New York Balks at Next Grand Theft Auto

RainbowRaven

New York Balks at Next Grand Theft Auto

What do you think?

"In other news reports, city council member Peter Vallone noted that setting the game in the "safest city in America would be like setting Halo in Disneyland."

I think Peter Vallone must be living in Bizarro NYC or he's schizophrenic. And Bloomberg hasn't ever made sense.

Anyway, that's my city as well and I'm not balking, stop using general terms damnit. Bring on the next GTA.

Apreche

I have a feeling that this is going to become a trend. Every time someone makes a video game based in a real city, the city will complain. Cities are very concerned about their image for tourism and economic reasons, that's why they spend a lot of time and money marketing themselves. To have that ruined by a video game is something they do not want. I don't think it will do any good, though. Rainbow Six: Vegas is still out there despite Las Vegas complaining.

Rym

I think Peter Vallone must be living in Bizarro NYC or he's schizophrenic.

Well, New York City is the safest major city in the country by a large margin. Despite the perception to the contrary, there is very little crime per capita, and the violent crime rate, already low, is continuing to drop.

I feel safer in The City at night than I do in many upstate places. ^_~

Kilarney

I don't blame NYC for not wanting to be associated with the game.

The game designers have the right to set the game in NYC.

One the other hand, NYC has the right to point out that NYC is not what is depicted in the game.

RainbowRaven

Rym, when you say New York City are you speaking of Manhattan or actually the entire city including it's boroughs?

When I go home for Christmas or any other time and I can stand to turn on the 10 or 11 o'clock news, it's usually saturated with crime. Rapes here, drugs there, shootings behind you, muggings in front of you. Two members of my immediate family were mugged three times a piece (in different places) and one of the two was assaulted by the plains clothed police (though of course that's not crime), on his way home from work but a block away around 11pm, when they told him to stop not announcing themselves as cops, and he ran because he thought this was going to be the fourth mugging. In my not so immediate family, similar instances have occurred as well. These are people who go to college and work or who are middle aged and work.

Perhaps New York City is safe for some but for the rest it's not. As for bringing money into the city, as Scott mentioned, I'm sure the government is not above lying to attain its ends. I'll always remember how directly after 9/11, Giuliani and Bloomberg encouraged New Yorkers to go out and shop and for tourists to come and visit NYC as a response to 9/11. Shopping shows the terrorists they haven't won. Wow...

Getting up in arms about a video game is ridiculous. The mayor and the rest of his cronies should focus on cleaning up their departments so that people's fiance's don't get killed by police on their wedding days. Perhaps then people won't be so eager to play a game like GTA where cops can be killed.

Illegal crime and legal crime. If it isn't a criminal on one hand, it's the police on the other.

As soon as I can, I'm getting out of NYC with my family. I'll always love it but I can't live there anymore. I'll go there for Broadway and Chinatown and whatever else but then it's back out again.

Rym

Rym, when you say New York City are you speaking of Manhattan or actually the entire city including it's boroughs?

The statistics for ALL FIVE BOROUGHS show very little actual crime per capita, and continually dropping (yet already very low) violent crime rates.

In 2005, there were 539 murders and 1412 rapes in the ENTIRE CITY. Total. There were 24 732 robberies. Again, that's in the entire city (all five boroughs) throughout the entire year. Furthermore, they've been holding steady at worst and in most cases dropping every year since then.

When I go home for Christmas or any other time and I can stand to turn on the 10 or 11 o'clock news, it's usually saturated with crime.

That's because crime makes the news. It's not like they report every time someone isn't mugged like in Detroit. (Zing!) The media contribute to "mean world syndrome," where people perceive there being orders of magnitude more crime than there actually is.

Rapes here, drugs there, shootings behind you, muggings in front of you.

Funny, but if that's true, how come there's no evidence for it? How come the crime rates are so incredibly low?

Two members of my immediate family were mugged three times a piece...

One unlucky string of anecdotes does not a stastic make. There are between 8 and 18 million people in the City, so one outlier is irrelevant. I'm sorry for your family's bad luck, but the evidence shows that such crimes are far rarer than the media would have you believe.

Spend some time in Detroit, and you'll see what an actual crime-ridden city feels like.

Apreche

Spend some time in Detroit, and you'll see what an actual crime-ridden city feels like.

Or the bad parts of Chicago or B'more.

Andrew

Spend some time in Detroit, and you'll see what an actual crime-ridden city feels like.

Or the bad parts of Chicago or B'more.

How about the streets of D.C, where the death rate is higher than it is in Iraq? D.C is one fucked up city.

Kilarney

How about the streets of D.C, where the death rate is higher than it is in Iraq? D.C is one fucked up city.

You know, the violence in D.C. must be heavily concentrated in certain areas. I've walked through many neighborhoods in D.C., and I've always been amazed at how safe it feels. I know it's anecdotal, but you can usually see at least some signs that you are in a high crime area.

Andrew

You know, the violence in D.C. must be heavily concentrated in certain areas. I've walked through many neighborhoods in D.C., and I've always been amazed at how safe it feels. I know it's anecdotal, but you can usually see at least some signs that you are in a high crime area.

