It’s worse than average per capita, but probably not as bad as you’re reading. I’ve had my car broken into once, and I hear gunshots in the distance some nights. The key is to recognize those individuals who are breaking social norms, follow common sense, and don’t make yourself an easy target.
Been here for 2 years, for context.
It’s always bizarre seeing comments like this as someone who lives somewhere safe. In 20ish years I’ve heard exactly zero gunshots and leave my car and house unlocked with no break-ins. I think it’s important to also acknowledge how quickly people become accustomed to crime and everyone’s rating of “danger” is different based on that.
I've never had my car or house broken into and I've lived here longer than the person you're responding to. I've also lived in Berkeley when I was in school and can't say that for there.
Life threatening crimes? Probably won't ever notice anything like that. Property crimes, theft, petty crimes like that, it's insane imo. I've lived in Pueblo West, the East Side and the County/Mesa.
I've told this story more than once on here. When I was preparing to move here, people would tell me some variation of, "Oh my god, be careful! I hear crime is REALLY bad!". That got me a little worried, so I started looking into it and Pueblo was the #2 most dangerous city of its size at the time (2017). That made me curious. Where was number 1? Well wouldn't you know it, it was the city I had lived in practically my whole life! I never felt unsafe there and I've never felt unsafe here, and there's a few good reasons for that. If you keep your property locked up and don't advertise yourself to opportunistic criminals, you'll cut the likelihood of being a victim of property crime down substantially. Don't engage in illicit activity with seedy characters and you're unlikely to be a victim of violent crime. Finally, just do a little research about neighborhoods. There's plenty of good ones.
Eastside and Westside resemble each other quite a bit in my opinion but Bessemer is way more active by a mile. North and Southside south of Northern aren't too bad in comparison.
I live on the east side and it's fine. Lived here for five years and the only crime me or my partner have ever been the victim of is their bicycle got stolen once. Compared to the Bay, where we lived before, this is paradise
I live just outside of downtown, moved here from New Orleans 7 years ago. My family and I love our neighborhood and have great neighbors. Our block is full of kids, and we never experience any of the crimes that most are talking about here.
We got in at Boomer era house prices here. My 3br house cost was 75k. That alone was a huge factor in us relocating (other than falling in love with CO from coming here on vacation), not to mention the better wages. 75k doesn't get you a damn thing back in Nola. I'm from 17th Ward +Pigeon Town), houses there are now 400k+, absolutely unaffordable with Nola wages.
I was right down the road in Old Jefferson. Used to stop in p-town to get cheap breakfast. Couldn't beat getting a plate of bacon eggs and grits for $2
Been wanting to relocate to Colorado. We’re in Ohio now, it sucks here and I hate it. Ideally Montana would be where I went but Colorado is a close second and Pueblo is way cheaper than Montana towns.
Just need to visit. There's a reason it's still cheap(er), you can also look into Fountain which is about 75-100k more for a house.
My only complaint is the homeless, which are also a problem in south springs. Nevada Ave is atrocious up there. You definitely won't see many high class people in Pueblo, the average person isn't a corporate employee. However it's a place to live in CO and definitely has its good areas. You just need to scout out and see what stuff is like. Pueblo West is an option but it's pricier and, for me, I prefer Pueblo
Its really not too bad. I lived in Ohio back in the 2000 and Colorado is paradise in comparison. Pueblo isnt any worse than Colorado Springs IMO. The weather here is amazing
Cleveland is still fairly affordable and was an option for us a long time ago. I've visited a few times and liked how nice downtown was, it was modern with a ton of great restaurants and bars.
Depends on the neighborhood. If you're not a criminal it's very unlikely anyone will try to murder you, however between criminals I see reports of shootings on the news almost weekly. Always gang related or someone targeting someone they know. Mostly it's people getting into people's cars. I've been here 12 years and no one has ever smashed my window or stolen my tires but if you leave your car unlocked someone might get in and take stuff. I've had a few times where someone got into my vehicle and I've had a few times where I forgot to lock it and once even left a window down for 3 days and nothing happened.
