Worst neighborhoods in Birmingham (quality of life, living, dangerous)

[bamabmw]

I know this is a old post and see Fairfield mentioned and Ensfield but I'm very surprised Tittusville North/South is not mentioned my car was blocked in driving through there to visit a friend who grew up there and was trying to move I actually had to run over 3 people who tried to block me in and pull me out of my car

[shirl2014]

Originally Posted by loverofall

I've seen a lot of post here discussing the best neighborhoods of B'ham but I never hear about the worst. Why is that? I plan to move to Birmingham and of course I've been doing my research. Hoover, Mountain Brook, Vestavia hills and Homewood are those that have been discussed the most in a positive manner. However, during my research, I've also come across neighborhoods such as West End, Ensley, Inglenook etc. Are these considered the not so great areas of Birmingham?

I am white and I see it is allot of racist on here, a bad neighborhood has to do with education level, not race, a uneducated white and a uneducated black etc act the same way. They are destructive in the neighborhood. A educated white and a educated brown, black etc, will not be destructive in the neighborhood, so someone telling you to be aware of non white area, is foolish, I have lived in nice neighborhoods, with non whites, who were educated and doing things with their lives and crime was low. I have lived in all white lower level neighborhoods, were there were all kinds of problems, poor is poor and education makes a difference in the quality you will get in a neighborhood. There is more uneducated whites, because simply there are more of us in the world than any other race. So ignorant racist, wise up.:

[shirl2014]

Originally Posted by locotruckdriver

The Scientific way to analyze how bad crime is in any given area of any city is to locate the demographic data for the area in question and evaluate what percentage of that population is Non-White.
And although being very accurate, using this method often times will be taboo, due to the nature of the scrutiny of the disinfranched subjects that are represented in the data.

You can use any city for this but here are some examples that came from the data here:

Crime in "Fairfeild, AL" is 1191 crimes per 100k, the population is 92% non-white.

Crime in "Mnt. Brook, AL" is 96 crimes per 100k,
the population is 2% non white.

A person may be so upetty as to say they don't like the real conclusion of facts they are presented with, but they can not renigg on unbiased data that presents a universal truth.

Uneducated racist, demographic, education has the most to do with crime, so uneducated what ever race will cause problems. I am white and lived in all demographic areas. The all white area have been bad as well, because of lack of education, not race.

[Southlander]

Whatever.
Just stay out of Ensley.

[fabissouza]

What would be the best city for me to raise my children? Best School? Less crime? Peace of mind?

Originally Posted by 3am green coffee

That's primarily because the people who live in those neighborhoods aren't in the habit of posting advice for people who might want to move here, and the people who are interested in whether you like Birmingham don't exactly have an incentive to air our dirty laundry. Birmingham's widely publicized murder rate is mostly the result of so-called "black on black" crime in poor areas. That crime doesn't affect people in the better neighborhoods anywhere near the same rate.

But since you asked...

Ensley is pretty rough. If I remember correctly, a lot of the people who lived in the housing projects downtown were relocated to Ensley. But it was already a rough place before that. Ensley was once a working class town for people who worked at the steel mills. When they closed, people who had any money left.

West End is also bad. There's a big housing project at Elyton that has a lot of criminal activity. Fairfield gets quite a bit of activity as well. There are some quiet streets out there, but as a whole the stretch from I-65 to the East part of Bessemer would not be recommended.

North Birmingham is another area you would want to avoid. The area between downtown and Fultondale has some pretty rough neighborhoods. After you get to Fultondale, it's not as bad.

There are some pretty rough areas around the airport. Woodlawn has been bad for many years. East Lake has turned bad in the last couple of decades.

Those are the larger problem areas, but there are pockets of issues in other communities as well. Avondale has some not so good streets. There's a rough housing project over behind Century Plaza mall on the east side. There are some iffy areas out in Roebuck, Center Point and Pinson. But there are good neighborhoods in all these areas as well.

One of the dirty secrets here is the immigrant population in Hoover and Pelham. Both get mentioned as great places to live, but they have a growing crime issue in the Hispanic communities. People don't like to talk about it for fear of appearing insensitive or racist.

You have entire apartment complexes in Hoover that are nothing but Hispanics. That in itself isn't the problem. The problem is that because of the language barrier and an ingrained mistrust of police, Hispanic crime victims often won't report the crime. As a result, bad guys in the area know they can often do whatever they want without getting caught. The big Hispanic gangs like MS-13 prey on that and have a presence here, although I don't know if Hoover will admit it. Hoover police have been trying desperately to recruit bilingual officers to combat the problem, but the problem still exists.

Most of us don't talk about all this, not only for the reasons mentioned above, but also because it makes us uncomfortable. A white guy from Mountain Brook or Homewood rarely spends any time at all in any of the areas mentioned. Therefore he will often not feel qualified to comment on problems in a neighborhood with which he isn't really familiar. People in the Birmingham area are quite sensitive to being labeled racist and will go out of their way to avoid speaking about poor black areas for fear of being misunderstood.

