St. Augustine and St Johns County is it safe? (Jacksonville: crime, mortgage)

[Kaaarlitooo]

Saint Augustine sucks. Seriously. Dont move here. I live on king street (the main street) and I constantly see homeless and drunks early in the morning and starting at about 9pm wandering up and down the streets to congregate at the steps of a church at the end of my block and harass the passerbys. I started walking a new way to school to avoid them. This church is also across from the giggling gator (adjacent to my apartment) where there has been a rape and someone has been shot dead within the past year. The Tmart on the opposite side of town, "uptown" was held at gunpoint last year. It's a great and cute little town to visit but awful to live in. I'm moving as far away from here as possible in April. Hope this helps.

[ssclulow]

I can understand why a college student living on King Street and needing to walk west on King St from the college would have a bad impression of St. Augustine. Judging the entire St. Augustine area through the narrow lens of a college student's 5 block experience is unfair. Yes, it is true, there are homeless encounters on King Street from the college west to US 1. and the bar referrenced is not a desirable place. However, the overwhleming majority of people living in St. Augustine do not share your experience because we have no reason to walk west on King St. or walk south of King St. into Lincolnville. Unfortunately, some college students rent in areas that are very undesireable.

[williebear12]

was on sperlings website and the crime in st. johns florida was thru the roof..!!kinf of puzzling since it has a great school district..usually the 2 do not go hand in hand..can anyone advise on this? looking at a relocation from ny and have young children still...

[Robyn55]

St. Johns County is a very large county - about 35 miles long and 25 miles across. A lot of the county is rural or very rural. A lot of these areas are perfect places for meth labs (although I don't know how many have been found). Also - some of the rural towns (like Hastings) are pretty poor (although I don't have the slightest idea whether they're safe at night).

Where we live - the streets are certainly safe all the time. But there is petty crime (as there is almost everywhere). Most of it is opportunistic (like people leaving their cars unlocked and their purses - iPads - whatever in plain view). Or people leaving their garage doors open when their garages contain lots of goodies. No matter where you live - you'll always have strangers/service people in your community - and some petty thieves (usually kids) who live in the community. OTOH - you can't always blame kids. When we lived in a pretty classy high rise condo in Miami - someone was defacing the elevators. Everyone kind of assumed it was a kid. But we installed surveillance cameras - and found out that the culprit was a middle aged adult resident (who apparently had a couple of loose screws).

FWIW - I have never heard of anything anywhere in the JAX metro area like this:

Family of Dr. Stabbed on Mag Mile Issues Statement | NBC Chicago

Robyn

[ClassicStyle]

Just to let everyone know. I am the original poster.. I'm here now and have lived here since June of 2012. St. Johns County is not only safe, but it a fabulous place to live. St. Johns, Switzerland, and Fruit Cove are the names of the town areas I live in and they are very very nice. We are very happy we moved here and so are the thousands of other new families that move here every year. The area is booming with beautiful new homes, and schools and for now it is great.

This area is absolutely beautiful now with open areas, trees, great wetlands, and great developments with planned subdivisions. The school system is great but is growing very fast - maybe too fast for its own good.

I don't know how much more of the development I will like 10 years from now if the school system becomes overloaded and the roads become jammed with traffic, but for now it is a wonderful blossoming community. (I've already become an advocate for preservation of the area.)

I'm very glad we came here and I would encourage anyone to look into it as I did for my family.

Good Luck.

T

[madcapmagishion]

Yes, St Johns county/St Aug is just as safe as any other area in the metro area, but it's up to the individual homeowner to ensure their own safety by taking proper precautions, just like everywhere. Lock your doors and keep an eye out for things that may appear to be out of the norm.
Yes, St Johns county/St Aug is safe, but it is no safer if you don't make an effort to ensure your safety.

[Peter the Brit]

Great post Teresa and glad you are like us very happy with our move now three years ago

[grayrunner]

St Augustine at night on a walk! Well, I bike down there from PVB, but only during daytime.
Too many alcoves and alleys filled with predatory homeless types that are always looking. Still not remotely like northern war-zone cities or even NW JAX. The biggest danger for walkers or bikers in SA is the traffic at night more than daytime.

Once you get over the Bridge of Lions if your'e trying to get to the ocean, it quiets down. Just be careful crossing the intersections because a lot of tourists have had a few.

[D train outta nowhere]

Originally Posted by ssclulow

IMO, anywhere on Anastasia Island is A+ crime safe for anyone walking day or night. I've lived there for 15 years and have never had a problem and am not aware of anyone who has. The downtown and uptown historic / tourist districts north of King Street and east of US1 are equally safe if you have street smarts after 9pm. If you are not a local who knows the area, I suggest that you not walk around the Lincolnville section of the City of St. Augustine bordered by the following streets: Cordova, Bridge, Riberia, and the Matanzas River. Lincolnville is fine to drive through during the day, but I caution non-residents to not drive through there at night. The area where most people in St. Augustine feel the least safe is the area west of US1, north of 312, east of Holmes Blvd and south of 16. This area known as West Augustine has the most incidents of drugs and crime (which is a very,very low number of incidents compared to similar areas of Jacksonville) . I work in West Augustine at a free clinic next door to the "old housing projects" and have never had a problem there. I would never walk around that particular neighborhood at any time of day even if in a group, but I do drive the area in daylight and don't feel vulnerable. At night, I restrict my driving in West Augustine to the main thoroughfare which is King Street. Visitors to the area would have no reason at all to be in West Augustine, so the area is a non-issue for them. Crimes of opportunity occur anywhere in the U.S. Even in the gated communities. Lock your car, keep valuables out of sight, don't flaunt expensive jewelry, don't use a big purse that's flung open while dangling from your shoulder. It boggles my mind what I see people do sometimes! St. Augustine is a great place but nowhere it utopia!

Outstanding post, thanks. Precise, and exactly what I was looking for. If I could give you an award, I would. The internet thanks you too.

[The King of Um]

Originally Posted by theresamcallahan

I know a little about these areas and they seem to be in the more affluent area around Jacksonville. While doing some research on the crime rates in Jacksonville I found some pretty scary stuff about really bad parts of town, shootings, and one on one crimes and Gangs.

Are St John county residents or St Augustine residents effected by the crime and the gangs that come out of Jacksonville? Is this area pretty safe? Not pretty safe, I mean really safe. Tell me what you know about crime and drugs in these areas. Does it exist? Thank you so much. Good Night

St. Johns County is definitely safe. You'll find drugs everywhere, but not to the same extent. I don't imagine there's much of a drug problem in St. Johns County. And you're correct, most of the county is more affluent than Jax (Duval County). It's a nice, quiet, suburban, fairly affluent county. A lot of retirees move there from the Northeast.

I rather doubt there is much spillover from Jax unless it's drug related. St. Augustine has crime, but not much. If you want to know about crime statistics, I suggest you call the local PD. Ponte Vedra has practically no crime to speak of.

BTW: Jax most definitely does have gangs, but they're in the ghettos, mostly in the northwest corridor, which are nowhere near St. Johns County. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.