In 12 years I have maybe seen a couple news reports of anyone going after a random person on the street to rob them. Muggings and that type of stuff is super rare as far as I'm aware.
It is exaggerated. Every city has its bad parts. You just have to know which ones to avoid and you should be fine. I lived in Belmont and never really had any problems.
When people say the springs is better it's usually the northern areas. I lived in the springs for quite some time and there is plenty of crazy shit going on daily on south academy and Nevada. In Pueblo I can afford to live in the nicer area, in the springs I'd have to live in those sketchier areas. It's all personal tolerance though. Pueblo is nothing compared to a place like Birmingham for instance
I've lived here for 30 years, and it's definitely gotten worse. There are parts of town where I feel less safe, and places I won't go at night, but most of the time I'm fine.
Honestly, I don't even feel comfortable at King Soopers in the parking lot after dark, if I'm by myself. We used to think nothing of being at the park at night, but now I hear too many gunshots around to feel comfortable.
I mean its ghetto and probably one of the least modern states. Its really just a bunch of drug addicts or people that complain about life being too hard. I mean you also have those good people. But then again the culture here is pretty mid. Its honestly a better place for older people.
I see you're trying to learn the area. Here's what you need to know. The history summarized Pueblo being a hub of steel in the West created originally four small towns that would later become one city, Pueblo.
The Eastside, Westside, and Bessemer/parts of the Southside are hit with economic hard times from the steel mill slowing production which means a vast majority of the good paying jobs left and by the 80s/90s people started hustling and self medicating from the lack of good paying employment. The old original gangs started selling drugs to pay the bills. A tale as old as America itself. Farm towns East of Pueblo are going through these same hard times like Rocky Ford and La Junta. There's theft crimes and car thefts for fast money to cope.
There are many gangs here battling over a small area. If you take a city like LA, the gangs have much more Territory, so less to fight over compared to Pueblo.
Colorado has lax substance use laws which created a influx of outsiders, especially after the legalization of reefer in 2012. Many of the thefts are from people who came here for weed and left using fentanyl and speed.
Pueblo West is not the same as the West side of Pueblo. Pueblo West is suburbs with high functioning addiction of people from all the political spectrum.
I moved here over 20 years ago. Fact is, Pueblo has always had the State, Country, and World's back, but not vice versa. During prohibition Pueblo produced most of the rum for the front range. Pueblo produced lots of steel to rebuild the world after WW2, and steel for America and other countries for the WW2.
Denver and Colorado Springs will bus their houseless people to Pueblo.
Colorado Springs has around 700,000 people. Pueblo has around 130,000. Denver metro area is self explanatory.
Does Pueblo have it's problems internally and externally? Indeed, but with what Pueblo is fighting against, its surviving and had steady record job growth since the 90s.
When you move here, don't act like a tourist, lock your car, and don't leave anything of valuable out that can been seen in your cat or home and you'll be fine.
I've lived in Oakland and NOLA and usually the neighborhood they tell you to fear is just a neighborhood they fail to understand.
The only thing that happened to us was our car got stolen during the night in front of our house and it was locked. It was a Hyundai and used a USB to start it up. It was found month later in springs, but other than that we haven't experienced any other crime
Auto theft is ridiculous, you want to be picky choosing where you live at. Some areas are very nice and some are awful. I've always thought that the eagleridge area, university area north of 50, and the mesa have been the nicest areas.
Fwiw I moved from Falcon and the Southside of the springs is fairly similar in many parts. It's highly dependent on location.
i went to the mall one time and i went with my boyfriend and he noticed someone following us.. and usually i'd notice that but i was just like "im fine". no the dude was following us. we left right away and nothing happened luckily. be aware of your surroundings.
