Is that the light at the end of the tunnel? (O.T. Thread)

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

1 hour ago, NateDawg said:

Most of the groups protesting various things are typically not even from Columbus, but extremist groups from all over. Even the extremist BLMs in 2020 downtown who destroyed the city- a lot of them were paid adjutants. Which made the destruction in chaos that much more frustrating. They didn’t even have to live with the consequences. Those groups you named can be similarly categorized, they just chose Columbus to go to. It’s the capital city. As long as I can, remember, these types of groups pop up periodically. Going back a ways, even the KKK made its way to downtown Columbus maybe 20 years ago, before I started in Cbus.  
 

To answer your question in another way, no, I would not recommend I am out in Columbus in general. Not downtown. It used to be a safer place to go. City politics and leadership has destroyed that. There are no consequences for the actions that takes place from the courts, and the Mayor is everything this thread has been discussing but worse. They allow violent offenders to run rampant through the city. They have made it so police no longer are able to be proactive in locking people up without extreme liabilities. Just this past weekend, 10 people were shot overnight, half of them in the short north in one incident. Now, this is mostly gang violence. But this chaos has affected various areas, and there is no regard where the bullets fly, often times shooting people that owe money there on business. Or they are robbing and killing people who aren’t caught up in their world. Go have a nice dinner far from Columbus. That’s what I do. I moved 45 minutes from the city three years ago and commute to work every day and haven’t regretted it a single day since I did it.

Side note, but if you own a Kia or Hyundai, definitely don’t park it in Columbus, because one of these juveniles is bound to steal it. 

Do you think your views on this are skewed or slanted at all because of your job?  I’m not trying to bait you or whatever, genuine question.  Like, your entire job is dealing with one terrible situation, crime, whatever, after another (probably not your ENTIRE job, but you get my point) and I’m sure in time you’re going to see things through a particular lens that others who aren’t dealing with those same things don’t. You see the worst parts of humanity day after day.  

I ask because I haven’t had the same experiences or same outlook.  Columbus has never felt unsafe when visiting.  I lived in Cincinnati proper for 7 years and never had an issue.  Grew up in Canton and never had an issue.  Im not saying there was never crime or whatever obv, just that I never felt unsafe to the point of needing to avoid common consumer/recreation areas or leave the city entirely.
 

https://www.populationu.com/gen/most-dangerous-cities-ohio

I have no idea the quality of this data, but it shows Columbus as 20th in the state in terms of violent crimes per capita (shout-out to Canton btw, keep doing your thing and you’ll be #1 in no time).  Columbus’s rate is a third of Cleveland’s, the same as Lima’s and equal to Cincinnati’s.  
 

Now I’ll readily admit my “feeling safe” needs to be qualified.  I don’t go to particularly bad areas of town nor am I out at all hours of the night. I try to be an aware person when it comes to my surroundings, listen to my gut if something feels off, etc., I’m not some wondering idiot, but I feel like that’s something that’s more or less necessary anywhere at anytime more so than just Columbus or a big city or whatever.

Anyway, just curious as to your thoughts.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

And to be clear, I’m not saying this from an “I’m right you’re wrong” perspective (usually, but not in this instance lol).  I’m just saying experiential data is what forms our opinions and differences in experiences will lead to differing opinions.

[MWil23]

Crime in Columbus, Ohio · Columbus violent crime is 29.0. (The US average is 22.7) · Columbus property crime is 57.1. (The US average is 35.4) ...

https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/columbus-crime-rates-go-down-but-still-have-more-to-go-city-leaders-say/amp/
 

Shout out to the “Kia Boys” lol.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

8 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

Crime in Columbus, Ohio · Columbus violent crime is 29.0. (The US average is 22.7) · Columbus property crime is 57.1. (The US average is 35.4) ...

https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/columbus-crime-rates-go-down-but-still-have-more-to-go-city-leaders-say/amp/
 

Shout out to the “Kia Boys” lol.

Good data.

As far as property crime, I’m assuming a lot of that is driven by the factors we’ve been discussing like poverty and addiction. To me it only makes sense to try to address the underlying cause and hope that will cure the symptoms as opposed to the opposite.

The Kia stuff is idiot kids paired with some mind boggling manufacturing/production decisions as I understand it.

[big poppa pump]

1 hour ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

Good data.

As far as property crime, I’m assuming a lot of that is driven by the factors we’ve been discussing like poverty and addiction. To me it only makes sense to try to address the underlying cause and hope that will cure the symptoms as opposed to the opposite.

The Kia stuff is idiot kids paired with some mind boggling manufacturing/production decisions as I understand it.

I would agree that poverty certainly plays a part in this.  I would say that there is also a link between poverty, and addiction.  None of this is an earth shattering revelation.  You can't just fix both with money. (I know you are not saying that)  The bigger issue is the cultural aspect of this.   (tbc....this doesn't mean black/white, but more rich/poor) I don't know how that gets fixed.  

[MWil23]

1 hour ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

Good data.

As far as property crime, I’m assuming a lot of that is driven by the factors we’ve been discussing like poverty and addiction. To me it only makes sense to try to address the underlying cause and hope that will cure the symptoms as opposed to the opposite.

The Kia stuff is idiot kids paired with some mind boggling manufacturing/production decisions as I understand it.

 

4 minutes ago, big poppa pump said:

I would agree that poverty certainly plays a part in this.  I would say that there is also a link between poverty, and addiction.  None of this is an earth shattering revelation.  You can't just fix both with money. (I know you are not saying that)  The bigger issue is the cultural aspect of this.   (tbc....this doesn't mean black/white, but more rich/poor) I don't know how that gets fixed.  

