Iunno. DC was the murder cap back in the day. I'm from SF and you don't even see black people unless you go deep into the hood in Hunter's Point, Sunnydale, Fillmoe, pockets of downtown and where I'm from in Lakeview. SF had a higher murder rate than Oakland for blacks about ten years ago and many years throughout the 90's.
S.F. more deadly than Oakland for blacks?
The difference is that hella killings where I'm from stem from funk that dates back to 20+ years (i.e. Sunnydale vs. Lakeview). People don't even know why they hate the other side so much. And no, the Bay Area is about mobbin not Bloods and Crips or banging like L.A. It seems most killings in Baltimore stem from the dope game.
But big cities on the East Coast are grimier as a whole, in my opinion. The overall murder rates in East Coast cities are higher (i.e. Baltimore, DC, Philly, Newark, Camden), but there are also less poor blacks in most Cali cities. Baltimore and Philly both have endless blocks of abandoned rowhomes. You only see that shyt in SF if you go deep into the projects in HP and Sunnydale. Despite Oakland's grimey reputation, houses there are actually worth something and you don't see massive blight and property devaluation like you have back East. You can't even buy a house for less than $100K in Deep East Oakland. Baltimore is the heroin capital for God's sake. Is that not a culture of death?
White flight hit East Coast cities like Baltimore much harder than most cities.
In some ways, Cali is more wild. You can get murked driving on the damn freeway in Cali. That's how Killa Keise from my old hood on Randolph St. in SF got killed back in 2011. Sometimes, you never know who's gonna pull up next to you at a stoplight in Cali. Like Spice 1 said "Killa Cali is the state for the driveby".
Bay Area Rapper Killa Keise Shot & Killed On Interstate 80 in Vallejo
All in all, the hood is the hood everywhere you go. When I was a kid living in Cali, I never thought "Oh, wow, I live in Cali and the weather is so nice and the scenery is so beautiful" fukk no, I lived in the hood and knew that hella shyt goes down on the sidewalks outside of my front window.
Just like how folks in the hood in DC don't care that they live down the street from the Whitehouse, people in the hood in the Bay don't care that they live down the street from the Golden Gate bridge.
does that even mean?
Crime is declining rapidly in SF because of gentrification. I heard that gang shyt in L.A. ain't nowhere as serious as it used to be. It varies from city to city though. DC and NYC are also hella safer than they were in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's.
