Crime rating inaccurate
-
3/22/2008
I am distraught that you would rate Bowie with a number 8. truly this is offensive to the 55,000 residents of this city. We are the fourth largest city in Maryland and we deserve better. That number puts us up there with truly dangerous places such as parts of Washington DC or Baltimore which are poverty stricken, unemployed, apartment filled drug infested areas. That couldn't be further from the truth. It is primarily a comfortable and safe city with dozens of neighborhoods.Apartment complexes re few and far between and quite posh and expensive. We have an incredible housing stock reaching into the high 900,000's. Currently our foreclosure rate is relatively low as compared to other suburban areas such as those in Virginia (Manassass, Woodbridge etc.). We have every house of worship possible, fabulous shopping, restaurant choices, a University, a carefully run, fiscally responsible city government. We have our own newspaper! We have a police force, our own trash collection and recycling services, and a host of great elementary schools and a well respected high school. I have lived in the city of Bowie since 1993. We have a number of incidents of theft from cars usually along populated thoroughfares or in shopping cneters parking lots. There was one murder in 2007 but fatalities from car accidents occur more often. There are so many large stores there is shoplifting, but stores have theft abaitment programs in place. Frequently these folks are apprehended. We have a bunch of banks, too many, so thieves have been coming here to rob banks a few times. Yes, it is not all rosy here, even though personally I have never seen or had happen in my neighborhood any crime. Of the three zip codes: 20716,20715, 20720 we have some 55,000 people. 20716 may have lost a few people but the plethora of new housing developments (incorporated into Bowie) offers luxury and elegance attracting people away from this zip code into another.But now that the housing market has been hit so hard from the bankruptcy of mortgage companies and the ill effects of the sub prime lending the mansions are still going up but at a much lower pace. Houses sit on the market for months and buyers have diminished to hundreds from thousands only a year to a year and a half ago.
sarah | Bowie, MD