Is BsAs that dangerous??

[citygirl]

I think as always there are a lot of newcomers who are here saying "Oh, it's so safe." Then there are those of us who have been here longer who have a slightly different viewpoint.

To the original poster - my opinion - most crimes here seem to be of the petty variety (pickpocketing, purse-snatching, etc). Use smarts, don't walk alone at night, don't carry your money or wallet in a pocket, hold on to your bag, if you have a nice cellphone, don't use it on the street and if you have an expensive watch/jewelry - leave them at home. It will eliminate 90% of the issues.

 

[Sockhopper]

Lucas,
Regarding the photo of the woman you posted under the caption “Don’t dress like this”, I don’t know what you mean by “like this”. She’s well-groomed and has developed her own sense of how she likes to present herself to the world. BA is a large and creative world-class city, not some backwoods’ town in North America where appearing urban is not understood, spurned as snobby or confused with either wealth and privilege, or a lack of education. Good thieves have known for decades that dressing down in jeans, a T-shirt and running shoes is often a tactic used to hide foreigners’ wealth when they travel abroad. When thieves have no luck spotting people wearing re-saleable Rolexes and gems, they head for the jeans’ crowd for the latest in high-tech devices.

Personally, I wouldn’t wear a bag that doesn’t grip my shoulder or rest on my hip. But before we can say that the purse the lady is carrying in the photo is completely ill-advised in terms of personal security, before we can rely upon her pic as your model of how not to dress in BA, we’d have to know the circumstances and behaviour surrounding the use of her purse. Otherwise that photo is being mis-used as negative propaganda against stylish dressing whether you or I happen to like her clothes or not. How tourists dress in BA is not as important to thieves as how tourists behave. Thieves look for opportunities. Opportunities arise from behaviours of possible targets, not on account of their dressing stylishly. So, to gauge that woman’s risk, I’d want to ask and have answers to the following:
-Is she a tourist or a local?
-Does she speak Spanish? Castellan? Or neither?
-Is she wearing designer clothing or knock-offs?
-Is she sober, or drunk and slaphappy?
-Is she on the street when carrying her hand-held bag? No. She’s indoors in what appears to be a foyer empty of strangers.
-Did she take a cab to that building or is she about to leave it and bus to Once, La Boca or San Telmo market on Sunday or a tourist site?
-Does she work in that building, live in it, or have children attending school in it?
-Is she all alone? No, she’s accompanied by someone whom she trusts, the photographer.

I can’t download the other pic you posted of what you say meets your definition of ‘blending in’. But trying to ‘blend in’ on a short holiday somewhere you don’t know well doesn’t work. Had the OP asked about how to dress, I would have told her to dress as she does in Europe but to use another kind of bag and never put it down unattended for even a second. (I don’t have to be this careful in Europe.)

Too often on forums, men with no training or knowledge of women’s fashion advise women on how to dress or not when they travel! You haven’t told us what in that pic could increase a woman’s vulnerability to street theft. I wonder if you are magically thinking that conformity reduces risk. Nowadays, there is no standard way to dress. There are hundreds of new trends each year, and these occur seasonally. How much they vary depends upon each country’s access to them and how receptive to fashion each country is, and the importance of fashion to each one’s economy.

I don’t want new travelers to think that the personal style they develop(ed) for themselves from their hearts must be abandoned in order to travel safely. There are enough obstacles to travel without creating false ones and excusing this by saying that individualism presents dangers! It doesn’t and never has. Independent travel has always been about exploring and interacting with other cultures as you really are as an individual.

 

[Amargo]

A friend of a friend

 

[Lucas]

Lucas,
Regarding the photo of the woman you posted under the caption “Don’t dress like this”, I don’t know what you mean by “like this”. She’s well-groomed and has developed her own sense of how she likes to present herself to the world. BA is a large and creative world-class city, not some backwoods’ town in North America where appearing urban is not understood,

-Is she a tourist or a local?
-Does she speak Spanish? Castellan? Or neither?
-Is she wearing designer clothing or knock-offs?
-Is she sober, or drunk and slaphappy?
-Is she on the street when carrying her hand-held bag? No. She’s indoors in what appears to be a foyer empty of strangers.
-Did she take a cab to that building or is she about to leave it and bus to Once, La Boca or San Telmo market on Sunday or a tourist site?
-Does she work in that building, live in it, or have children attending school in it?
-Is she all alone? No, she’s accompanied by someone whom she trusts, the photographer.

She is all that and more...

