32256 does not feel safe anymore (Jacksonville: low income, apartments, crime)

[Jax32256]

We're at a crossroads with where to go. DH works downtown & works a ton. His commute is about 20 minutes each way. The draw to SJC looks good, but we're afraid with the commute DH would see the kids for a few minutes each day Monday-Friday. All of my friends who live on the 210 corridor complain about the isolation. JCP is just too far for DH's commute.

We've had a bit of crime in our neighborhood in the last few months near Baymeadows & 9A (mainly people pretending to solicit various services & rob people at their front door or in the garage) & with the two recent shootings on Baymeadows, I don't want to drive around this area in the middle of the day with my kids.

We really loved our neighborhood when we moved here 6 years, ago but I just don't feel safe now. I would never let my two kids play in our fenced in backyard alone. I also want to feel safe when I pull out of my garage & run to Publix.

This is a partial vent & partial where do we go from here? I'm not a paranoid person, but now I feel like I have to look over my shoulder each time I pull in to my garage because someone could be lurking in the bushes. That's not a good feeling.

[fsu813]

Get to know your neighbors. Lots of them.

If a neighborhood knows eachother, it works wonders in detering crime.

[Northside904]

I'd like to hear people try to deny that crime can't touch the Southside I've been saying all along that criminals were coming to the Southside jacking and shooting and this is one unfortunate incident. I'm not making light because it really is a crying shame. Nowhere in Jacksonville is safe. I'm not worried about crime because sad to say, growing up on the notorious Northside, I've gotten used to seeing/hearing it around me.

[EricBoyd]

Arm yourself and protect your home/family. That's about the best advice I can give.

[Ryde41]

I think it went downhill when they put the HUD housing off Baymeadows Road. The criminals live here now. Once they moved in, the rapes and robberies increased.

[Ryde41]

Maybe I started a rumor. I looked up 32256 and there's no HUD housing there according to the website. Someone said those apartments off Old Baymeadows had low income housing.

[fsu813]

maybe you "heard it" on City Data?

[ugaguy]

dont live in jax now but i remember hearing all sorts of horror stories about what was going on in those apartments across the street from the baymeadows golf course. princeton square is the name of that place i think. and this was like 5 years ago. tons of robberies. remember hearing about a rape. parts of baymeadows have been sketchy for awhile. been reading the stories about the recent shootings. cant say im all that surprised other than the fact they took place in broad daylight. there are thugs on all sides of town in jax.

when I left jax a couple years back the baymeadows/9A area was nice. i never felt worried in the slightest going to publix or going to the sports bar. maybe that has changed recently. but im sure its still fine. there will always be bits of crime everywhere. just have to be watchful.

[LandShark99]

I recently moved from SS just down from the Avenues. Timberlin Park behind Bed Bath and Beyond is a lovely neighborhood and I haven't heard of of any crime there. There are pockets of okay places in every city. You just have to find them. Most will be the ones where people have lived there a long time and know their neighbors so they look out for each other and strangers in the 'hood. Baymeadows East beyond the SS intersection appears to be a nice area too. I don't know about any crime in that area either.

[Joe 4520832257]

I agree with the premise of the thread that parts of the Southside are declining.

However, unless I'm mistaken, the two armed robberies on Baymeadows were both committed by criminals from Northwest Jax, not people who lived in the area.