Eldergays that live in an urban area.

The Pandemic sequester showed me I LOVE being alone.

I only leave the house to go shopping, and I park in a well lit area close to the store.

Easy peasey. I visit friends in secure homes or security buildings.

I live in Miami and take a 4.5 mile walk 5 times a week at about 4:30 a.m.

I'm much more alert. Never wear headphones or look at my phone when riding the subway so I'm not distracted. I pay close attention when our walking even in my own neighborhood. Oh. And I carry a switchblade in my pocket. Would I ever use it if attacked. Dunno. But I feel a bit better knowing I have it on me.

Eldergays WHO, OP, eldergays WHO

I’m in my mid-fifties, am friends with eldergays in their mid-sixties and we live in the center of a big east coast city. As you age you tend not to spend a lot of time out late at night. That helps. AND, be situationally aware. Creepy people creeping around you? Then go somewhere else.

Live in Center City Philly. I walk to wherever I'm going in the evening but now Uber home more often than not.

The other boyz were Marqtarius, T'Marqreis, DevRonte' and LaQwontae.

Not at all a concern for me, but I don't live in the US. Comparing countries, the intentional homicide rate in the US is 11x that of Spain; the serious assault rate is 10x greater in the US; the rate of death by guns is 16x greater in the US; the rate of rapes in the US is 42 per 100K population, in Spain it's 2.6 per 100,000 population. There is almost no violent crime in my city, other than in a few distant communities; crime in the vast majority of the city is theft (bicycles, cars, home thefts, and pickpockets). You can walk across the center of the city and beyond for many kilometers in any direction without worry at any time of day or night; the women I know say the same, that it's quite safe at any hour to walk around. When you encounter someone late at night they are walking a dog, or walking to or from a party or a bar, or walking to or from work. You see young parents pushing kids in strollers at 2.00 or 3.00, coming home from at a night with friends. I'm not saying that a modicum of awareness is not advisable, only that the incidence of trouble is on an entirely different scale.

Stay home and Amazon all day.(Practicing for Trump-Martial Law) it’s coming…

I pay attention to my surroundings. When I go to the supermarket, I drive t here and park as close as I can to the store. I try to go to places that have good security and keep an eye on things. I either do my exercise by walking in my 40 acre, gated complex, or go over to the indoor mall. I don't like to be out late anymore. If I go to a play or a concert I'm usually home before midnight.

I think it's very important not to look vulnerable. I feel bad for people who have no car and have to walk everywhere or use public transportation. I think the time of day you do things is important.

Criminals are looking for lone seniors-anytime of day. I miss the subway but not worth it.

R11, please don’t feel sorry for us, we like not having a car

[quote]Criminals are looking for lone seniors-anytime of day. I miss the subway but not worth it.

If you're an older white guy, you know who to look out for.

Big dogs, but that doesn't work for stray bullets, they shoot wildly here.

We had this thread a few months ago. It obviously was started by troll. I live in DC which I'm sure Fox portrays as an urban hell house. I've done nothing to change my routine. I've never had a problem in nearly 20 years here. I'ved here in the 80s for several years--things were very different then.

[quote]I live in DC which I'm sure Fox portrays as an urban hell house.

Who needs Fox News when we have MSNBC?

Live in Boston. Fourteen murders so far this year is fourteen tragedies, but a helluva lot fewer tragedies than in any city of similar size in the US. And a lot fewer than Boston used to see annually.

How?

I like the night life

I did deliveries in a mid sized city for 30 years and never felt in danger. My brother in law worked for a hotel in the center of the city. My mother once asked us if we felt any danger down there. I said no. Just walk like you are mad as hell and nobody will bother you.

We're fine, OP, we send our love.

We have our ways...

Late 60s here. Live in Brooklyn. A generally safe neighborhood, but one with a reputation for not being so safe.

Though I’m old, I still have to live my life. I go out, I walk, I take the train. I don’t feel less safe late at night. The trains tend to be fairly crowded, and walking home from the train (about three blocks) there are usually others walking nearby.