Washington D.C: Murder Capital of the World

RainbowRaven

How about the streets of D.C, where the death rate is higher than it is in Iraq? D.C is one fucked up city.

You know, the violence in D.C. must be heavily concentrated in certain areas. I've walked through many neighborhoods in D.C., and I've always been amazed at how safe it feels. I know it's anecdotal, but you can usually see at least some signs that you are in a high crime area.

I was actually going to mention this. I am not going to argue about the statistics. I will look those up for myself. However, it's similar to measuring wealth in statistics. I took an anthropology course in statistics though I cannot remember the majority of it. In any case, if you are measuring wealth in a country or city and there are a couple super rich people while everyone else is a part of the underclass, is that country or city wealthy? If crime is concentrated in particular regions of NYC however the general statistic is that there is less crime compared to other cities, does that mean that you are any less likely to be the victim of a crime in a random part of NYC than in D.C. or Detroit?

Saying that NYC is the safest in city America is not the same as saying NYC is the city with the least crime in America. It doesn't mean the same thing by a long shot. Politicians' speech tend to be slippery.

Apreche

If crime is concentrated in particular regions of NYC however the general statistic is that there is less crime compared to other cities, does that mean that you are any less likely to be the victim of a crime in a random part of NYC than in D.C. or Detroit?

Yes, yes it does.

Let's say you have two cities. City A and City B. Each city has a population of 5 million. City A has 10000 muggings, murders, robberies, etc. City B has 50000 muggings, murders, robberies etc. You are 5 times more likely to be the victim of a crime in a random part of City B than you are in City A. That is a fact.

If you want to ask which city is safer, that's a poorly worded question. Safety concerns a lot more than just crime. A city could have no crime at all and still be horrendously unsafe.

The fact is that New York is stupidly safe compared to most other cities. I wouldn't walk through dark alleys late at night, but I wouldn't do that in any town or city anywhere.

Rym

The crime in Detroit is endemic and widespread, and there are fewer people to be victims of it. You are MUCH more likely to run into trouble in Detroit than you are in NYC, even if you choose entirely random locations in both cities for your sampling. There were only 200 more murders in NYC than in Detroit, yet Detroit has 7-17 million LESS people in it.

The "bad" areas in New York City don't even hold a candle to the "bad" areas in other cities.

I work every day in what a lot of people consider to be "bad" areas in the South Bronx, and I feel perfectly safe there. In fact, I feel safer in Mahnattan than I do in any other city I've ever lived.

RainbowRaven

Let's say you have two cities. City A and City B. Each city has a population of 5 million. City A has 10000 muggings, murders, robberies, etc. City B has 50000 muggings, murders, robberies etc. You are 5 times more likely to be the victim of a crime in a random part of City B than you are in City A. That is a fact.

If you want to ask which city is safer, that's a poorly worded question. Safety concerns a lot more than just crime. A city could have no crime at all and still be horrendously unsafe.

The fact is that New York is stupidly safe compared to most other cities. I wouldn't walk through dark alleys late at night, but I wouldn't do that in any town or city anywhere.

All right. Let's say you have a city that is shaped like two concentric circles. The space between the circumference of the center circle and that of the outer circle has more surface area than the space within the center circle. There is a higher concentration of crime in the space between the circumferences than within the center circle. Say you're throwing darts randomly at a map of this city on a wall. You're not trying to get a bulls eye. You're simply throwing darts. Perhaps you're blindfolded, whatever. You're more likely to land in the outer circle than the inner. That is where the higher rate of crime is and thus you are more likely to encounter crime. The probability of encountering crime in those areas could possibly be the same as or close to the probability of encountering crime in a city where the crime is more widespread and not as concentrated in areas. Once again, perhaps less crime but not safer, contrary to the idea Peter Vallone is trying to convey.

clay

The next GTA will be about coked-out upper middle-class white kids "keeping it real" in the tough streets of suburban Florida. Preorder GTA: Bradenton today!

HungryJoe

How about the streets of D.C, where the death rate is higher than it is in Iraq? D.C is one fucked up city.

You know, the violence in D.C. must be heavily concentrated in certain areas. I've walked through many neighborhoods in D.C., and I've always been amazed at how safe it feels. I know it's anecdotal, but you can usually see at least some signs that you are in a high crime area.

Yesterday, after I arrived at work (remember that I work in downtown D.C. about two blocks from the White House), I realized that I didn't have my cell phone. I thought at first that I left it at home, but I thought I remembered taking it before I left. Then I noticed that the clip on my belt was still there but the holster that holds my phone had come off. So My phone fell off my belt somewhere between home and the office. I was so worried I took the Metro back to the parking structure where I had parked my car, hoping that I might have lost it in the car. It wasn't there. I came back thinking that I'd have to try the lost and found department at the Metro, which would realistically mean that finding it would be as unlikely as George Bush understanding the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

When I arrived back at work, I had an email waiting from Carole saying that someone had found my phone on the street, called her, and wanted to meet to give me the phone. I met him later yesterday and he gave me my phone. I offered to give him a reward, but he refused it.

Imagine that.