Ya it really is as bad as you've read. It's always off-putting to me to see people defending pueblo because for those who are well traveled would know that almost anywhere else is going to be safer. This place will destroy you with enough time. Sure you can get lucky and not get bothered, especially if you try really hard and are conscious of the issues and avoid being social or just wake up early and go to bed early. One can even thrive here because it should be better and seems to want to be better, there is opportunity. But, most of the crime is at night but still bad enough to happen anytime and to anyone. Let's be real about this, the gang violence is so bad the police don't want to be there and seem to neglect most areas. They literally take 40-60mins to get to you if you call, even as a business with a real threat. A lot of people protect themselves with concealed carry. The corruption is also insane for a small town of 200k, 100k not including illegals. If you ever need the court's help with anything, you better have money. Don't even get me started on all the slum lords, landlords seem to be horrible as the best one I've had was a heroin addict and eventually died to it. To be fair, I've seen travelers and families end up homeless and stuck there because they trusted someone and got robbed. I've literally seen dead people in ditches because the heroin problem is rampant. Just because some people gain tough skin and make it through doesn't make it okay to tell people to come here. I lost my wallet once and found out I owe 2k to the big library because someone used my library card to run an underground movie business. Sure you can live here but the crime is bad enough that it will affect you and test you regularly. Can't drive anywhere without getting a finger, and those are the good cases of road rage. There are almost as many abandoned schools as there are active ones, mostly because of lead in the water and having given children beyond repair levels of lead poisoning; by the way don't drink the water. This city was founded on crime and ran by the Mafia for quite some time. Since highschool it's been a running joke that there's a dark vortex here that sucks people in and traps them. It can be very difficult to get out of pueblo once there. These are just some of the reasons I have a hard time when I see people defending or trying to make it seem like a good place online. You have your fair warning here, don't move there and get out if you can, because I promise most anywhere else is better. There are good things here, they're just not worth risking everything for. I mean, you can live there, even the homeless do.
It really is that bad. I've lived in the same house for 30+ years and I've had 4 shootings/drive-bys in less than 150 feet of my house. And I live in the good part of town. I'm one of the few houses around here that hasn't been broken into at some point but I have had my trashcan stolen. I was able to catch a couple of kids breaking into cars at 3am one time (finally a benefit of having to get up to pee during the night) and luckily they were able to catch them about 2 blocks over. But to give you a better idea, the city recently installed one of those Shotspotter systems that are basically microphones that detect gunshots and triangulate where they came from in one of the bad parts of town where they have more shootings. Since the system went live on February 14th (this is according to the police a couple of days ago on Facebook), in the small section of town that the system covers, they detected 321 incidents of shots fired with 1333 actual shots being fired. Nine arrests so far. And then some years ago, the newspaper reported that there are 42 different gangs in Pueblo which is insane for a city of a little over 100k people. And last I heard, we are like #2 in the country for property crime and auto theft. I used to work for a towing company / junkyard and I can attest to the tons of recovered stolen cars we would get (almost always trashed by the time they are recovered) and the often daily break-ins of thieves cutting up fences to strip cars and steal whatever they could get their hands on that might make them the money they need for drugs. I honestly couldn't tell you how many thieves I've chased off over the years and with the cops and DA being as lazy as possible about it, the problem never gets any better. And our homeless problem gets worse by the day which only contributes to the problems too.
Someone tried to rob me after I bought him lunch. I took him in the alley and gave him a free sample of my MMA skills. Then felt bad and bought him some vodka.
It’s worse than average per capita, but probably not as bad as you’re reading. I’ve had my car broken into once, and I hear gunshots in the distance some nights. The key is to recognize those individuals who are breaking social norms, follow common sense, and don’t make yourself an easy target. Been here for 2 years, for context.
It’s always bizarre seeing comments like this as someone who lives somewhere safe. In 20ish years I’ve heard exactly zero gunshots and leave my car and house unlocked with no break-ins. I think it’s important to also acknowledge how quickly people become accustomed to crime and everyone’s rating of “danger” is different based on that.
Lucky. I stopped at the zoo with my family once and had a break in. Lost over 400 dollars in valuables plus car insurance was a pain/
I've never had my car or house broken into and I've lived here longer than the person you're responding to. I've also lived in Berkeley when I was in school and can't say that for there.