But I stay alert. I something doesn’t feel right I’ll cross the street or do what I can to avoid trouble. Have not had any trouble in years. But did have a few incidents in the past. Though never in NYC.

One thing that’s made me feel safer recently is that a Citibike station was installed about five houses away from me. So bike home more often now, or even make the short bike ride home from one of the nearby subway stations.

Honestly (and I’m sure I’ve said this on similar threads), I feel more on edge if I’m on the train or bus on a weekday afternoon when school has just let out. Twenty middle school kids boarding my bus is not a recipe for peace and quiet.

OP, crime is down.

Republicans want to pretend crime is through the roof to scare uneducated people 🙄

R17, that article is from January. Crime is DC is on track to go down in 2024

Crime is down in Philly, r6

Republicans like to pretend they're rough and tough while being scared of any city with more than 100,000 people 🤣 😂

Enjoy your ‘’Crime is down’’ I’ll stay home.

Was looking at real estate in Padua and Verona. I rather figured the crime rate was going to be lower than US metro areas, but wow, it's like way lower.

Definitely, R29. The national homicide rate in Italy is 0.34 per 100,000; in the US it's 6.2 per 100,000.

Incidentally, in "dangerous" Sicily, the homicide and violent crime rates are identical to Italy's overall violent crimes per 100,000 people rate: 0.34. By contrast, the US violent crime rate is 398 per 100,000.

I have severe rheumatoid arthritis and walk with a cane/weapon.

Why are US cities so much more violent compared to European cities?

We have guns Pollyanna, and freedom!!!

R32 Gee, I wonder why....

In the small Tuscan city where I lived for decades, there was no street crime. The most amazing thing would be walking along a dark deserted narrow street at night. If there was someone walking ahead of me, even an elderly woman, they would not turn to see who was behind them. They would just continue walking uninterrupted.

r35 as an American that is so foreign. It would never happen in the US. Amazing to think even an old woman could walk around at night and have no fear for her safety.

R33 If you somehow could take away the guns from the thugs, they'd still find a way.

I don't fuss around with my wallet / cash / credit cards while out in the open or even while sitting in my car. (Another reason to reverse into spaces is so you can GTFO easier. That said, I usually park head-first.)

I'm not walking around, looking down at my phone. I'm looking at my surroundings. I don't use earphones or headsets while out in public.

I think I have pretty good posture and don't move like a super-old person.

A slingshot and a pocket full of Werthers.

Italy is a high trust society.

[quote]I don't fuss around with my wallet / cash / credit cards while out in the open or even while sitting in my car.

This is a big mistake that a lot of people make. Don't fool around with your wallet in public, esp. if you still carry cash.

American here and even when I've been in London it feels so strange to walk around at night and feel so safe. The feeling is even more in Italy and Spain. As an American you're still "on alert" walking around at night and then you realize you don't really have anything to fear. It's odd.

I'd rather hear from Eldergays in rural areas. Are they really the crime-free utopias where everyone gets along like the right wants us to believe as opposed to urban areas where a majority of this nation's people, jobs, and development exist, but are regularly derided as nothing more than violent, dangerous, crime-ridden hellholes you must escape to save yourself?

Dindus?

If you're going to race-bait, R44, why not just say what the fuck it is you really want to say, rather than tiptoeing around it.

I said what I wanted to say. There was no tiptoeing.

[quote] Italy is a high trust society.

What does that mean?

Side note: When I lived in Japan, I received my first "paycheck" in cash. On top of that, it was a month's worth of pay, not 2 weeks. It felt weird, taking the train and then walking home like that, a small stack of ¥10,000 (like $100 bills) in my pocket. I did get used to it (IIRC, that was how I was paid: in cash).

I would also avoid using ATM machines out in the open.

ATMS aren't what you need to avoid.

