I have read on other boards there are unsafe parts of Springfield MA. What I am trying to find out is how true this is, and what is so unsafe, thugs, bums, gangs?

Look at the stats for 2004: Springfield's stats are MUCH higher in overall crime, murder, rape, robberies, aggravated assault, burglaries, larceny/thefts, and motor vehicle thefts.

http://springfieldma.areaconnect.com/crime1.htm

There you go.

2 - 4 times the national average in all categories. But then again so is Nashville, and except for a couple obvious bad areas it's a safe place overall.

Having lived and worked in Springfield, it is a relatively safe city. If you are visiting, downtown is safe, which is mostly where you would want to be. From the Amtrak station on the north side of downtown, south to the Basketball Hall of Fame is considered downtown. Forest Park and the Springfield Armory National Historic Site are other places of interest which you would need a car to drive to and are safe places. Be smart, don't walk around alone at night. Rougher neighborhoods such as the North End you probably won't be visiting anyway.

Thanks much for the information! :D

You also want to be careful driving I-91 between Springfield and Hartford on Friday/Saturday nights. It is a drag strip just south of Springfield and the cars fly by you at 100 mph only to slam the brakes on just 1/4 mile down the road. Don't get tapped and pull over.

I have read on other boards there are unsafe parts of Springfield MA. What I am trying to find out is how true this is, and what is so unsafe, thugs, bums, gangs?

Wow. I guess things have changed. I went to school in Spfld in the 70's and never had a problem anywhere I went. I came back (twice) in the 80's for another 9 years, working in the Winchester Square vicinity. I used to walk from STCC to AIC at lunch with never a care. Of course, the north end was a problem even back in those days. We decided not to purchase a beautiful older home in W Spfld because of its proximity to the bridge (and the thieves that crossed it nightly).

I don't know if either is still open, but my favorite places to bring visitors were the Armory museum on the STCC campus and the Indian Motocycle museum, somewhere in an industrial park over towards Chicopee.