# Myrtle Beach named 3rd Most Dangerous US City?



## everdave (Aug 26, 2017)

Just read an article that Myrtle Beach is now considered the third most dangerous US city (Detroit is 1st)

Also about 2-3 months ago saw a video of a shooting that happened during spring break there.

I haven't been in over 15 years and now I don't think I will ever take my family there.

Thoughts? Before all of this I was considering going for a week because it always seems so cheap.


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## tschwa2 (Aug 26, 2017)

Whose list?  Forbes has Detroit at #1 but Myrtle Beach wasn't in the top 10.  I live about 3 miles from the Baltimore City line and Baltimore and Washington have been in the top 10 for more than a decade or really all my adult life about 20 years.  There are tourist areas that are safe and there are areas that are not.  I am not sure if Detroit has any tourist areas.  I have heard that some of the tourist areas of Myrtle Beach are not safe at this time especially after dark.  I just spent a week and I would think most timeshares in Myrtle Beach and the surrounding beach area during the day are perfectly safe. There are restaurants and golf courses and fishing excursions, etc.  that are perfectly safe.    

I would research the resort and the surrounding area but I certainly wouldn't worry about it for any of the big names- Wyndham, Marriott, Sheraton, Bluegreen or even Westgate.


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## everdave (Aug 26, 2017)

Google "myrtle beach third most dangerous place to live" and there are all sorts of news stations reporting on article. I wouldn't have believed but I did see a live shooting on Facebook from a hotel district from this years spring break


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## gwenco (Aug 26, 2017)

Just don't go during Memorial Day weekend.


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## everdave (Aug 26, 2017)

Personally for me if it is dangerous at a certain time of year even for one weekend I will not be taking my little girls there ever.


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## Bucky (Aug 27, 2017)

Let's see. Spring break popular spot and May full of Biker rallies. Crime? Go figure!

We just came back from our yearly Myrtle Beach trip and saw no signs of any crime. I'm sure it's there but when you pull out the two major crime periods I'm sure it's no where near number 3. We went out to eat several times including one trip to Broadway at the Beach and saw nothing but tourist having fun. Geez, if you isolate your self from everything you read about, you will never go anywhere further than your front porch! Oh, that's right, you may get caught in a drive by since that happens in just about every city in the US also!! I refuse to live my life in fear. Use your common sense whenever you are outside your home, anywhere.


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## WinniWoman (Aug 27, 2017)

I have never been there, but someone i know goes every year and she said there is a section that is a no go, but other parts that are perfectly safe. She loves it.


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## Panina (Aug 27, 2017)

I go to Myrtle beach often and always feel safe.  I believe that list did injustice to the wonderful Myrtle Beach. 

It's probably like any other tourist places , some areas of the city are safer then others. There are always isolated incidents if you want to find them, anywhere.


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## chapjim (Aug 27, 2017)

Hard to see MB as #3 on anyone's most dangerous list.  Maybe they're factoring in the flesh-eating bacteria a few posts down the list.

Reminds me of Washington, DC's former Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry, who once said, "Outside of the killings, Washington, DC is one of the safest cities in the country."  Sounds dumb but that was said during the height of DC's crack cocaine crisis and that that's where and why the killings were happening.

If Myrtle Beach had an especially violent event week, that would inflate the statistics but it's still hard to see how MB would nudge out Chicago, Detroit, or Baltimore just to name a few.


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## everdave (Aug 27, 2017)

Again I haven't been there in a long time but it is very concerning to see what I have about Myrtle Beach lately


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## Jan M. (Aug 27, 2017)

We used to go to Myrtle Beach in the later part of May and again September or October but haven't been since 2010. Atlantic Beach is the area you want to avoid and particularly avoid Atlantic Beach Bike Week which will be May 25-28, 2018. The Myrtle Beach Fall Bike Week is October 2-8, 2017 and Myrtle Beach Spring Bike Week is May 11-20, 2018. The Myrtle Beach Bike Weeks aren't as bad as the Atlantic Beach Bike Week but some people prefer to avoid all the Bike Weeks. We've been there during both Myrtle Beach and Atlantic Beach Spring Bike Weeks and the traffic issues are much worse during Atlantic Beach Bike Week.


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## tschwa2 (Aug 27, 2017)

While there might be violence during certain event weeks, it's local poverty and pervasive drug use/ drug culture and availability of guns and other weapons that make for dangerous cities.


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## amycurl (Aug 27, 2017)

We did a HGVC preview trip last spring, staying at the Carolinian Beach Resort. My ten-year-old daughter did a Google/Yelp search and found Sole, a *fantastic*  Italian restaurant. It was a close walk from the resort, and she and I walked to/from at dusk/shortly after dark and felt perfectly safe. This was in early May.

I would avoid Biker week and the biggest Spring Break weeks with younger children--for crowds, noise, and traffic, if nothing else. While I may prefer HHI over MB, MB is a few hours closer and makes the most sense for a quick weekend getaway for us. I wouldn't let one incident deter me, even with young children. 