R6. Also in Philly. I stay alert, that's about it. Of course, my late night forays are more limited now, but still if I'm on the way home from something after 11 p.m., I may take Uber instead of public transportation. I get annoyed looking at younger people bopping along with headsets on and cell phones glued to their faces. They will probably get hit by a car or mugged. I will not. There is little random street crime, most of the newspaper stories are about fights or gang differences or drug deals gone bad, not older ppl being robbed on the street.

R22, is that Homebodies (1974) a flick worth watching?

[Quote] If you somehow could take away the guns from the thugs, they'd still find a way.

they already have

[Quote]is that Homebodies (1974) a flick worth watching?

Yes

In most of Europe, there is a much more generous social safety net than in the US, and young people who are unemployed continue to live at home until married. Crime is overwhelmingly a product of hopeless poverty, and especially where such poverty is alongside or near obvious wealth. My very white city has a high crime rate downtown, where the homeless are clustered. They have no real hope of being housed properly and quickly succumb to drug addiction. They comb the better-off residential areas adjacent to downtown for unattended bicycles and unlocked cars.

In some countries with relatively high poverty rates, there are dictatorships and brutal crackdowns on any criminal acts. The murders are accomplished by the state and called "crime control".

I'd much rather accomplish a lower crime rate by increasing the social safety net than by inviting a dictatorship to solve the problem, but I fear that many Americans would choose the latter.

R53 It has little to do with poverty. Stop demonizing poor people.

There are poor people all over the world including the US who do not engage in violence.

It is a question of MORALITY not poverty.

Those committing violent acts in the US are rarely due to poverty.

[quote]They comb the better-off residential areas adjacent to downtown for unattended bicycles and unlocked cars.

Theft of "unattended bicycles" is the least of our worries.

Live in a safe country. I chose Switzerland. I also have a getaway in Cairo, which as about the same crime rate as NYC but lower as for violent crimes. When I was younger I would spend time in the worst slums of Cairo and never felt any danger or had a single issue. This was 25-30 years ago and I don't go those neighborhoods anymore. I think it's important to have strong energy on any street.

R36, herein lies the rub. In Europe you get your pocket picked like That. In the US you’re more simply mugged. There’s plenty of property crime in Europe.

[quote]In Europe you get your pocket picked like That.

And you know who to look out for. An Italian or Frenchman or German is not going to pick your pocket. It would be a rare occurrance

In Rome it's the gypsies. Scum. Total scum.

I live in Maine. The best demographics. I could walk down any road in the state and feel safe. Even if I had a backpack full of 100 dollar bills. Well everywhere except Lewiston. Thanks Hillary.

R57 Describe the people I have to look out for in Germany, France and Italy. I want to be sure to have my back up around such people.

Luckily, I live in an affluent neighborhood and where I work is in fairly safe, middle class area.

The subway is another story. After a Daniel Perry like incident on the subway in which Whites and Asians were targeted, I now carry pepper spray when I'm on the subway.

R61 - "affluent neighborhood" You would be shocked to know how much heroin, fentanyl, etc. (and accompanying unreported theft) is behind those doors.

R62, so? They're not mugging old people or anyone else.

Not a lot.

R63 - Yes, but in a different way. You don't live in a neighborhood like that, otherwise you would know what I am talking about.

r59 I get it! Yeah, Lewiston. WTF was the government thinking? Of all places in the US.

I love Maine, I was in Portland recently and it's such a nice town.

I Metro into the District but take Uber home if it's night time.

r62 the thing about heroin and fentanyl is that it doesn't make people criminally violent.

My beautiful elders, you should learn martial arts so you can be a hero like this guy.

[quote]Describe the people I have to look out for in Germany, France and Italy. I want to be sure to have my back up around such people.

See post R58.

[quote]67 year old white dude beats up a black guy on bus

Good for him. Fuck around and find out indeed.

OP, when the migrant caravans are passing through, I stay strictly indoors. Otherwise, I rely on my second amendment rights to protect me.

Thank you for raising this exotic topic.

