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Jun
2
JoCo crime skyrockets
June 2, 2006 |
In Johnson County violent crime is up 22% between 2004 and 2005, and murders have doubled. Ever the overachiever, Overland Park led the county with a 77% increase in violent crime. While the county’s crime is still low, this news marks one more stage in the county’s evolution intelligent design from suburban refuge into the Big City its residents fled.
It’s interesting how this news hasn’t been picked up by the regional media. A 22% jump in KCMO or KCK’s crime rate would have garnered an apocalyptic Star front page and several blond news reporters providing Live Team Coverage from 31st and Prospect or Quindaro.
Johnson County Sun: Crime Spikes 22%
Comments
23 Comments so far
OMG William is going to blow his top over this post!
lololol great post!
Touche
Still- crime in JoCo is but a shadow of that in KCMO and still below the national average.
Keep on laughing.
Nonetheless, you help to make my point. We are not as different or even as homogenized as the “urban chic” would lead us to believe. Did I mention the rumored possibility of a loft development in Downtown OP?
I suspect that most of the JoCo school districts will ignore the Kansas State School Board’s idiotic science guidelines. Not sure of the relevance to the issue at hand. Seems more like a banal ignorance.
http://newyork.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.htm
The data is from 2004. If you need help with the math let me know.
A possible theory: As downtown becomes more “Classy” and filled with high-priced lofts and rich people, perhaps the criminal element that WAS downtown is moving to the suburbs?
I have heard talk of this phenomenon happening in many cities: The inner city is being cleaned up and beautified, while the rest of suburbia just keeps moving further and further away (like out past Leawood and to the farthest reaches of the Northland).
This leaves an aging ring of homes that are undesirable in the old suburbs (Merriam, Mission, OP) and my guess is this where most of the new crime is occuring.
Just a theory.
Nice theory. But I wouldn’t be holding my breath waiting for the crime rates to reverse any time soon. Wasn’t it just last year that KCMO set a new record for murders in the city?
Roeland Park, Mission, Merriam, OP and Shawnee all have the same problem. They share a border with Wyandotte county. It’s easy to point out high crime rates in KCMO but KCK is just as voilent. KCK bleeds into JOCO so… KCK=JOCO. KCMO>KCK so KC>JO.
haha
William, KCMO did not just set a new murder record. All that happened was a one-off spike from a record LOW murder rate, which was still well below the record high.
Also, Chris’ theory is actually fact. It’s a national trend where older inner suburbs all over the country are beginning to see issues blight, crime, poverty, etc. creeping further out from the urban core into the first ring of suburbs. If you look at Raytown, western Independence, Hickman Mills, or Grandview you will see what is in store for northeast Johnson County.
um… I think you have some of your numbers mixed up, Pender:
Kansas City murder rates per 100,000 the last three years. 2003 - 18.4, 2004 - 19.9, 2005 - 28.2. Overland ark averages less than 2/100,000. National Average around 5.5/100,000. 2004 rate in NY, NY, 7/100,000. One murder either way for OP means an impressive percentage change where a difference of one or two in KCMO will only slightly change the numbers.
Theories are nice, even factual ones. I have no doubt that to a certain extent that it is true for our metropolitan area but I think you are clearly looking through rose-colored glasses if you think such a drastic reversal is going to happen any time soon.
At this point, a “spike” in JoCo’s crime rate is nothing but that, a “spike.” You can be gleeful when it becomes a bonafide trend mirroring an equal and opposite trend in KCMO. Until then, you are all just blowing so much smoke.
By my calculations, KCMO has already exceeded the national annual average for murders per 100,000. Only seven more months to go with the bulk of the “murder season” yet to come.
All those workers in yellow roaming downtown are definitely driving out a lot of the undesirables. I agree with the theory that northeast Johnson county will look much like Raytown…in fact, much of it already does. A quick jaunt down Johnson Drive proves it, especially from Shawnee Mission Parkway to Neiman Road. Totally W.T.
Keep stretchin’ boys. How old was that murder victim yesterday in KCMO?
Looks can be deceiving. Raytown has a murder rate much closer to KCMO than Overland Park at 16.7/100,000 in 2004. Of course, the stretch of Johnson Drive between SM Pkwy and Nieman is set for a number of improvement projects.
He’s not talking about construction workers. He’s talking about the Downtown Council ambassadors who are deployed daily throughout downtown to keep the sidewalks cleared and clean, maintain aesthetics, give people information/directions, provide escorts for those who don’t want to walk alone to their cars, and shoo off vagrants.
What are you trying to say, Scooter?
Hajkar,
You might also examine the spatial distribution of murders. Many murders in KC are concentrated in poverty-ridden areas. I think the (old) star reported that this was largely focused in two census tracts. A global murder rate isn’t an intelligent comparison between the two cities. In fact, the whole metro areas should be combined because, as the (old) Star also pointed out, Johnson County benefited historically from the application of redlining and racist realestate and banking policies which effectively trapped many Kansas City residents into geographic poverty, the consequences we see in the localized murder rates today. This metro area is ONE city, and rates should be measured of a reflection of that.
Don’t look at me. I did not make the initial comparison. However, the metro area is not ONE city. To claim so ignores obvious divisions.
The metro area is one city.
Unless you mean that the barriers between the cities are impermeable.
Unless you mean there is not transmigration between the cities.
Unless you mean money does not circulate between the cities.
Unless you mean the crime patterns are self contained within political divisions.
Unless you mean the infrastructure of the political administrations are in no way interconnected.
Unless you mean that the political divisions each experience unique historical events that the others don’t.
Unless CBSA’s are made up.
Unless MSA’s are made up.
And, unless one ignores all the points I already mentioned. Plenty of demographic information exists to support this contention, and it would be fun to be able to discuss these points in an informed fashion. Check the KC Star’s archives for a very well done, multi-edition history about the social development of the metropolitan area. I think it came out in 1997 or so. Maybe even after that. Read that, and then please get back to us about how this is not one big city.
Why stop there? Why not just say its one big state? Oops! It isn’t. Why not just smooth it all out on a national level. We are not one big city. Sure, there is plenty of crossover. Some barriers do not have to be impermeable to dull the effects of transmigration and there are plenty of barriers that contain or control populations and how they move. Recognizing the natural divisions does not stop one from also recognizing how we are related and interact across blurred lines. Hence the term Metro.
CBSA? The Canadian Billiards & Snooker Association? MSA? Modernist Studies Association?
If we are one big city, how come I cannot vote in KCMO elections?
Whoever said that William was going to blow his top was right…he must have 300 posts in here. Hahahaha.
Hey, would kcperson and Hajker plz chug there glass of “shut the hell up” and take a sip of “relazation”Plz…it works for me….go chiefs!!!!!
22% increase? Yikes!
Yikes is right! That’s a huge jump. Wonder what this year’s stacking up to so far?