Suggested neighborhoods & church for a UAB resident (Birmingham, Hoover: for sale, apartment complexes)

[kbear_15]

Hello - I'm going to be starting my residency at UAB this coming summer and know absolutely NOBODY in this city. I want to start looking around for places, but have no idea where to start.
I'm torn right now as to renting an apartment vs renting a house? I'm a single female and safety is a big issue. I would prefer something relatively close to the hospital and go against traffic (have little as possible)
If apartments are the way to go - any specific, nice places one could suggest?
Also - does anyone happen to know a great catholic church nearby as well?
Thanks!

[MadHaus]

I can't help with apartments, but do suggest that you visit the Cathedral of St. Paul in downtown B'ham. It's lovely and has an interesting history, too. It also has a more active parish community than other cathedrals and downtown parishes where we've lived.

Our Lady of Sorrows in Homewood seems to be a vibrant parish, but it may be more geared to families (it also has a school) and to older adults, given the neighborhood. There isn't a Catholic parish in Vestavia Hills, so residents there mainly choose between St. Peter's in Hoover, the cathedral and the parish in Mtn. Brook (sorry, the name escapes me.) St. Mark the Evangelist is, I think, the newest parish in the area. It's off Cahaba Valley, down Hwy 280 near Inverness. You might like to pay it a visit, even if it's too far to join.

Have you asked around at UAB or Kirklin Clinic for housing suggestions? We've spent quite a lot of time there the past few months and found everyone to be very friendly and helpful. Good luck!

[Stacey2]

Stay South of UAB, and/or over the mountain in Homewood and you will be fine. There are apartments in south side that are good as well. Your best resource may be St. Paul's.
There are many, many choices for a renter in that area. Good Luck, Hope ou find a great place.

[Bravo35223]

I'd strongly suggest living in Homewood and going to Our Lady of Sorrows....

[robroebuck]

Which program are you in? Quite a few residents own or rent in the Crestwood and Crestline Park areas.

Check out Canterbury Gardens, and Redmont Gardens. As said before, stay south of UAB.

Homewood
Crestwood
Hoover (but farther away)
Vestavia

[loydm]

Originally Posted by robroebuck

Which program are you in? Quite a few residents own or rent in the Crestwood and Crestline Park areas.

Check out Canterbury Gardens, and Redmont Gardens. As said before, stay south of UAB.

Homewood
Crestwood
Hoover (but farther away)
Vestavia

I'm in agreement with most of the other posters here: try to saty south of UAB - Homewod, Mountain Brook, Crestline, et al. The Canterbury Gardens are older, but pretty nice and they are in planned re-modeling (my brother works for the company that does the re-modeling there), plus they are right across the road from the Botanical Gardens and Zoo; Crestline is really a great place, too: especially if you could get a room-mate or two and rent one of the small houses in the community. My daughter lived in Homewoood (she now lives in the Loft District) while she was an undergrad at UAb and loved it!

[ResidentBirmingham]

A fellow resident lives on historic Diaper Row, aka 21st Ave. S., which is right over the mountain from Southside on the edge of Homewood. He says it's great because it has all of the charm of Homewood, but is technically B'ham, so there are no Homewood school district taxes...and MINUTES from UAB/downtown.

Try googling diaperrow and see what pops up. I think I saw a house for sale on the street the last time I was by, and the website was actually "diaperrow."

Best of luck! You're going to love Birmingham!

[1size2smll]

Canterbury Gardens and Park Lane Apartments are in awesome locations. I lived in Park Lane Apts with my husband when he was an MD/PhD student at UAB. We were able to walk to the gardens and did so several times a week. We always walked to the Pig (that's a grocery store) Smith's Variety, Book Smith, an ice cream place, sandwich place, and now there is a Starbucks. Very safe and so close to the medical center and nightlife (if you have energy left for that, LOL) Two drawbacks 1) FLOOD ZONE! Not usually a problem --we were quite unlucky and had a car totaled in a "hundred year flood"- given the current drought you probably don't have to worry; 2) No washer/dryer hookups allowed in your apartment, but there is an on site laundry building and I understand that these days they have a laundress who will do your wash for you for a fee.

In general, the others are right to say "stay south of UAB", but ask lots of questions of people you run into when you are checking out the apartments! Before the new uab dorms were built, I worked on one of the old blocks there and had a delusional man from a nearby half-way house come in to our offices and rant for a while. A good female friend of mine had strange notes left on her car and a neighbor had an attempted break-in. I believe she was on 11th Court in Southside and did not feel safe.

Good luck!

[Brad Martin]

I would recommend either Homewood or Crestline. It is relatively close without having to sit in all the traffic for hours. I do not recommend down 280or anything south of Vestavia on I-65. Since you are working at UAB you would have to sit in traffice all morning and it gets old quick. I work on the lower end of 280 so I drive it about 5 times a day and it is extremely frusturating. Although this area has a lot to offer in such a small distance (which explains the traffice issue), it is not worth the effort to live and commute to UAB everyday.

[ghannah22]

Like everyone else, I recommend Homewood...I have lived in this area throughout dental school and after I graduated. The area is safe and the commute isn't bad. PM me if you have questions about specific apartment complexes or neighborhoods. Check the bulletin boards at the medical school if you can...there are several nice homes ($700,000+) in my neighborhood (Homewood, across from Brookwood Mall) that have rented basement apartments to medical students/residents in the past...cheap rent and extremely safe area. Good luck!