[sternroolz]

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Those who are figuring out that such a huge percentage of Nevada's population is confined to just 2 cities whereas other states have a larger population to 'even out' the numbers are exactly right imo.

St. Louis and East St. Louis have pretty dangerous areas. But the rest of Missouri and Illinois brings down the overall 'dangerous' statistic for the whole state.


Also, as mentioned earlier, St. Louis and Washington D.C. are not states. At least I'm pretty sure they aren't anyway.

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Yeah I think you area right. I live in Los Angeles and visit Vegas once a month and have done so for the past 7-8 years. I have been in the very worst parts of both cities, as well as the middle class areas, the blue collar areas, and the nice areas. By far Los Angeles is more dangerous.
The reasons are:

1.) The worst areas are equally as dangerous. But the worst area of Los Angeles is huge. This is roughly the area bounded by the 10 Fwy to the north, the city limits to the east, ~La Brea Bl to the west, and the 105 fwy to the south. By contrast, the worst parts of N. Las Vegas is primarily confined to individual apartment complexes and does not spill out several miles. The area ~ behind the Sahara down to Maryland is not that large an area.

2.) Many middle class and lower middle class/blue collar areas of Los Angeles are also filled with crime. Places like Van Nuys, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Gardena, Canoga Park, Reseda, Chatsworth, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Arleta, North Hollywood, Hollywood, etc are very crime ridden areas despite very expensive housing. There is enough crime and graffitti in these areas that people do not tend to walk the streets at night except in very commercial locations. While there are occasional shootings, most of the crime is theft type crimes. This same type of thing tends not to be true of Vegas. The lower middle class areas I have stayed tend to be VERY quiet and undisturbed. The areas I have stayed are N. Las Vegas near Lake Mead and I forget [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img], and also not far from Sams Town. Actually, that place was kinda crappy. But no real trouble there from what I could see.