Broward county - The Truth (Orlando, Fort Lauderdale: low income, real estate, high crime)

[Lauderdale954]

Originally Posted by fort lauderdale

If the city has 6 homicides this year that will still be below the national average...almost all of the homicides are logged east of University Drive. The west half of the city is quite safe, and the immigrants moving in are a bit more affluent.

Regardless, the areas that were predictably safe remain that way, and the areas that were predictably dangerous remain that way. It's this simple; the county west of University is safe (name one bad neighborhood west of University Drive) and the county is much spottier east of University. This means about 60 percent of the county is safe, crime in the bad areas isn't any worse than I have seen anywhere else (I will tell you its a lot worse in Orlando, Atlanta, our neighbors to the north and south, Cleveland,Chicago, St. Louis, basically any other American city, and even oh-so-rosy Charlotte). Did you completely disregard the average of crimes per 100,000 in Broward compared to the national? Crime is one of the largest social issues facing this country, and we are going from being better-than-average to about average. Not denying that areas like Pompano are going downhill, and I'm not saying you will catch me walking around Carver Ranches at night (or during the day), but we have less of those kind of "neighborhoods" here than most similarly sized cities, and I think you should consider watching a newscast in any other major city to see the stunning similarity to what's going on here in comparison to other places.

Well, in a county as a whole, Broward is I think 50% bad, 25% good, and 25% up in the air..true, those cities you named may have higher crime, but when you compare them to cities in Broward like Lauderdale, Pompano, Lauderdale Lakes, Deerfield, etc. the statistics are actually very close.

2007 will really open alot of peoples eyes because the crime in south florida had nearly doubled since last year (so far). If we are looking at a 38& increase of murders in Broward this year, you can only imagine Palm Beach and Miami will also be following the trend due to the counties clsoe proximity, populations, and similarities. and like I said earlier in this topic, it isn't just south florida any more, but all of Florida is being over run by violent crime. From Dade to Tampa to Orlando to Tallahasee..Don't get me wrong, Broward has some very nice parts, and very expensive parts in Fort. Lauderdale as well. But you are more likely to come across a bad part then a good part...

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by Lauderdale954

you are more likely to come across a bad part then a good part...

That hasn't been my experience here...and that's not a doubling in crime rate, but a doubling in homicide. Between 2005 and 2006, despite the murder rate signifigantly increasing, the overall crime rate (including robbery, theft, burglary,etc) has dropped. We are very lucky in the past few years here in that regard, since we hit an all time low in 2003 of 1.8 homicides per 100,000 (making it the lowest for a metro over 1 million in the country, a little known fact that people try to pretend isn't true) in comparison to the 5.9 national rate. Say we break our record and hit 130 murders here. We still will only be around the national average rate wise. If we rise from there, well, that's obviously not good, and maybe I will consider leaving...also the robbery rate has been skyrocketing countywide but only in the predictable areas (Pompano, Lauderdale, Hollywood). Believe it or not, robberies have been going on in Tamarac, Coral Springs, Parkland, Plantation, Davie for ages and aren't really increasing in frequency and rates still remain lower than average for thier size

Oh, and they won't follow our trends in Dade and PBC, but rather we are following their trends. In 2006 Palm Beach County we 5 less homicides than them despite having about 600k less people. In Palm Beach County, many just try and stuff it up and pretend everything is great, and blame their southern neighbors on any increase in crime. If thier crime rate drops north or south of us, so will ours. PBC is doing a lot better this year so maybe that will mean some relief for us.

On the contrary, our perception of crime in our home county is quite different. You live in a dangerous neighborhood on the eastern side of the county, and I live in one of the safest areas in the nation on the west half of the county. When crime becomes an every day part of your life, you come with a different perception. When you are in the middle of all of the action, you are bound to think the whole area is like that. On the other hand, when your neighborhood has never even recorded a burglary, perhaps my perception is different too. But analyzing the raw facts, Broward ranks as an about-average place to be safety wise, and it used to be better than average. It's quite a disparity between eastern and western Broward, but I have seen much worse in many other places I have been (even in our own state). Actually, if I judged the whole country by perception of my neighborhood as you are, I would be looking at this as a spotless paradise. It's not. You can go from any extreme of good to any extreme of bad here, and anywhere in between, and overall, Broward seems like a microcosm of the United States in that regard.