Remember, crime everywhere is *waaaay lower* than it was when I was a child. It's the news cycles that are bigger and longer.


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## dioxide45 (Aug 27, 2017)

tschwa2 said:


> There are tourist areas that are safe and there are areas that are not. I am not sure if Detroit has any tourist areas.


We have been to Detroit many times. We have stayed in the downtown core a few times as well as in the Greektown area. Downtown and Greektown may be the only areas I would consider tourist areas. Other than driving through on the interstates, I probably wouldn't go anywhere else in Detroit. Even getting off I475 during the eclipse on our way through coming back from Canada was a harrowing experience. Some guy was all road rage on us coming off an exit because the truck in front of us wasn't turning right on red. The driver literally chased us until we turned in to a Burger King parking lot, screaming out the window at us. The one time in my life that I was scare someone would possibly pull a gun on us.


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## paxsarah (Aug 27, 2017)

One of my Facebook friends posted a link to an article on this (Branson was also in the top 5, and NMB was also pretty high). The key metric that makes me think this is a pretty useless list is that it's crime _per capita_. So, Myrtle Beach's population is what, less than 50,000 people, but millions of tourists visit there annually. Sure, the number of incidents per permanent resident may be high, but the number of people occupying various accommodations in MB is probably several times the actual population number on any given night.


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## T-Dot-Traveller (Aug 27, 2017)

dioxide45 said:


> We have been to Detroit many times. We have stayed in the downtown core a few times as well as in the Greektown area. Downtown and Greektown may be the only areas I would consider tourist areas. Other than driving through on the interstates, I probably wouldn't go anywhere else in Detroit. Even getting off I475 during the eclipse on our way through coming back from Canada was a harrowing experience. Some guy was all road rage on us coming off an exit because the truck in front of us wasn't turning right on red. The driver literally chased us until we turned in to a Burger King parking lot, screaming out the window at us. The one time in my life that I was scare someone would possibly pull a gun on us.[/QUOTE
> 
> ******
> 
> ...


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## bdh (Aug 27, 2017)

Panina said:


> I go to Myrtle beach often and always feel safe.  I believe that list did injustice to the wonderful Myrtle Beach.
> 
> It's probably like any other tourist places, some areas of the city are safer then others. There are always isolated incidents if you want to find them, anywhere.



100% correct on all accounts.  In reality, in lieu of "_It's probably like any other tourist places_", it should probably be "_It's probably like the town we each live in_"

When people/articles refer to "Myrtle Beach" are they referring to the City of "Myrtle Beach" or are they referring to the "Grand Strand"??   The City of Myrtle Beach is a 13 mile stretch of the 60 mile long Grand Strand.  There are numerous towns in the Grand Strand - while not the most frequented area of the Grand Strand, the City of Myrtle Beach is the name the vast majority of people use when referring to the Grand Strand.  There is about a 1 mile section of Myrtle Beach that can be undesirable at times and has been ground zero for negative events in the past 6 months, unfortunately that 1 mile section is tainting the other 59 miles of the Grand Strand.


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## everdave (Aug 27, 2017)




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## bdh (Aug 28, 2017)

everdave said:


>


This is the video from 2 months ago of a block within the 1 mile stretch of the City of Myrtle Beach that the news/internet has been reacting to.


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## tschwa2 (Aug 28, 2017)

https://omny.fm/shows/panhandle-911/teen-who-was-shot-in-the-head-calls-911-in-destin

And here is one from Destin- one week ago today.  We live in a violent world and things happen.


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## pedro47 (Aug 28, 2017)

MB is #3... What happen to New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, DC, Baltimore, and Miami  ???

These cities listed above are the names of some dangerous cities according to most crime data in the USA..


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## Bucky (Aug 28, 2017)

The report that started all of this was from the Safewise Report. It's almost ridiculous because they are in business to promote and sell home security systems! You think they might be a little biased in giving such weight to property damage than actual violent crime? One of their statements shows just how stupid they are. "_Why isn’t Detroit, Michigan, on the list? While some cities may have a reputation for violent crime, like New Orleans or Detroit, the reality is that you are statistically less likely to experience a crime in major metro areas because the population is larger." Just click on the about tab of their webpage and you will see the six smucks writing these reports and their number of sales from generating this propaganda._


Not even in the top 15 on this list.

http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-dangerous-cities-in-the-united-states.html

Number 17 in this one

https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/blog/top100dangerous


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## paxsarah (Aug 28, 2017)

Again, this list is based on crime PER CAPITA. The list doesn't in any way take into account the massive hotel/rental accommodation capacity for occupancy as compared to the relatively tiny permanent population. If such a list took into account heads in beds on an average night rather than basing it on the number of residents, I'm sure most of the tourist towns like MB and Branson would fall off the list entirely.


