As a kid growing up on an island floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean I always dreamed of moving to New York City.
Don’t all small town kids have the same dream?
I was going to take a monster bite out of the Big Apple and never look back at the tiny Hawaiian town of my youth. My girlhood dreams included taking over for Jane Pauley on the “Today” show, marrying Jason Bateman and calling a Manhattan high-rise (preferably with a spacious cupola), home.
Well, we all know what happened to those dreams.
Anywhoo, now that I am a mom, I’m not so inclined to live in the heart of a major metropolis, at least not with young kids. Or on our family’s income, which probably couldn’t afford us much more than a closet-sized apartment, far, far, far from the 5th Avenue digs of my dreams.
Interestingly, my NYC dreams were dashed well before I became a parent. I was accepted into NYU as a high school senior, but my parents didn’t feel safe sending their only daughter 6,000 miles away for school. My New Jersey born and bred father put the kibosh on my big city dreams because he feared for my safety. To him New York City was a crime-infested, concrete rathole with murderers and rapists on every corner. An urban jungle filled with scary low-lifes was no place for his precious daughter. That was his argument and he stuck to it. And given that my parents were footing my tuition bill, I shed my tears and essentially stuffed my New York dreams into the bowels of my being.
It was a sore spot between me and my parents for years.
So, here’s the kicker to all this TMI: The other day my dad calls to have me thank him for not allowing me to move to NYC to attend college.
According to my news junkie father, a senior NATO official in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, recently told reporters that kids living in Kabul are safer than those living in NYC, despite the fact that civilian deaths are soaring in the war-torn region.
Naturally, I had to find a way to retort, so I sent my dad a just-published list compiled by the FBI ranking the most dangerous cities in the United States. A list which placed NYC at 269 out of 400 cities!
Thank you!
According to the FBI, the crimes considered in the rankings include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. Given those factors, the most dangerous cities in America are:
1. St. Louis, MO
2. Camden, NJ
3. Detroit, MI
4. Flint, MI
5. Oakland, CA
6. Richmond, CA
7. Cleveland, OH
8. Compton, CA
9. Gary, IN
10. Birmingham, AL
11. Baltimore, MD
12. Memphis, TN
13. New Orleans, LA
14. Jackson, MS
15. Little Rock, AR
16. Baton Rouge, LA
17. Buffalo, NY
18. New Haven, CT
19. Hartford, CT
20. Dayton, OH
21. Kansas City, MO
22. Washington, DC
23. Newark, NJ
24. Cincinnati, OH
25. Atlanta, GA
Are you raising your kids in one these dangerous cities?