Why does Norfolk gets such a bad rep? (Chesapeake, Richmond: townhouse, unemployment)

[rtandc]

Originally Posted by annie at the beach

we live in VA BCH and are preparing to make an offer on a house on Racine. it's close to lafayette. there are some very cool homes in that area and i don't see anyone mentioning it...am i missing something?

please let me know if you know anything about racine ave, lafayette park, and/or lindenwood elementary school

thank you!!

Annie I hate to give you the bad news but The Lafayette neighborhood takes a lot of hits, You have Fairmont Park on the other side of Tidewater Drive (which always has one of the highest crime stats and biggest gang problems in Norfolk) and Park Place (not much better than Fairmont Park) on the other side of the bridge and you are stuck right in the middle. I remember the double homicide that took place on the corner close to Racine last year...And I also recall the large number of robberies that were going on in that neighborhood last summer that made the news...........Here are a few stats from the last 90 days for that neighborhood to give you an idea

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT 2
ARSON 1
BURGLARY - RESIDENCE 9
LARCENY - FROM AUTO/OF AUTO PARTS 9
LARCENY (OTHER) 8
NARCOTICS VIOLATIONS 1
ROBBERY - BUSINESS 3
ROBBERY - INDIVIDUAL 1
SIMPLE ASSAULT 3
VANDALISM 8
Grand Total 45

And FYI here are the stats for the neighborhood that would be next to you (Fairmont Park)

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT 4
ARSON 1
BURGLARY - COMMERCIAL 1
BURGLARY - RESIDENCE 15
LARCENY - FROM AUTO/OF AUTO PARTS 22
LARCENY (OTHER) 15
NARCOTICS VIOLATIONS 4
ROBBERY - INDIVIDUAL 5
SIMPLE ASSAULT 15
STOLEN VEHICLE 8
VANDALISM 25
Grand Total 115

And remember these are only the stats that the Police release to the public..... that does not count sex crimes like rape etc that they with hold from public view...........Still want to move to Norfolk?

[mwz26]

How does one get these stats?

[oleo]

google your county name with the words police department after it.

just about all of the police websites keep a log of all the events so people can see them.

I've personally looked at Richmond City & Fairfax County

[rtandc]

Originally Posted by mwz26

How does one get these stats?

If you want to check a neighborhood in Norfolk, just go to Norfolk's home page at Norfolk.gov
On the home page you will see two drop down windows just below the picture of Norfolk's skyline... In the drop down window on the right find Police Department and click on it. Once the Police Departments home page opens up go down and on the left side of the page you see a link stating Crime View Community and click on it then just follow the directions...

Again this is a great tool to use if you are looking to buy or rent in a certain neighborhood but it will only allow you to check on 13 types of reported crimes, I believe there is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 different types of reported crimes overall that every Police Department in the Country must use to gather their stats..... but these 13 will give you a good idea of what is happening in any neighborhood in Norfolk...but remember this does not list arrest, or calls for service so if you are looking to buy a certain house the person that lives beside that house could of been arrested for a robbery or could be a known drug dealer and you would never know it or the house beside the one you are looking at could be a house that the police respond to almost on a daily bases for some type of issue like loud parties or music so when looking at moving into a certain neighborhood these stats help out but its still best to go out various times of the day and night also go by various days of the week and drive though the neighborhood plus get out and talk to as many of the neighbors that you can and ask them about the neighborhood....also see if the neighborhood has a civic league and try to attend a meeting or two and talk to them before you decide to buy/rent a house in that neighborhood...everything you can find out before you spend your money on a certain property will save you many headaches in the long run........ its not like houses are selling at a fast pace right now so everyone should have plenty of time to check out any neighborhood they are looking at to find out the good and bad issues.....

People are always complaining about high crime or poor schools after they move somewhere new and if you question them about "did they check out the neighborhood and schools first" most will tell you NO...well my answer to them is....oh well......some times lessons learned can be very expensive... People will buy a house because they like the color of the tile in the bathroom, never checking out how bad the crime might be in that neighborhood.....good thing they like that tile because they might be laying on it when the bullets from the nighly gunshots start zipping across their property....OK maybe thats a bit much but you get the idea......

Every city pretty much has the same thing on their home page, if a certain city does not offer these stats on line you can visit/call the local Police department and obtain the same stats from one of their Community Police Officers or Crime Prevention units...HTH

[Rita Mordio]

rtandc is correct that many cities offer crime statistics for each area. Virginia Beach has a system called ePRO (electronic Police Reports Online) which allow you to view almost everything on the police report. Certain items are blacked out - such as names and such.

