Bay Area cities among nation's most dangerous

By Emmett Berg, Bay City News Service

October 30, 2006

Increased crime in Oakland led that city to be positioned near the top of a nationwide list compiling the most dangerous cities in America, according to a survey of statistics released yesterday.

The Kansas-based Morgan Quitno Press for 13 years has ranked American cities and metropolitan areas depending on their rate of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. Police departments report such statistics to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which releases them publicly each year.

Using 2005 figures, Oakland was ranked the eighth-most dangerous city in America, and only two other cities showed worse increases in crime over last year. The San Francisco Bay Area city of Richmond ranked 11th on the so-called "Most Dangerous 25."

The only other California city to rank worse than Oakland was the Los Angeles County city of Compton, ranked fourth worst in the nation overall, behind St. Louis, Mo., Detroit, Mich., and Flint, Mich.

Six California cities-Mission Viejo, Irvine, Thousand Oaks, Lake Forest, Simi Valley, and Chino Hills--were rated in the "Safest 25" nationwide. No Bay Area or Northern California cities made that list, which was topped by Brick Township. N.J.

However, when the survey compared only larger cities exceeding 500,000 residents, San Jose was ranked tops in the nation for safety.

The Quitno survey also compared metropolitan areas nationwide, with California locales appearing only on the "Most Dangerous" list, including the Stockton metro area, considered the nation's eighth-most dangerous; the Oakland-Fremont metro area, ranked 19th most dangerous, and the Modesto area, ranked 23rd most dangerous. The safest metro area in the nation was Fond du Lac, Wisc.

The survey also issued state rankings. Bay Area cities in the state's safest 25 included Sunnyvale, 10th; Livermore, 14th; Fremont, 15th; Vacaville, 16th; Tracy, 17th; Santa Clara, 20th, Daly City, 21st; and Napa, 22nd.

Bay Area cities in California's most dangerous 25 included Oakland, 2nd; Richmond, 3rd; San Francisco, 9th; San Leandro, 18th; Berkeley, 21st; Hayward, 22nd; and Antioch, 25th.

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