City Hospital area - safe or dangerous? (Cleveland, Akron: to rent, crime)

[MRSWHITE]

Hi everbody,

We ended up renting a house here and have no idea about the neighborhood. Is it safe? Should we come out at night, even in our car? Should we have alarm system? And is there places around here that we shouldn't go to? Also, how about the high school? My kid wants to ride a bicycle to school. Can he do that without danger?

[SquareBetterThanAll]

Most of the residential areas around University Park are kind of so-so to not so hot. Your son wants to ride a bike? What is that, North High School? That would be a good trek. Either he would have to ride down Market, across the Y Bridge to North Hill, and then down Tallmadge over Rt 8, or I guess he could roll down through the Valley somehow and then back up the Hill again, but that would definitely take some leg muscles. I would worry about the hassle of that, or getting hit by a car, much more than the "danger" from people in doing so. Just pick up a free bus pass from school and ride the Metro.

It's Akron not Chicago so I would have to laugh to think of anyone being afraid to go anywhere in the city in a car of all things. But crime is existent in some shape or form across University Park so I guess your mileage may vary when it comes to that. I don't know what to tell you there, stay away from dealers and crack houses and you'll probably be ok.

[MRSWHITE]

Thanks a lot. I saw somewhere in Akron forum saying that Buchtel area should be avoided, and there is a Buchtel Ave nearby so I wonder if it is the area people were talking about. There are many open lots on the short street I live now and weird scary vacant houses, which makes me more worried. Then I guess it's okay to jog early in the morning?

[SquareBetterThanAll]

Originally Posted by MRSWHITE

Thanks a lot. I saw somewhere in Akron forum saying that Buchtel area should be avoided, and there is a Buchtel Ave nearby so I wonder if it is the area people were talking about. There are many open lots on the short street I live now and weird scary vacant houses, which makes me more worried. Then I guess it's okay to jog early in the morning?

Hard to tell, they might be referring to the Buchtel HS area in West Akron also. For Buchtel Ave, the closer to UA the better you are. If you are off of Buchtel on the north side of Market (the side the hospital is on) I don't think I would be keen on jogging in the dark. Either way, though, unless you are on campus Buchtel Ave isn't that great.

You're really asking a subjective question, because my bad and your bad and Chicago bad and Cleveland bad might all be different things. I personally am not scared to drive around the neighborhood, and I would not be overly concerned about wandering around East Market during the day. I don't think I would want to go jogging in the dark. Even though it's unlikely that at any given time something would happen, the possibility is there that at some point something could happen. That area, particularly the part north of Market, would probably rank towards the bottom of neighborhoods I would want to live in, though. You live where you can afford - been there, done that - but even though it's cheap I'm sure it doesn't take much extra to afford a neighborhood with a lower crackhead and hooker ratio.

But, especially in comparison to other cities, Akron bad isn't really that bad. The likelihood of you as a bystander catching a stray bullet is pretty low, for instance.

[MRSWHITE]

Thanks. We didn't expect to rent without learning about the area first, but things happened and we ended up here. Will live here for at least 1 year so I guess the best I could do is to use caution and know a much as possible about what we should not do. We practically don't go out at night much but winter is coming and it's hard to find any sunlight after 5. Today my kid left home at 7:30 when it was half dark outside athough there were many cars. Also, I will get back to work soon and won't be home until 9 everyday and I'm a woman - small one.

How about East High School?

[SquareBetterThanAll]

That's still a trek on a bike from your neighborhood. Not quite as bad though, at least you don't have to go up any hills until the end.