Me? I don't really care. I worked in news in Birmingham and have been in these areas, covering murders and problems in housing projects. I don't see how it helps to dance around the subject.

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by fabissouza

What would be the best city for me to raise my children? Best School? Less crime? Peace of mind?

You will have a better chance of getting a quality answer if you post in the sticky at the top of the forum rather then bumping this old and problematic thread.

[locotruckdriver]

You are not disputing the factual data in any way shape or form, you are not even making a valuable rebuttal. WTF?

Originally Posted by captaincatfish

Boy oh boy...it's now 2010, and I'm still incredulous as to the amount of people who still buy into stuff like this...

Are we so in a hurry to name the boogeyman, that we forget that in those very same 'bad neighborhoods' everybody wears garlic going into, and makes the sign of the cross when leaving, that there are (wait for it) GOOD HONEST PEOPLE WITH FAMILIES, WHO ARE LIVING THERE AND WANT TO GET OUT?

'Percentage of non-white residents' my suffering a**... I'm not going to throw everybody's favorite buzzword (racist) around here either, because there are those in any race...it's easy to point a finger and call someone that, but it's a waste of time, and besides, it would take a miracle to change a person's mindset, anyway...this is another one of those instances where I was reading interesting threads, and saw this one, and knew I had to weigh in and say SOMETHING...

I hope I will be forgiven ahead of time for not being a resident, but this just ACHED for a rebuttal of some kind...and by the way it's 'uppity' and 'renege', Mr Scientific Data...you are possibly smearing some good people with your brush of misinformation and just plain cussed stupidity

[John Williams]

Originally Posted by hamanian

It depends on what you deem safe as well as what you call a crime. When referring to crime you have to put racist definitions aside. Trussville ranks #1 in Ashley Madison usage, which is a website where married people find infidelity partners. Heroine abuse is a big issue in Hueytown and nearly every Over The Mountain city. Child molestation against toddlers, along with sexual relationships between teachers and students occur more often in Shelby County. Walker and Blount County are the epicenters for meth and child pornography. Gun violence amongst gang members because of drug distribution to suburbanites happens more in Ensley. Your lifestyle along with your bank account depicts where you want to live.

In most cases, the most statistically safe areas are the ones where people of genuine wealth live. So yes, it's a matter of what your bank account will bear.

And a tip to folks who pull out the "race card" tripe: please don't. It makes you look bad.

[SColeii]

Birmingham Alabama has a lot of flaws that could have been fixed many years ago, but the issue is that you have a lot of uneducated individuals who could care less about the community they live in. The majority of the crimes committed are by black folks not white people. Before i continue i am African American and was not born in the Birmingham area. Originally from Arizona i find it disconcerting that the neighborhoods look more like slums than a place you would want to raise your kids. The education system is not here to educate but babysit. Yes there are some good students in the schools, but they are drowned out by the criminals that their parents send to school as an excuse not to parent. The crime rate is high, no good housing options as there are a lot of slum lords here that would put you in a cardboard box if they could. I dare anybody to give factual information to dispute what I've just said. Not i have lived here all my life and its nice here.

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by SColeii

The majority of the crimes committed are by black folks not white people.

The hell you say? A city that's majority black has crime committed mostly by blacks? Impossible.

Before i continue i am African American and was not born in the Birmingham area.

Doesn't matter, if you have something factual and constructive to share or talk about - it doesn't matter what color you are or where you are from. I don't get why people need to preface what they think are "cold hard facts" or "hard hitting commentary" with stuff like this. We are all humans here that should want the best for ourselves and each other. Being from somewhere else or being the same color of the people you are talking bad about doesn't make you more qualified or more worthy to listen to.

Originally from Arizona i find it disconcerting that the neighborhoods look more like slums than a place you would want to raise your kids.

Birmingham has 99 neighborhoods. They do not all look like slums. This is a lie.

The education system is not here to educate but babysit. Yes there are some good students in the schools, but they are drowned out by the criminals that their parents send to school as an excuse not to parent.

That is a generic statement that could be leveled at a lot of poor inner city school systems across the country. Nothing ground breaking about it and no one here is trying to sugar coat that.

The crime rate is high, no good housing options as there are a lot of slum lords here that would put you in a cardboard box if they could.

That is a lie, and it doesn't even make sense. Birmingham is not 100% slums.

I dare anybody to give factual information to dispute what I've just said. Not i have lived here all my life and its nice here.

I just did. But its funny how you contradict yourself. How could it be "nice here" and be all slums? Need some clarification. BTW, this didn't bring anything worthy to the table, IMO, to resurrect this silly train wreck of a thread.