McAllen: One of the most secure places to live, study finds

McALLEN — Call it well deserved or call it ridiculous, but an insurance giant recently said McAllen is one of the most secure metropolitan areas in the country.

With great weather, clean air and a somewhat resilient economy, the City of Palms took the 12th spot on Farmers Insurance Group’s sixth annual Most Secure Places to Live in the United States. The city was bested in Texas by Austin, which took the first spot, and El Paso, which was eighth.

The rankings, compiled by www.bestplaces.net, considered crime, weather, risk of natural disasters, foreclosures, home prices, air quality, terrorist threats, environmental hazards, life expectancy and job loss numbers among 379 U.S. cities.

Rounding off the top five large metro areas — those with more than 500,000 residents — were two Midwestern cities and two on the East Coast. Two other Texas cities to make the lists were the Killeen-Temple area, which placed 12th among midsized cities, and Midland, which placed 11th among small towns.

Some in the Rio Grande Valley found the ranking well deserved.

Others said the Valley’s high marks were dubious with its persistent and deep pockets of poverty, a drug war across the border in Mexico and an economy now assailed by the recession.

“The weather — you can’t beat it,” said Deborah Martin, a McAllen real estate agent. “If you’re not doing anything illegal and you keep your nose clean and you’re staying away from the mall at Christmas time, you’re doing good.”

Martin and her husband moved to the Valley in 1995 from Detroit, one of the most crime-ridden cities in the United States. Comparatively, crime here feels no different than in other major cities, Martin said.

“Up north you can see them selling drugs on the corner as you can down here,” Martin said.

With violence in Mexico at a frightening crescendo, border cities like McAllen and El Paso have garnered a reputation elsewhere as unsafe. Despite the perception, violence in Mexico has not spilled over to a great degree in cities along the border.

In the McAllen area in 2008, there were 7 murders or manslaughter and 24.1 rapes for every 100,000 people. In El Paso, there were 2.6 murders or manslaughter and 28.6 rapes, according to statistics from the FBI.

McAllen’s murder rate is on par with those of other major Texas cities, including Houston, where 7.8 people are murdered for every 100,000.

“There are people in the state that want to make the Valley, Hidalgo County, appear as a war-torn area, crime running rampant, border security at its very lowest — one of the most unsafe places to live,” said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño. “That is absolutely not true. Hidalgo County is actually the second-safest county along the border. The safest county along the border is the county of El Paso.”

It’s no secret that millions of dollars worth of drugs move through the Valley every year. But smugglers and gangs on this side of the border would rather stay below the radar and avoid the eyes of law enforcement, Treviño said.

“They know that they are picking a losing battle here,” he said. “As outrageous as (gang members) can be sometimes and as loud and boisterous as they can be, they do try to keep a low profile when it comes to American law enforcement.”

David Dauphin and his wife Jan moved to Mission from the Houston area after decades of visiting the Valley to watch for birds and bugs.

While crime statistics between the cities are similar, Dauphin said he feels safer here. Further, he said the air quality is great and so too is the diversity of birds, butterflies and bugs — even though less than 5 percent of the natural Valley habitat remains.

“We’re good Valley flag wavers, we really are,” he said. “The Valley is a friendly area compared to other areas of the U.S., but you can’t really capture that too much (in a study).”

Yet there’s another area to the Valley: the low-income colonias where poor families often live under the radar without access to credit, banks or other systems of commerce. That population is often not reflected in statistics that measure economic activity.

Sister Maria Sanchez, a member of the executive committee for Valley Interfaith, said rising unemployment has caused things to get worse in the Valley’s colonias. In Hidalgo County, more than 35 percent of people live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The unemployment rate in the county is at 11.2 percent, the highest in the state.

“The gap between the haves and have-nots seems to be getting greater,” she said. “I don’t want to badmouth McAllen … it’s a great city if you have a good job.”

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Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.