Church Hill, Chimborazo safer than the Fan

Shockoe Bottom’s at 9.1 I blame the number of apartments and lack of personal/community investment in the neighborhood.

@WarGibFA

So should we build houses in Shocko? If so where?

Lack of personal/community investment, where is your supposed with that? I bet most of CVS and Farm Fresh’s business is from the so caleld apartments. Keep in mind most of the apartments are high end.

Lastly, have you not thought about the night clubs, strip club and bars? Is there a possibility that they are contributing to the numbers at all? My guess is yes, they most likely contribute to the majority of the stats.

With regards to the above, these numbers are a bit deceiving. These numbers aren’t a measure of safety, they’re pure math: number of crimes divided by number of residents. Worse, the crimes aren’t weighted. Graffiti and murder count equally.

Otherwise, the map’s advice to stay away from the Capital is spot on.

@Bradley – No murders in Church Hill last year. None since 2009, FWIW.

Also, the numbers don’t count crimes reported to the VCU police, so there’s also that missing bump

@John I like to think I’ve done my part by not murdering in Church Hill. I have to say, it feels much safer living here now than it did back in 2010.

@#3– I don’t think apartment living is conducive to forming tightly knit communities, such as those you see in Church Hill. How many of your next-door neighbors do you know by name, as an apartment dweller? How many of them do you know anything about?

It might get better as a years go on and resident population ages. As things stand now, we get a lot of students/young professionals out here, who have no long-term investment in the quality of the neighborhood. After all, if crime picks up, they can vote with their feet and move to another part of the city when that lease is up.

Yeah, clubs probably do play a role. It would be interesting to see what % of the crimes in Shockoe happen after 10 pm.

It’s entirely possible that I have an overly pessimistic view of the situation, and would love to be shown otherwise.

@ase – that was in Chimborazo

@11 WarGibFA… well said. That is so true. Even people who live in houses. Look at any of these house hunting shows and most want “new, updated (meaning newer than the 1990s), and private living (no neighbors). I have even seen some say they don’t “do neighbors”. That is how our young society roll these days… all into the digital age and don’t want to be bothered with maintenance or noise so rather not have face complaining neighbors. Now that may fly in the face of apartment living but to me apartments are hand in hand with rental cars. Impersonal, not yours, and don’t care. Just an overpriced postage stamp to flop in.

Unfortunately we do still have pockets in Church Hill of bad elements and little to no police patrolling seen. It is definitely better than when we moved here in 1999 mainly due to gentrification but that has slowed down so may account for an uptick of shady activity? You heard gunfire all the time back then and on holidays it sounded like Vietnam.

@14 – Hanover County is a little over 1 on the same metric. So roughly 20% of “safe” Church Hill.

@Eric Huff – I think you are over generalizing about “young society” wanting no neighbors. During my childhood my parents, who both just turned 60 recently, thought moving 30 minutes outside the city to an area where several acres of woodlands separated most neighbors was desirable and a sign of success. Pretty much all their siblings did the same. I hated living in that type of community where a car was needed to get absolutely anywhere. After graduating college and getting my career established I’ve made urban living a priority for the last 12 years. My wife and I moved to the Chimborazo area in November and have really enjoyed getting to know our neighbors.

My wife and I have found that many of our peers also grew up in the suburbs and are also now choosing to live in cities.