When hasn't Midtown been a "Target Rich Area" for the crooks from the 'burbs? Every summer when school lets out, you need to tie down everything that can be picked up because of the bored 'burb teens coming through trying to play wannabe thug. Every one I have caught wasn't from Midtown, it was always some other part of town they were from.

But I also tire of people who pine for "safer days". They never existed in Midtown, but I will say that some things have improved. People watch out for each other with a great deal more care- remember the beatings that were happening down in the pink triangle? Or the artist that was murdered outside of his studio? Nobody ever saw anything way back then. Contrast that with the rapid response on these incidents. And on other incidents as well- I reported a burglary in progress about a year ago, and the cops were there in under 3 minutes. They had the guys in under 10 (sure enough, they were headed out of midtown back to their 'burb).

Bottom line is that we simply need to watch out for each other with a real sense of care and community in this town, and especially in Midtown. That is what differentiates us from places like SF and LA. I don't have a problem with more consumer traffic in Midtown- more business is important if we want to maintain our public services and infrastructure. How we deal with that growth as a community effort, that is what is important.

Target rich near the bars. Safer days existed in Midtown about four years ago. Crime stats and conversations with our patrol officers don't lie. There is a very real and present escalation of violent crime in Midtown and there is a source. We are backsliding and fast. In LA and SF (I have lived in both) we had 14 foot wrought iron fences around our buildings. Every home in mixed use areas in SF has a super secure security gate. Is this what we want for Midtown? Is this our future? If we keep going down the current path it is. Is this how you want to live? I don't.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Interesting. I would like to see the statistics and see its comparison to areas based on population and commercial square footage.

The MBA as an association had nothing to do with individual land and business owners choosing to locate in Midtown.

Anytime you have a popular area it has the possibility of attracting the wrong elements or have incidents. I would not say we are backsliding. You imply that we are headed to "slum"like conditions. I think nobody wants that. Its bad for business and for residents.

In the long term, the central city has been getting safer. Having lived in the central city since 1993, overall it is safer now than it was then--but things have taken a serious dive in the past year or two. Due to cuts in police and the dramatic increase in the number of bars (and the dramatic decrease in the number of businesses that aren't bars) we are seeing a change in trend that looks like a return to the "bad old days." The city and MBA are promoting bars and nightlife because they are looking for short-term gain, as liquor sales generate a lot of sales tax revenue, without much foresight as to the long-term costs. We do need more business in the central city, but more of it needs to be retail businesses, stores that sell things or provide services, not just bars.

MBA doesn't control individual businesses, but they do drive policy, and the sort of events and activities that they sponsor reflects on the direction they want to move the Midtown business districts towards. Focus on shopping and retail will attract more of that kind of business, focus on bars and parties will attract more of that kind of business.

Cuts to the police has definitely had an effect--despite the much-touted stimulus funds for 30 or so police officers, Sacramento PD is still down about 200, and that is based on the relatively small police to citizen ratio it had a few years ago. About 5 years ago I had a break-in, and an officer reported to the scene within a couple of hours to examine things. I had a break-in earlier this year, and was told to fill out a Web-based report and they would decide whether or not to send an officer to the scene in a couple of days.

It doesn't look like the death was an accident as those involved had been kicked out of Badlands earlier and the security guard had been seen talking to them near the parking lot. Apparently shortly thereafter is when the hit and run incident occurred.

huh...interesting. I've met him and know he tended to be the favorite boy of the older daddy types of the bars, including Terry Sidie I believe. So I wouldn't be surprised if he'd known the security guard for many years. I also wouldn't be surprised if he was on meth or something else at the time.