In short, I don't appreciate fear mongering that much. Crime does
happen, there are fliers about I see regularly, and people should be
aware of their personal safety. It _is_ important for attendees to
look out for themselves, but it needn't lead to fear or limiting their
enjoyment of the city. But, this are no different than you'd do any
other large city or DebConf.
I'm sorry, it was not my intent to do any fear mongering.. Most of what I wrote was from my own experience and also from a booklet by a train company for tourists staying in NYC.. I meant it as a rule of thumb that does not make any considerations for safe or unsafe areas in NYC, as I wouldn't know at all, where those unsafe places are... The areas surrounding DebConf, as has been said by many is a safe area. And that's great..
But it's still a very fuzzy line for me who doesn't know the area, and even more so if you get lost.. I've been lost in Chinatown late at night before, no problems there as I just walked around in bigger and bigger circles until I found the subway.. I've also been lost in Brooklyn looking for the Apple Store. Apparently there's two streets by the same name, one in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan.. Guess where I was? I suppose you could say I was a little off from where I was supposed to be..
Again, things like that tend to happen to me.. But hey, I still am very excited about going to NYC for the third time in my life... There's no fear mongering here, I just want everybody to be as safe as possible.. I meant to say that *I* would not travel alone at night.. And that's true, knowing all the things that happen to me, I absolutely wouldn't... Though as I've said, I have found myself alone at night (accidentally from getting lost) and it's been ok.. I haven't had anything bad to me happen at night, but I also haven't stayed up past 10PM...
-David