Safest areas of Lakewood? (Cleveland, Euclid: section 8, apartments, renting)

[GigiB]

What are the safest areas of Lakewood?

[twange]

Originally Posted by GigiB

What are the safest areas of Lakewood?

What's your definition of safe? I'm not tryin to be coy People have different perceptions regarding personal safety. Most people will say stay away from Birdtown and try to stay west of Bunts. As far as Birdtown goes, yea it's a little ragged I suppose but in my opinion has a tremendous amount of upside. A bunch of cute little houses just waiting for someone to peel off their hideous aluminum siding skins and dress them up. As to the second presumption, in my opinion , is utter crap. The kind of stuff people just parrot because they don't really know. There are a lot of nice streets people overlook following that dumb rule Grace, Clarence, Waterbury, Alameda, Elbur and Chesterland(north of Madison is nicer)

Are you looking to buy or rent? If renting, are you looking for a house or apartment? Drive around the neighborhoods, you'll be able to tell which streets are fundamentally flawed. Personally, I think the worst area is the quadrant between Winchester and 117th(west to east) and Madison to Detroit(south to north). It's not that there are not some really nice homes in that area. There certainly is. But on the whole, it's fairly crummy. Too many section 8 properties and absentee landlords, especially along Franklin. There is some new development going on along Detroit in that area but it might take awhile for that to solidify.

The thing about Lakewood, is that it's a city, so each street can be very different from the next. A general rule of thumb is to possibly avoid streets that are too heavily weighted towards rental, i.e. duplexes. Go for the streets that are either all single-family or at least evenly mixed.

If you're looking for an apartment, Clifton and Lake have some gorgeous buildings. Again, if the place looks run down, it probably has lousy tenants.

Good luck and enjoy Lakewood, it's a great inner ring suburb.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by twange

There are a lot of nice streets people overlook following that dumb rule Grace, Clarence, Waterbury, Alameda, Elbur and Chesterland(north of Madison is nicer)

You forgot Cohassett, Lewis, and Parkview -- also very nice streets in that area.

Originally Posted by twange

If you're looking for an apartment, Clifton and Lake have some gorgeous buildings.

Edgewater, too. And Cove between Lake and Edgewater.

[twange]

Originally Posted by andrew61

You forgot Cohassett, Lewis, and Parkview -- also very nice streets in that area.



Edgewater, too. And Cove between Lake and Edgewater.

Of course. Agreed Coutant towards Detroit also has some amazing houses.

My wife lived on the Gold Coast for a bit(Edgewater). Loved that location.

[igorvin]

I Have just moved out of lakewood after living there 10yrs. as far as the area listed above alameda,waterbury....... those areas were nice(I lived near Almeda and Detroit ave.) but have steadily declined over the last few years.largely contributed to the growing number of section8(welfare housing)houses and apartments not to mention affirmative action programs.I have watched the east half of lakewood from W.140th(bunts rd) to w.117(memphis ave.) gradually start to resemble Cleveland(and not the better parts of cleveland) with the exception of lake ave. and the coast.
West of w.140th. you really can't go wrong, the closer to the city of rockey river the better.

As the poster mentioned earlier, it depends what your definition of safe is.You don't have to really worry about "drive by" shootings,prostitution or drug dealers standing on the corners anywhere in Lakewood. If your worried about break ins, the neighbors arguing,teenagers causing commotions acting "ghetto" then the farther west of Lakewood the better.

[ottomobeale]

Igorvin's las paragraph is dead on for generalities.

[WHISPERGIRL]

Is there a safe place anywhere in the united states? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!!!!

[tribecavsbrowns]

Moderator cut: orphaned, the post you were quoting was removed

An interesting rule of thumb in Lakewood that works surprisingly well has to do with the age of the apartment building. If it's one of those ornate 1920's-style buildings, it's usually pretty nice (although you might have some minor maintenance issues). If it's one of those drab light brown modernist boxes, it might be kind of a hole (and you'll still have maintenance issues). Examples of the latter are the Lakewood Club Apartments (off of Hird next to the railroad tracks), the Silver Coast near Madison and Hilliard, and the high-rises on the West End overlooking the Valley. All these places are less than great. One exception to the rule is the Gold Coast, where most of the buildings went up in the 1960s, and while they're not THE PLACE TO BE anymore, they offer a lot and they're relatively problem-free.

[Eol]

"drug dealers standing on the corners anywhere in Lakewood"

Ummm, we do have these in Lakewood, try down around Franklin and 117 or in the general area and Lakewood has a pretty big prostitution scene also, check your local provider boards.

As for personal safety, I have never had a problem. Its slowly decaying inner belt suburb so your main worry is the occasional drunk, spillover from Cleveland, and kids acting ghetto (more and more lakewood kids remind of the crack kids I see in Euclid). Section 8 is a problem also but thats pretty much all of Cleveland [sidebar], the Section 8 forced desegregation capitol of the mid-west who's ultimate goal is to make the every block and street in the entire metropolis a run down racially integrated ghetto .. I think our mayor feel that the best way to achieve social equality is by making everybody poor and ****.[/end sidebar]

I wouldn't recommend buying but def good place to live for 5 to 10 and rent. Also as another person said, its really block by block ... general rule though on the east side of lakewood is north of Detroit and anywhere on the west side of Lakewood. That being said, there are still some nice blocks on the eastside south of Detroit.

@Whispergirl: I Know you were being rhetorical but their really are plenty of safe places to live all over america .... it annoys me to no end people accept crime as a way of life and part of society .. it really a sad reflection on how complacent and relativistic we have gotten as a people