On Fri, 4 Apr 2008 17:21:41 -040
"David Diaz" <***@gmail.com> wrote
> TIPS
> New York is a wonderful city, however, as with any large city trave
> safel
> -Do not use your iPod white ear pieces. Especially on th
> subway at nigh
> -Travel in groups or with a loca
> -Know where you are going ahead of time so you do not need to kee
> the map ope
> -Using your laptop on the train at night and storing it in a bi
> laptop bag that says LAPTOP or FORUM on it is a no-n
> -DO NOT go to the wonderful local Apple Store and walk around th
> city with that white APPLE bag full of iPhone
> -Stay on the main streets not the allays especially off-Broadwa
> -Car services from the hotel are flat rates and very cost effective
>
> It's a very safe city for the last decade but travel smartly an
> enjoy
>
I think you're contradicting yourself here..
Anyway -- I regard most of those warnings as quite overblown. I mean
on lots of subway cars you stand out more if you don't have whit
earbuds in, probably attached to iPhones. Midtown is very safe. You
laptop bag doesn't have to say "laptop" on it to be recognized as such
but there are so many other people with laptop bags that you won't stan
out if you have one. Subway crime? The average daily ridership i
about 5,000,000; there are on average 9 felonies a day on the whol
system. To quote a city police official I met, that makes the subway
by far the safest city in the world
Yes, you're probably at more risk if you look like a tourist. But ther
are lots of ways to do that, like waiting for a "walk" sign befor
crossing the street... (Visiting Tokyo last month was quite a shock t
my system; I had to unlearn all sorts of things.
Enjoy the city and don't worry about crime. The real danger is no
remembering that you never have the right of way anywhere, unless yo
take it... (I currently live in a neighborhood that ~20 years ago,
probably wouldn't have dared to visit. But the city is safer now tha
it's been in at least 40 years.
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~sm