East Aurora vs West Aurora (Rockford, Springfield: violent crime, houses, university)

[yousah]

That crime site is absolutely useless. It's barely showing anything. Coincidently, this city-data website has better data that shows the city of Aurora to have a "high" crime rate. And it's reporting the east and west side together which means that the east side is pulled up by the safer west side.

The majority of the east side consists of residents, many whom are illegal. They are the least likely to report actual crimes because of their own fear of deportation; at least during the times when a democrat isn't president.

I've owned in some pretty bad areas like Front Street (had to drive the drunk who broke into my rehab property 'out' of the area), Kendall (bad, bad bad), Iowa (west side bad area among nicer adjacent areas but was a flip property), Spencer (quaint area area on SE side, getting worse), Chestnut Street (not too bad, but really bad tenants), Marywood (machine gun fire in that area along with a guy starting a car entirely on fire), also managed two 4-unit properties in Marywood for a lender, S. Watson Street (not bad, but terrible grade school that everyone escapes by sending their kids to the parochial schools), S. Fourth Street (still hanging in there, but same bad grade school district), Seminary Avenue (still nice and the hospital was still in business when I owned in that neighborhood, bought at $15K, resold $80K when the market was still good). My grandma lived on Hoyles Avenue for her entire life and I have relatives on the west and north sides. Also went to church at Emmanuel Lutheran many years ago when it was still safe and had a congregation that spoke english.

I've also done field servicing for lenders and have boarded up and fixed and leased and sold dozens of properties on the east side. I no longer will appraise there do to the difficulty in taking photos of the comparable properties. It's not an area that you want to drive in with a camera hanging out the window.

[chet everett]

Wow a drunk. Truly harrowing.

[yousah]

Worse yet, it happened late at night (about 10pm) during the winter on a really bad snowy night. I was accessing the house from the rear because I had boarded up the front door. The back of the house was really dark and I didn't leave the light on. I went to open the back door and it just pushed in. The guy was sleeping on the kitchen floor. It scared the heck out of me as I walked up the few stairs into the kitchen.

I called my business partner in the project and he came over to help me remove this guy. I never felt safe being there late at night by myself again and it really slowed the project down because I waited until I was working with someone else at the house rather than alone.

[chet everett]

Good thing he didn't have a machine gun

I completely understand your fear. The general trends in even the worst parts of Aurora is being driven by economic forces -- the relative tightness of the job market has meant many folks without documentation have left. The legitimate green card holders and citizens tend to be more cooperative with law enforcement. The Aurora PD and the Kane Co State's Attorney have a pretty effective strategy of throwing the book at really bad guys.

I do not doubt that the crime rate is still high compared to other suburban areas but it is not accurate to ignore the improvements that there have been.

[supportyourschools]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Did you read my previous comments in this thread? Get real. There are certainly problems with the portion of Aurora that is served by the East Aurora district but in main street level violence is nothing compared to places like Chicago or Gary...

Crime rates tumbling in Aurora - Joliet Herald News

City of Aurora - Aurora Major Crime Continues at Record Low

You beat me to my favorite links, Chet. If you win that "most informative poster" contest, then I want a piece of the pie

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by supportyourschools

You beat me to my favorite links, Chet. If you win that "most informative poster" contest, then I want a piece of the pie

No problem

If I get the "most likely to cause the small-minded to have their skull crack" wanna share of that too

The level of acrimony is kind of high today, holiday shopping crunch? BTW the revenue that Aurora gets from the holday shoppers at the outlet mall certainly does help support the police presence throughout the city...

[yousah]

You guys are getting confused by the relative nature of these claims. Aurora's street violence was extremely high about 10 years ago and is now back to a level that is lower than that, but still high.

There was even a segment on the 60 Minutes news program back in the days when the murder rate was higher than Chicago.

So city officials like to brag about declining rates of violence, but there still is plenty of violence, especially as compared ALL of the adjacent cities. And the building boom that stopped back in 2008 was mainly on the far east side of Aurora. That increased the population of middle class families which dilutes the crime rate statistics because of 'better' people moving in the City- but none of that affected the east side which just continues to get worse.

The type of violence in Aurora is the worst kind too. There's too much random violence that can involve innocent bystanders as compared to the adjacent areas.

You have the village of Oswego just to the south of Aurora that has had an occasional murder; but those murders were among family members and not against random people. So Oswego is an extremely safe community where you can walk around at night with no fear of getting involved in a crime. Same with Batavia, Sugar Grove, North Aurora, Naperville- which are all the surrounding communities that are much safer. The violent crimes in those areas are rarely random and usually domestic violence amongst family members.

The 'bad' parts of Aurora have extended over the years into the southeast side (south of North Avenue). So the neighborhoods are getting worse, not better.

If you think that less murders today versus years ago is better then go live on the east side. Most rational people realize that truth that the east side is getting worse.

You might want to get a little information regarding the outlet mall's contributions towards police protection. The city created numerous TIF districts when the project was first built and has not realized much of the impact from tax proceeds at this time. Even then, a portion of the 'income' from the sales tax revenue goes to other sources like the Batavia School District. The city is now contemplating create new TIF districts for expanding the mall which will only delay the mall being a cash cow for the city. My friend who works for the city of Aurora worked closely with the developers on this project. There's a lot of public money that went into this project that isn't being accurately reported. So the idea that police protection is better because of the mall really isn't true.

That's the problem with relying upon the internet for your knowledge of the area.

[usagisan]

I grew up in Aurora and am just waiting for an elderly relative to pass away to get out of here. There is nothing to recommend Aurora over the surrounding communities. the central problem with Aurora is the political scene, it was targeted by the Chicago machine a few years back and is no designed to become a welfare dependent community (under the leadership of Madigan pawn Mayor Tom Weisner (who also is on the IL Toll Commission as an additional incentive to tow the line for that pension boost)) and folks like Stephanie Kifowit and Linda Chapa-LaVia.

West Aurora is now in steady decline. Aurora University is contributing to the problem by importing so many inner city kids on diversity scholarships and with them their gang banging friends(interesting Chapa LaVia went to bat for the ones accused of sexual assault). Even the much heralded Downer Place mansion row is in decline. Home prices have tumbled and are being purchased by people who cannot afford to keep them in repair, as these old homes need a great deal of a maintenance and more and more are starting to be multi-family.

Over 50% of the kids now at West High are on assistance. And this is the good side of town. The property tax rate is 2x that of Naperville and every community around Aurora (and I mean every one) has superior demographics and a better ratio of average income to average home price (which tells you part of the reason so many homes in Aurora are multi-family – the incomes are too low to support the housing costs, in part because of the high taxes.

There are some nice areas on the far west side west or orchard and some west or Edgelawn and south of Garfield. These areas may hold up better than the rest of the area as it is painfully obvious the whole area from Highland west to Edgelawn is in slow decline.

[yousah]

Aurora has some very large two story houses in its central area. The problem is that housing values are so low that no one can afford to put money in those houses because they'll be overimproved for their market. Even putting siding on a large house costs more than what it's worth.

This is in contrast to the older cities in DuPage County where housing values are much higher and where you see nicely restored houses in excellent condition.

The older housing stock in Aurora will just continue to deteriorate.

[IAmEverywhere]

Originally Posted by usagisan

Aurora University is contributing to the problem by importing so many inner city kids on diversity scholarships and with them their gang banging friends...

Where else do you suggest these inner city students go to obtain an education?

It is a huge benefit to society if Aurora University is giving these kids a chance to obtain a university education in a better environment than they're from.