November 22, 2007

StreetTalk

by Carol Rosen

According to an outfit called CQ Press, San Jose has lost its safest big U.S. city title for the first time in six years. It is now the third safest city behind Hono-lulu and El Paso. How safe does this make you feel?
(Asked at the Almaden Center parking lot)

“It’s still pretty safe here. There’s no place that is totally safe, but San Jose is a pretty safe place to live.”

Marilyn Pekol
Almaden
Registered nurse


“Almaden is really safe. It doesn’t feel like it’s part of the areas in San Jose that have crime. Almaden seems like a little city unto itself. It’s the first place I’ve lived in the Bay Area where I haven’t been robbed or held up. I’ve also lived in Berkeley and Palo Alto.”

Cynthia Towle, 51
San Jose
Homemaker/community volunteer


“I feel safer here now than anywhere else I’ve ever lived. That’s why we moved here with the kids because we feel safe here; we could have moved anywhere. We’ve never had a break in.”

Michael Boyd, 44
Almaden
Owner, Boyd’s Tree Service


“It makes me feel a little less safe and I wonder what is going on with the community and the police that made us [San Jose] go from number one to number three.”

Debra Delizonna, 39
Almaden
Christian Counseling Center counselor


“I guess it makes me feel a little less safe, but it’s still pretty high up there. Number three is still pretty good."

Puja Batra, 32
Almaden
Lawyer


“Doesn’t make me feel safer or less safe.”

Richard Royal, 77
Almaden
Retired


"I think it says that we aren’t safe enough and I’d like to see more police on the streets. We never had crime here [in Almaden] until the last couple of years when there has been two break-ins and a car stolen from our street of 13 homes. Almaden is a great community, but we need more police out here."

Pam Wass, 50-plus
Almaden
Educational therapist


“It doesn’t affect my feelings. I don’t feel less safe because of that statistic. I don’t know how they arrived at that rate. It’s just a generality. I’m not really worried about it because it’s generalized statistics from one company. I know the city is trying to put more police on the streets. Almaden is safer than downtown San Jose.”

Kim Brock, 40ish
Almaden
Homemaker