St. Croix crime...the truth

Haha yea I tried! I only WISH I had the accent. Frenchie or local I love it and hopefully as the years pass some will rub off on me.

Luckily I think I'm aight with the smith bay posse too. Know quite a few of the guys there who so graciously offer me weed every time I'm there lol despite me saying no thinks everytime. I'm there about 3 days a week and bring the SUPER nice lady in the snorkeling rental booth my bacon wrapped pineapple. That ALWAYS makes fast friends. 😉

Hi all,

Coming to STX soon and with great anticipation. The plan is to drive all over the island, round and round, looking at safe neighborhoods, and at homes for sale. We are retirees. We have a week and a rental car. We will be obvious tourists. Pale Northerners, naïve and trusting, totally unlikely to recognize trouble until it's too late.

Can anyone tell me what streets and what areas to steer away from? Recent, notorious areas? Generalize, by all means. I am looking for rules of thumb. Where would you ask your daughter to stay away from? Where would you warn her away from more sternly? Where do the police fear to go alone? Where are the defended drug territories? Where are areas to go to get car jacked in the day time? Daytime muggings? Where is it less safe to have daytime employment? Would you live in a gated community if it is within your means?

I recognize the importance of staying out of back alleys, and bars at night, and anywhere secluded after dark, but restaurants for late dinners? Neighborhoods of homes with windows and doors locked at night? Are security bars on windows a tip off?

Any neighborhood churches you know off that are welcoming strangers Sunday morning? We hope to join in.

What's the talk of a racist comment by a senator? Was he/she a USVI local? How did the community react to that?

Thanks all.

I have lived all over the US. Newark, Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Detroit and Memphis. This is the first place that I have ever lived where I have personally known 4 people who were murdered, none solved, all in the last 5 years. I have never personally known anyone who was murdered before moving to STX.

This past weekend was the one year anniversary of an armed home invasion at our house. Three armed men broke into our house at about 1:00 am and held us at gunpoint for over 2 hours. My wife called 911 before they found her and the police killed 2 two and wounded the third on our driveway.

STX is an exciting place to live.

Hmmmm...interesting...

I think it is important to know that there are close to 50,000 people living on St. Croix, most of whom do not read this message board and simply go about their lives.

I have been everywhere on St. Croix and have never felt unsafe, but I do agree that anything can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere...that's life.

I feel much safer on St. Croix than I do in Florida, and can't wait to get back home. Anybody who says St. Croix has more crime than Florida is stark, raving mad. You have no idea. At least on St. Croix you won't get shot by a road-rager because you stopped to chat with your friend in the next lane LOL. I have seen comments about 'no racism on St. Croix', but it does exist, however subtle. It's more like it is tempered due to fear of being out-numbered.

Although the recent spate of gang related shootings gave us all pause to think and look around us, I still have never felt personally in danger on STX. I, too, have known people who were robbed, invaded and murdered, but the above statement still holds.

I have lived here for 25 years, and I have never been disrespected or chupped, let alone mugged or robbed. In the daytime I drive everywhere, including though housing projects and back streets, and walk anywhere. I rarely drive at night, but mostly because of my eyesight.

I have never lived in a gated community and dislike the concept. I have lived on an isolated mountain top and on a remote country road, but now in a centrally located community because of convenience, and nowhere did I feel threatened.

Crime is, no doubt, an issue, but certainly not the focus of my life.

I am not aware of any racist statements by a senator, other than former senator Bryant 20 years ago. He is probably still making them, but not making the news.

what racist comment by a senator-the one where he said the west end is full of KKK who eat steak and lobster every night?

i think when you drive around you will get an idea of what to avoid and what not to avoid.
we do not have neighborhoods like stateside. there are a couple of gated communities. and condos.

how old is your daughter? that would determine where to let her go but also remember the drinking age is 18.

the murder rate is high here. most of it is gang related-does not negate it.

Can anyone tell me what streets and what areas to steer away from?......

Mont Bijou
Cotton Valley
South West side of downtown Christiansted
North east side of Golden Rock and up to the Water Gut area.
North side of Orange Grove

I do not have enough experience at the west end.

