Is Pittsburg Safer than Concord?
Categories: City of Concord Headlines
Written By: Mayor Concord California
I was drinking my morning coffee and reading through my other local blogs when I saw a new post from Claycord saying the Pittsburg is better than Concord. This was a statement by the Mayor of Pittsburg Nancy Parent. Nancy Parent says that Pittsburg is closer to Walnut Creek than it is Concord regarding crime.
At first I was thinking “WTF!”, how can the Mayor of Pittsburg begin to say they have less crime than Concord. I have lived here my entire life and Pittsburg has ALWAYS been known as a city stuck with crime issues.So I figured I would look at the data and see what the deal is.
Lets look at some crime data about Crime in Pittsburg.
Lets look at Concord Crime Data
So what does this mean. By looking at the data, I have a higher chance of being murdered in Pittsburg but my house has less of a chance of being burglarized. Then again, Concord has an higher violent crime number according to aggravated assaults and robberies. Should I be concerned?
According to the research there were 107 registered sex offenders living in Pittsburg, California in early 2007. The ratio of number of residents in Pittsburg to the number of sex offenders is 584 to 1.
According to the research there were 140 registered sex offenders living in Concord, California in early 2007. The ratio of number of residents in Concord to the number of sex offenders is 863 to 1.
No. I feel MUCH safer in Concord than I would in Pittsburg. Concord has never been investigated for shady police officers. Maybe this data is bogus. Pittsburg was being investigated for bad police reporting a few years ago.
Stung by allegations that the blame for two officers’ faulty arrest reports may go further up the chain of command, Pittsburg Police Chief Aaron Baker said Thursday his department has nothing to hide and welcomes an outside review.
Maybe the numbers are still being fudged. I can’t imagine Pittsburg being a safe place to live but the numbers make it seem that way.
I tried looking for some positive information on Pitsburg and I couldn’t find any. I did find some raving reviews of their city hotels though.
“Crime infested hellhole.”
“great motel if you’re looking for drugs”
I should have known with the gaurd house at the entrance! The room was OK, but with the yelling & the police cars in the parking lot, it was an adventure I would not choose to have again.
Sounds like out of towners feel the same way about Pittsburg as I do.
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December 8th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Great data points. I never would have thought Pitt was safer than Concord. In fact even with those numbers, I feel safer in Concord than in Pittsburg. Good to see that you linked back to Claycord too. I think he will appreciate it.
Pittsburg is filled with trash and crime. I avoid that city like the plague. Concord may have higher rankings but we are a bigger city and explain to me why Pitt has more gang violence. Thats where safety becomes the issue. A lot of the crime in Concord happens by people from outside the city. All the thugs from Pitt and Richmond come here to steal and rob.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
It’s about time Concord gets put in it’s place. Pittsburg may have its problems but Concord is much worse. Just because you feel safer doesn’t mean you are. I’ve liven in Pittsburg for 20 years and yes it has problems but I don’t walk around afraid. By these stats, I would be more concerned walking around Concord.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Pittsburg used to be on the black list for help by the feds. They had too much corruption I think. Maybe they are turning things around now with the new mayor. Too bad Pittsburg will always be known as a thug town and nothing more regardless of what people say. It’s like saying Oakland has lower crime than some other city. Everyone knows better.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
This is why I love blogs and not the news. This never would make it on the contra costa times but the blogs get into the details.
Pittsburg has a bad reputation and they deserve it. Maybe they are turing around but its only a matter of time that they go back into the can. Just wait, next years numbers are going to be a lot worse with the economy shot.
December 8th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
What is there to steal in Pittsburg? Of course we come to concord to rob and burglarize. Your police let us get away with too much. I wouldnt think of getting caught in Pittsburg by the police, they dont mess around. CPD is slow and very easy going. As long as we can get away with it, we will keep coming to Concord.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Shortly the City of Concord will most likely start to pay off the 2 female officers. Somehow the CPD has managed to keep this story under the rug so to speak. The claims these 2 former cops claim is pretty outrageous, if half of what they say proves true this may be a multi-million dollar settlement. I hope you report on this when it happens, Mr. Mayor.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Great crime stats. Hard to find this info on the internet. Looks like we have half the number of cops we should have in Concord.
December 15th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
What is the source of the statistics and graphs that you posted?
December 15th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
The stats come from city-data.com. Their link is at the bottom of the graph. You didn’t think I made them up did you?
Concord Blogger’s last blog post..East Bay GeoCaching – Treasure hunting for adults
January 29th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Just by reading the news, I’m starting to doubt that Concord is actually safer than Pittsburg. Pittsburg now has a lower crime rate than Pleasant Hill, according to some sources (like Money Magazine’s Best Places to Live ratings). Sure we may have black people in Pittsburg (and Hispanics, and Asians, and Middle Eastern folks) but they won’t rob you.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I personally don’t care about the statistics because that’s like an outsider’s point of view, like a reporter trying to interpret what really goes on in those problem neighborhoods when he’s never actually there to spend the night and take the sh*t. Still, I need some help in knowing, because I’m relocating, if the neighborhood around the willows shopping center is gang-free, or at least if it would be safe to live?
thanks…
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:43 pm
I’ve lived in Pittsburg 24 years. Came from a small Nor-Cal redneck town. Not a single black person. I coached 7 years of baseball, one year of softball. Never had a problem with any of the many different people. An eight year old boy broke into my house years ago and my truck was broke into once. At Concord BART my trucks window was broke and my ignition was punched, for whatever reason it was still there. We all have our problems, Don’t we. I really like living here and when you out of PTown snobs give me crap about it. I say oh yeah it’s terrible. ( Stay away we don’t need people like you here.)
