A Few Words about “Nice, Safe Neighborhoods”

It isn’t very often that I have something to say worth posting to both my personal and professional websites. This is one of those posts.

I am often asked by my relocating clients about “nice, safe neighborhoods.” This is honestly a trick question that I can’t really answer. I can point you to Metro‘s or Trulia‘s Crime Map, I can tell you what I like about various areas, I can tell you about historical resale trends. What I can’t and won’t do is say “Oh yes, that’s a great neighborhood and you shouldn’t have any problems there.” Not going to happen.

I can’t even say that gated communities are “safe.” A lot of people think it’s a “security gate,” but it’s only an “access gate” and it will only keep out people who want to be kept out. And what if the guy who wants to hurt you already belongs within the gates?

If you ask 10 random Las Vegans about desirable neighborhoods, at least 8 will mention Summerlin. Granted, one or two might use it in a sentence like “Well, a lot of people like Summerlin, but….” Of course “but” can lead many directions: but it’s kind of expensive, but the HOAs can be so picky, but it’s so far away from the Strip. I do think, however, that more than one of our imagined random people could be persuaded to say the area is “safe.”

Sadly, bad things happen in “nice, safe neighborhoods” too. Yesterday, a 19 year old was shot and killed in a Summerlin backyard. It’s a little unclear yet whether he was really trying to break in or was just cutting through the yard, or even whether he tried to get away after the first shot was fired.

Nobody really wants to live in a bad neighborhood. However, living in a “good” neighborhood is no magic spell preventing crime or tragedy.

In Closing: Mr. Rogers; Larry Niven on the Universe; KABOOM!; you knew the media did this, right?; interesting; this messed up traffic; predatory; only works because we’re afraid to say no; insane; internet is 4.7% of our economy; consensus.

Compare and Contrast

Over the weekend, the people who brought us TaintedEggs™ said that anybody who got sick? It was their own damn fault. Yes, that’s right, it’s our fault for enjoying eggs over easy, Hollandaise sauce, and Caesar Salads. These aren’t your grandmother’s farm fresh eggs, sweetie! Treat them like toxic waste that must be incinerated to be healthy!

Today the FDA pointed out that maybe, just maybe, letting 8 foot tall piles of chicken poop accumulate and having rats around might be part of the problem. I wonder how long until they find a way to make that our fault too.

In closing: it‘s still the economy, stupid; and giant raptor.