Cincinnati neighborhood ranked America's most dangerous

Cincinnati has earned another dubious #1 ranking.

A study published on NeighborhoodScout.com has ranked Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine area as having the worst rate of violent crime in the entire U.S. and A.

I'm actually a little surprised. That area and surrounding neighborhoods have become known for their occasional gun battles, but I doubt if it's much more dangerous than some suburbs. Central Parkway itself seems mighty safe.

Seriously, I feel far safer in most of Cincinnati than I do between Cold Spring and Alexandria. Undoubtedly, I've been the victim of far more crimes in suburbs than in central cities. But suburban violent crime generally lurks below the popular conscience.

The ranking of the top 25 most dangerous neighborhoods includes quite a few in conservative cities. I notice rightist giants like Jacksonville and Dallas on the list. San Francisco probably has the most liberal leadership of any major American city, yet it doesn't have any neighborhoods in the top 25 most dangerous.

Cincinnati has a conservative history: In the '80s and '90s, much of its resources were spent censoring porn instead of battling serious crime. The city was also known for its ineffective "truancy sweeps", under which anyone on the street in the daytime who looked like they were under 30 was assumed to be playing hooky and hauled away. This was compared to Soviet authorities sweeping through subways and accusing young men of being draft dodgers.

Policies like those in Cincinnati at the time contributed to serious crime by forcing authorities to take their eye off the ball.

In fact, since the '90s, many other large cities on the list also have had surprisingly conservative policies. (It's hard to say New York has had liberal leadership.)

For all you hear about allegedly liberal corruption in big city governments, you have to realize that even in major cities, many public officials today are hardly progressive by any measure.

(Source: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/family/19844389/detail.html)