How safe is Moscow for Americans?

[Mr Carmack]

I have valued all the advice and comments on this issue. This response is
mostly directed at Renee Stellings, whose posts I have appreciated the most.

First, the advice not to take a taxi cab already occupied by another
passenger is not axiomatic to me. As idiot as that makes me seem,
nevertheless I have been in a taxi less than 10 times in my life... Two or
three of these times were when my wife and I were in Kaunas, Lithuania and
spoke almost zero Lithuanian, but we used taxis rather than repeat what we
did one evening, when at dusk we lost our way walking from downtown to my
cousin's apartment and we wandered at dark through who knows where. I was
actually more "streetwise" than my wife, or so I think, for I refused to ask
anybody for help until I found a young respectable couple walking arm-in-arm
down a street--which, after an hour of being lost, turned out to be the very
street we were looking for! :-)

I live in Texas, where we hardly have any public transportation, so any
advice about public transportation in Moscow (including taxis and the metro)
is news to me. :-) We also don't have gypsy kids running around Austin
needling you (literally) while they take your goods.

Second, the advice of the US State Dept was recent, I think as recent as
updated this month. One site I checked, maybe the Australian site, mentioned
a specific scam regarding Moscow ATM machines, but I don't recall the
details. And the Canadian travel advisory mirrored those of the US and UK. I
believe that the US GVT will indeed kindly provide you with street-savvy
advice on life in US Cities, as well as up-to-date crime stats for each of
them. The source I quoted was specifically for travelers abroad. It did also
mention avoiding Chechnya.

The 1993 figure you saw quoted in my post was from Fielding's Danger Finder.
Actually, this specific report was low key of Fielding's as they usually
give "danger warnings" which some have described as parody. For instance,
here is what they report about "Minnesota during the Winter":

"A Minnesota home is the most dangerous place in the state to be when it
comes to fire. There were 40 residential fire deaths in the state in 1994.
By November 1995, that year's death toll had swelled to 62--still early in
the home heating season. The most dangerous time of the year? The week
between Christmas and New Year's Day, when winter heating, decorative
lights, holiday cooking and too much booze make Minnesota such a kinetic
kettle of embers that the state fathers are considering flying in B-17s from
California and placing Red Adair on 24-hour call at the Wisconsin border.
Ouch."

But if you wish to read about the dangers of America and our cities, you can
find more than you can stomach at their URL, which I repost:
http://www.fieldingtravel.com/df/index.htm . Here is what Fielding's says
about Minneapolis:

"While murders are going down in some major U.S. cities, the rate is soaring
in Minneapolis (pop. 368,383)--approaching even those found in New York and
Washington, D.C. By the middle of August 1995, Minneapolis had already
topped its yearly record for homicides; there were 67 killings by
mid-August, four more than the total for all of 1991, previously the city's
deadliest year. Nearly three-quarters of the victims were black, although
blacks make up only 13 percent of the population."

You will notice again that it seems that Fielding's utilizes the older
statistics. How's the murder rate in the Twin Cities these days? :-)

This brings up another interesting point, namely that of all the cities in
the USA with population of 1.000.000 plus, I have heard from folks (who live
in Westminster County, just north of NYC) that NYC is among the lowest in
crime, that it is actually a very safe city--especially if one uses the same
street-smart tactics you offer. Detroit, Houston, L.A. (?), D.C. (?), are
far more replete with crime. Yet, as a Texan I have never felt threatened
while in Houston: I just don't go down unfamiliar or poorly streets...

In fact, there are places in Austin that I hesitate to enter in broad
daylight. The key is I live here and know which parts of town are relatively
safe and which parts, even which streets, have the most crime--something
which I haven't the slightest idea of regarding Moscow. So that is why I
have appreciated everybody's feedback.

Alan C
Pflugerville, Texas

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