Where do New Jerseyans feel safe N Y Atlantic City poll says
Post on: 2011-11-02 By: admin
New Jersey residents feel safest in Atlantic City among three of the state's urban destinations for leisure activity.
Although there have been two recent fatal carjackings in a casino parking garage there, residents said they would feel slightly more secure at the Shore resort than in Philadelphia or in Garden State cities known for their recreational options, a recent poll shows.
But given their druthers, they would feel even better crossing into Manhattan.
As for Camden, forget it. Among those surveyed, 64 percent said they would feel at risk there, with nearly half reporting that they would feel not at all safe, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released Monday.
The state has very deliberately tried to make Camden a destination with the Adventure Aquarium and Rutgers-Camden, said Peter Woolley, a political scientist at Fairleigh Dickinson. There has been this attempt over and again to bring industry to the city to make it a destination, and it hasn't worked.
Perception is reality when people are deciding what destination to choose for their leisure activity, he said. If they don't feel safe, they're not going to go.
The poll interviewed 800 registered voters statewide, via land lines and cellphones, between Oct. 17 and 23.
They were asked to gauge how safe they thought they would be in Camden, Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and Manhattan. They were not required to have visited the cities.
Philadelphia placed third, just behind Atlantic City. Nearly 60 percent said they would feel safe there, though 47 percent said they would be only somewhat safe.
Philly has made a lot of progress in the last couple of decades on its image, Woolley said. I'm surprised that it didn't rank higher.
Two percent polled said they would feel very safe in Camden, and 11 percent said they would feel somewhat safe.
Eighteen percent said they would be not too safe, and 46 percent said they would be not at all safe.
In Camden, often ranked among the country's most dangerous cities, Mayor Dana L. Redd laid off more than 168 police officers in January to help plug a $26 million budget deficit. The city has rehired 99 of the officers, but the crime rate is up 24 percent. As of Monday, there had been 36 homicides in the city of nine square miles, compared with 32 during the same period last year.
More help may be on the way, as 14 officers may be rehired through a $3.4 million federal grant.
Redd did not respond Monday to a request for comment.
Sixty-four percent of those polled said they would feel very or somewhat safe in Atlantic City, and only 21 percent said they would be not too safe or not at all safe.
People were most comfortable with the idea of visiting Manhattan: 78 percent said they would be safe there, and more than a third of those surveyed said they would feel very safe.
This is the first survey of its kind from the university, but Woolley looks forward to follow-ups.
I suspect people's opinions of how safe a city is tend to be long-term, he said. It takes a long time to turn that perception around to something positive.
Contact staff writer Joelle Farrell at jfarrell@phillynews.com, 856-779-3237, or @joellefarrell on Twitter.
Inquirer staff writer Darran Simon contributed to this article.
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