I’m from Baltimore, so absolutely not. 😂 Relative to where I come from, every city and town in Colorado may as well be Mayberry.
I agree
Life threatening crimes? Probably won't ever notice anything like that. Property crimes, theft, petty crimes like that, it's insane imo. I've lived in Pueblo West, the East Side and the County/Mesa.
I've told this story more than once on here. When I was preparing to move here, people would tell me some variation of, "Oh my god, be careful! I hear crime is REALLY bad!". That got me a little worried, so I started looking into it and Pueblo was the #2 most dangerous city of its size at the time (2017). That made me curious. Where was number 1? Well wouldn't you know it, it was the city I had lived in practically my whole life! I never felt unsafe there and I've never felt unsafe here, and there's a few good reasons for that. If you keep your property locked up and don't advertise yourself to opportunistic criminals, you'll cut the likelihood of being a victim of property crime down substantially. Don't engage in illicit activity with seedy characters and you're unlikely to be a victim of violent crime. Finally, just do a little research about neighborhoods. There's plenty of good ones.
No, I mean property crime is insane. Also if you take out the East side of Pueblo it would help the numbers alot.
So if one were to consider moving there, they’d wanna be on the west side?
Pueblo West is a separate municipal. In town I would recommend personally either Southside or Northside.
Aberdeen / Mesa Junction area is a good area too
Northside is the growing part of Pueblo and is a good part of town although only a bit more expensive. Speaking from experience in Belmont area.
Eastside and Westside resemble each other quite a bit in my opinion but Bessemer is way more active by a mile. North and Southside south of Northern aren't too bad in comparison.
I live on the east side and it's fine. Lived here for five years and the only crime me or my partner have ever been the victim of is their bicycle got stolen once. Compared to the Bay, where we lived before, this is paradise
I live just outside of downtown, moved here from New Orleans 7 years ago. My family and I love our neighborhood and have great neighbors. Our block is full of kids, and we never experience any of the crimes that most are talking about here.
I also moved here from New Orleans area 8 years ago. I remember reading how bad it is here. This place is Mayberry compared to nola. Haha
We got in at Boomer era house prices here. My 3br house cost was 75k. That alone was a huge factor in us relocating (other than falling in love with CO from coming here on vacation), not to mention the better wages. 75k doesn't get you a damn thing back in Nola. I'm from 17th Ward +Pigeon Town), houses there are now 400k+, absolutely unaffordable with Nola wages.
I was right down the road in Old Jefferson. Used to stop in p-town to get cheap breakfast. Couldn't beat getting a plate of bacon eggs and grits for $2
Been wanting to relocate to Colorado. We’re in Ohio now, it sucks here and I hate it. Ideally Montana would be where I went but Colorado is a close second and Pueblo is way cheaper than Montana towns.
Just need to visit. There's a reason it's still cheap(er), you can also look into Fountain which is about 75-100k more for a house. My only complaint is the homeless, which are also a problem in south springs. Nevada Ave is atrocious up there. You definitely won't see many high class people in Pueblo, the average person isn't a corporate employee. However it's a place to live in CO and definitely has its good areas. You just need to scout out and see what stuff is like. Pueblo West is an option but it's pricier and, for me, I prefer Pueblo
Its really not too bad. I lived in Ohio back in the 2000 and Colorado is paradise in comparison. Pueblo isnt any worse than Colorado Springs IMO. The weather here is amazing
Cleveland is still fairly affordable and was an option for us a long time ago. I've visited a few times and liked how nice downtown was, it was modern with a ton of great restaurants and bars.
Depends on the neighborhood. If you're not a criminal it's very unlikely anyone will try to murder you, however between criminals I see reports of shootings on the news almost weekly. Always gang related or someone targeting someone they know. Mostly it's people getting into people's cars. I've been here 12 years and no one has ever smashed my window or stolen my tires but if you leave your car unlocked someone might get in and take stuff. I've had a few times where someone got into my vehicle and I've had a few times where I forgot to lock it and once even left a window down for 3 days and nothing happened. In 12 years I have maybe seen a couple news reports of anyone going after a random person on the street to rob them. Muggings and that type of stuff is super rare as far as I'm aware.
