Perceptions of Downtown

Found interesting the perceptions of downtown shown in the comments on the Southern's article about the closing of the Stadium Grille. Several comments related to the high rate of crime in the downtown area and the likelihood of getting mugged in the parking lot. This perception is not borne out by crime statistics from the Carbondale Police website. While I only looked at the last 30 days, it appears you are as likely to have property stolen if you are at University Mall as you are in downtown and neither location shows any reports of muggings, though there is one aggravated battery report from downtown and none at the Mall.