Yikes. I love Gainesville. I know it has its bad pockets, but I never thought I’d see Gainesville top a list like this. I guess places like Miami and Tallahasee were not included because they are not in college towns. It does not seem that long ago that Gainesville was ranked the #1 place to live in the US in the US News and World Report rankings. I'd be curious to know the underlying cause if crime has gotten worse in Gainesville in recent years. https://www.mensjournal.com/news/most-dangerous-college-town-us-named-new-study-gainesville-florida
Bad press for sure, and some of it spills over, but the vast majority of crime happens in areas students are rarely in.
Misleading article. Many schools aren't in places that are simply college towns. Makes it sound like going to UF in Gainesville is more dangerous than going to USC in Los Angeles or Houston or any other big city with a college.
As a Chicago area resident the same thing applies to cities. People just like to pick out the worse number they can find and apply it broadly. Speaking of which, no clue where the article came up with those numbers, don't match anything I could find in a quick AI search. Unfortunately the numbers are higher if looking broadly at violent crime.
It doesn't break down the numbers by crimes committed. Half of them are probably bicycle thefts. Nice picture of Shands in the article.
What a crock of shit. Crimes per 10,000 people? Seriously? With no filter on the types of “crimes”? Guess they couldn’t use traffic death statistics or Athens would top the list. Mainstream media does little but lie and push agendas anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there’s a ref$u, uga, or scUM graduate on staff at this rag.
More BS from this clown journalist: https://www.mensjournal.com/news/safest-college-town-us-named-new-study-berkeley Berkeley? Next door to Oakland? 1 crime per 10,000 people? BWAHAAHAHAHA!! This is absolute bullshit. And what would any rational person expect from today’s media? SMDH
The study was released by Wasatch Defense Lawyers . . . whose website bills themselves the "top criminal defense lawyers in Utah." I wonder why all the Gainesville criminals are using some obscure Utah law firm? According to the same standards, I am the "Top Gator in this room" (my grandson is downstairs and my granddaughter is at work). LOL!
Ive never worried about my saftey in Gainesville. That cant be said for many other places. Im going to Memphofrst in Memphis, that place is sketch.
I was looking into the data a little bit. Some of the numbers are relatively high even outside of theft. Theft is triple the state average in Gainesville, which makes sense with the bike theft. I wonder how policing strategy and crime accounting affects these things. I saw the number of police officers relative to the overall population in Gainesville has seen gradual downward trend in recent years. FWIW, Austin did not make the list, but if you google "Austin policing crisis" and read some articles about what transpired in Austin, TX from 2020-2024 you will definitely get an understanding that the data does not align with the narrative on the ground. There is also a thread on the Texas Message Board Surly Horns that is 152 pages long about how messed up policing is in Austin. Like the police might take over an hour to respond to a 911 call, and things like that. When you call 911 and the police take 45 minutes to show up that is not safe. Also, if you google "Jewish students safety Berkeley" you will get a similar vibe that the data is not capturing everything that defines a safe environment.
1) Students attend a school but are not citizens. Let's call these folks "A". 2) Citizens define the population of a city. Let's call them "B". 3) There are crimes in the city against citizens. Let's call them "X". 4) There are crimes against the students in the city (and not the metro area). Let's call them "Y". Math: What is real news is Y/A. What is a sort of news (aka, Chicago, Detroit, et al): X/B. What is more precise math: (X+Y)/(A+B). What is likely being recorded in the facts: (X+Y)/B. And yes, if city crimes "X" against city population "B" are the "aggressive" type such as assault, major theft, rape, murder, child neglect, etc., whereas those against the student population are a mixture of aggressive (assault against a mouthy jerk, expensive bike theft, car vandalism on a Benz) and other types (stealing their phones or backpacks, drunkenness-in-public) then is there an attempt to separate the concerning from the opportunistic/stupid? Well, except for the mouthy jerks? Methinks most of what is being implied is that a large student population in a relatively small city population likely increases the overall numbers of crimes but it does not mean it is severe crimes against the student population. Or in other words: There are three kinds of lies; lies, damn lies and statistics.
Yes, we are biased towards our school and town in this forum, and there are people in other towns/cities with college sports teams who would be equally biased reading an article like this. It doesn’t make it impossible to critique the article, though. If anyone could, then it would be people who live in Gainesville or frequently have travelled to Gainesville.