September 24th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I have lived in Pittsburg for 17 years. Although it use to be a bit scary and the commutes to SF use to be horrible it has gotten less scary and the commute much better since the widening of Hwy 4 several years ago.
When we first moved here you could here the gunshots during the night and it was not uncommon to see search lights. Pittsburg was an area with many problems. As a matter of fact our area was pretty much blacklisted by even Pittsburg businesses. Things have changed substantially. We no longer hear gunshots and have heard for quite a while that both Concord and Antioch have higher crime rates. The thing that these two cities, between Pittsburg, don’t have is the stigma of a bad past. And the saddest thing of all is that too many people don’t get out much and tend to rely too much on what they hear and read (which is almost always wrong due to media bias) instead of experiencing life for themselves.
Back in 1982, when I lived in Concord, it was pretty much a racist town. I remember clearly the hanging at the Bart station of some poor soul that fell asleep on Bart only to wake up stuck in the wrong town, Concord. Also, although a few blacks were allowed to attend Concord high the penalty for dating one was the lifting of your grades by the high school by the so-called vice-principals and/or administrative staff. Hopefully, Concord’s bigotry is but a faint memory to all who still live there. After all, we now have a black president.
I moved to Oakland (a condo by the Rose Garden) sometime in 1986 and although it was an easy commute to SF and I have some good memories of Oakland, I literally almost fell over a dead body on my way to work one morning. Did this mean it was a very dangerous area? I suppose it was, but since I was not a lady of the night or looking for drugs I felt pretty safe even after that incident. However, one night I was driving home late at night, returning home from a wedding, when a man followed me off the freeway. He kept pointing to my front tire as he yelled something, which I could not hear until I lowered my window. He said my tire was falling off. I pulled over to the side of the road, on Grand Ave., to see what was wrong with the tire. He was already out of his car and at my door when I was half out of my car. He tried to force himself into my car. During a struggle he punched me in the face and I quickly started the car, stepped on the gas, and sped away, towards my condo. He followed and was behind me as I pulled up to my condo. Instead of opening the security gate leading to the garage, I kept beeping my horn hoping that someone would respond. An annoyed neighbor started yelling for me to stop, then another started yelling at me. The attention caused him to back-out down the street and I waited for a few minutes before rolling down my window and asking someone to call the police. When I went upstairs I called the police myself. None of my neighbors ever came to my door that night or any other night to see if I was ok. When the police arrived they took my statement, but treated me like a criminal in the process. Eventually, I moved out of Oakland. Not because of this incident, but after that experience with the police, I knew that should I ever need the police I would not be able to count on them. Additionally, my neighbors were not people I wanted to live near. Therefore, when the opportunity presented itself it was easy to give up my decent commute. Yep, the OPD and neighbors struck me a second and third time that night and somehow it hurt much worse.
My worse experience while living in Pittsburg is one day, when I first moved here, I was followed by a police officer. He stayed behind me while I stopped at three different stop signs. Since I had made two turns it felt as though he was following me, but I couldn’t be sure. At the third stop sign he turned on his flashing lights so I pulled over and all at once thought that maybe something was wrong with my break lights. When he asked if I knew why he stopped me and I said, “Not really”. He said I had not stopped at any of the stop signs. I was shocked and told him so. He said he would “take it easy” on me and would only show that I didn’t stop at one sign so that the ticket wouldn’t be too expensive. This made me pretty angry so I told him to write whatever ticket he wanted because it was not true and I would be going to court to dispute it. He lied in court and said he was sitting in his patrol car at a specific location when I went past a stop sign, failing to stop. He then said that when he pulled me over I became very belligerent. I told the judge what actually happened (commenting to the judge that I didn’t understand why the officer was lying, but he was) and the judge said he would make his decision and I would be notified by mail of his decision. When the notice came, it simply stated that the fine had been reduced. I chalked the whole thing up to experience and felt a quota needed to be satisfied and although everyone, but me, was in on it I didn’t really expect the judge to take my side what I wanted was to let the cop know that if he decided to stop me again, for any bogus reason, I would see him in court again. That was almost sixteen years ago. I have not had an unpleasant experience since. Also, I have never been robbed nor have I ever felt scared to walk around the neighborhood in the evening. I think, generally speaking, those who act scared are eventually victimized. Whether it’s done by a common thug or a cop the end result is the same. I know there are many good cops out there and I truly appreciate all that they do, but there are some pretty shady cops out there that are not worthy of the badge they wear or the space they occupy near good cops. My only wish is that those bad guys are weeded out early in their careers.
No matter where you live, you need to keep aware of what is going on around you and don’t be afraid to get involved should someone need your assistance. Don’t expect a cop to save you or to even believe you. Be your own hero and you will never go wrong. Finally, just because you think you live in a better location doesn’t mean that you actually do.
Of the three, Concord, Oakland, or Pittsburg, where would I rather live? Pittsburg is my final answer. As I’ve explained, while it isn’t perfect, its better than the others.
January 18th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
I have a drug house on my street in Pittsburg and have reported it several times along with the license plates of many customers over the past year and a half to the Pittsburg police. WHAT A JOKE.
PITTSBURG POLICE ARE WORTHLESS!!!