Do you feel safe living in Dalston with the recent high number of shootings?

Obviously not.

The only time I've been threatened living in Dalston was walking from Kingsland Road down Sandringham road at around 12am on a Friday night. A couple had been arguing outside the Argos near the corner. I crossed the road and glanced at them as I crossed.

Headphones in, I saw something out of the corner of my eye a few moments later. It was a broken bottle landing. I turned around to see the man from the couple sprinting towards me down the road. Luckily I outran him as he was pretty beefy.

Anyway - a kicking from an idiot who thought I had something to say about his argument when I didn't hardly compares to what seem to be random shootings around the area recently.

It's really scary.

And now reading about the bike theft and beating via your twitter stream makes me worry a lot about my girlfriend riding around the area.

And I thought our real estate agent was crazy when she told us that we were "going native" by renting in the area!

Obviously, the odds are still quite low of you being beaten or shot or stabbed, but does it feel that way when you are walking down the street? Hell no.

It's very reminscent of parts of Brooklyn in the late 80s and early 90s when the crime rate was at its peak. Dodgy, dirty, and unsafe. Massive -- albeit controversial -- police tactics were implemented, pioneering artists and students moved in, and over time those areas changed for the better (or worse if you can no longer afford to live there).

Dalston feels very similar. And like Brooklyn, they are going to have to clean it up (again, for better or worse) if they are going to justify the rent and new condo prices. I like to joke that a neighbourhood is officially "safe" when Starbucks decides to open there.

My recent encounter: a few weeks ago I was talking to my cousin on the corner of Culford Rd and Buckingham Rd around midnight (this is slightly SW of Dalston Junction). Three hoods walked past us and stopped a few meters away. I immediately knew that these guys were up to no good. So rather than sending my cousin alone to the nearest bus I told him we better starting hoofing it back to my house.

To no surprise the hoods started following us and we started to walk faster and faster until we were all nearly running. Luckily we managed to reach the front gate of my house where there are CCTV cameras, and the guys continued on past. I really was prepared for the worst. And I've been sour on the area ever since. This is an area with £1m+ homes but it doesn't feel safe after dark, which sucks because that's when I prefer to jog.

Unfortunately when my kid approaches school age, we may have to seek out an uncool area to live for a better peace of mind.

Oh. Brooklyn_mike's experience was just on the corner where I live. Perhaps I really have been lucky/naive/stupid. :(

I know this is not technically dalston - but I was on Lodon fields a couple of weekends ago having a bbq party with a load of friends - we were having an amazing day and a group of about 6/7 nasty looking people started hangin round the periphery of the group and bags stared going missing - they even tried to steal a bike at one point and then accused the owner of trying to steal from them when he went to get it back - as soon as night fell and we were clearing up they got nasty and hit someone and started throwing bottles at people - we made a quick exit but had to leave the mess we had made in disarray on the fields as we were fearing for our safety and so they not only ruined the last half hour of the party but they also caused us to litter the fields which I hate. There are some nasty types out there definitely that only seem to understand violence. Ironically we had called our BBQ the 'Neon Flashing Hearts of Love festeeval' (catchy lol!) - how differnent in attitude can you be?!! I certainly would never walk throught he Fields at night. (we still had a good time though :-)