R71 right. To me it’s not about race. When you talk that shit you better be able to back it up or be prepared to get laid the fuck out. And he did hit him first. Probably was an old drunk.

I've lived in and around NYC for most of 60 years and I've never felt safer. When I look at YT videos from the 80's and 90's, I can't believe how dangerous it was. Forget 42nd st, you didn't want to walk down almost any cross street in the garment district at night or weekends. 14th and 8th was like gangland at night. All of downtown was deserted. Now you can go anywhere in Manhattan at any time and feel mostly safe.

All the parks are lit up with bright lights with plastic covers that are hard to break. All the apps, all the signage, the bike lanes, the crosswalks. No parking meters or phone booths for people to hang out in. The one thing that is more dangerous is e bikes. My head is on a swivel at all times because they can come fast from any direction.

Also, the 311 system. You can make a complaint about any problem and you will get some response, they really keep track of that stuff. Once, in the 80's I walked through Columbus CIrcle monument and there was about 1,000 rats, I thought I was in a horror film.

But I bet R74 hates Rudy.

R75. Giuliani hasn’t been mayor in almost a quarter century. His successor instituted 311. Almost all cities, where Giuliani was not mayor, have experienced significant declines in violent crime since the 90s. Violent crime in New York City is lower now than under Giuliani.

I bet you have a mindless political allegiance and mindlessly repeat your slogans.

In New York City there are a lot more homeless and mentally ill people wandering the streets and subways and the type of assaults are generally described as random and unprovoked and they can happen in any neighborhood which is different from the 70s and 80s. Earlier this year Governor Hochul deployed the National Guard to patrol the subways.

Most gays live in urban areas - of all ages. Very few rural gays.

*

If I do wear headphones while out, I will keep the volume low and I always am looking around. I also use Instacart a lot. I have one of those apps that alerts me when and what type of crime is happening in my area. Scary.

[quote]Most gays live in urban areas - of all ages. Very few rural gays.

Not so simple, R78. This, for example, from 2019:

[quote] LGBT people are typically depicted as city and coastal dwellers. And those who live in rural America are often characterized as people yearning to escape rural life for more acceptance in urban areas.

[quote] But a new study from the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that advocates for LGBT equality, shatters that stereotype.

[quote] Between 2.9 million and 3.8 million LGBT people live in rural America, that's up to 5 percent of the rural population and up to 20 percent of the LGBT population.

Where there's more than three you won't find me.

[quote] Crime is down in Philly

Yes, that's true, R26. I feel we've definitely turned a corner this past year.

Part post COVID national trends and part change in leadership, I expect. Whatever it is, I think we're moving back to pre-2020 levels.

That said, I'm now five years older and "elder gay" was the other element of the OPs question.

There are lots of gays who live in suburban/rural areas.

This thread is stealth fear trolling by OP.

R54 is right. Morality and civic mindedness.

We've talked down the country for years. If you have no pride in place, if you reject any legitimate authority, if you think everyone is out to get you, the result is is bad for your community.

I'm 72. I like to think I didn't live this long by doing stupid ass shit.

And I haven't spent my entire life looking over my shoulders to see who may or may not want to rob/mug me

The paranoia level some of the people who post here is off the fucking charts.

By far the most crime in western countries is committed by businesses, corporations, politicians, and other white collar professions. But it is invisible to most of us, passed along to us in the form of ever increasing costs, prices, taxes, etc. But we'd much rather focus on the guy stealing a loaf of bread, an apple, or a comb, because he is visible. What Sam Friedman and his lovely girlfriend absconded with is about the equivalent of 1 million "on the street criminals". What Donald Trump has stolen through is lifetime is far more than the immigrant crime he is always droning on about. Multiply those by many thousands of corporations, shrinking our toilet paper rolls but charging us the same price, avoiding paying taxes so that our country's infrastructure is sagging, while planting articles in the papers bemoaning the rampant shoplifting forcing them to close stores.

By the way, r54, try a little research before you adopt such a dismissive tone....

