Lakewood Ohio advice (Cleveland, Strongsville, Rocky River: apartments, foreclosures, rentals)

[dcgriffon]

Lakewood Ohio, ghetto?
I may be moving to the Cleveland area this summer, and whilst doing research I decided that Lakewood seemed like a good place to move.
Its close to the water, houses are reasonable, it seems kind of trendy
and looks gay friendly. I am female in a relationship with a woman and we have two kids (and two dogs).

So I was all excited that I found an area to move to when along comes my brother telling me his friend who lives in Ohio said to STAY AWAY FROM LAKEWOOD...that it is very ghetto-like.

So I would like to find out what other Ohioans think because judging by what I see online, it seems like a cool place to live.

We are looking for a place that is family oriented, has good schools, shopping, coffee shops, views, things to do, friendly people and water, water, water!

PS please be honest!

[WeSoHood]

I mean like any (s)urban area you will have a lot of diversity and some thugs. But overall the city offers a lot of shopping, boutiques, coffee shops, and other walkable places. It's 10,000 people per square mile roughly. There are definitely a LOT of family orientated neighborhoods - which you'll learn more so by visiting and finding the right place. There is a high gay/lesbian population in the area - more so around the W117th border with Cleveland. Aside from the Gold Coast, I wouldn't recommend living on the VERY FAR east side of Lakewood. Lakewood is a diverse, urban city that is safe. The schools aren't bad either.

[andrew61]

Hi, IMHO Lakewood, overall, is still a nice place to live. However, there is a perception, at least on the part of some, that issues like crime, disorderly conduct, unruly renters, absentee landlords who don't keep their property up, etc., are on the rise. I lived in Lakewood for fifteen years, and absolutely loved it, but left the NE Ohio area in 1995. Even then, I could see some changes.

Like the previous poster said, the far east side of Lakewood is best avoided, except the Gold Coast area near the lake (north of Clifton). From what I hear, there are also a few trouble spots on the west side of town as well, especially near a few bars on Detroit Avenue that overserve their patrons, and the disorderly conduct spills over onto the nearby residential side streets during the wee hours after the bars close and drunks stumble to where their cars are parked... especially during the warm summer months.

So proceed with caution. If you buy a house in Lakewood, try to make sure it's on a street with mostly owner-occupied single-family homes. Avoid streets with lots of rentals (usually "doubles", two-family houses with one unit up, one down), as some of these can be trouble spots as well. You'll have to take a walk and look at the street around your prospective new home and gauge for yourself how well-kept it looks to you.

Lakewood, like a number of other inner-ring Cleveland suburbs, has recently been experiencing increasing problems with foreclosures, etc., which has depressed property values somewhat. But it's more of a regional issue and not specific to Lakewood. Still, there are resulting problems such as vacant houses, copper pipe theft (someone was just busted in Lakewood for that last week), etc. But as of now that's still spotty... it's not entire blocks or anything like that.

Here are a few websites you might want to check out... All of these have discussion boards where Lakewood residents discuss the town's issues in pretty great detail:

Lakewood Buzz

Lakewood Observer

Crimewood.com

[dcgriffon]

Great, thanks so much for the advice, it helps alot!

[twange]

Sorry to show up late to the party

Lakewood is not ghetto. Of course everyone's definition is different. It's an inner-ring suburb of a larger depressed-like city(Cleveland), so that means that there are pockets of crummy areas, mostly where Lakewood borders Cleveland. The W. 117th area is generally not as nice, with spill-over into Lakewood by about 15 blocks, give or take a few. Things are much nicer as you go west and/or closer to the Lake. These areas are really beautiful. Of course none of this is absolute. Every street might have some troubled spots as Lakewood's definitely in the "city". I really like some of the streets in the eastern portion but there's definitely more problems overall there, especially Birdtown. This is unfortunate as it's such a unique part of the city.