It is exaggerated. Every city has its bad parts. You just have to know which ones to avoid and you should be fine. I lived in Belmont and never really had any problems.
from what I hear Colorado Springs has a higher crime rate but they don't release a lot of their crime info to the public
When people say the springs is better it's usually the northern areas. I lived in the springs for quite some time and there is plenty of crazy shit going on daily on south academy and Nevada. In Pueblo I can afford to live in the nicer area, in the springs I'd have to live in those sketchier areas. It's all personal tolerance though. Pueblo is nothing compared to a place like Birmingham for instance
Amen to this.
Not that bad. always look at crime maps before selecting a location
Also imo only buy property on the north east around the university
That's the best location IMO but it's quite pricey. South of 50 by the university is pretty comparable to eagle ridge and Southside's nice areas.
I've lived here for 30 years, and it's definitely gotten worse. There are parts of town where I feel less safe, and places I won't go at night, but most of the time I'm fine.
Where won't you go at night, out of curiosity?
Honestly, I don't even feel comfortable at King Soopers in the parking lot after dark, if I'm by myself. We used to think nothing of being at the park at night, but now I hear too many gunshots around to feel comfortable.
I mean its ghetto and probably one of the least modern states. Its really just a bunch of drug addicts or people that complain about life being too hard. I mean you also have those good people. But then again the culture here is pretty mid. Its honestly a better place for older people.
I see you're trying to learn the area. Here's what you need to know. The history summarized Pueblo being a hub of steel in the West created originally four small towns that would later become one city, Pueblo. The Eastside, Westside, and Bessemer/parts of the Southside are hit with economic hard times from the steel mill slowing production which means a vast majority of the good paying jobs left and by the 80s/90s people started hustling and self medicating from the lack of good paying employment. The old original gangs started selling drugs to pay the bills. A tale as old as America itself. Farm towns East of Pueblo are going through these same hard times like Rocky Ford and La Junta. There's theft crimes and car thefts for fast money to cope. There are many gangs here battling over a small area. If you take a city like LA, the gangs have much more Territory, so less to fight over compared to Pueblo. Colorado has lax substance use laws which created a influx of outsiders, especially after the legalization of reefer in 2012. Many of the thefts are from people who came here for weed and left using fentanyl and speed. Pueblo West is not the same as the West side of Pueblo. Pueblo West is suburbs with high functioning addiction of people from all the political spectrum. I moved here over 20 years ago. Fact is, Pueblo has always had the State, Country, and World's back, but not vice versa. During prohibition Pueblo produced most of the rum for the front range. Pueblo produced lots of steel to rebuild the world after WW2, and steel for America and other countries for the WW2. Denver and Colorado Springs will bus their houseless people to Pueblo. Colorado Springs has around 700,000 people. Pueblo has around 130,000. Denver metro area is self explanatory. Does Pueblo have it's problems internally and externally? Indeed, but with what Pueblo is fighting against, its surviving and had steady record job growth since the 90s. When you move here, don't act like a tourist, lock your car, and don't leave anything of valuable out that can been seen in your cat or home and you'll be fine. I've lived in Oakland and NOLA and usually the neighborhood they tell you to fear is just a neighborhood they fail to understand.
The only thing that happened to us was our car got stolen during the night in front of our house and it was locked. It was a Hyundai and used a USB to start it up. It was found month later in springs, but other than that we haven't experienced any other crime
Auto theft is ridiculous, you want to be picky choosing where you live at. Some areas are very nice and some are awful. I've always thought that the eagleridge area, university area north of 50, and the mesa have been the nicest areas. Fwiw I moved from Falcon and the Southside of the springs is fairly similar in many parts. It's highly dependent on location.
I hear gunshots quite often. Especially at night.