And societal with SES plays a role. The #1 predictor of success in the world is having a stable father/father figure at home, whether graduation from college or high school, money earned, incarceration rate, etc.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

31 minutes ago, big poppa pump said:

I would agree that poverty certainly plays a part in this.  I would say that there is also a link between poverty, and addiction.  None of this is an earth shattering revelation.  You can't just fix both with money. (I know you are not saying that)  The bigger issue is the cultural aspect of this.   (tbc....this doesn't mean black/white, but more rich/poor) I don't know how that gets fixed.  

I mean, there’s a bit of a contradiction here depending on what you mean.  You say you can’t fix it with money but acknowledge that poverty is the driver behind it….

Now I’ll admit just handing people money isn’t a fix, it’s certainly more complex than that, but money is largely the issue.  We need good paying CAREERS, not just jobs, with benefits, etc.  People need to be able to attain a reasonable standard of living.  
 

People with something to lose are much less likely to do dumb ish I’d imagine, we need to make sure as many people as possible have those “somethings”.

[MWil23]

3 hours ago, MWil23 said:

https://m.facebook.com/reel/995498668493352/

Spot on accurate. My wife sent me this because “it’s something that you’ve been saying for a while now.”

I was paged

[MWil23]

The TL;DR version above is that “careers” don’t exist for this generation anymore. You want to advance? After you cap out at your career you move laterally to another company after getting bought out in many cases. Those companies who took care of their own retirees don’t anymore or don’t exist. Even the pension plans are a fraction of what they used to be.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

6 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

I was paged

Facebook links huh?
 

 

lol, I’ll check it out after work 

[MWil23]

2 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

Facebook links huh?
 

 

lol, I’ll check it out after work 

Lol yeah I don’t even have a Facebook my wife sent it to me. Worth a minute watch. Nice summary of what we’ve said as far as work goes.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

2 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

The TL;DR version above is that “careers” don’t exist for this generation anymore. You want to advance? After you cap out at your career you move laterally to another company after getting bought out in many cases. Those companies who took care of their own retirees don’t anymore or don’t exist. Even the pension plans are a fraction of what they used to be.

So many places don’t do cost of living increases anymore.  My job only does “merit” based increases.  I got the max this year believe it or not, 5%.  So that means my end purchasing power of my paycheck is only 3% less than it was the year before despite a generally stellar annual review due to inflation.

If I earned a true 5% raise paired with a COL increase I’d be up 13%.

This isn’t a new process for anyone tbh, but it’s bullsht.

[MWil23]

2 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

So many places don’t do cost of living increases anymore.  My job only does “merit” based increases.  I got the max this year believe it or not, 5%.  So that means my end purchasing power of my paycheck is only 3% less than it was the year before despite a generally stellar annual review due to inflation.

If I earned a true 5% raise paired with a COL increase I’d be up 13%.

This isn’t a new process for anyone tbh, but it’s bullsht.

Yeah I was up 3% this year. In all seriousness, one of the reasons I’m going federal is because they’re up a nice COLA for retirees each year and the president essentially declares a raise and it happens. I also will have annual/semiannual performance reviews with incentives such as PTO, bonuses, or a combination of the two.

https://www.generalschedule.org/raise
 

While not perfect, it’s a lot better than what I have now. My “break even” point is 4 years from now and then every year after will be much better, and that’s just dollars and cents not taking into account their 5% match TSP 401K equivalent or outstanding insurance coverage.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

Oh I saw this yesterday and never got around to it @MWil23

wtf are we doing here?!? 😂   She’s 17 years older than Schumer’s old arse!!!  Almost a teenager when WW2 ended.  31 when the civic rights act was passed…

tell me this person is representative of our current populace and truly understands what people 4-5 generations younger than her (zoomers and alphas) are experiencing.

[NateDawg]

@LETSGOBROWNIES so in 2021 Columbus reached a record Homicide number of over 200 for the year. There were about 1000 total felonious assaults the city. These would be mostly shootings, stabbings, victims that survived or did not. There was a 1 in 168 chance if you were a Columbus resident, you were a victim of violent crime just that year. So, this would also include some crimes, such as rape, etc. I’m not sure about that sources you included, but that would not seem to be inaccurate. Granted, a lot of the violent crime is gang on gang, but it certainly spills over. If you find yourself in the wrong area, you are likely to be robbed and/or assaulted. I’m just giving you the best perspective I can. I have talked to too many crying, family members where people have gone through the wrong area or even people who have ended up in seemingly nice areas, where lives have been changed forever. It was bad enough our family uprooted. To each their own though. You are likely to have a nice night if you go hang out in Columbus and not have an issue. I’m not a person that volunteers war stories, etc but I’ve stood over dead pizza delivery drivers, consoled family members whose college student was just driving for late night Waffle House before getting caught in the crossfire, and dealt with an OSU student who was kidnapped, raped repeatedly, killed, and dumped at a nearby park by a guy on an ankle monitor, when she got done bartending at a ‘nice’ place downtown. These are just some of many examples out there. So, I would not call it a slanted view as much as educated through experience. I have done it for 12 years, eight hours a day, so I see the victimization constantly. I don’t have other major cities across the country to compare it to, I can only speak to Columbus. And I can certainly speak to how the last few years things have only become worse through city politics, the courts, and other factors. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by NateDawg