Then again, common sense should prevail because these are general areas. A former co-worker got mugged for trying to be a gigolo, picked up a couple of girls he just met at Plaza Xtra, and he accepted to give'em a ride to Frederiksted. The girls notified their "buddies" and my friend was almost ambushed. This happened a Saturday during the mid-afternoon... Stupid is as stupid does...

Nothing has ever happened to me since I got here in August 28th 2006.

We are retirees.

The main concern I would have coming here as a retiree is medical care. Although Medicare is quite widely accepted here, the ACA doesn't apply to the territory and there isn't the access to the sort of medical care you might be either accustomed to or need. I realize retirees come in all ages but it's something to look into if applicable.

Cotton Valley? I'm surprised

Cotton Valley is one of the nicer neighborhoods, with great folks, one of best views of Buck Island, one of the best restaurants/bars on the east end, has its own firehouse and is frequented by the likes of Martha Stewart and Joe Biden.

Cotton Valley is one of the nicer neighborhoods, with great folks, one of best views of Buck Island, one of the best restaurants/bars on the east end, has its own firehouse and is frequented by the likes of Martha Stewart and Joe Biden.

That's why I'm surprised rowdy put it on the "stay away from" list.

Please don't flame each other. PM me with your answer. Others will invariably take exception to something. A sincere thanks.

Please don't flame each other. PM me with your answer. Others will invariably take exception to something. A sincere thanks.

No, not flaming at all - I'm really just asking residents for their thoughts as I've always thought of Cotton Valley as a really upscale, safe part of the island.

COTTON VALLEY has always been known as safe. disagreeing is not flaming nor is asking a question.

Please don't flame each other. PM me with your answer. Others will invariably take exception to something. A sincere thanks.

It was an honest mistake. I started a list of Safe Places, then began to delete it an put the "unsafe" places instead. Cotton Valley got left behind and I didn't notice it.

I can accept I made a mistake.

Yes, Cotton Valley is safe.

No worries Rowdy,
I think we're all guilty of "Premature Post Message Syndrome" (PPMS).
Honestly, who has the time for prof reading everything they post?
Ha!

Well I have a habit of typing fast and leaving "not" out of the sentence. You can imagine what that does to the point. At least now I can go back to Cotton Valley:D

lol

Honestly, who has the time for prof reading everything they post?
Ha!

Yep, see what you mean. 😀

I think it is very important to prof read before posting. What if somebody interested
in buying a place in Cotton Valley didn't read the correction that it is safe.in additional post?
The unsafe list was posted on October 13th and corrected on October 14th.

I think it is very important to prof read before posting. What if somebody interested
in buying a place in Cotton Valley didn't read the correction that it is safe.in additional post?
The unsafe list was posted on October 13th and corrected on October 14th.

Oh please. Spare me. That is the biggest problem in these boards. Too many people concentrating on the little black spot on the huge white clean sheet, instead of actually taking time to answer the OP. I already apologized and I believe I wrote a reasonable explanation on what led to the mistake. WHAT else do you want? I constantly read mistakes here, newspaper, magazines, store signs, etc. and I don't make fuzz about it. Heck, even the spell check is known to lead to mistakes.

And thanks to all that caught my honest to God error and took the time to correct me.

@Singlefin (tu)

I think it is very important to prof read before posting.

Yes, that university prof who admonished that you prof read your submission was on the ball ...

LOL!

Jahrusty- I too live in Florida and know someone who was car jacked at gun point and had multiple stitches in her head from being hit with the gun, another with a home invasion at gun point and another with a near home invasion, criminals ran when her alarm went off. Another incident where a friend's son was nearly beaten to death in a road rage accident. And this isn't in Miami. This is the suburbs of Tampa/Tampa. So, while I too have inquired about the safer and not so safe areas of STX, I'll want to be knowledgable about that, but not scared off, as anything could happen to me here.

St. Croix is extremely unsafe, but if you're street-smart, you can avoid a great deal of danger. Too many of my friends have died here for me to refer to this place as safe. But with extra precaution, you will be fine!

Too many of my friends have died here for me to refer to this place as safe. !

There's a whole generation of young people such as yourself living here who don't share that sort of loss so one has to take into consideration and wonder about the company you keep. Run with a posse and of course the numbers rise. If your definition of "friend" extends to people you just happen to know vaguely or know of distantly through school and small community life in general then that's a whole 'nother take.