Congrats! You Are Less Likely To Die Than You Were A Year Ago
Unless you're nine years old, it's hard to be murdered in New York City. The city released its 2004 crime index numbers today, and crime is down 4 percent from last year. According to the city, New York ranks 221st out of 240 cities nationwide in the crime index. Just to taunt, they point out that the murder rate of 7 per 100,000 people is substantially better than Los Angeles (13.5), Chicago (14.5), Philadelphia (22.1) and Detroit (41.5; apparently in Detroit, they just pop people right at the border). This is all fine and good, of course, because dying is not fun, particularly when it ends with someone holding your wallet and dragging you into an alley. On the other hand, we can't help but think that the lack of death is the reason our rent keeps going up. —WL
