Safest side of town? (Houston, El Paso: cul-de-sac, low income, transplants)

[mc2r]

Hello everyone.
I just joined this forum hoping to get advice from El Paso Residence. My company just transferred me to El Paso and I’ll be moving there with my wife in a few weeks. Like any other city, Houston has prominent areas and its rough sides. A lot of the information that I’ve found on El Paso has reflected its horrible gang problem. I’ve never been to El Paso and do not know where to start my search for a quick apartment. We expect to purchase a home within the next 6 months; once we get familiar with the city. We’re starting a family soon and I must find the best and safest place to live. We would like to find a side of town that offers new developments and less crime. Any recommendations will be appreciated.
Thank you.

[eplifestyle]

Hello everyone.
I just joined this forum hoping to get advice from El Paso Residence. My company just transferred me to El Paso and I’ll be moving there with my wife in a few weeks. Like any other city, Houston has prominent areas and its rough sides. A lot of the information that I’ve found on El Paso has reflected its horrible gang problem. I’ve never been to El Paso and do not know where to start my search for a quick apartment. We expect to purchase a home within the next 6 months; once we get familiar with the city. We’re starting a family soon and I must find the best and safest place to live. We would like to find a side of town that offers new developments and less crime. Any recommendations will be appreciated.

El Paso, like any other city of its size, has its problems. And it would be a lie to say that there aren't gangs here.

But El Paso is actually one of the safest cities in the U.S. Morgan Quitno ranks it at #3 for cities with a population of more than 500,000.
http://www.morganquitno.com/cit07pop.htm#25

That said, some parts of town experience less crime than others. It really is hard to say, as it comes down to a neighborhood level, actually. Some might recommend Northeast, which has lots of new construction and development (because of the expansion of Ft. Bliss), but others would say to stay away from the "Devil's Triangle", a tiny neighborhood which happens to be in the Northeast part of town.

You'll find that some of the older parts of town change by the block. My best advice is to visit and find out what works best for you. Most parts of town are OK, with the exception of some neighborhood "pockets" of crime. Check out the Westside, far Northeast, and Eastside. Most of Central is pretty calm too. Many folks will tell you to avoid the downtown area, but that would probably be more because the homes aren't as nice looking--not necessarily because of crime.

In any case El Paso is a lot safer than Houston.

Welcome to El Paso!
-eplifestyle

[Muhnay]

I live in the North East side of town, I feel safe to walk around at night.. not as safe as I did when I was a kid. But then again I am a native to the area and spot trouble rather easy. I also have professional training and experiance. What makes the gangs here dangerous, is they have no clue. To me they are pretend gangs, they dont know the rules of gang lifes style. So because of that they are dangerous. And most are punk kids from 13-17, with a welfare dad running the show from his project home. We do have a couple real time gangs but they know the rules and stick to killing each other, and dont mess with the populace much, and only if your on thier turf, like south side El Paso, near Downtown. they are called the Fatherless, and the Banditos.

We had a house far east side, some really nice neiborhoods out that way, and its close to shopping, and better street lighting. The problem with the East side, is it moves rather fast, people are always on the go. The N.E. is relaxed and calm for the most part. The West side is like a whole other city. Richie Rich lives out that way... they get better funding and so forth.

EAST SIDE = NEW MONEY, FAST PACE.
WEST SIDE = OLD MONEY, COLLEGE, MEDIUM PACE.
NORTH EAST = RETIREMENT, SLOW PACE.
CENTRAL/DOWNTOWN = LOW INCOME, SLOW PACE.

Hope that helps. Crime is not a major factor for El Paso, most of it is Surburbans and trucks being stolen and driven to Mexico to be chopped. Drugs are a MAJOR problem here, but violet crime seems to be rather low. Drunk Driving is really bad here, we have some of the worst stats when it comes to Drunk Driving. Lots of deaths due to it here. So be careful when out and about.. drive defensively.

[Six Foot Three]

Although i rarely eat fast food any more i stopped at a DQ after work today and on the drive up Order Board is sprayed on it ''SUR 13'' (where's the owner)so i'm thinking great i guess they finally have arrived up here in gangstaquerque. We average 65 to 70 murders a year and our new 95 million metro jail complex built to hold 2,000 inmates is already over crowded and under court order to release by using electonic ankle bracelettes. Here's a pointer if you ever visit ABQ ...when you see a car(s) driving without their Headlights on at nite and you flash them to turn them on they'll shoot you (gang inititive). Welcome to Gangstaquerque. Later El Paso ....

