# Mexico City Safety



## tmpchk (Oct 18, 2016)

I've heard from some expats that MC is getting more dangerous lately and that there's a feeling of being on edge. Can anyone confirm/deny?


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

tmpchk said:


> I've heard from some expats that MC is getting more dangerous lately and that there's a feeling of being on edge. Can anyone confirm/deny?


Do these expats live in Mexico City? I have lived here for over 9 years and haven't had any personal reason for feeling that life here has become more dangerous. Of course, that doesn't mean that this is true for all chilangos.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

tmpchk said:


> I've heard from some expats that MC is getting more dangerous lately and that there's a feeling of being on edge. Can anyone confirm/deny?


Can't speak as a resident, but as a tourist I go there at least a couple times a year. I don't get the impression there's more violent crime than in other major cities on either side of the border. Of course use common sense, given that there are many neighborhoods you wouldn't want to be at night, and a few that are sketchy in daylight. And take good care of your wallet on the Metro, preferably don't carry one at all.


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## tmpchk (Oct 18, 2016)

Isla Verde said:


> Do these expats live in Mexico City? I have lived here for over 9 years and haven't had any personal reason for feeling that life here has become more dangerous. Of course, that doesn't mean that this is true for all chilangos.


Yes, though fairly new to the city. Thank you for your insight.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

Yes, I saw a Facebook post the other day that said Mexico City was getting more dangerous lately. It was from a person who posted because they were selling personal alarms, which I’m sure was just coincidence (not!)


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

tmpchk said:


> Yes, though fairly new to the city. Thank you for your insight.


If they're fairly new to the CDMX, how would they know it's become more dangerous?


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## Chacrinha (Oct 13, 2016)

Isla Verde said:


> Do these expats live in Mexico City? I have lived here for over 9 years and haven't had any personal reason for feeling that life here has become more dangerous. Of course, that doesn't mean that this is true for all chilangos.


I am curious Isla Verde why you have chosen Mexico City to live. Anything in particular that you like?


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Chacrinha said:


> I am curious Isla Verde why you have chosen Mexico City to live.


Before moving here permanently in 2007, I had spent lots of time in Mexico at different periods of my life, most of it in or near Mexico City. So when retirement came around, it seemed logical to choose the CDMX because I had friends here, one of whom owned an apartment I could rent in a neighborhood I was familiar with.


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## jackBnimble (Oct 18, 2016)

For years I have travelled to DF for business and pleasure and still go 4 or 5 times per year - I used to work down there, right in the Torre Caballito en La Reforma, for a couple of years in the 90's. My own experience is that it is generally much better now, than way back then - petty crime, pollution, taxi-crime -- but, it is huge metropolis and there are zones which have problems and are not as safe as the better neighborhoods. But like anyplace, blend in, don't be ostentatious, practice situational awareness and enjoy. Isla Verde, you are fortunate to enjoy living there, it is a wonderful city. I have been all over the world and today, if you think about what's happened to: Paris or Rome, Brussels, Munich, Athens and even London or San Francisco - DF is: as/more beautiful andas/more interesting than those cities and far more safe, IMHO


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

perropedorro said:


> Can't speak as a resident, but as a tourist I go there at least a couple times a year. I don't get the impression there's more violent crime than in other major cities on either side of the border. Of course use common sense, given that there are many neighborhoods you wouldn't want to be at night, and a few that are sketchy in daylight. And take good care of your wallet on the Metro, preferably don't carry one at all.


If you're a man, and you haven't learned to carry your wallet in one of your front pants pocket, you should learn. It's safe there even in subways. Of course it shouldn't be a George Castanza sized wallet.


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

jackBnimble said:


> For years I have travelled to DF for business and pleasure and still go 4 or 5 times per year - I used to work down there, right in the Torre Caballito en La Reforma, for a couple of years in the 90's. My own experience is that it is generally much better now, than way back then - petty crime, pollution, taxi-crime -- but, it is huge metropolis and there are zones which have problems and are not as safe as the better neighborhoods. But like anyplace, blend in, don't be ostentatious, practice situational awareness and enjoy. Isla Verde, you are fortunate to enjoy living there, it is a wonderful city. I have been all over the world and today, if you think about what's happened to: Paris or Rome, Brussels, Munich, Athens and even London or San Francisco - DF is: as/more beautiful andas/more interesting than those cities and far more safe, IMHO



I lived in Mexico City in the 80s and gloried how I could wander around most neighborhoods at all hours of the night.
I visited often in the 90s and early aughts. In late 90s, early aughts, was a time of terror because of the taxi cab craze. Both residents and tourists were terrified hailing a cab on the street. Many of the pirate cabs were protected by cops, so it was pretty awful.

I was usually there for biz, running around to appointments. Mexican friends insisted I could only take taxis from sitios but of course running around, I sometimes had to hail a cab. Even following all the tips, making sure the license looked real, that the pix matched the license (how many of your iicense pix match the real u?), those trips were terrifying. I sat on the edge of the seat, already looking for a guy rushing for the door to trap me in. I always made sure to sit on the very far right side, reading to push the door and run.

Nothing ever happened to me, but many were not so lucky. gov't finally cracked down, mainly on their own police officers, and ended the problem.

Spent all of 2015 in Mexico City, utterly safe. I'd have concerns in rural Mexico, traveling alone in cars. Daytime would be okay. I don't know first hand but it seems the drug culture is leeching over to people outside the gangs, with the weak and the foreign viewed as possible targets. hope i'm wrong.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

Meritorious-MasoMenos said:


> If you're a man, and you haven't learned to carry your wallet in one of your front pants pocket, you should learn. It's safe there even in subways....


Perhaps that thwarts the lone _carterista_, but these thieves often work in carefully choreographed groups. Having learned the front pocket placement long before I ever rode the cdmx Metro, that's where it was before I "lost" it in a car that was totally packed. A trio was working, two each grabbing an arm while the third rifled through all of my pockets. More of an assault than a simple pickpocketing for sure, and of course nobody gets involved, certainly not the cop they ran right by in the station as the car disgorged them with me a few steps behind screaming _¡Robo!_. Cop ignored them but stopped me and asked for ID, as I drew on unknown reserves of self-restraint to keep from smacking him. I learned later, from veteran _chilangos_, who chuckled and opined that the cop was likely another hired stooge.
That was years ago, but I still keep just enough cash in a front shirt pocket and anything more important; cards, id, larger bills in a pouch _beneath_ any clothing.


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## jackBnimble (Oct 18, 2016)

Chilling story perropdorro, and back in the nineties heard many with similarities, on metro, or just walking on the street - still happens EdoMex up by airport, damn flea-market zone downtown, but most areas safer today than 15-20 yrs ago I beleive. Still, a sort f comic-pathetic epilogue to evey story is the apathy or outright contempt of the police for the victim. Many instances I know of where they "offered" to catch the perps if you could only make a nice contribution - as they claim to have no funds for investigation, for gasoline, etc. The cops definitely more scary than the crooks very often.


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