Mar 25, 2009
A Reader Asks: Is New Haven a Crime Haven?
A reader recently wrote me wondering whether or not Yale is in a real crime zone, and I thought I would post my reply here for all to see. Other Yalies, New Haveners want to chime in with comments? I welcome questions in general, so please feel free to send more in. Happy to help.
> Elizabeth wrote:
> Hi Sam
>
> I took my daughter to visit Yale and she loved it. My husband has some
> issues with Yale and I don’t know quite what to believe. He knows two recent
> grads who insist that New Haven is a serious crime haven and getting worse. Is
> it?
I’m glad your daughter liked Yale – it’s a great place! – and I hope she saw New Haven as offering the potential for a good college experience. Then-president Kingman Brewster Jr. said, some 40 years ago, that the problems of New Haven were an advantage for Yale because they promoted community and cohesiveness, which may have been true – today, things are much better both for Yale, New Haven, and the town-gown relations.
So, on to your principal question: the safety of New Haven, or lack thereof. If we’re looking at New Haven in terms of crime statistics, you’ll find it is not so much worse than many other places with well-regarded schools; I’m from the Boston area and would go to Harvard Square ever since I was young with my friends, and there are certainly fewer panhandlers and homeless people around during the day; at night, while Harvard Square felt safer, my Harvard friends receive just as many unsettling crime notices in their inboxes as we do (for one particular comparison which I can speak to from personal experience). New Haven has some risks to it, but it is a very safe place as look as people keep their heads about them.For that matter, while many of my female friends make it a common habit to walk alone in bad places late at night, they have not had any unfortunate incidents – this isn’t to say that none exist, but just to emphasize that your daughter is not going to be seen on the nightly news if just once she goes alone for a falafel pick-me-up at 2 am or to visit a friend on the other side of campus.
While there have been a few unfortunate higher profile incidents at Yale in the two years that I have been here, for the most part incidents involving students occur on the far periphery of campus — graduate students living farther away and the like. Central campus is well protected, well lit, and generally quite safe at all hours. This isn’t Penn, where gangs of children were robbing people in broad daylight. What’s more, our lovely ivory tower environment offers another layer of protection; while it’s not exactly perfect protection, the gated courtyards in which we live our lives really insulate us from any of the city’s jagged edges. What’s more, the University does offer extensive shuttle se rvices both on schedule and on-call; in addition, security is available to act as escorts to take students from point A to point B safely. (This is what tour guides no doubt told you; for students unwilling to wait long enough for these resources to make their way to them in the event of non-emergencies, walking may be the only immediate option).
That said, can bad things happen, and do they? Of course – but, as I mentioned at the start, general misconceptions about the true dangers of New Haven aside (overstated and outdated) there are good restaurants, there are nice places to go, but there is not *too* much. I would personally be happier in a busier place, but there is something to be said for the fact that everyone cannot so easily melt away from campus after class, as they do in New York City — although many people, including myself, go to NYC often. In any case, I’m not sure what other issues your husband has with Yale — is it just to do with supposed crime problems? Let me know if I can answer any more of your questions, and if you need help finding raw numbers about the safety of Yale, I can try to find the FBI-required reporting statistics for you (flawed though they may be, New Haven’s violent crime numbers are generally on the decline, and segmented geographically are really not so bad).
Thanks again for reading and for asking questions, I really appreciate it!
Addendum: Thanks to a Yale senior friend from the New Haven area who, in discussing the safety of New Haven, mentioned the humorous nickname [largely in jest] which I had never heard before, ‘pistol-wavin’-new-haven.’ Again, not representative.
I graduated some time ago and have lived in the city for several years (more than five, we’ll say), and the worst thing that has happened so far was someone breaking into my car. I take more precautions now than as a student, but I don’t live on the Yale campus anymore, so my safety, to a certain extent, is my responsibility.
I think Sam is accurate — as an undergrad you’re not in much danger as long as you use common-sense. Yale has loads of security. You’re in a city. Don’t go out alone at 3am. If you jog, especially at dusk, take a friend. Lock your door. Watch your surroundings, especially if you’re alone or it’s nighttime. Use campus transit after hours. Learn the public transit system. Don’t make yourself a target.
The New Haven Independent is an online newspaper that tracks area crime. The big crimes, the ones that make the news, tend to occur in the same areas. Fair Haven. The Hill. Newhallville. Those are areas you wouldn’t walk into by mistake. They aren’t close to the undergraduate campus, and undergraduates who go there do so by choice and in groups, usually for service projects (tutoring/community service, etc.).
Grad school students do face more problems, especially in the Dwight area, a “fringe area” Yale doesn’t patrol (New Haven PD does).
New Haven may be known for crime, but it also has several lovely, suburban-esque neighborhoods like Goffe Terrace, side streets between State St. and Prospect St., Orange St., East Rock, Wooster Square (safer spaces for grad students, too). Crime is to be found in any city, and just because a suburb looks safer doesn’t mean crime never happens there.
I have lived in New Haven for 12 years and have never had a problem with crime. I have spent tons of time in all the city’s neighborhoods – even the very “bad” ones like the Hill and Newhallville.
Although I would recommend being cautious if you are alone late at night (just like any other city), especially if you are outside the downtown area where there aren’t other people around, I walk around the city at all hours of day and night and never feel uncomfortable.
Except for witnessing a drug deal in a park, in a very low-income neighborhood far from the Yale campus once, I have never even seen a crime in New Haven. This compares with Manhattan, where I lived for a few years (fairly recently) and witnessed drug deals, had a person shot to death a block from my apartment in a robbery, and was several times approached by prostitutes offering their services to me.
As a person who is presumably not dealing drugs or involved in prostitution, you should be much more worried about traffic than crime. A speeding car is about 200 times more likely to injure or kill you than random urban violence.
Many Ivy League students have been killed lately by cars. A Harvard student was run down and killed in the middle of Harvard Square. Last year, a Columbia student was killed by a car when he ran in the street to escape a mugging. Students are regularly killed in car crashes while driving, or during the summers when driving around their home towns.
Go to an urban campus, like Harvard or Yale, where you at least won’t have to drive much.
I guess I have to ask you if you have anything to add given the recent tragedy at Yale…? Obviously, it’s not related to the general level of crime in new haven, but I am just wondering what your thoughts are on how it will affect perceptions of the city, since you were kind enough to share your thoughts before : )
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