What Do YOU Think: How Safe Is Your City?

Orange County saw a slight drop, 1.2 percent, in violent crimes compared with 2005, while property crime fell 6.2 percent, resulting in an overall decline of 5.6 percent.

Yes, I saw this in The Register this morning. The crime rate continues to fall in Orange County, and many of our communities are incredibly safe. In fact, Irvine is once again the safest large city in the nation while Huntington Beach makes its debut in The Top 20 Safest Large Cities this year. So it’s all good news for OC… Right?

WRONG. After all, violent crime rose again last year in Santa Ana. And in other parts of OC’s urban core, violent crime is still a major problem. So even as other parts of OC are becoming safer, much of the county still isn’t safe for all the working families living here. OK, so what do YOU think about the latest FBI crime report for Orange County?

Is your community safer? Is it not? What is your city doing to reduce crime in your neighborhood? And has your city’s effort to fight crime been successful? I want to hear what you have to say, so go ahead and tell me what you think about fighting crime in OC.

Go ahead. Make my day. Fire away! 🙂

12 Comments

  1. Allan-

    Yes, haha. Who knew? Apparently not our council clowns members that continue to ignore our crime problem while they waste our tax dollars on crap like painting a water tower and enforcing bans on handheld signs on street corners. While they could be spending our tax dollars on worthwhile projects like after school programs and reopening libraries (ya know, stuff that keeps kids off the streets), they instead decide to keep applying lipstick to the pig. It would be so funny if it weren’t so true.

  2. Gary-

    Ha! Yep, it looks like just locking up the criminals and throwing away the key isn’t enough. PREVENTING CRIME IN THE FIRST PLACE ALSO HELPS! Yet unfortunately, not enough communities have the programs in place (like after school programs and safe places for kids to play) that actually prevent this crap from happening. When will more folks realize that it’s usually best to nip a problem in the bud BEFORE it becomes a crisis.

  3. what a great job by Beth Krom and the Irvine City Council and IPD to keep Irvine so high on the list of safe cities….

  4. Santa Ana scored number one in the Rockefeller Foundations “misery index” in 2004. The most socially-economically miserable living conditions in the country, they say. But I disagree with Andrew that the entire Santa Ana city council ignores the problem. Michele Martinez certainly does not ignore the problem (disclosure: until yesterday, when I resigned, I was on her advisory board). In April I witnessed a fatal shooting in my neighborhood, an event which led myself and Chican@s Unidos to stage vigils against the violence. Michele attended every one. On June 11 we (Michele and her advisory board) mounted a “peace march” against the shootings. And Michele has often spoken in favor of programs. We have proposed expanded after school hours and expanded library hours. Michele personally raised the money to keep Pio Pico Elementary open last summer. Sal Tinajero is of a similar perspective on the council. But their “reform” platform faces an uphill struggle against resistance that seeks more funding for policing. Santa Ana has more than enough policing. Nearly half the budget goes to police. What Santa Ana really needs is more opportunity: schools that work better and jobs that pay better. BTW, anyone who wants to help in a small way can help Chican@s Unidos and the parents of some of the shooting victims to launch a baseball Pony League… a meeting occurs tomorrow to plan in Santa Ana. Contact me for details by emailing james.spady at g mail dot com.

    peace, james

  5. funny how to me the biggest criminals are the law in santa ana. i’m not talking about the police i have a very positive opinion about the SAPD. what scares me in my gang infested area is joseph fletcher (santa ana city attorney) santa ana dist attorney tony rackauckas, and our good friend mike (i cant stop feeding off the samantha runyon tragedy)carona. how is it when our “law” fails us or worse yet, breaks the law? what example is that? thats why this city is as messed up as it is. we have messed up people running it. were never gonna be a better city unless we chase the bad element out. and the bad element is our own leaders.

  6. james-

    Did I say that the entire council is ignoring Santa Ana’s real problems? If it sounded that way, I deeply apologize. Yes, I have A LOT of respect and admiration for Michele Martinez. She really is the exception to the rule of incompetent corruption in Santa Ana, but it’s too bad that she’s the exception instead of the rule. We really need more folks like Michele running our city, more people who actually care about what’s best for the community.

    jose-

    Absolutely! What’s truly criminal here is how Papa Pulido and his cabal of cronies continue to cash in on this or that “project” while they continue to ignore the suffering of Santa Ana. What about gang prevention? What about keeping our neighborhoods clean and safe? What about keeping up our infrastructure? I guess it’s not as lucrative as downtown “redevelopment” projects that mainly benefit wealthy developers but not any one else. Sigh.

  7. Andrew,

    You didn’t exactly say that each council member ignores it, you just talked about the council as a whole, so I thought to clarify a little. I should say that, obviously, we’re in total agreement about the need for programs, which is something you also wrote in an earlier comment.

    peace, james

  8. james-

    Yes, it looks like we’re in vigorous agreement here. I try whenever I can to specify who’s part of the problem here in Santa Ana, and I try to point out who’s actually doing a good job in this town (like Michele), so I apologize again for my earlier comments. It’s just that it’s so easy for me to just fall into despair over this city, and it’s so easy to just get furious with all the politicians here whi are a part of the problem. Again, it’s too bad that we don’t have more people like Michele on the council. We need more people there who care about us, and about actually doing something to improve the quality of life here. We need folks on the council who spend our tax dollars wisely, such as on after-school prgrams and reopening libraries and fixing our roads and opening more parks. We don’t need any more tax breaks for developers or repainted water towers or overpaid cronies on the city payroll or any more of this madness brought about by the council majority. We need a return to sanity, and I hope that happens soon.

  9. Huntington Beach has similar corruption to Santa Ana. We have a drug dealer just down the street that the police will not do anything about. The police are some of the most dangerous drivers in the city. Yesterday, my wife and I saw a cop come within a foot of hitting a girl legally crossing the street, in a cross walk, and with the signal. The city police recently announced they would no longer plant evidence on unsuspecting people as “training exercises”. The police hire cops booted out from other departments due to violence and abuse. I could go on, but rather than do that, we’re moving out. We are not safe here. I lived for many years in Santa Ana (Floral Park) and would rather be back there, than to stay in HB.

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