Analysis of neighborhoods takes closer look at crime

Assault, burglary and drug crimes combined. Crime rates per 1,000 residents:

AVERAGE for all neighborhoods: 12.4

Neighborhood — Crime rate

Airport Green — 6.8

Andresen/St. Johns — 13.2

Arnada — 38.4

Bagley Downs — 47.3

Burnt Bridge Creek — 8.2

Bella Vista — none reported

Bennington — 9.2

Burton Evergreen — 1.7

Burton Ridge — 4.0

Carter Park — 33.8

Cascade Highlands — 10.6

Central Park — 45.8

Cimarron — 2.2

Columbia Way — 14.5

Concerned Citizens of Hockinson — 5.6

Countryside Woods — 10.8

Cascade Southeast — 5.3

Daybreak — 7.5

Dubois Park — 9.0

East Fork Frontier — 6.6

East Minnehaha — 9.8

East Old Evergreen Hwy. — 11.2

East Fork Hills Rural — 2.2

Edgewood Park — 17.8

Ellsworth Springs — 11.0

Enterprise/Paradise Point — 4.1

Esther Short — 39.0

Evergreen Highlands — 10.1

Fairgrounds — 12.9

Fairway/164th Ave. — 6.9

Father Blanchet Park — 16.6

Felida — 5.6

Fern Prairie — 5.7

Fircrest — 20.5

First Place — 7.2

Fisher-Mill Plain — 6.6

Fisher’s Creek — 3.5

Fisher’s Landing East — 6.8

Forest Ridge — 6.9

Fourth Plain Village — 26.4

Fruit Valley — 29.9

Greater Brush Prairie — 10.8

Green Meadows — 12.0

Harney Heights — 40.1

Hearthwood — 8.7

Heritage — 8.9

Hough — 25.5

Hudson’s Bay — 47.6

Image — 11.5

Kevanna — 14.0

Landover-Sharmel — 10.1

Lincoln — 19.0

Maple Tree — 19.0

Marrion — 30.4

Meadow Glade — 7.6

Meadow Homes — 71.7

Mountain View — 19.5

North Hearthwood — 16.0

North Image — 23.5

Northeast Hazel Dell — 27.7

North Fork Lewis River — 12.4

North Garrison Heights — 31.8

North Salmon Creek — 8.7

Northcrest — 12.9

Northfield — none reported

Northwest — 3.4

Northwood — 14.8

Oakbrook — 12.3

Ogden — 22.8

Old Evergreen Hwy. — 8.7

Parkside — 8.4

Parkway East — 9.5

Pleasant Highlands — 7.5

Proebstel — 6.0

Ramblin Creek Est./S. Salmon Cr. — 11.2

Ridgefield Junction — 4.8

Riveridge — 11.7

Riverview — 6.0

Roads End — 6.9

Rose Village — 36.2

Sherwood — 16.4

Shumway — 33.1

Sifton — 22.6

South Cliff — 19.2

Sunnyside — 12.0

Truman — 13.7

Vancouver Heights — 19.9

Van Mall — 28.4

Village at Fisher’s Landing — 1.6

Washougal River — 7.4

West Hazel Dell — 14.3

West Minnehaha — 28.8

Wildwood — 6.5

NOTE: The database did not include smaller cities in Clark County.

SOURCE: Clark County Sheriff’s Office Crime Analysis Unit.

Stories that offer the crime rates of Clark County’s more than 90 neighborhoods aren’t for everyone, including number-averse folks who can’t help yawning at the sight of the list.

And those stories sometimes draw complaints, from residents who play the sensationalism card and say, “My neighborhood isn’t that bad!”

But if you’re thinking of buying a home where you plan to stay awhile, you might want to take a look.

Clark County has neighborhoods where you might feel good about letting your kids roam on those lazy summer afternoons, and where you might be OK with taking a walk at night. But there are other neighborhoods that are less safe.

Also, real-estate salespeople might use safer crime rates as selling points.

This year, for the first time, we’ve changed the way we use the complex database that comes as an e-mail from the county crime analysis unit near the end of each year .

For several years, in our annual Portrait magazine, published in February, we’ve totaled all crimes equally, about 70 of them, from alcohol violations to welfare crimes. That system ends up with littering carrying the same weight as kidnapping, robbery and possessing explosives.

The Portrait method has meaning. But it creates problems, such as generating a high crime rate for the Van Mall neighborhood, where all those stores report a lot of bad checks and shoplifting crimes — the cost of doing business, we’ve been told. But the neighborhood still is pretty safe.

For this story, we’ve looked at just three serious crimes, the kind folks might worry about. We added assaults, burglaries and drug crimes together for each area, and calculated the rates.

Focusing on those three crimes should be interesting to readers who might wonder, “What are the odds someone might come up behind and club me in the head as I use the ATM outside my bank?,” as happened to a woman in Cascade Park one night not long ago.

That was an isolated case of an outrageous serious-injury assault, though. In fact, many safe neighborhoods exist in the Cascade Park area.

After totaling the three crimes, we calculated each neighborhood’s crime rate per 1,000 residents. Raw totals are meaningless, because neighborhoods come in all sizes and populations. A larger area with more people means more crimes. You expect that. Rates adjust for population and show trends we think are valid.

But first, here are a couple of nuggets from the official database.

How many briberies would you guess were counted in the 93 or so official neighborhoods? None. This isn’t old Chicago. Motorists here know better than to wrap a $20 bill around their driver’s license when they hand it to the traffic cop.

Perhaps we should all feel proud about that.

Runaway kids, a big number, 1,116. That’s sad, when you think what their home life and frame of mind must be.

If you are interested in your neighborhood’s crime rate, you need to establish its name. Neighborhoods often encompass many subdivisions. Neighborhoods generally have active associations whose volunteer members meet, deal with local matters and issue newsletters to residents.

Call 360-487-8608 if an address is inside Vancouver’s city limits. And call 360-397-6012, ext. 2, for unincorporated county areas such as Orchards, Hazel Dell and Salmon Creek.

John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.