Friday Question of the Day

How much information is too much information? I get emails quite frequently asking me if I think a particular street or neighborhood is safe or not. I find these questions by far the most difficult to answer. We’ve certainly discussed the issue of crime before and every time I read the comments I shudder. I think to myself I can’t imagine what folks who haven’t been to this neighborhood/street must be thinking. Personally when I moved to my home I had absolutely no idea what the neighborhood was going to be like. I basically spoke to a buddy who lived near by, really liked the house itself and just dove right in. I can’t imagine what I would’ve thought had I read some of the comments on this blog and other neighborhood blogs and/or listservs. I don’t say this as a criticism of the comments but I think if you just read the comments you are doing yourself a disservice in concluding whether a neighborhood is “safe” or not. Shaw, Columbia Heights, Petworth, Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant are huge neighborhoods. Are they Cleveland Park? Of course not. But nor are they Beirut circa 1984. So for the Friday question of the day: Can neighborhood blog posts and comments accurately portray whether or not a neighborhood is “safe”? Do they provide too much information in a vacuum or do you think the more information the better?