Most major American cities are dumps

[Ian_Lee]

Actually Johannesburg and Bogota are much worse than any American city in terms of crime.

I have heard so many crime stories about Johannesburg that even tourist walking under broad daylight in downtown would become crime victim. Many times Chinese are being targeted (probably due to the affluent Taiwanese neighborhood).

And if you read US State Dept travel warning, the minute you step on Bogota is the start of your nightmare.

[bhchao]

Xue, you might want to look at these stats on crime in major US cities. It lists the rankings by reported crimes per 1,000 residents. What is striking is that New York City has a population of 8,000,000+ and has only 33.2 crimes per 1,000 residents.

On the other hand, Columbus, OH has a population of 712,748 with a whopping 96.2 crimes per 1,000 residents.

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/safest_cities/

[yonglan]

Although for "crime" American cities are very average. For being shot dead we lead the world

The countryside is lovely, though.

[xuechengfeng]

thanks bhchao.. i knew columbus was a dump!!!!!!!!