[quote]By far the most crime in western countries is committed by businesses, corporations, politicians, and other white collar professions.

Nice try R89.

We KNOW all of that.

But ya know, sometimes we just want to walk from point A to point B without someone messing with us.

I doubt the lady at R52 gives a shit about Sam Friedman.

r89 we're talking about street crime. White collar crime is another thread. Stop making excuses because the majority of street crime in the US is committed by........oh why even bother?

R89 Poverty is a result of crime, lack of morality, unwillingness to delay gratification, civic mindedness, unwillingness to follow rules etc. and etc. Crime in the US is rarely the result poverty. Stop offending poor people.

Stop ignoring decades of research. r92

"Since the beginning of the 20th century, urban scholars have extensively studied the role of urbanism and poverty in increasing crime. Rapid urban growth and population mobility together with stark socioeconomic differentiations across the urban space were, from the early years of the Chicago School, associated with the breakdown of social control and increased crime (Zorbaugh 1929). Classic ecological studies showed that neighborhoods with high poverty near commercial and industrial districts exhibited the highest levels of delinquency and criminality (Shaw and McKay 1942). These levels persisted over decades even when neighborhood population groups changed dramatically, indicating that structural conditions like neighborhood poverty contributed to delinquency and crime above and beyond individual disposition.

In the late-20th century, industrial restructuring and suburban flight has exacerbated the spatial differentiation of resources and concentration of unemployment among the low-skilled. In The Truly Disadvantaged, Wilson (1987) noted that unemployment and poverty clustered and that together these ‘concentration effects’ weakened family bonds and institutional ties, undermining the formal and informal capacity for crime control. Scholars today refer to areas of high poverty as areas of concentrated disadvantage. The Great Recession of 2008 added greater strain to struggling low-income urban communities across the country and recent studies increasingly connect economic distress (e.g. foreclosures) to higher crime (Ellen et al. 2013; see Arnio and Baumer 2012 for an exception)."

PS All those numbers in parentheses refer to separate studies supporting the conclusion, in case you don't understand what they are referencing.

Menluvinguy I hear you and I’m not sure if you live in the states but here in America when people go stealing merchandise they don’t have a knife like 1950s Grease. They have a mafuckin gun. And people don’t steal bread and apples. They got that EBT card for that. Actually I take that back. I saw some video on YouTube of this big dummy scanning every other item at Walmart with a $400 balance on her EBT card. Nice looking young girl too. There is something cultural in America with people just not giving a fuck.

R88 so you think it's merely paranoia or fear mongering?

R95 Menluvinguy thinks the thug at R52 is beating up the elderly white woman because he needs money to get something to eat.

[quote] If I do wear headphones while out, I will keep the volume low and I always am looking around.

R80, why do you feel like you need to wear headphones while out? Yet you use Instacart?

r97 I love that you put words in my mouth or thought balloons in my head. A little close reading would do you good.

"noted that unemployment and poverty clustered and that together these ‘concentration effects’ weakened family bonds and institutional ties, undermining the formal and informal capacity for crime control."

Poverty breeds broken families, loss of institutions that encourage or enforce morality. Such locales also don't allow for any interventions from mental health professionals, or even basic education that could lift people out of poverty and out of despair. People of any race just don't wake up randomly on a morning and decide that today is the day that they are going to punch a stranger in the face. There's always a history behind an action like that.

R97 wtf? I watched the vid. He didn’t even rob her. All of that traffic too. That’s not how most perps get down. This guy is mentally ill. Wtf.

[quote]Poverty breeds broken families,

No, broken families breed poverty.

R101 yep.

R99 75% of black children lived in two-parent households in 1960.

Today it's 33%

And yet the poverty rate for blacks back then was much, much higher than today.

R103 well yeah that’s true but all Americans poverty rate dropped between the 60s and 80s. One good thing is the black poverty rate has fallen to record lows under Biden.