However, please do look at the numbers with a grain of salt. Is that a year's worth of data, how big is the area, how many of those are "multiple-offenses in one crime" sort of deal? While the numbers may be scary, the area may not be.

The best advice I can give for somebody is to pick out a house and drive around that area on a Friday or Saturday night. Do this on a Tuesday or Wednesday during mid-day. Doing this can give you a much better picture of the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods.

[stacylee926]

There are some nicer areas, further away from the downtown area. Well established neighborhoods with beautiful homes. I want to say the area is further down Granby past the hospital.

[xGrendelx]

Originally Posted by NorfolkNative

I live in Norfolk. I have my whole life. We get a bad rap from things in the past, but in reality, we are no worse than VB. Downtown Norfolk is SAFER than VBs oceanfront. February 2008; Downtown had some cars broken into and a couple of muggings, much better than what is portrayed in downtown. The VB Oceanfront during that same period had many assaults, multiple drug violations, a whole slew of illegal weapon charges, and multiple robberies.

I think its interesting how the news in this area covers all of that up. You always hear about the Oceanfront being family friendly and Downtown being this horrible place. Norfolk has police Downtown. They keep everything safe. There are cops that you dont even know are there (plain clothes). VB on the other hand, hardly has enough cops. During tourist season, they take cops from other areas in the city to fill in the oceanfront gaps. The cops they do have seem to spend more time harassing people than actually fighting real crime.

Recently there was a woman attacked down by town center. In the news, it wasn't at Town Center, it was in the Pembroke area of the city. Funny how if its bad it takes a different name. The city of Virginia Beach also makes it difficult to track crime at town center. They have divided that area into so many zones, you miss alot. The few blocks of town center for February had a couple of assaults. Not bad. The "Pembroke Area" (which is made up of very odd sections) indicates a hit-and-run in front of town center. There was also a car theft on columbus (not part of their town center district?) I also have to wonder, because although the news reported an assault at Pembroke mall, it doesn't show up on the reports.

The Oceanfront at night is like a completely different area than in the day. I guess because of all the bars/clubs, it seems like a lot of thuggish people hang out down there at night and it can be shady during the summers. A friend of mine came in from out of town and wanted to stay at the Oceanfront, so one night I went down there to hang out. It was the first time I had really been to the Oceanfront at night during the summer months since I was a kid, and we encountered rowdy crowds on the strip harrassing girls and giving us a hard time, prostitutes on Pacific Ave, a couple having sex on the beach (which was more funny than anything), and some of my change got stolen at Flipper McCoy's. I've never had problems like that in Downtown Norfolk at night. The bars and clubs at the Oceanfront attract the wrong crowds. I used to play in a band, and we'd play at the Peppermint Beach Club, Club Live, and Sweet Carolines often, and 4 out of 5 shows would include a fight of some sort (usually 3 or 4 kids jumping another kid). That's why a lot of the venues on the strip stopped doing shows.

But my experience with Norfolk is pretty on par with everyone else here. I've lived in both Virginia Beach and Norfolk, and I would, personally, pick VB, but Norfolk can be nice. It's just like every other city. Crime happens everywhere, not just Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Newport News. There's places to be avoided in every city. My uncle always says, "There's s**t and gold wherever you go."

[Erma]

and an intelligent man your Uncle is! That is one very true statement.

[xGrendelx]

Originally Posted by Erma

and an intelligent man your Uncle is! That is one very true statement.

Thank you, Erma! I'll let him know you said so.

[Randomdude]

Im going to have to go against the grain and say Norfolk deserves its bad rap. Every good neighborhood mentioned in the city (all six of them), is surrounded by crime infested ghettos on all sides. For instance, Hollywood/Maple Hall, which Ive called home for about 5 years now, is attached to Lake Edward, is across the street from a terrible crime infested trailor park, and borders the Janaf area which is one of the most crime infested retail areas in the area. Even if you live in an ok neighborhood, you will most likely fall asleep every night to ambulances and cop sirens, and even the occassional gun shots. There has been something like eight or nine homicides within a half mile radius of Hollywood/Maple Hall in the past two years. Then you have places like Park Place, Huntersville, infact, about 95% of places around downtown, where you dont even want to drive through, forget about living there or walking around at night.

Norfolk STILL possesses a crime rate almost 3 times the national average. That is fact. All of the pretty pictures residents of the city are trying to paint here do not cover up the stench.