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0 pointskochthesecond9y ago0 comments

Just to add anecdotal evidence, I have travelled a lot in Spain and never felt unsafe nor been robbed.

0 comments

Same I've been to Philly and Barcelona, and live in Oakland, CA. Never felt like I was about to be robbed. I guess at the risk of being downvoted for victim blaming, "don't be stupid." It wouldn't surprise me if people let their guard down when they felt they were in a "safe" area.

ghshephard9y ago

Depends on when you lived in Oakland, CA. When I lived there (Lake Merritt and 17th) in 1998/1999, it was a total war zone. Absolutely nobody went out a night, and cars would typically drive through red lights rather than stop.

I visited it recently, and the entire Lake area has become gentrified. Almost like an entirely new city, with lots of people out at night. And I wasn't too worried about being robbed. Of course, I was robbed at gunpoint just a few years ago walking home from work in Redwood City - so it just goes to show it can happen almost anywhere. Except, of course, Singapore. Gotta be the safest city in the world.

justin669y ago

> live in Oakland, CA. Never felt like I was about to be robbed. I guess at the risk of being downvoted for victim blaming, "don't be stupid."

Unless things have improved a lot in the last fifteen years, it's really pretty easy for a tourist inclined to walk between touristy areas in Oakland to wander into an unsafe area. I wouldn't blame that on stupidity, it's not as if the city puts warning signs up.

ctrl-j9y ago

> I've been to Philly and Barcelona, and live in Oakland, CA. Never felt like I was about to be robbed.

Maybe you don't know what the feeling is like? I mean, how long have you lived in Oakland? If you grew up in the city with the 3rd highest crime rate in the US, maybe your barometer isn't calibrated the best?

mklim9y ago

On the other hand, I lived in Detroit for years. I think most people conflate "visibly poor" with "actively dangerous" and feel scared when they shouldn't. So many people would come in from the suburbs and visibly panic because they saw a crumbling building or a homeless person and figured they were about to get mugged, even though they were by the DIA in broad daylight surrounded by a crowd of people. My university's campus had less reported crimes than U of M's while I was there, and I still had a middle aged suburban woman try to get my professor to end a 6-9pm class at 7pm because she was scared to walk the 100 well-lit feet from the lecture hall to the parking structure after dark.

1 more reply

knowaveragejoe9y ago

I think you are placing undue weight on the statistics. Just because it's the 3rd highest in the US does not mean every waking second is spent looking over your shoulder lest you be robbed.

catshirt9y ago

the only thing we can extrapolate from this is that not every single person who goes to Spain gets robbed.

piaste9y ago

Let's do the black sheep joke:

"There is at least one HN account, used by at least one person, who claims to believe he went to Spain and did not get robbed."

gmunu9y ago

I've been to Spain once, went to Barcelona, and was robbed. I'd still go back to Spain and Barcelona though!

bshimmin9y ago

I've only ever been robbed in Italy, but I've been back a lot in the hope of meeting my robber again (he was Italian, he had dark hair, medium height, and was somewhat unshaven - anyone know him?).

hueving9y ago

Yes, fits the description of an Italian guy I work with. He's now living in silicon valley. :)

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