In Los Angeles there is a block of land on the corner of West First Street and South Spring Street that houses the offices of the Los Angeles Times. It is just down the street from City Hall and directly across from the LA Police Department. There may be some rough areas of LA best avoided by tourists, but this is certainly not one of them. The area looks as safe as safe can be . . . until you check the LAPD’s online map of reported crime locations. Between October 2008 and March 2009, there were 1,380 crimes on that block. That’s around 4 percent of all crimes marked on the map.
