Help me find an awesome neighborhood. (St. Louis, Cape Girardeau: high income, organic, living)

[fredbobjoe]

Originally Posted by aragx6

That's nonsense and everyone who lives here knows that. You can sit in your little chair and make up things if you want to, but for those of us who know better you make yourself look very ignorant.

Ooh ooh, are we having a making stuff up party! I love those! I heard from a reliable source that there are more incidents of giraffe poisonings in Prairie Village than ANY OTHER TOWN IN AMERICA. Seriously people, if you care about savanna safety DO NOT MOVE THERE. Sure, they're working on making it better, but if you ever see a light post be really careful because that's how they get 'em. I know it's true, you can try your evidence but I just know it!

[fredbobjoe]

And in a bid to actually contribute something worthwhile, I'd like to say that I do acknowledge that there is more crime in and near to brookside than some other areas you can pick. I don't feel that has ever been in contention, or that I've tried to assert that.

What I'd like anyone who feels like they're standing on the other side of this debate to acknowledge is that an individuals feeling on safety can be skewed so far out of proportion as to be completely outside of any real relation to risk, and that it is POSSIBLE that those areas of the city are not actually as dangerous as you've made out. And that nobody wakes up on a regular basis to gunshots :P

[kcmo]

I lived on the fringe of Brookside (near waldo) for six years and I would call it safe. You would see crazy people sometimes at the gas stations or an occasional kcpd helicopter searching, but it's just part of living in the city. I never felt unsafe. I grew up in south plaza, just north of brookside, and that area is so freaking quiet without major high speed roads nearby and all the mature trees. Always feels totally safe to me. Again, you are in the city, so sometimes you hear police helicopters and crazy crimes happen closer to you than you sometimes want (such as a rare and random shooting in loose park or something), but it doesn't and shouldn't stop the residents of the area from going on with normal lives.

Westport doesn't have shootings every night or even shots fired. No way. Come on. Get a police scanner app and listen to the police activity in kcmo or go on a ride along with kcpd. Crime is not as rampant as you think in most areas of the city. Westport is actually a pretty quiet area. It's just "city", pretty diverse, lots of activity etc. It's about what you would expect for such a location. I have always thought that sunfresh was a pretty decent store for being in the middle of the city. It gets an interesting cross section of demographics and social backgrounds, but other than that, it always seemed fine to me. It's not the Hen House at 64th and I-29 because it's not at 64th and I-29.

I looked at that terrible lee's summit crime map too. Wow, lots of shoplifting around the retail areas and a handful of what are probably mostly opportunity crimes (unlocked cars etc) around the rest of the city. Scary stuff.

Crime is not really an issue in metro KC if you ask me. Even in the bad areas (east side etc), if you stay out of trouble, you are not likely to be a victim of a serious or violent crime (although theft and burglary are definitely more likely in those bad areas).

[MOKAN]

Everything I've said is true. Gun shots are a regular occurence on weekend nights in the summer in Westport. The core of Westport gets very chaotic and the police are there corraling people like sheep. It's reality.

On a more positive not, with the minor exception of the Plaza library the "crazies" and people wandering the streets aimlessly tend to stay north of the Plaza in midtown. The Plaza, South Plaza, Crestwood, Country Club District, Ward Parkway, Brookside, and Waldo are all decent semi-urban neighboods. These neighborhoods are established and solidly middle to upper class. Oh and that's not to say the Plaza library is a bad place. It's nice, even new. There are enough legit people there to drown out the minor aimless element.

As for midtown (north of the Plaza) as somebody else mentioned the westside of midtown is best if choosing a house that far north (west of Southwest TFWY) including the West Plaza, Volker, Roanoke, and Coleman Highlands neighborhoods). Valentine and Hyde Park, which are east of SW TFWY, more in the core of midtown, have nice houses and Hyde Park is probably the single most up and coming neighborhood. But in any of the midtown neighborhoods you really will have to be a bit of an urban pioneer to varying degrees.

[xenokc]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

Everything I've said is true. Gun shots are a regular occurence on weekend nights in the summer in Westport.

Stats please. I still call FUD as I live blocks away. Westport has improved significantly ever since P&L opened. Westport isn't the metro party zone it used to be since P&L took some of that away. The bar district is leaning more towards neighborhood attraction than metro. There are definitely some late night things that still happen but where are you getting this 'gun shots most weekends'? No doubt a few has happened but that is normal in bar districts most anywhere - see Dupont Circle thread above, 6 in 3 nights. If you're going to make such strong statements, you need sources. Otherwise it's FUD until then.

That said, I wish they would close Americas Pub as it's the last remaining trouble spot.

[MOKAN]

If it is America's Pub drawing the troublemaker's it would be nice if it closed.

But again, I said summer nights. Summer seems to really create a stir of crime here in Kansas City. My experience with Westport has been post P+L. You may have too much faith in statistics if you think everything is recorded. I'm sorry, but I don't buy that every gun shot I've heard in the core of Westport, let alone this city, has been recorded. This isn't Leawood. I'm trying to be realistic here with no intention of playing the crime up. You, however, seem to be minimizing it and are perhaps desensitized. Are those rose-colored glasses you're wearing?

[xenokc]

No, but I'm pretty sure it's not most every summer weekend. If you don't know for sure (with sources), don't put it out there. You claim to 'know' yet say not all are recorded. That would imply you have been present for each. You've been pawned.

[aragx6]

Funny how everyone who actually lives near or in Westport are on the side of "There are not gunsots most summer weekends in Westport." That should tell you something.

Additionally, I don't understand this thought process. You say that there are cops all over the place and yet you also say that it's unlikely most of these supposed shots are recorded. There is a large police presence in Westport as there should be in any entertainment district, but they spend far more time writing DWIs than investigating shots fired calls. But if there were a bunch of shots being fired there, more than perhaps any other place in the city, they would definitely be recorded.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by aragx6

Funny how everyone who actually lives near or in Westport are on the side of "There are not gunsots most summer weekends in Westport." That should tell you something.

Additionally, I don't understand this thought process. You say that there are cops all over the place and yet you also say that it's unlikely most of these supposed shots are recorded. There is a large police presence in Westport as there should be in any entertainment district, but they spend far more time writing DWIs than investigating shots fired calls. But if there were a bunch of shots being fired there, more than perhaps any other place in the city, they would definitely be recorded.

Even with the a bunch of cops stationed at Wesport and Mill, I've witnessed multiple gunshots at the BP that's at about 40th and Broadway where no cops showed up. You're confused if you think every shot is recorded. It is so chaotic when things get out of hand weekend nights, that ought to be easy to understand. Cops aren't superhuman.

That said, gun shots are a regular enough occurence on weekend nights in Westport in the summer that it is not a neighborhood I would want to have my go-to grocery store located, especially if I had a family. That was my point and this thread has been cluttered by folks trying to minimize the bad side of the area.

[brewcrew1000]

I have a family and live in the area and my go to Grocery Store is Costco, I love costco, they have everything i need and much better prices then SunFresh