[K-oh]

Man, I know this post is quite old but I just wanted to clear some things up. Just wanted to add, i notice people on here mention gangs and others surprised to find gangs nearby. Many of them dont do much simply put. Pretty much fly their colors and hit the mall on the weekends with their set etc. Yes, Coral Springs has NTG members but most of them are not the harden bloods you hear about in California or New Jersey etc. Lauderdale954, if you dont mind me asking, how old are you and where do you reside(area). You seems to have a good grasp on what is what. Numbers dont lie but I dont think Broward County is as dangerous as you make it sounds. Without a doubt things are getting bad but admittedly it seems the older residents are upset that things have/ARE changing, with reason. If I owned a house and payed those taxes I'd be raising hell if things weren't to my satisfaction too.

[Smuzz55]

im telling u now theres gangs every in the US for you people to sit there and say theres no hard gangs in broward ur mistaken. just cause u dont hear it in the news or from ur freinds dont mean its crazy. IM a active gang member from LA and i moved to broward and from whats been going on with us is no joke. we have everything the military has trust me... its nothing. dont sit there and claim springs or any other city in broward to be owned by NTG cause thats not the only gang banging out here... for all you know it has more crip then blood and who ever not down with the red and blue has a alliance with crip and blood believe me. if im wrong u tell me. i live in deepside and shallowside now. im not ignoarnt but i think u people are espically people who are not in the life style.

[hoff7894]

I am tired of S. FL. Taxes, insurance, and sky rocketing home prices are just a few reasons to move out. The summers are WAY to hot and the winters offer no real relief. And BTW, I dont wear my pants around my A** so I no longer fit in. Go to the NW section of Ft. Lauderdale. How can you live 15 minutes from the beach and your house be worth 60k? I know why.......Think of a color...........HMMMMMMM........

[BornAndRaised]

Originally Posted by Smuzz55

im telling u now theres gangs every in the US for you people to sit there and say theres no hard gangs in broward ur mistaken. just cause u dont hear it in the news or from ur freinds dont mean its crazy. IM a active gang member from LA and i moved to broward and from whats been going on with us is no joke. we have everything the military has trust me... its nothing. dont sit there and claim springs or any other city in broward to be owned by NTG cause thats not the only gang banging out here... for all you know it has more crip then blood and who ever not down with the red and blue has a alliance with crip and blood believe me. if im wrong u tell me. i live in deepside and shallowside now. im not ignoarnt but i think u people are espically people who are not in the life style.

There are gangs and people click up just with their neighborhood. Melrose and Parkway always at it, KG pompano boys might fight deepside boys one night, etc. whatever goes down. There are crips, folk, bloods, latin kings, all types of **** too, they just kinda ducked off they dont run ****. But the thing about South florida though, that makes it different than Philly or somewhere, is the drug game. With one of the biggest drug games, everyone eats and it lessens violence. Where as philly where the drug game isn't as flourishing, a lot of people decide to rob and kill other people in order to eat.

[Nina1970]

[QUOTMargate-177.0 (they have a good police force there too)
E][/quote]

Good to know. I lived in Margate about 7 years ago, and liked it. Not much going on, but felt fairly comfortable.

I am interviewing for a job in Pompano, so I may just leave Hollywood and it's crazies for Margate, much as I do love my Hollywood.

[compelled to reply]

Hollywood is a freak show, but I don't know, I have a friend that lives there and he claims he wouldn't have it any other way...and I have told him to move out and move to another state...it's sleazy, but there is something in the air there.

As far as the gang situation, a few other posters have hit it spot on. There are plenty of gangs, and they are mostly in the drug trade and operate quietly. They had a case in east Miramar of a clique of Bloods committing robberies around that side of town, but most gangs are in the drug trade and are more towards the northern side of the county (yes, including Coral Springs, and this isn't anything new there), and the Hollywood/east Miramar area has a few.

[Nina1970]

I brought one of my Ft. Laud friends who had never been out of Northern Broward to Hollywood one day. As we we exiting east on Hollywood Blvd, she stated: "There's something different here. It's the light, and a different feeling. I can't put my finger on it."

After 20 years here, mostly in Hollywood, neither can I. It's sleazy, true, but there's just something about Hollywood.

[rich renter]

Originally Posted by Smuzz55

im telling u now theres gangs every in the US for you people to sit there and say theres no hard gangs in broward ur mistaken. just cause u dont hear it in the news or from ur freinds dont mean its crazy. IM a active gang member from LA and i moved to broward and from whats been going on with us is no joke. we have everything the military has trust me... its nothing. dont sit there and claim springs or any other city in broward to be owned by NTG cause thats not the only gang banging out here... for all you know it has more crip then blood and who ever not down with the red and blue has a alliance with crip and blood believe me. if im wrong u tell me. i live in deepside and shallowside now. im not ignoarnt but i think u people are espically people who are not in the life style.

no such thing as hard gangs, they are all soft, thats why they join gangs, because they cant stnd on there own feet in the big bad world