The Column

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

North Charleston's crime numbers hit top 10

Maybe it's paranoia, but I usually brace myself for the bad news when I hear of my home area making the top of anyone's list.

It's just something you get used to. In recent years South Carolina finished in the top five states for worst education, most DUI fatalities per passenger mile, and a few other distinctions along that line. While Charleston itself is a perennial favorite for the "most polite" city, one year it shared those top honors with (what?) New York City, making the voting immediately suspect.

I wasn't terribly surprised to see that North Charleston was listed as the seventh-most-dangerous place to live, according to a study by CQ Press using FBI crime stats. And while one could say the town made the big time, this just isn't the way to do it.

North Charleston Police Chief Jon Zumalt said the numbers didn't bother him all that much. "The study is questionable to say the least," Zumalt said. "I just don't pay it any mind."

North Charleston is no stranger to these crime rankings. Two years ago the town came in 10th in the most-dangerous-place study. Within the past year, Zumalt laid out a program keying on repeat offenders in drug arrests, and made a strong push for a 2 a.m. bar closing time. None of these efforts show in the fresh rankings, which are based on 2006 crime totals. Last year, North Charleston held 20th place.

Off these new numbers, North Charleston is an even more dangerous place to live than Memphis, Compton, Little Rock, and Gary, Indiana -- places where the locals say that deaths by gunfire are considered "natural causes."

Detroit, long considered the murder capital of the United States, took the number one ranking, with St. Louis, Flint, Oakland, and Camden, New Jersey filling out the top five.

Let's spare the whitewash, though. North Charleston has a bad regional reputation, and much of it is deserved.

I live in North Charleston, which is enough to elicit sympathy from many people who know the area. And I know North Charleston well enough to avoid it when I'm driving the taxi. When I drop off a passenger in most parts of that town, I usually beat it back to downtown Charleston or West Ashley. It's hell on my gas consumption, but better for my peace of mind.

Despite the name, North Charleston is not to be confused with the better-known, older, historic city immediately south. North Charleston is not a suburb. It's its own entity, with its own mayor, city council, budget, and police department. There's a healthy rivalry between the two cities, which often comes to a head whenever there's a choice piece of annexable land nearby (folks are still wondering how Charleston managed to nab Daniel Island, even though it's so physically separated from the peninsula). But really, trying to pit the two cities in any sort of rivalry just won't work. David at least had dumb luck and a few other unseen resources on his side when he beaned Goliath.

Every metropolitan area of any consequence has a North Charleston. It's the place where all undesirable things must go when the NIMBYs have their way. Ol' North Chuck has it all. An old retired Navy base. A smelly paper mill. Freeways. An air force base. Ashley Frustrate Road. Traffic up the wazoo. Section 8 housing. Remount Road. Drugs. Several manufacturing plants and docks that scream out, "industrial area." Rivers Avenue. Slums.

Not long ago I talked to a nice couple that lived in Bayside Manor, long considered one of Charleston's worst housing projects. Cab drivers didn't go in there without very large weapons. Utility workers didn't go in there alone. And forget about having a pizza delivered there. Bayside Manor is still what it is, but it's changed somewhat. Much of the undesirable element had been shipped out. To where? I asked the couple.

"North Charleston," the wife said. "Where else?" What with Charleston's longstanding effort to reinvent itself, each time a low-income area is torn down in favor of more upscale housing, this sends another army of turned-out, pissed-off former residents to North Charleston.

Zumalt cites the usual suspects in his assessment of North Charleston's crime picture: high dropout rates, broken homes, and black-on-black crime. Over the past few years, he said black males made up 87 percent of the town's murder suspects, and about the same percentage of crime victims were also black. Which, well, is practically impossible to mention in a time where political correctness is the rule, but when the numbers are stacked like this, it's also impossible to ignore.

To North Charleston's credit, though, things may change in the future. A pair of the sketchier housing projects, John C. Calhoun Homes and Century Oaks, have been torn down in favor of something a lot more upscale. The Park Circle area is looking pretty good these days. The Tanger Outlet Mall is giving the city a much-needed economic shot in the arm.

The numbers may improve over time, but it will take a while to escape this list.

MOST DANGEROUS 25:

1. Detroit 407.2
2. St. Louis 406.2
3. Flint, Mich. 381.0
4. Oakland, Calif. 338.9
5. Camden, N.J. 323.8
6. Birmingham, Ala. 268.8
7. North Charleston 254.3
8. Memphis, Tenn. 245.6
9. Richmond, Calif. 245.1
10. Cleveland 244.4
11. Orlando, Fla. 237.4
12. Baltimore 236.7
13. Little Rock, Ark. 233.8
14. Compton, Calif. 223.6
15. Youngstown, Ohio 222.0
16. Cincinnati 218.3
17. Gary, Ind. 214.0
18. Kansas City, Mo. 203.4
19. Dayton, Ohio 201.5
20. Newark, N.J. 197.3
21. Philadelphia 192.9
22. Atlanta 189.9
23. Jackson, Miss. 188.8
24. Buffalo, N.Y. 187.8
25. Kansas City, Kan. 187.6

SAFEST 25:

1. Mission Viejo, Calif. -82.1
2. Clarkstown, N.Y. -81.0
3. Brick Township, N.J. -78.7
4. Amherst, N.Y. -75.4
5. Sugar Land, Texas -75.4
6. Colonie, N.Y. -74.6
7. Thousand Oaks, Calif. -73.8
8. Newton, Mass. -73.5
9. Toms River Township, N.J. -72.7
10. Lake Forest, Calif. -71.7
11. Irvine, Calif. -71.1
12. Orem, Utah -70.6
13. Round Rock, Texas -69.4
14. Cary, N.C. -68.6
15. Greece, N.Y. -68.5
16. Chino Hills, Calif. -63.2
17. Coral Springs, Fla. -62.0
18. Troy, Mich. -61.8
19. Farmington Hills, Mich. -61.7
20. Centennial, Colo. -61.3
21. Glendale, Calif. -59.2
22. Broken Arrow, Okla. -58.8
23. Parma, Ohio -58.8
24. Sterling Heights, Mich. -58.5
25. Simi Valley, Calif. -58.5

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