I’d want to ask and have answers to the following:

-Is she a tourist or a local?...
she is (or will be?) a tourist polish girl in BA, hopefully
-Does she speak Spanish? Castellan? Or neither?....
neither
-Is she wearing designer clothing or knock-offs?....
designer clothing
-Is she sober, or drunk and slaphappy?....
just a sober happy cute young polish girl
-Is she on the street when carrying her hand-held bag?
No. She’s indoors in what appears to be a foyer empty of strangers.....
She isn't alone she is with the photographer.
-Did she take a cab to that building or is she about to leave it and bus to Once, La Boca or San Telmo market on Sunday or a tourist site?....
She is Not in Buenos Aires, check the green door, it opens outward.
-Does she work in that building, live in it, or have children attending school in it?...
I don't know...yet.
-Is she all alone? No, she’s accompanied by someone whom she trusts, the photographer...
yes and she is not in Buenos Aires in that photo.

Sockhopper...Do you work 'undercover' for the local police or Interpol?

Regarding the photo of the woman you posted under the caption “Don’t dress like this”

Actually she is SHE the OP.......
That's why I told her not to dress like that all the time when walking around the city, La Boca for instance or late at night alone.

 

[katti]

Seems like you're saying what the media is telling us is either an exaggeration or just not true. You're also making it look as if the victims are the guilty ones.Nonsense! Crime is getting much worse. I heard that, today, in a building on Arenales near Junin, guys had the doorman open the door. When he did, they had accompany them through the building. When the doorman rang a bell, the resident saw him and opened the door. Everyone was robbed. Unless there are plain clothes police on the streets, I rarely see plice on the streets of centro Recoleta. Also, why don't the police walk the beat, intead of texting all day?

They came in through the garage, and "only' robbed one appartment. You should always be carefull when you go in or out of your building, that no one follows you. Never let someone into the building that you don't know, even if he says he has forgotten his keys.

 

[katti]

There won't be any problem just make sure you don't dress like this...

Something like this will be more appropriate to mix with the crowd...

I don't see what's wrong with her. She has no 'prada' on her bag, I see no jewels, no cellphone,...

She (the woman dressed like this) shouldn't walk alone at night, but then I don't think any woman should, (between 12 and 6) and everyone has to be careful in certain neighbourhoods. That's the same in every big city, as far as I know.

 

[steveinbsas]

I don't see what's wrong with her. She has no 'prada' on her bag, I see no jewels, no cellphone,...

She (the woman dressed like this) shouldn't walk alone at night, but then I don't think any woman should, (between 12 and 6) and everyone has to be careful in certain neighbourhoods. That's the same in every big city, as far as I know.

She is all that and more...

Actually she is SHE the OP.......

That's why I told her not to dress like that all the time when walking around the city, La Boca for instance or late at night alone.

Look closely at the face in the photo...

What does "all that and more" mean?

Is she packin' a rod?

If so , she will be much safer then most women.

 

[davonz]

Abasto Shopping is terrible for this -- wait at the taxi stand out front and you're almost guaranteed being robbed by someone.

Was just telling a local friend about this discussion, and i said about Abasto shopping.. he response was "yeah, i was robbed by 5 or 6 guys last year there". And yet i often go to the coto there late at night as its the closest big open supermarket.. and have never felt unsafe.

All my friends are locals, and even the ones who live in areas like san isidro, hurlingham and escobar tell me these areas are unsafe too. They have been robbed, maids been beaten up by intruders because they didnt know where the money was in the house, car jacked etc..

 

[Eternalnewbie]

I don't know about any of this, which is a good thing, I suppose. I have never once felt unsafe or threatened in Buenos Aires, and of course, have never been robbed or anything like that, including being pickpocketed on the Subte. Oh, I did get the bird poop scam once near Japanese Gardens, but I knew the gig and said nasty things to the people pretending to "help" me.

On the other hand, I think this is a result of lifestyle choices, not necessarily a reflection of other realities. I am never out after Midnight. Almost everything I do occurs during daylight hours, and if I am out in the evening, I come and by by taxi, radio taxi. Just like there are places I would never wander around in LA or DC, there are places here I just don't go.

A person who makes different lifestyle choices could have a different result from my always pleasant experiences here.

 

[fifs2]

I have to agree with both arguments re media sensationalism and over idealistic newbies who think they are so street smart nothing will happen to them. Night-time wanderings have little to do with crime. I have been followed by 2 guys at 4pm in Caballito but was saved by a policeman appearing from a doorway...my husband was held up at gun point on the golf course...it`s really a matter of luck/destiny..nothing more.
Be smart in your choices and alittle more paranoid than you would be in your natural environment and hopefully you will be fine.