A Safe City

In the popular imagination, New York City once loomed as a Den of Vice and Danger unparalleled in the civilized world. This view was always exaggerated, and in light of recent developments has become downright nonsensical.

New York City is one of the very safest large cities in the United States. In the 1999 Morgan Quitno ranking of the 300 largest US cities by level of safety, with 1 being safest and 300 most dangerous, New York City was ranked 189. By comparison, San Francisco was ranked 192, Seattle was ranked 201, and New Orleans was ranked 295. More information on the Morgan Quitno ratings can be found at http://www.morganquitno.com/cit99alpha.htm .

New York City is also neither as large nor as confusing as the general perception credits it with being. Manhattan Island, which is the area that most people are speaking of when they refer to New York City, is only 14 miles long and 2 miles wide. In addition, the streets are laid out in an easy-to-parse numbered grid which makes navigation a snap. Even the subways have a simple color-coded system.

Commentary by the Convergence 7 Committee, August, 2000.