Safe Areas in Peoria (Morton, Bradley: houses, rent, travel)

[JenniferLynnF1973]

Hi, I'm helping someone find a house to rent, and I want to make sure particular areas are safe.
--Does anyone know if the 1900 block of E. Missouri Street (located near the corner of Nebraska and University) has any safety concerns?
I'm just wanting to find some place that is not inherently dangerous.

--Also, E Wren Street in Peoria Heights...it's a Peoria Heights address, but it's near Galena Rd down by the river, so I wasn't sure if houses down by the river were a bad place or not.

--One more thing, I saw in another post that someone said to avoid South Side, North Valley, and East bluff, but I don't even know where those places are. Can someone give me a description or show me where they'd be on the map? I can assume that they are on the south, north, and east edges of Peoria, respectively, but Peoria is a big place so I want to make sure I'm not looking in those areas.

THANKS!

[SixFive175]

I've lived in the Peoria area 2 years now, and I can answer most of your questions.

Missouri Street: 1900 N. Missouri is near Nebraska Ave. Bad area. Numbers increase as you go N. It starts getting nice N of about 3100, nicer yet N of 3700 (War Memorial Dr.). You really want in the 50's or 60's N, which is a nice middle to upper middle area.

Peoria Hts., near Galena Rd.: Not a bad area, but a little bit lower White (I use the term "banjo-y"). It's also a long drive to grocery stores and shopping.

South Side, N. Valley, E. Bluff: Official Peoria directions are screwy.

The South Side is indeed a bad area. The main access to it is via Adams Street downtown, or else via Western Ave. from the Bradley area.

The North Valley is the area just directly N. of downtown. You drive through it driving up Hwy. 29 (Adams St.) from downtown N to the McClugage Bridge. Hwy. 29 is its eastern border, the bluff is its western border.

East Bluff: To me it's "North Bluff". Directions are screwy. This is the high ground (bluff) you see to the west from the Near North side, the area I just outlined. You traverse the spine of it when you go north from the hospitals, up Glen Oak Ave.

The East Bluff isn't all that bad. It can be in the bad areas, but on the precipice of the bluff itself are some find grand old homes, some very pricey. But go just west of there and it gets bad.

The thing to remember about directions in Peoria is that what you "see" isn't what the map sees. Example: To me, looking across the river from downtown Peoria and traveling east across the I-74 river bridge is going straight E. That is, to me. But maps show it as more or less slightly south of SE.

So if you think of downtown Peoria as facing south (not east), the designations "east bluff", "N valley", etc. make more sense.

I'll simplify this in graph form:

DOWNTOWN ACROSS THE RIVER: My direction: E; Real direction: SSE
I-74 EASTBOUND ACROSS THE RIVER: ditto
N. VALLEY: My direction: N; Real direction: NE
SOUTH END: My direction: S; Real direction: SW
EAST BLUFF: My direction: N. bluff; Real dir.: NE

If you're moving to Peoria, the best areas are N of War Memorial Dr.; Grandview Dr. (ritzy); parts of E. Peoria; the far NW areas; and an area called Dunlap which is N of Peoria. Washington and Morton are also nice suburbs.

With some exceptions, the further N you go, in Peoria, the better it gets. Peoria isn't growing much, but what growth there is is N and NW.