Is it Scary out There?
By Marion Geiger

BOSTON—In relation to the increase of crime rates in the Boston area, students who moved from suburban towns talk about the need for awareness of self in a city where they mostly walk.

There were three shootings in the Boston area Monday April 21, the first one wounding a 13-year-old boy from Dorchester and a later one killing Luis Troncoso of Jamaica Plain. Neither of the victims were far from their homes, leading to increased concerns about safety by residents.

Considering that Boston is a city of hundreds of thousands of students, it is not a surprise why people from even outside of Massachusetts may be concerned about the increased crime.

“Common sense can prevent a lot of crimes,” said Laura Veckereli, 21, from Bedford, New Hampshire. “As a female in a city, I think it’s very important for women to be aware of their surroundings at all times. I also feel that women should be able to defend themselves by taking a self-defense class,” she added.

An Irish-Italian redhead from a small town in New Hampshire, Veckereli points out that since many of the recent attacks on and around the Boston University campus were aimed at women walking alone at night, she thinks women need to become more aware. She continued to say that the benefits of a self-defense class are that “knowing you can do the moves gives you confidence that you’ll be able to react in a high-stress situation.”

Another Boston University student, Ali Donahue, 20 from Cape Elizabeth, Me., also feels the attacks that occurred during Boston University’s spring break, the week of March 9, have made her more cautious, especially because the victims were all women. Donahue said, “before spring break, since I have a lot of friends who live in Allston, I would walk by myself. But now I get a cab, even if it’s only two blocks, because it has been a lot of girls that have been attacked.”

“I don’t feel any more threatened than I felt before,” said Jason Ye, even though he agrees the crime rates have gone up. Ye is a 21-year-old male at Boston University who grew up in central New Jersey. He believes that being close to New York city made him more prepared to live in a city environment, even though he grew up in a safe suburban area.

Laura Wolf, 19, from Poway, a suburb of San Diego, said “I’ve done some stupid things in Boston, at night in bad places. But after being here for a while, I can identify bad surroundings and protect myself from them, now that I’m more familiar.”

Wolf pointed out that in her suburban town of Poway, she mostly got around by driving. Now, in Boston, she does everything on foot, bike or on the public transportation. She said, “being on foot most of the time definitely makes it less safe.”

“I guess I do hold my purse a little closer to me when I’m on the “T,’” admitted Donahue when talking about her transition from suburban Cape Elizabeth to Boston. In response to whether she has ever considered taking a self-defense class, Donahue said her roommate took one that was held in their BU dormitory building and that “she said it was fun, but I guess it would have to be, like, at a convenient time.”

The four students form suburban towns agree that people need to be aware and have taken their own precautions at times, but they still have a general feeling of safety and still walk freely at night time.