NOLA also not among most criminally dangerous

Though New Orleans is frequently cited as the murder capital of the United States, I never think about dying on the streets. I even sometimes forget to close the back door! When was the last time you did that? 1980? Robbery simply does not cross my mind, unless I am walking at midnight in the back of the French Quarter alone - clearly, not a smart idea.

So, now the truth comes out. U.S. News has issued a report based on an analysis of recent FBI data, rating U.S. cities for overall incidence of crime. Here are the top 11:

1. St. Louis
2. Atlanta
3. Birmingham - bet that surprised you!
4. Orlando - home of Disney World
5. Detroit
6. Memphis - the Blues capital
7. Miami
8. Baltimore
9. Kansas City, Mo.
10. Minneapolis
11. Cleveland

Most of our crime is young men killing other young men and we need to do something serious about that. We've got a new police chief who is working on it and superintendent of schools who's building a new culture. 

But you just don't hear about folks getting held up at gunpoint Uptown New Orleans. In two weeks, there'll be hundreds of thousands of people crowded together, yelling for plastic beads and very few of them will get hurt - unless they get hit in the head with a gilded coconut.