Bill,
Obviously from my name here I have a vested interest in telling you about St. Croix (always like to get that out of the way right up front). St. Croix does have a very undeserved reputation for crime, most of which, amazingly enough, dates back almost 40 years. Rather than me re-writing the history here, I'm going to paste a portion of the description of one of the main events that gave St. Croix the reputation. This is from st-croix.net
In the late summer of 1972 five black men in there early 20's robbed what was at the time the Fountain Valley Golf Club. They walked into the dining room dressed in army fatigues, robbed the cash registers, and demanded money from the club members and staff. One person who said he had no money was shot, and a shooting spree began which killed eight people and wounded 3 others. The FBI was flown in to help the local police in the investigation and in several days the 5 suspects, most with past criminal records and outstanding warrants, were caught and made confessions.
William Kunstler volunteered to defend what became known as the "Fountain Valley Five". An international media circus began that turned what started as a robbery into the typical Black Power event of the time. There were complaints by the suspects of mistreatment and police brutality. Kunstler's association with the media helped spread the word about what happened at Fountain Valley, and his association with radical events and defense of black civil rights leaders turned it into a Black-White issue. It seemed to be forgotten that these criminals had shot and killed a black electrician helper that happened to be working there. They also shot two other black employees who were running away, and were going to shoot another black employee until one of the criminals said that he knew him. And they robbed everyone they contacted, Black or White.
Now since then there was looting on the island after the complete devastation of Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and that added to the reputation.
I've lived here 26 years. I leave our business late every night and never worry about it. If you leave your cam corder on the seat of your rental car while you go snorkeling on a deserted beach you'll probably lose it. If you leave your cam corder on the seat of your rental car while you go visit the Vatican, you'll probably lose it.
There are places that are perfectly safe, and there are areas that you don't want to be in. As with every where else in the world, certainly in the U.S., you can feel the difference and you known where you should and shouldn't be.
Now to the more positive questions you posed about our island.
If you're looking for condo type facilities there are four complexes all located along Sugar Beach, which is less than 10 minutes west of Christiansted (the main town on the island). From east to west there's Club St. Croix, Sugar Beach, Colony Cove, and Mill Harbor. All of them do short and long term rentals and all have websites that are easily found through a Google search. Both Club St. Croix and Colony Cove are on Travelocity and you can get some incredible deals on airfare/hotel packages through them right now. Our Department of Tourism has some great promotions that will give you coupons good for activities, dining, and even scuba diving.
As for diving the north shore is home to what we call the "ultimate wall". The moorings (all the dive shops use moorings rather than anchoring and risking damage to the reef), along the top of the wall start in 25'-40' and drop, vertically in places, 13,200'.
We have the largest living reef of any Caribbean island.
We have the second longest barrier reef in the Caribbean.
We have a set of 5 shipwrecks that can be dived in two dives (they're within 100 yards of each other).
We have a Pier that is an awesome dive by day and absolutely fantastic at night.
You mentioned golf, there are 2.5 courses here. The Carambola course and the Buccaneer Hotel's course are both 18 holes while the Reef is a 9 hole course.
There are 6 dive shops here and no matter which one you choose you'll have a great time diving here. You can see from my signature line which one I'm partial to. Read about us, and the island in general, on Trip Advisor and come let us show you why we're the "friendliest dive shop on earth".
hee hee, it took me about ten minutes to get used to it!
