Washington is not safer than NYC...trust me i know people who live there

Let's just take this back home
 

I think that if the competition is not in Disney that it should return to Manchester for the reason being that it is the birth place of FIRST. Plus it is a half an hour away from UNH so I wouldn't mind going to the Manchester Arena seeing how I'm already going to go to the Regional. Please move Worlds to Manchester Dean. Thanx your buddy Todd

Is this a moral question?? Like asking if Disney would be biased towards teams cause of they sponsor them??
If it is I only have 3 letters for you, that you should know very well.

UTC

Nuff said' And you can take that anyway you want to. Look at the Team List for UTC this year HERE There are 7 out of 25 teams that are sponsored by UTC. I ask you as a UTC sponsored team, do you feel you have an advantage over the other UTC based teams at UTC?? There are a lot of judges at UTC who are employess of UTC.

Disney on the other hand, doesn't have anyone from Disney Inc. on the panel of judges at the Nationals.

So don't take this the wrong way, but what's your point??

Re: Keep in mind...
 

I agree with Andy that FIRST is no doubt trying very hard to come up with the best time/place for the championships. It's always fun to discuss and speculate, though.

We are all anxious to learn what will happen, but from a practical standpoint, if we have to wait a little longer, it shouldn't affect our teams too much. Probably most teams don't make their final travel plans until Jan. or Feb. anyway.

I know what your saying about UTC and I don't take what you said the wrong way. What I was trying to get at was that maybe Disney is sponsoring more teams and not the Nationals because they may no longer have the budget for it.

Based on my experinces on business trips to this /cough/ fine /cough/ potential venue, all the cultural oportunities would be closed before the Pits. Which would really be the pits.

I agree with AndyB, let's wait it out and then live with what we get in a graciously professional manner. Being gracious means putting the best motives on what the other party was trying to do, even when they don't succeed. Which shouldn't be too much of a stretch in this case.

ChrisH

and I work there. Talk with me some time about the bullet holes in my office window (yes, I am serious).

That said, the crime level in NYC is demonstrably higher that in DC (in terms of both index counts and rates per population). There were 266,594 violent crimes in NYC in 2001, and 39,926 in DC. In 2001 there were 3,479 murders in NYC, vs. 231 murders in DC. (ref: U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics 2001 Uniform Crime Report, preliminary version issued June 24, 2002). If safety is the concern, then the Nationals should be moved to Gilbert AZ. Very low overall crime index, with 0 violent deaths in 2000 and 2001.

I'm just gonna stick with Orlando and EPCOT. There, all we have to worry about is the price of the hot dogs and diet Cokes.

-dave

The truth about the matter is no matter where you hold the nationals, if it is in a major US city there will be a crime factor. It all depends on where you are in the city. Take Los Angeles for instance, while there are numerous areas with a major crime problem, there are ample areas with little or no violent crime close to the high crime areas. Often times many of the venues in major cities are in high crime areas.

If you watch out for yourself and stay in hotels in nicer areas, (often only a couple of miles away from the venue) you should be fine. I have lived in Los Angeles all my life and i'm an EMT in the inner city yet have never been victim of a crime. Besides, maybe it would be good to bring FIRST to the inner city and get inner city students interested in science and engineering. Many inner city students have no way to see what science and engineering are all about. After all FIRST is about advancing science and technology no matter what the venue. It's the people that make FIRST what it is, not Disney World!

Manchester NH would be cool, although I have no idea where we would put everyone. Maybe dean's house in bedford. We could use the Verizon Wireless arena and ummmm, maybe ummmm I dunno. Manchester has a very low crime rate (my dad just retired as a cop there after 21 years) and its still a "City". There is kinda alot to do.....

I suppose it would be a nice tribute to have the championships in the birthplace of FIRST. Plus Matt is right. the crime rate is pretty low. Plus NH cops are really good. The best job I ever had was working for the Derry Police Department as a crossing guard for Pinkerton Acadamy (before I moved too far away for an acceptable commute). They are the nicest bunch of people you'll ever meet if you get the chance.

Still, the decision is up to FIRST and I'm pretty sure they will put a lot of thought into it to make it the best event possible with what they have to work with.

How about somewhere in upstate NY?

There has never been a regional upstate. We're not all from the city! :)

How about Paris?
 

Paris might be a good place for the championship. There is excellent public transportation, a lot to see there, and it is relatively safe for a large city. How about it Dean, not for '03, but maybe sometime in the future?

OK, I guess there should be at least one team from France before making a decision to have the championship there, but it's a thought.

[quote]Originally posted by dlavery
[b]

"In 2001 there were 3,479 murders in NYC, vs. 231 murders in DC. (ref: U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics 2001 Uniform Crime Report, preliminary version issued June 24, 2002). "

I got to response to this one!
These numbers are misleading, there was not 3,479 criminal murders in NYC last year. If these numbers are true NYC will have bodies all over the street. The crime/murder in NYC is as low as the 1960's.

You know why the number you quoted is so high?


9-11.

If I'm not mistaken, those justice dept. figures exclude the attacks on the WTC.

Yes I think dets002 is right....Im not sure if this is still accurate or not, but at one time the government counted over 5,000 people dead or missing from the WTC attacks...