[malamute]

"I’ve found on El Paso has reflected its horrible gang problem"

You definitely have to be careful what neighborhood you choose. There's the tried and true method of looking where the iron bars on windows and doors are. Any neighborhood with a high number of those has experienced a lot of crime. And graffitti is a sure sign of gang activity in the area.

The violent crime rate is fairly low which is good news but vandalism, car theft, property crime is very high.

[observe]

Originally Posted by harry o

Although i rarely eat fast food any more i stopped at a DQ after work today and on the drive up Order Board is sprayed on it ''SUR 13'' (where's the owner)so i'm thinking great i guess they finally have arrived up here in gangstaquerque. We average 65 to 70 murders a year and our new 95 million metro jail complex built to hold 2,000 inmates is already over crowded and under court order to release by using electonic ankle bracelettes. Here's a pointer if you ever visit ABQ ...when you see a car(s) driving without their Headlights on at nite and you flash them to turn them on they'll shoot you (gang inititive). Welcome to Gangstaquerque. Later El Paso ....

For your information SUR13 is everywhere including your crime free El Paso.
As for your headlight flashing thing........WRONG at least tell the truth and don't embelish things that aren't true. I'm in law enforcement, the crimes that are reported are tracked by FBI by the reports filed, in El Paso it's a border town so alot of the crime is not tracked because it occurs accross the border HUNDREDS of homicides every year. Also for your information most of the homicides commited in ABQ are the bad guys killing the bad guys. Remember crime is everywhere, don't paint this pretty picture of El Paso and slam Albuquerque on what you read because lots of it is just HYPE!

[Curious Traveler]

Ok, to get back to your question mc2r:
I live in the northeast, far away from the devils triangle. If you're looking for apartments check out these:

Butterfield Trail Apts.
Patriot Apts.
Sagewood apts.
These are the only ones I would recommend in the northeast and I hesitated to add Sagewood only because it's older and I haven't lived there in a long time so I don't know how well they've kept it up.

There are TONS of houses for rent right now...I'm only talking the northeast here. Check out these subdivisions:
Milagro Hills
Pleasant hills
North Hill

These subdivisions are nice neighborhoods, convenient to I-10 and I can recommend. I live in Pleasant Hills. Basically they're a number of Cul-de-sac's.

There is Upper North hill and lower north hill. Upper north hill are big beautiful homes and a very nice area to live, more white collar or blue collar supervisor-types. Lower north hill is more blue collar and there is military housing on that side.

Oh, I forgot about Alabama street area. Those are houses on the side of the mountain; affordable older houses and there are some very nice neighborhoods over there.

East side has all the eateries and shopping and the traffic is terrible but I know a ton of people that live on that side and there are really nice homes on that side of town. I wouldn't live there just because of the traffic but if you go off the freeway, it's not so bad.

West side is the richer side of town....some of it. The price of housing in regards to square footage is going to cost you more than anywhere else in the city. I don't like the west side just because it's so spread out but the good thing about that is the residential areas are tucked away from the commercial areas. A lot of people swear by the west side of town...the only place to live.

I've lived in El Paso all my life and I prefer the N.E. because the traffic is less, easy access to I-10 and I like it.

Gangs are a problem here and the n.e. has it share as does the east side. I don't think so much the west side.

Oh, I forgot Central area which melds N.E. and East side. Much older homes, more of the historic homes, Ft. Bliss. Not a bad area I guess. Not much going on there besides residential. I don't know about the gangs for the Central area but I would imagine they are bad.

Forget about downtown. Downtown area is just a mess for residence, but good for businesses I guess. It's a spiderweb to get in and out of, but considering other big cities, it's not a big deal i guess. I wouldn't live around there, but as you can tell, I have a thing about traffic.

Take care!

[lipbalm]

I got all you guys beat put togheter. I live in Houston and we hat like 8 murders (robberies, drive byes, etc.) over the weekend. That is the only thing I miss about El Paso. Pretty safe compared to the big cities.

[Muhnay]

Hey LIPBALM, I hear thats because you got a lot of transplants from Katrina.. and there is huge turf warfare going on in the cities many of the poor people were moved too. Is this true?

[lipbalm]

Partly. But Houston had it's crime problems longe before Katrina, Although the evacuees did not help matters either. The southwest side is the worst right now with all the murder/robberies, roadrage shootings, drive bys. They shoot first and ask questions later overhere. I even heard some of the EMT's started carring riot shotguns with them. It's crazy.