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by Karen McConnaughey

Bad news in Mexico. The media finally got to me…after seven years of living in this wonderful country, surrounded by loving and generous people, and five round trips to the border, I was afraid. Bill and I were driving to Kansas City in October to attend a wedding. Bill decided he wanted to drive, which I was happy about, because it meant more shopping!

Then I started over-working my brain and becoming quite obsessed with the news stories…maybe we should take the Honda and not the Volvo…the Volvo might be a more attractive prize if someone decided to hijack us. Then I began getting emails from friends and family wondering about “our” plight in Mexico and worried about our driving across the border. We also heard from an alumna who decided to cancel her vacation and lose a deposit because her friends had convinced her it wasn’t safe to drive. Even as I type those words, I can feel my heart beating a little faster!

With the constant, daily barrage from the American media, how could any of us, north OR south of the border, feel any differently? Media coverage can degrade a country's image by using selective news without context. The media loves to use Mexico as an example of all things bad. I was even seeking counsel from friends here and trying to get a prescription for Valium just to calm myself down. That’s how silly I got. Bill was getting quite exasperated with me and didn’t understand my attitude one little bit.

The night before we were to leave, I went to dinner with a few friends in the community. For some reason we got to talking about Mexican friends and some of the wonderful things that had happened to us lately. As we talked, I felt my anxiety receding. I realized crime is everywhere and that we shouldn’t succumb to the fear that is becoming pervasive in our society, no matter which side of the border you live on.

A case in point is what I found out when we got to Kansas City. About a week and a half into our visit, I was told that Kansas City was listed as one of the top five crime cities in the United States! What? My home town? The place I love? The city I’ve been driving all over the last 10 days…even in the urban areas? I was seriously shocked and dismayed and did the research…it was published in Forbes, and here are some excerpts:

The Country’s Most Dangerous Cities

Oct. 12 2010 -By FRANCESCA LEVY

The cities on this list are the riskiest places to live in the country, but only by certain measures. The Federal Bureau of Investigation provides detailed crime statistics every year, but warns against creating rankings solely based on their data, since they are individually reported by agencies and reflect vastly different socioeconomic circumstances. By combining the data with traffic fatalities we feel our list offers a proxy for safety. But determining how safe you’ll really be in a city requires a more nuanced look than any ranking can provide.

“There are zones in safe cities that are way off the chart for crime rates, but when you average it across all of the city, it doesn’t look so bad,” says Bruce McIndoe, president of Maryland-Based iJet Intelligent Risk Systems, a risk-assessment firm. “When people move into cities, they should be finding out the lay of local land. A homeowner would want to do due diligence and look at it neighborhood by neighborhood – not just by city.”

Caveats aside, the top ten cities on our “most dangerous” list have, at the very least, some problems to sort out. We used FBI data on the number of violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2009, and Department of Transportation data on the number of traffic fatalities per 100,000 residents in 2008 (the most recent available). We ranked all cities with a population above 250,000 for which we had complete data. A lack of data prevented us from including Chicago, Las Vegas and Virginia Beach, Va. in the rankings.

Memphis, Tenn., where gang crime has ramped up in recent years, takes the dubious honor of first place. The city also has one of the worst driving fatality records of any city we ranked, with fifteen traffic fatalities for every 100,000 people in 2008. Missouri is a comparatively dangerous state – two of its cities, St. Louis and Kansas City, come in at numbers two and three, respectively. This list will also do little to dispel the stereotypes of fourth-ranked Detroit, Mi. as an altogether scary place.

…the ten most dangerous cities are below.

The USA’s Most Dangerous Cities

1. Memphis, Tenn.
2. St. Louis, Mo.
3. Kansas City, Mo.
4. Detroit, Mi.
5. Miami, Fla.
6. Tulsa, Okla.
7. Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.
8. Indianapolis, Ind.
9. Oklahoma City, Okla.
10. Stockton, Calif.

Does this mean I’m going to stop going back to Kansas City? Of course not. Does this mean I will continue to be alert and attentive no matter where I am…Kansas City or Mexico? Yes, of course! I don’t leave my brains at the border whether I’m traveling north or south.

Yes, Mexico has its problems. And, some of the stories are quite shocking. However, while I was in Kansas City reading the local newspaper every morning, I was stunned to hear about all the crime that was occurring on a daily basis. I realized living in Lake Chapala had somehow insulated me from what’s been going on in the United States, even in my own home town. It was upsetting to read the daily news reports, especially when I found I had a one in 68 chance of becoming a victim in my home town!

Tourism plays a major role in the economy of Mexico and in many cities in the United States and Canada. Building a positive reputation and image towards the foreign tourism market takes hard work and time. But ruining it could happen in a single second or a single article. Bad news after bad news has been featured in various news articles and on TV programs, which has frightened potential tourists to Mexico, and the results are devastating in so many ways.

Bill and I had a wonderful time traveling in Mexico. Since we moved here seven years ago, there are many new roads and lots of new signs…really important for Bill and me. We didn’t get lost once…and we only got stopped once by a policeman. He wanted to check our car registration. It was in with all our important vehicle papers in the glove compartment. Bill was smiling, calm, collected…he knew he hadn’t done anything wrong, i.e., he wasn’t speeding, hadn’t run a red light, etc. The policeman went back to his car and spoke on the radio for about a minute. When he came back, he handed Bill our papers, shook his hand and wished us Buen Viaje (basically “have a good trip”). Everybody was smiling at the end of this encounter. Being stopped doesn’t have to be scary…just remain calm and stay nice.

We had to stop in Soriana’s in the border town of Piedras Negras, because Bill realized that he hadn’t bought enough of one of his prescription medications. The Soriana’s was huge…I felt like a kid in a candy store! When Bill got to the check-out, here we were gringos in a town we didn’t know, but at least a store we were familiar with. As he checked out, the cashier reminded him that if he didn’t use his electronic points (one of our favorite things about Soriana’s), he would lose them at the end of October! He got his medication practically free! That’s the kind of help we always receive when we travel across Mexico. We’ve been led to our hotel by a kind stranger when we got lost in Saltillo on our first trip back. He drove six miles out of his way to make sure we knew where we were going…right to the front door of the Holiday Inn in Zona Centro! More than once, we’ve had cashiers stop us from paying them too much money, and when we’ve had trouble with the language, there was always someone who would volunteer to help. I think I’ve received more smiles from strangers in Mexico than I ever did traveling across the United States.

There are also more hotels, gas stations and actual rest stops with clean bathrooms and snacks along the route now…that was a welcome surprise from even our last road trip in January. I have a photo-journal with the directions from Piedras Negras to Saltillo and then Saltillo to Lake Chapala…since the Laredo route connects in Saltillo. I felt as if I were writing a master’s thesis on how to get to Lake Chapala! That will be published in the December newsletter, but if you need them within the next week or so, let me know.

I’m not naïve…I do realize there are problems in Mexico at the border…just like there are problems in Kansas City, but I sincerely believe that Mexico is safe for travelers. Please come visit us and see for yourselves…Lake Chapala is a beautiful, safe area that will make you forget about all that horrible crime north of the border! Buen Viaje, mis amigos!

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