Crime in Austin

[tennreb]

Two Austinites traveling in Memphis recently killed a Tennessee Highway Patrolman who was a friend of a friend. While the killing could be and likely is completely incidental, it still begs the question--how bad is Austin crime?

[KevinFromTexas]

That sounded like an isolated incident. I've noticed that there's a lot of violent crime going on in North Austin, particularly near I-35 and 183. Even places like Round Rock and Pflugerville are having some violent crime. Some places around downtown aren't all that safe either. The 6th Street area near I-35, Warehouse District, and in Central Austin in West Campus.

[austlar]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

That sounded like an isolated incident. I've noticed that there's a lot of violent crime going on in North Austin, particularly near I-35 and 183. Even places like Round Rock and Pflugerville are having some violent crime. Some places around downtown aren't all that safe either. The 6th Street area near I-35, Warehouse District, and in Central Austin in West Campus.

Are these personal observations on your part or are there actual statistics showing increases in violent crime in these areas? I have not read anything like that in the Austin paper, but I don't read the local paper every day. Where are you getting this information?

[KevinFromTexas]

From the local news stations. Crime around the I-35/183/Rundberg area has been bad. Atleast last year it was. We're talking about shootings, rapings and burgularies.

And maybe I'm being harsh about the Warehouse District and West Campus, though West Campus did have it's crime last year.

[austlar]

Yeah, Rundberg is pretty shady. A lot of the crack action got pushed up there from downtown (6th and 7th/Red River ) after the Hilton opened up a year or two ago. More and more of the crack ho's and dealers and users drifted up to the seedy motel area at I35 and Rundberg. They also drifited south, and it is getting pretty dicey around Oltorf and I35, as well as along Riverside east of I35. The drug trafficking and general sleaziness along Riverside and in some of the huge apartment complexes between Riverside and Town Lake are major problems that might preclude that area from being redeveloped as quickly as many on this site would like to see it happening.

[arbeiter]

Rundberg area is really bad, especially a block or two east of IH-35.
The area off of Rutland isn't so hot either - this goes to show that suburban areas decay really badly, really quickly. There are some spots where homes were built as late as the late 80's and they've already deteriorated.

I feel safer off of Chicon these days than off of Rundberg.

[TXLove]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

Rundberg area is really bad, especially a block or two east of IH-35.
The area off of Rutland isn't so hot either - this goes to show that suburban areas decay really badly, really quickly. There are some spots where homes were built as late as the late 80's and they've already deteriorated.

I feel safer off of Chicon these days than off of Rundberg.

I can attest to this firsthand because I grew up behind Dobie Middle School and lived in the area from late 80's to late 90's and seen the start of this area go bad....I used to go to the little convient store "Whistle Stop" and just going in there you can be approached by 4 or 5 crackheads asking for crack just to go buy a soda..... So Rundberg area has been bad for a while now

[texastarkus]

Originally Posted by tennreb

Two Austinites traveling in Memphis recently killed a Tennessee Highway Patrolman who was a friend of a friend. While the killing could be and likely is completely incidental, it still begs the question--how bad is Austin crime?

Well, the last thing I heard was the two men who committed the murders were not US citizens in fact they were illegal. They were drug runners who just happened to live in the Austin area and were part of a drug ring headed up by the same cartel killing all those folks across the border from Laredo. As in most cities, there is crime but I don't feel these two show a true representation of real Austin citizens.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by tennreb

Two Austinites traveling in Memphis recently killed a Tennessee Highway Patrolman who was a friend of a friend. While the killing could be and likely is completely incidental, it still begs the question--how bad is Austin crime?

google: crime rates + austin.... plenty of articles. Austin has a normal to low amount of crime for a city of it's size. Quite normal. Every city has it's crack negiborhood.... you have to be aware of homeless everywhere.... crime is higher downtown.... yeah, quite normal.

[TexasStar]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

Rundberg area is really bad, especially a block or two east of IH-35.
The area off of Rutland isn't so hot either - this goes to show that suburban areas decay really badly, really quickly. There are some spots where homes were built as late as the late 80's and they've already deteriorated.

I feel safer off of Chicon these days than off of Rundberg.

That's amazing to me! I lived in that part of Austin from 1979-1981 and my apartment complex as right off Rundberg and it was one of the nicest places you'd ever want to see. Everything was so shiny and new back then. Sorry to hear that just a couple of decades can change things so drastically for the worse.

[Jdawgboy]

Austin is still considered to have one of the lowest crime rates on a national level. Compare Austin to other cities of its size and you will see that overall Austin has lower crime. Even some much smaller cities have much higher crime rates than Austin. With all cities there is going to be some crime and the I-35/Runberg area is pretty much the worst part of the city now. I had a friend that just recently moved out of that area and the very last week before they moved out he had 2 thousand dollars worth of DJ equipment stoled.