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Buffalo: Danger zone

Photo courtesy of Flickr / Rich-Mitchell

blog by S.J. Velasquez • October 20, 2012 @ 8:00am

Forbes’ annual list of the country’s most dangerous cities hits a little too close to home this year.

In the list released Thursday, Forbes places Buffalo at the No. 10 spot, preceded by the following cities:

9. Cleveland, Ohio
8. Stockton, California
7. Baltimore, Maryland
6. Atlanta, Georgia
5. Birmingham, Alabama
4. Memphis, Tennessee
3. Oakland, California
2. St. Louis, Missouri
1. Detroit, Michigan

To come up with the list, Forbes collected the names of cities with populations of 200,000 or more. Using the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports database, data collectors compared cities’ violent crime numbers—which, the Forbes article’s author admitted unfairly favor more sprawling cities; older cities ended up with more concentrated crime within smaller city limits.

Coincidentally, the Buffalo-Niagara region was named one of America’s safest places by State Farmers Insurance and Sperling’s Best Places in December 2011. Creators of this list took into consideration crime, air quality, terrorist threats, environmental hazards, life expectancy, weather and other factors.

Photo courtesy of Flickr / Rich-Mitchell.

TAGGED: buffalo detroit, crime, forbes, most dangerous cities, safest cities