When I mention to anyone in Austin that we live near Rundberg and Lamar, jaws drop and people express horror, dismay, and pity. Poor us, living in a war zone! “How can you stand to live there?! Aren’t you scare?!” No. We aren’t. Our neighborhood crime statistics are no more horrifying than any other neighborhood … even the wealthy ones. There are, in fact, much worse places to live, as far as crime goes, and they aren’t all in the inner city. Our neighborhood has gotten a bad rap, and it’s the news media that has done it.

For example, a woman was found dead in her truck Wednesday morning. Killed by someone in some way they aren’t revealing. I saw it on the local TV news (several channels), I heard about it on the local radio (several channels), and I read about it in the newspaper. Every last report, aside from a few that actually mentioned the street name and nothing else, reported it as being near Rundberg and Lamar. In actuality, I would describe the location as being near Lamar and 183. Sure, that’s just down the road from us, but it’s a whole different world … an entirely different neighborhood.

I’ve been noticing a trend lately to associate any crime that happens in some huge circle, with Lamar and Rundberg at the center, as happening in the Lamar and Rundberg area. It is beginning to piss me off. Stop equating everything that happens in North Austin with my neighborhood and its major intersection!!! I did the research on crime in Austin when we started looking for a house to buy. We were living in a neighborhood where I was often scared to walk out my front door at night due to the crime and gang activity, and I wanted to be certain we wouldn’t be moving from one war zone to another. I wanted to feel safe, and there was a time when I could have spouted off detailed crime statistics for just about every neighborhood in Austin proper. What I found during my research was that the area immediately around Lamar and Rundberg was less crime-ridden than the one we were living in and was at least on par with most of Austin proper. It was not and is not a war zone.

This area has exactly three crime issues which statistically rank slightly higher (and I do mean slightly higher) than other parts of Austin: prostitutes, drug dealers (who also tend to be the pimps), and the occasional vehicle break-in (caused, no doubt, by druggies needing money for the dealers). Certainly, there are the occasional serious crimes, but they are as few and far between as they are anywhere else in this town … or any other. So why the bad rap for Lamar and Rundberg? Why do we get fingered for any crime that happens in North Austin? It’s maddening.

I am not afraid to leave my house at any hour of the day or night. I am not afraid to be out and about in this area at any hour of the day or night. I have never once felt afraid of my surroundings, and it isn’t because I am blind to danger or foolish enough to believe it can’t happen to me. Cities are dangerous places, and I am well aware that bad things can happen to me at the hands of others. I did not feel this sense of security in our old neighborhood. I was constantly on edge, looking over my shoulder, and expecting something awful to happen to me or someone I cared about. And what neighborhood was that? 78704, which was becoming so trendy while we were house hunting we couldn’t afford to buy a house there. Now it’s one of the must-be-living-in trendy hipster zip codes, and no normal person can afford to live there. And the crime in that neighborhood? Just as high as it’s ever been, yet it’s Lamar and Rundberg that’s always considered the city’s war zone and the most horrible place a person could possibly choose to live.

Well … kiss my ass.