Lakewood certainly has a small town feel mixed with urban life. Lots of wonderful 1920s mixed-use buildings with shops, restaurants etc...(although many of them are empty right now). You can't beat the proximity to the Metroparks, Lake Erie and downtown Cleveland. I just left the Cleveland area last year after living in Lakewood for 11 years. My wife was born and raised there and we loved it. There are some great folks there who really care about the city.

If it's important to you to live in a primarily gay/lesbian neighborhood, the area just east of 117th, between Detroit and Edgewater all the way to the Shoreway(RT. 2) is a great little neighborhood(this is in Cleveland). The only problem is that unless your kids attend private school, they would have to go to Cleveland Public Schools. Um, not so good.

[tribecavsbrowns]

Is Lakewood ghetto? Short answer: no. Lakewood's violent crime rate is less than half the national average and has a large class of professionals.

Some people will say any place with sidewalks, old houses and brownstones, apartments above stores, and public transportation is ghetto, which is nonsense. Lakewood gets a bad rap because occasionally you'll hear about a typical urban nightmare crime taking place, like a guy getting held up at gunpoint while walking to the corner store. What nobody ever mentions is you don't even have the option of walking to the store in a place like Avon or Strongsville -- Lakewood has more crime on the streets because it has more people on the streets. Even so, such crimes are rare here.

The long-term health of the city is another issue, and you'll need to do a lot more research before you take the plunge and buy a house here. Lakewood is in decline; I'm not going to sugarcoat that. The decrease in overall enrollment and increase in children from poor families in the school district is significant, bordering on alarming. That said, Lakewood is currently a great place, and if more good people appreciate that and stay here, then the city has a good future.

[pumpkin819]

Lakewood is not ghetto at all. If I were you, I would live more west of lakewood, closer to rocky river. more east lakewood is by cleveland, which is still not a bad area, but probably some more problems.

[scrooks]

Originally Posted by dcgriffon

Lakewood Ohio, ghetto?
I may be moving to the Cleveland area this summer, and whilst doing research I decided that Lakewood seemed like a good place to move.
Its close to the water, houses are reasonable, it seems kind of trendy
and looks gay friendly. I am female in a relationship with a woman and we have two kids (and two dogs).

So I was all excited that I found an area to move to when along comes my brother telling me his friend who lives in Ohio said to STAY AWAY FROM LAKEWOOD...that it is very ghetto-like.

So I would like to find out what other Ohioans think because judging by what I see online, it seems like a cool place to live.

We are looking for a place that is family oriented, has good schools, shopping, coffee shops, views, things to do, friendly people and water, water, water!

PS please be honest!

Hi there! I currently live in Madison, Ohio. Lakewood is about 30 minutes west of me. I have never heard anything bad about it since we moved here in 1993. We are east of Cleveland...directly in the middle of Cleveland and Erie, PA. I also know that Rocky River is a great place; especially to raise children. Better schools, etc. You may also want to check Avon or Avon Lake. Both really nice places.

I hope this helps. If you have any further questions about Ohio, please feel free to let me know!

[RedSoxFanGoingWest]

Rocky River is a great place. My wife and I lived there for 2 years prior to moving to CO. The housing is affordable in comparison to other areas in the country. The school system (so I've heard) is wondeful as well. It still has that close proximity to the city of Cleveland as well.

I never thought Lakewood was as bad as people thought. I've heard that the school system is not good as it is part of the Cleveland public schools. Lakewood definitely offers more of a 'city' feel when compared to Rocky River.

[Igor1977]

Originally Posted by RedSoxFanGoingWest

Rocky River is a great place. My wife and I lived there for 2 years prior to moving to CO. The housing is affordable in comparison to other areas in the country. The school system (so I've heard) is wondeful as well. It still has that close proximity to the city of Cleveland as well.

I never thought Lakewood was as bad as people thought. I've heard that the school system is not good as it is part of the Cleveland public schools. Lakewood definitely offers more of a 'city' feel when compared to Rocky River.

Lakewood has its own school system. It is fine. Parents are alums.

Lakewood is not ghetto. There are rough spots bordering Cleveland on the east, but the vast majority is fine.