Yes, SF does rank #1 nationally for property crimes. It stinks, but most people value life more than property. Violent crime in the Bay Area is still much lower than national averages, and that's what most people concentrate on.
You go from saying "people who live in actual high crime areas would like a word with you" to acknowledging that SF has the highest property crime rates in the country.
And then wave it all away as, I guess, it's only really non-violent crime.
If you gave weightings to crime categories (we all do this internally), property crime would probably be the lowest weighted next to white collar crime. Violent crime would get exponentially higher weightings.
It's one thing to have $200 worth of stuff stolen in a car break-in. It's another to be violently mugged for $200 in cash on your person. I've lived in bad areas and the Bay isn't one of them. I'll trade property crime for knowing my family isn't likely to end up the victim of a horrendous violent crime.
Manhattan also has high property crime rates but low violent crime. Even has high real estate costs, but you don't see anyone knocking it as a hell hole.
There are people with some weird agenda/vendetta against the Bay Area, and they're obviously pouncing here.
It is not a zero sum situation - you don't get high violent crime due to low property crime and vice versa. It's entirely possible to live in an area with low property and low violent crime. Besides, doing a quick search shows [e.g. 1] that the NYC has both violent and property crimes rates much lower than SF, this could explain why people are not saying it's a hell hole.
Those stats are based on city and not MSA. If it were MSA, the Bay Area would be equivalent to New York. The city of New York includes all boroughs, not just Manhattan. If you compared Manhattan to SF, I bet they would be similar.
Also, I'm talking about the entire Bay Area and you keep zeroing in on SF.
I would love to compare just Manhattan but I cannot find the statistics. Seeing that you assert that - care to show the numbers to support your assertion?
Also, seeing that the Bay Area includes Oakland and Palo Alto, I don't think comparing the entire Bay Area to NYC will give you results you have imagined.