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## Bunk (Aug 28, 2017)

paxsarah said:


> Again, this list is based on crime PER CAPITA. The list doesn't in any way take into account the massive hotel/rental accommodation capacity for occupancy as compared to the relatively tiny permanent population. If such a list took into account heads in beds on an average night rather than basing it on the number of residents, I'm sure most of the tourist towns like MB and Branson would fall off the list entirely.



I'm not sure that we should take into account the high tourist population in most cities, unless a large percentage of violent crime is directed against tourists as opposed to local residents.  In most cities, I would expect that most tourists would have no reason to go into the high crime areas and that the violent crime statistics do not generally reflect crimes against tourists.  Taking Chicago as an example, it is my guess that most tourists avoid the areas with high murder/robbery rates and so the victims are predominantly local residents and not tourists.  And I assume that if a high percentage of victims in Myrtle Beach were tourists, we would have heard about it by now.

So it is possible that the survey mostly reflects crimes against residents and that the high amount of tourists is not of major significance..


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## tschwa2 (Aug 28, 2017)

Bunk said:


> I'm not sure that we should take into account the high tourist population in most cities, unless a large percentage of violent crime is directed against tourists as opposed to local residents.  In most cities, I would expect that most tourists would have no reason to go into the high crime areas and that the violent crime statistics do not generally reflect crimes against tourists.  Taking Chicago as an example, it is my guess that most tourists avoid the areas with high murder/robbery rates and so the victims are predominantly local residents and not tourists.  And I assume that if a high percentage of victims in Myrtle Beach were tourists, we would have heard about it by now.
> 
> So it is possible that the survey mostly reflects crimes against residents and that the high amount of tourists is not of major significance..


I think the one that has MB on the list weighs property crimes on the same par as violent crimes although they do list the two categories as separate.  Property crimes would include theft from hotels and automobiles.

*3. Myrtle Beach, SOUTH CAROLINA ↓*
_Previous Rank: 2_

Violent Crimes per 1,000: 15.75
Property Crimes per 1,000: 143.86



*5. Branson, MISSOURI ↑*
_Previous Rank: 10_

Violent Crimes per 1,000: 7.12
Property Crimes per 1,000: 132.76

*23. North Myrtle Beach, SOUTH CAROLINA*
_Previous Rank: Not Ranked_

Violent Crimes per 1,000: 6.12
Property Crimes per 1,000: 90.35


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## paxsarah (Aug 28, 2017)

Bunk said:


> So it is possible that the survey mostly reflects crimes against residents and that the high amount of tourists is not of major significance..



Certainly it's possible that if the population of MB is around 35,000 and there are an additional 35,000 tourists staying overnight tonight, essentially doubling the population, that any crimes that take place will only be against local residents and not visitors. It just doesn't seem likely to me. What I'm really trying to say is that the denominator of the per capita calculation should be the total of residents plus visitors, not just residents.


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## Bucky (Aug 29, 2017)

Bunk said:


> I'm not sure that we should take into account the high tourist population in most cities, unless a large percentage of violent crime is directed against tourists as opposed to local residents.  In most cities, I would expect that most tourists would have no reason to go into the high crime areas and that the violent crime statistics do not generally reflect crimes against tourists.  Taking Chicago as an example, it is my guess that most tourists avoid the areas with high murder/robbery rates and so the victims are predominantly local residents and not tourists.  And I assume that if a high percentage of victims in Myrtle Beach were tourists, we would have heard about it by now.
> 
> So it is possible that the survey mostly reflects crimes against residents and that the high amount of tourists is not of major significance..



When you take a town that swells to well over 5 times it's normal population during at least 4 months out of the year, I would think I might give heavy weight to It causing a lot of the crime.

The facts are you have much more of a chance of having a violent crime committed against you in Orlando than Myrtle Beach. Almost 4 times the amount! While property crime is much higher in Myrtle Beach I do think it caused more by visitors than local residents. I thought this was hilarious because I don't see people diving for the exits in Orlando!

https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/fl/orlando/crime


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## silentg (Aug 29, 2017)

Anything can happen anywhere. Should we all stay home and live in fear? We Re planning a trip to Myrtle Beach in March 2018. Cannot live in fear, but will take the warnings seriously. We live in Central Florida where there have been mass shootings, police officers murdered, road rage, thefts etc.
We try to avoid trouble, but are always aware that things can happen in an instant.
Safe Travels,
Silentg


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## WinniWoman (Aug 30, 2017)

silentg said:


> Anything can happen anywhere. Should we all stay home and live in fear? We Re planning a trip to Myrtle Beach in March 2018. Cannot live in fear, but will take the warnings seriously. We live in Central Florida where there have been mass shootings, police officers murdered, road rage, thefts etc.
> We try to avoid trouble, but are always aware that things can happen in an instant.
> Safe Travels,
> Silentg



It's true. I have to work/drive each day in one of the most dangerous small cities in NY- Newburgh. Lots of drugs, gangs, etc. I hate going there but my job requires it. There have been times I have just driven down a street there only to hear a little while later that a shooting just occurred on the same street.


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