CALCULATING DANGER IN GALVESTON The data miners behind the Neighborhood Scout website have declared a small but notable section of Galveston to be the 21st most dangerous neighborhood in the U.S. — and the second most dangerous in Texas (the top state honor goes to #15, an area near E. Lancaster Ave. in Ft. Worth). Working from secure offices in Rhode Island using the company’s “patented, patent-pending, exclusive or proprietary” data, Neighborhood Scout calculates residents of the area in Galveston from 19th to 26th streets between Broadway and Harborside (labeled the Church St. neighborhood) have a 1 in 11 chance of becoming a crime victim over a 1-year period. No, the risks of becoming a storm or flooding victim appear to have had no effect on the rankings. Included in that little hood: The heart of Galveston’s Strand Historic District. [Wallet Pop; details]
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I’m guessing that they took the reported incidences of crime and divided it by population. For a neighborhood with so much publicly-sponsored, concentrated, and well-policed partying, and a relatively small residential population relative to employment and visitors…yeah, this doesn’t surprise me much at all.
It probably is an indicator that Galveston is good at attracting hard-partying debaucherers and then policing them effectively. Kudos.
Apparently my ironic blasting of “Straight Outta Compton” while driving down the Strand just got a little less ironic.