BEST ANSWER
To answer your questions slightly and not to be putting down people in geneal, no one HERE is going to tell you what areas are safe to walk or if they are noisy or congested. No place is safe even if you lived next door to the police station. All you have to do is drive around and notice if there's a lower standard of living by types of cars and homes and who's walking the streets too late at night. Ask people you know around you or at work about crime they've heard of or known. You wouldn't find me down in 5 Points or the Vista as these are places where certain groups want to party. Music would be loud and the party crowd would congregate outside on the streets late at night unless you are into that as a couple.
Your area is a nice one depending upon where in 29205 you are in. In today's world, this isn't Uncle Andy and Aunt Bee nor Leave It to Beaver neighborhoods anymore. Crime is everywhere as well as noise and congestion close to town. I've seen upscale homes built right next to crime areas which are quite expensive homes filled up with out of state people who don't know the neighborhoods. College towns are the same way being noisy. I have an e-mail alert sent to me everytime a sex offender moves into a neighborhood in Lexington and Richland County. Ask your local police department about statistics.
My advice is to keep doors locked in your home as well as windows on the first floor or by a porch near any window upstairs; keep car windows and doors locked and closed day and night. Don't take the same way home all the time for people to learn your habits as to when you are or aren't home. Use timers for rooms with lights with varing times. Make sure you are not followed home. Don't become paranoid, just vary your routines. Read crime reports in the newspaper certain days of the week. Be watchful of people hanging around that seem suspicious looking meaning go by your gut feeling. I've known areas where women were raped and/or killed in the worst of looking neighborhoods and the higher wealthier areas. Malls are a place I would want someone with me day or night and not shut items bought in the car visible or in the trunk going back to shop. Take a night ride with the police. Either Richland or Lexington Counties have the programs to take for free.
I and my neighbors know what it is like to have cars broken into and stolen night and daylight.. We didn't know a crime area was across the bridge from our near up-scale condo. We had a college girl living near the bottom of the condos first floor next to the river who left her bedroom window open; she almost died. We had a man hiding behind the beautiful bushes that get cut way down and thinned out since that. The 3 news staions will tell you alot as well. I keep the Columbia streets book map near me when streets are mentioned where crime happened or happens in an area alot. Desperate times call for desprate measures. Karate comes in real handy for guys and ladies plus it firms one up with loss of weight and a couples way to practice in a dojo and at home and do something together.
We love Columbia, but like anywhere, there is crime. Noise and congestion are closer to shopping, colleges, bar/restaurant areas congregated together, trains in town with long waits, and shopping centers with vehicles; it's best to know when these traffic patterns occur. I know when the 3 after work rush hours are. I've an idea about trains schedules and roads to take to avoid them. I pay attention to home games or special things are in town when traffic will be heaviest to altar my activities or change routes. Much of this is observation and common sense that comes with time and asking the right people.
Mon Oct 19 2009, 20:17
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