati, 18.

Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press, a private research and publishing company specializing in state and city reference books, said he is not surprised to see St. Louis top the list, since it has been among the 10 most dangerous cities for years.

Morgan said the study looks at crime only within St. Louis city limits, with a population of about 330,000. It doesn't take into account the suburbs in St. Louis County, which has roughly 980,000 residents.

The safest city in 2005 was Brick, N.J., population about 78,000, followed by Amherst, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo, and Mission Viejo, Calif., a city of just under 100,000 people south of Los Angeles, with a very young median age of just 37 years old.

Cities are ranked based on more than just their crime rate, Morgan said. Individual crimes such as rape or burglary are measured separately, compared to national averages and then compiled to give a city its ranking. Crimes are weighted based on their danger to people.

The national FBI figures released in June showed the murder rate in St. Louis jumped 16 percent from 2004 to 2005, compared with 4.8 percent nationally. The overall violent crime rate increased nearly 20 percent, compared with 2.5 percent nationally.

While crime increased in all regions last year, the 5.7 percent rise in the 12 Midwestern states was at least three times higher than any other region, according to the FBI.

Visiting St. Louis on Thursday, FBI director Robert Mueller said it was too early to tell why some types of crime were rising faster in the Midwest.

Mueller said the FBI is working harder to form partnerships with police departments to launch programs like St. Louis' Safe Streets task force, which focuses police efforts on problematic neighborhoods.

This year's ranking was good news for Camden, N.J., which in 2005 was named the most dangerous city for the second year in a row.

Camden, N.J., Mayor Gwendolyn Faison said Sunday she was thrilled to learn that her city no longer topped the most-dangerous list.

"You made my day!" said Faison, who has served since 2000. "There's a new hope and a new spirit."


MOST DANGEROUS 25

1. St. Louis

2. Detroit

3. Flint, Mich.

4. Compton, Calif.

5. Camden, N.J.

6. Birmingham, Ala.

7. Cleveland

8. Oakland, Calif.

9. Youngstown, Ohio

10. Gary, Ind.

11. Richmond, Calif.

12. Baltimore

13. Memphis, Tenn.

14. Trenton, N.J.

15. Richmond, Va.

16. Kansas City, Mo.

17. Atlanta

18. Cincinnati

19. Washington

20. North Charleston, S.C.

21. Reading, Pa.

22. Newark, N.J.

23. Little Rock, Ark.

24. San Bernardino, Calif.

25. Orlando, Fla.



SAFEST 25

1. Brick, N.J.

2. Amherst, N.Y.

3. Mission Viejo, Calif.

4. Newton, Mass.

5. Troy, Mich.

6. Colonie, N.Y.

7. Irvine, Calif.

8. Cary, N.C.

9. Greece, N.Y.

10. Coral Springs, Fla.

11. Thousand Oaks, Calif.

12. Orem, Utah

13. Round Rock, Texas

14. Dover, N.J.

15. Lake Forest, Calif.

16. Sterling Heights, Mich.

17. Simi Valley, Calif.

18. Roswell, Ga.

19. Lee's Summit, Mo.

20. Broken Arrow, Okla.

21. Chino Hills, Calif.

22. Gilbert, Ariz.

23. Edison, N.J.

24. Cranston, R.I.

25. Port St. Lucie, Fla.

[youngfathergoinstrong]

i feel like that if people wud stop lukin at the negative and stop lukin for the negative then pull together we can over come. united we wud stand but divided we are falling.

[vickivogue]

Continuing due to length: I was at the Cardinals parade (500,000 people attended covering over 15 city blocks) and at two World Series games. People were polite, enthusiastic and I didn't hear of one person getting hurt, robbed, car stolen, broken into, etc. We are the best fans in baseball, and I see that polite nature in general when heading downtown for entertainment, concerts, gambling, sports events etc. If 500,000 people can get together on a Sunday afternoon (yes, there was a lot of drinking but no one got out of hand) for 6 hours to watch a parade, I don't see how we can get voted worst crime. These stats aren't fair in comparing us to larger cities.

If this study had combined the county and city like most other areas, we certainly wouldn't have been the worst city for crime.

[vickivogue]

I have lived in STL all my life (close to 40 years) and we, are like most other cities, have bad areas and we have good areas. What this study didn't show was that people are actually moving BACK to the city. Lofts in the downtown area are selling out as quickly as old buildings are refurbished, some for $300,000+. A lot has changed in just the last five years.

The actual city is NOT part of the suburbs. In fact, St. Louis is the only independent city in the whole country, meaning it does not belong to a surrounding county. St. Louis City and St. Louis County are run by two separate governments with St. Louis County generally seen as the suburbs. I am independent voting wise, but for those of your arguing dem or repub, St. Louis City has long been run by democrats, fyi.

[ihave4rugratshelp]

As a former resident of St. Louis, MO I moved because the sound of gunshots and police sirens was not the nightly lullaby I wanted my children to hear. No matter how much finger-pointing and politics everyone wants to put into this, the fact of the matter is that will not change the fact that the 7-11 a half a block from my house had the payphone shut off at 9:00 pm every night to discourage the drug dealers. It was at this point I moved and just for the record that was before Bush was in office--so I don't see what Bush has to do with this (or Clinton either for that matter). St. Louis was on its way down the tubes long before we had Bush or Clinton or Democrats or Republicans in general to push the blame onto.

[ronniehm]

I see New Orleans didn't make the cut this year. Maybe they should leave the 9th ward the way it is. Seems to have solved the problem.

[perception5]

If you really want to fix the crime, education, and opportunities in these big cities then do what New York city did. New York is the home of more Democrats than anyother city in America. They figured it out........ elect Republicans... Rudy and Michael......... between them they lowered the crime rate greatly and fixed the city schools............ The DEMs in that city KNOW which party can fix things....
Now we need to spread that to the rest of the country.... but you'll have to get by all the "liberal" newspapers in each of these cities to do it.

[aa36042]

Great point! Why would we want to invest in a baseball stadium that working people and their families can enjoy when we can create some other government program that will drain millions from tax payers? We don%u2019t need working class and sports fans downtown do we? We don%u2019t need the additional investment that comes from creating such infrastructure in a downtown area that sorely needs it do we? Will this additional funding help get the low income families to invest in educational tools instead of tennis shoes? Will it empower them to make moral and character decisions that will strengthen their communities and neighborhoods?? I bet it will! I bet that is the exact outcome of more government spending. I just hope that George Bush(hitler) and Cheney Inc. do not get their hands on the money and give it to all of their oil conspirators, since we now know that all poilicy issues in th world revolve around George Bush wanting more oil.

[truhata4real]

Are you people serious talking politics with a story like this? I guess Bush has a conspiracy with St. Louis now like he had in 2002, and one against Detroit for the following three years, right?

The problem is that these crimes take place among those who are lower income class residents and it's alarming.

Squiz, I'm sorry for your lost but I had problems in the St. Loo area when I went there on a trip once. I've read about the crime there and it's no joke.

We need to wake up and stop this madness. If we take away the guns, the NRA will start b****ing. Jobs need to be developed to prevent some robberies. Funding needs to help those in high risk areas instead of pumping millions of dollars into the new Busch Stadium.

[perception5]

Wow! all the cities with these high crime rates also all have Mayors that are DEMOCRATS....
Heck-of-job.........DEMS....

[ronniehm]

"Why would you talk about Bush and oil in a story re: crime rates in specific cities?"
It's a diversion. They probably noticed which party controls the mayor's office in the top 25 and which party runs the bottom 25, so they just say Bush is Hitler and move on. It's what makes the bottom 25 the bottom 25.