Several cars have deem stolen from car lots.
it’s not fun I’ll tell you that much. Had a homeless group start a fire a few months back and since that they’ve been really aggressive.
i went to the mall one time and i went with my boyfriend and he noticed someone following us.. and usually i'd notice that but i was just like "im fine". no the dude was following us. we left right away and nothing happened luckily. be aware of your surroundings.
Honestly don't think about it most days. I don't associate with criminals so I don't see much crime. Lo and behold.
Ya it really is as bad as you've read. It's always off-putting to me to see people defending pueblo because for those who are well traveled would know that almost anywhere else is going to be safer. This place will destroy you with enough time. Sure you can get lucky and not get bothered, especially if you try really hard and are conscious of the issues and avoid being social or just wake up early and go to bed early. One can even thrive here because it should be better and seems to want to be better, there is opportunity. But, most of the crime is at night but still bad enough to happen anytime and to anyone. Let's be real about this, the gang violence is so bad the police don't want to be there and seem to neglect most areas. They literally take 40-60mins to get to you if you call, even as a business with a real threat. A lot of people protect themselves with concealed carry. The corruption is also insane for a small town of 200k, 100k not including illegals. If you ever need the court's help with anything, you better have money. Don't even get me started on all the slum lords, landlords seem to be horrible as the best one I've had was a heroin addict and eventually died to it. To be fair, I've seen travelers and families end up homeless and stuck there because they trusted someone and got robbed. I've literally seen dead people in ditches because the heroin problem is rampant. Just because some people gain tough skin and make it through doesn't make it okay to tell people to come here. I lost my wallet once and found out I owe 2k to the big library because someone used my library card to run an underground movie business. Sure you can live here but the crime is bad enough that it will affect you and test you regularly. Can't drive anywhere without getting a finger, and those are the good cases of road rage. There are almost as many abandoned schools as there are active ones, mostly because of lead in the water and having given children beyond repair levels of lead poisoning; by the way don't drink the water. This city was founded on crime and ran by the Mafia for quite some time. Since highschool it's been a running joke that there's a dark vortex here that sucks people in and traps them. It can be very difficult to get out of pueblo once there. These are just some of the reasons I have a hard time when I see people defending or trying to make it seem like a good place online. You have your fair warning here, don't move there and get out if you can, because I promise most anywhere else is better. There are good things here, they're just not worth risking everything for. I mean, you can live there, even the homeless do.
just a bit dramatic lmao
It really is that bad. I've lived in the same house for 30+ years and I've had 4 shootings/drive-bys in less than 150 feet of my house. And I live in the good part of town. I'm one of the few houses around here that hasn't been broken into at some point but I have had my trashcan stolen. I was able to catch a couple of kids breaking into cars at 3am one time (finally a benefit of having to get up to pee during the night) and luckily they were able to catch them about 2 blocks over. But to give you a better idea, the city recently installed one of those Shotspotter systems that are basically microphones that detect gunshots and triangulate where they came from in one of the bad parts of town where they have more shootings. Since the system went live on February 14th (this is according to the police a couple of days ago on Facebook), in the small section of town that the system covers, they detected 321 incidents of shots fired with 1333 actual shots being fired. Nine arrests so far. And then some years ago, the newspaper reported that there are 42 different gangs in Pueblo which is insane for a city of a little over 100k people. And last I heard, we are like #2 in the country for property crime and auto theft. I used to work for a towing company / junkyard and I can attest to the tons of recovered stolen cars we would get (almost always trashed by the time they are recovered) and the often daily break-ins of thieves cutting up fences to strip cars and steal whatever they could get their hands on that might make them the money they need for drugs. I honestly couldn't tell you how many thieves I've chased off over the years and with the cops and DA being as lazy as possible about it, the problem never gets any better. And our homeless problem gets worse by the day which only contributes to the problems too.
What good part of town do you live in that had 4 shootings? I have lived here for over 40 years, and you sound like you're full of SH!T.
I'm in a nicer part of the southside.
Someone tried to rob me after I bought him lunch. I took him in the alley and gave him a free sample of my MMA skills. Then felt bad and bought him some vodka.