From the Nation’s “Most Dangerous” City: St. Louisans Say they Feel Safe Walking Alone at Night

In a recent Gallup survey 74% of St. Louisans report that they feel more safe walking alone at night in the city or area where they live. That places the St. Louis MSA 14th among the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the US. St. Louisans report feeling safer than residents of Kansas City, Philadelphia, Nashville, San Francisco, Charlotte, Louisville. St. Louis is safe and we know it. It's not that St. Louis doesn't have a crime problem, it's that the crime problem here shouldn't define us any more or any less than it defines Phoenix, Columbus, Sacramento or Seattle.

St. Louis is a safe metropolitan region, a large majority of people who call themselves St. Louisans are safe and feel safe. The City of St. Louis has a crime problem, with the violent crime and homicide rates among the highest in the nation. Yet, if the city were to somehow simply push that crime across the county line, all the sudden the metropolitan area and the city would be labeled safe, without a single change in the number or types of crimes committed. The MSA rankings include the city numbers, meaning that the high rate of crime within the defined geographic boundary of the city isn't of a magnitude that substantially pushes the MSA up the "dangerous" rankings.