St. Thomas - Good Diving but Overpriced Ghetto

[Cacia]

Does anyone ever wonder if there are people who are like magnets for problems? I am not referring to anyone posting here, this just popped into my head...

I believe that...

BUT.

Peruse the violent crime stats for the late 80's and I think you will see that murder rate was very high. St Thomas being dangerous is not just a matter of perception, it actually IS.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I spent five full years sailing the islands of the eastern Caribbean on my own boat before choosing St. Thomas as home and a place to raise my family

I always felt pretty safe when I lived on a boat....after my neighbor was killed, I moved onto a boat for awhile.

here's what the Governor has to say....

Governor deJongh said that in the short time he has been governor, minors on St Croix stabbed a citizen to death, a St Thomas high school student was shot on a high school campus, and a police officer was killed in a daylight shooting. He pointed out that many more less publicised crimes had taken place during the same time period.

 

[H2Andy]

Sounds like H2Andy is an expert on island issues as well as everything else that is wrong with the planet Earth.

and my hourly rate reflects that



let's go create a problem, and then run away screaming ... and blame it on somebody else

 

[Cacia]

okay...where?

oh, you're kidding.

 

[drrich2]

I believe earlier in this thread one thing that was mentioned regarding possible causes of negative local reactions generally is the tendency of visibly afluent (compared to the natives) tourists to 'ignore' the locals.

On a honeymoon cruise where we visited Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Anguila, Antigua, St. Lucia & Barbados, on those islands where we went ashore into town areas (St. Thomas, Antigua & St. Lucia) residents tended to try to sell us something. It was really bad in Antigua; too many poor people with too much nearly identical merchandise striving to compete against each other & get that sell. In St. Thomas it was $4 cab rides; you could hardly walk a block without being offered one.

Couple that with the logistics of being a stranger in a strange land, & I'm reminded of the movie Crocodile Dundee, where he walks up a busy New York urban sidewalk trying to verbally greet each person he meets, amidst a sea of people ignoring each other our of necessity.

This may've been a minor point to pick out of this thread, but it's not practical to stop, nod & grunt pleasantly or whatever at everybody we walk by when we travel abroad. I expect people to be at least civil & preferably pleasant in person-to-person interactions, but sometimes reading online I get the sense people expect us to acknowledge random strangers just because they're somewhere close. On a lonely country road, maybe. In a town or city, hardly a chance.

Richard.

 

[Cacia]

the tendency of visibly afluent (compared to the natives) tourists to 'ignore' the locals.

besides folks, most of the crime is on each other. It has nothing to do with "ignoring"

I was looking for the crime stats, they are not easy to find. All I can find is "unusually high crime rate". I wanted to be able to compare it to say, Detroit or Richmond or Harlem for a point of reference.

I guess New Orleans is our new standard...or is it Indianopolis?

 

[H2Andy]

okay...where?

oh, you're kidding.

I guess New Orleans is our new standard...or is it Indianopolis?

New Orleans was 1 in 2004

Baltimore, Detroit, and St. Louis are 1,2, and 3 for 2005

i haven't seen 2006 figures

(in terms of homicide rates)

 

[Rickg]

I don't recall trying to identify the problem or socio/economic issues. In fact, as I said, I really don't give a rat's A S S what their problem is. I'm just hopeful that folks who read this thread will be better advised than I prior to wasting their good dough on a dive trip to St Thomas. There are hundreds of other dive destinations with identical demographics which are much better in every conceivable way!!!!!

Now I know why American had such a cheap fare in the middle of Spring Break to St. Thomas....it S U C K S!!!

ScubaSam99,

Well said! Personally I like traveling to Indonesia and Malaysia for my dive trips.

Rickg

 

[Boat Diver]

Peruse the violent crime stats for the late 80's and I think you will see that murder rate was very high. St Thomas being dangerous is not just a matter of perception, it actually IS.
Catherine, Ever go to downtown Honolulu? I grew up surfing in So Cal and my cousins were born, raised and schooled in Hana as well as being half Hawaiian and fluent in Pidgeon. I have never felt half the animosity in St. Thomas as I did as a Haole surfer in Hawaii, even with my local cousins. And not just while surfing, on land as well. Also I feel it's not fair to lump St. Croix and St. Thomas crime problems together,as you now the only similarity they have is in both being US Virgin Islands. Cruise ships have not called on St. Croix for about four years due to crime problems against their passengers. And I can guarantee you that if crime against tourists in St.Thomas was a problem the cruise lines would skip St.Thomas as well. I have lived on land for five years and feel much safer in St. Thomas than on some other islands in the Eastern Caribbean. No, St. Thomas is not perfect but it's home to some very nice people.

 

[jaybombs25]

ok what I want to know is why you guys keep arguing about this when neither of u obviously live anywhere in the caribbean.. How can you make assumptions about West Indians.. and why the heck do you think it necessary to refer to us as "islanders" or "native".. ever think that these may be some reasons why a lot of people in the caribbean do not like know it all Americans. We are not in the least bit race biased,, we have no problem with the British they are friendly... BUT AMERICANS act like they own the island and they know evereything.. ( i'm refering to some earlier posts too)... and you reffering to an entire island as a "ghetto" is nothing but ignorant and repulsive grow up

 

[Cacia]

well, I did live there for eight years, and he grew up here...so I enjoyed hearing his observations. It's true, I am gated off on Oahu and don't really spend much time in Honolulu. But my children do, and I never hear any problems. One is 17 and works, surfs, and the other goes to a public high school now. lol...we keep waiting for him to get the "kill haole day" treatment, but so far, so good.

yes, surfing is territorial, but Malibu is a bunch of white guys for the most part all acting pretty aggro too.

about this when neither of u obviously live anywhere in the caribbean..

As far as St Croix goes, when I was there the crime WAS worse than St Thomas I thought, but when I researched the crime stats recently, for this thread, I am seeing the opposite.

I can't find any good numbers...

Yea, lots of great people there, I found many or I wouldn't have been happy for eight years. I might have a phobia about machete deaths too.