Truman Capote once averted a mugging in NYC by making a joke out of it: As the muggers approached him, he took a pen out of his pocket and pretended it was a microphone...."And here we are, Ladies and Gentleman, witnessing a robbery on the corner of...."

It worked. The would-be muggers started laughing and left tiny Tru in peace.

That’s a story that Truman told. Probably made up like 90% of his stories.

r103 The harsh drug laws of the 80s and 90s led directly to the mass incarceration of black men and the current situation of black children being raised in single-family households - mostly for minor infractions such as having a joint in one's possession or selling small amounts of marijuana. I would argue that those types of infractions were a product of lack of opportunity in inner city neighborhoods, which goes back to poverty, and people selling drugs because other job opportunities were not available to them.

^ In 1960, black men were five times as likely as whites to be incarcerated. Yet families were much more intact than today.

It's definitely a cultural thing.

R106, you might be right about that! But his stories were so very good....!

Yeah, that sounds like a made-up story (Capote).

R108 Oh please you cannot compare those stats. Menluvinguy is right in that regard. Those crack war on drug laws were racist as fuck. Mad black men sitting in prison for 20, 30 years for selling crack. Shit is fucking biased and racist. Black men own not nay cocaine farm and yet sending them to prison to grow old. Fuck that. That did play a huge part into the disintegration of the black family as well as normalizing other shit. It’s kind of complicated because crack did make our neighborhoods way more violent but you go after the source not the middle man.

And yet it was blacks in New York who begged Rockefeller to sign those laws because the crime in their neighborhoods was out of sight.

Culture is destiny.

Just FYI, I only block the most odious trolls: the ones who go beyond the line and into fucked-up bullshit. I don't know which specific ones are posting in this thread, but the same poster seems to have written R90, R91, R92, R97, R101, R103, R108 & R109. It's mainly arguing with Teacake & Menluvinguy. (Since it's blocked, I can't see what it posted.)

It definitely sounds like y'all are getting ticked off, which is the troll's whole point. Please don't feed it.

Exactly, R115.

Hi, Teacake!

r115 can't handle facts. Too bad.

R117 Hi there dear. I hope you had a nice weekend and are staying safe. According to many on this thread America is turning into Haiti lol.

The censorship Queen R115 can't handle facts AND he's wrong that they're all the same poster.

[quote] Poverty is a result of crime, lack of morality, unwillingness to delay gratification, civic mindedness, unwillingness to follow rules etc. and etc. Crime in the US is rarely the result poverty. Stop offending poor people.

This is so true. There is new research that has demonstrated the Great Depression was due primarily to moral factors, as was poverty among the Victorian working class

I know personally, that I’m much wealthier than my immigrant grand-parents because much more moral than they’were. People try to to point to external factors, but they are usually irrelevant.

I'M GONNA GO ON A MESSAGE BOARD AND BLOCK EVERYBODY!

[quote] Crime is down in Philly

Sure, Jan.

I can smell Teacake’s nappy pussy.

R123 What is particularly brazen is that it is happening right in front of City Hall, in the very center of Center City.

Center City? Is Estelle OK?

I think Kevin Spacey is now homeless in that same Baltimore neighborhood.

Troll post looking for bites.

R115

Victims in NY are often teens or seniors

A friend who is 74 a had a guy simultaneously stroke his cock and her thigh whlle she was sitting in the bus section reserved for seniors and the disabled. (She is both.) She was shocked out of her mind until she remembered how often elderly women are victims. I stay safe by doing the things suggested here--not going out alone on evenings except for walking the dog on the block, avoiding the subway, not wearing headsets, not flashing money, etc. I once fought off two muggers who ran into the arms of the police. I couldn't do that today and it's a disheartening realization.

they just don't rape old queens on the urban streets like they used it. . . .

[Quote] I stay safe by doing the things suggested here--not going out alone on evenings except for walking the dog on the block, avoiding the subway, not wearing headsets, not flashing money, etc.

R131 Even just walking the dog during the day in front of your building is risky unless it's a pit bull!