Is Baldwin, NY A Safe Neighborhood - Thinking of Buying a Home? (Hempstead: crime, school district)

[rmgg]

Hello,

My wife and I are considering moving to Baldwin to start a family, but we are reading and hearing very conflicting feedback about how safe the town is. We have been told that the high school has active gangs, and my wife was advised to not walk on Grand Avenue at night because it was unsafe. Is there much merit to these stories? Is the town on its way down, or is it fine?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. We have walked around and it seems fine, but we do not want to buy a home and find out it is a mistake.

Can you help?

Thanks
VLG

[Walter Greenspan]

rmgg, it may be of some help to know the geography of Baldwin:


For those who may not be familiar with Baldwin:

Baldwin is a hamlet (an unincorporated community) in the southern section of the Town of Hempstead, in the south-central part of Nassau County.

Beginning on the north and moving in a clockwise direction, the Hamlet of Baldwin in the Town of Hempstead is bordered on the north by the Village of Hempstead and the Hamlet of Uniondale; on the east by the Hamlet of Roosevelt and the Village of Freeport; on the south by the Hamlet of Baldwin Harbor; and, on the west by the Hamlet of Oceanside, the Village of Rockville Centre and the Hamlet of South Hempstead.





The Hamlet of Baldwin has a different border than does the "Baldwin, NY 11510" ZIP Code postal zone (i.e., a place can have a "Baldwin, NY 11510" address and not be in the Hamlet of Baldwin and a place can be in the Hamlet of Baldwin and have other than a "Baldwin, NY 11510" mailing address): places that have a "Baldwin, NY 11510" mailing address that are not in the Hamlet of Baldwin are in the Hamlet of Oceanside, the Hamlet of Baldwin Harbor and the Hamlet of Roosevelt; and, at the same time, there are places in the Hamlet of Baldwin that have an "Oceanside, NY 11572", "Rockville Centre, NY 11570" and "Roosevelt, NY 11575" mailing address.


For a good set of town-by-town maps showing all the villages and hamlets in each of LI's 13 towns (3 in Nassau County and 10 in Suffolk County): http://www.city-data.com/forum/long-...-resource.html

[sean sean sean sean]

Do a search on Baldwin, a lot of people will tell you it is the gateway to hell and that upon crossing it's border you will immediately be robbed, stabbed, raped and beaten down. Others will tell you it's a nice, safe community. I agree with the latter opinion....but do your own research, Baldwin seems to be a really "touchy" subject on these forums.

Here's the crime statistics for the Baldwin, NY 11510 zip code. These figures are comparable to most other places on Long Island:

[bnyy]

Originally Posted by rmgg

Hello,

My wife and I are considering moving to Baldwin to start a family, but we are reading and hearing very conflicting feedback about how safe the town is. We have been told that the high school has active gangs, and my wife was advised to not walk on Grand Avenue at night because it was unsafe. Is there much merit to these stories? Is the town on its way down, or is it fine?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. We have walked around and it seems fine, but we do not want to buy a home and find out it is a mistake.

Can you help?

Thanks
VLG

To tell you the truth, it's not a great neighborhood, but not that bad. There are a lot of gangs at the high school, but they don't mess with you if they don't have a reason. Your kids will get a great education at Baldwin though, academically it is good. South of Atlantic is actually very nice. Grand Ave in North Baldwin is dangerous. Use street smarts and you'll be just fine. Where exactly is the home?

[BigMike50]

Unfortunately it has become Brooklyn East Good luck with that move if you decide to make it.

[DonnaReed]

I like Baldwin.

I have 3 close friends there, and I spend time in Baldwin on a regular basis and have never had any problems...

One friend is a middle school principal who bought a home there about five years ago.
Another is a marketing manager who bought a home there about four years ago.
Another is a senior engineer at Con Ed and has lived there over 20 years.

The engineer's grown kids attended the Baldwin School District and all three are college-educated professionals. Now he is taking care of two grandchildren who are attending the Baldwin High School.

They all earn very decent incomes and live in nice homes. All three are Black and have both Black and White neighbors.

The marketing manager lives ON Grand Avenue right off of the parkway.
(He's Haitian and is part of a growing population of Haitians in Baldwin.)
I'm on Grand Avenue, days, night, weekends. I go the 7-11 all hours of the night and have never had any problems, nor witnessed any involving others.

I've also done substituting teaching at the middle and high school and had no problems with the kids and never saw a fight.

I declare, I don't know what some of these folks are talking about.

Honestly, I think any area that has increased in diversity in these forums is considered bad.

Let's just lay it on the line, if Black makes you uncomfortable or afraid or is equated with "bad", then you may not care for Baldwin.

[azzurrony]

Anywhere that has a homicide rate on par with the national average is worthy of some concern in my book. I'd certainly prefer to be below those averages.

[BigMike50]

Originally Posted by DonnaReed

I like Baldwin.

I have 3 close friends there, and I spend time in Baldwin on a regular basis and have never had any problems...

One friend is a middle school principal who bought a home there about five years ago.
Another is a marketing manager who bought a home there about four years ago.
Another is a senior engineer at Con Ed and has lived there over 20 years.

The engineer's grown kids attended the Baldwin School District and all three are college-educated professionals. Now he is taking care of two grandchildren who are attending the Baldwin High School.

They all earn very decent incomes and live in nice homes. All three are Black and have both Black and White neighbors.

The marketing manager lives ON Grand Avenue right off of the parkway.
(He's Haitian and is part of a growing population of Haitians in Baldwin.)
I'm on Grand Avenue, days, night, weekends. I go the 7-11 all hours of the night and have never had any problems, nor witnessed any involving others.

I've also done substituting teaching at the middle and high school and had no problems with the kids and never saw a fight.

I declare, I don't know what some of these folks are talking about.

Honestly, I think any area that has increased in diversity in these forums is considered bad.

Let's just lay it on the line, if Black makes you uncomfortable or afraid or is equated with "bad", then you may not care for Baldwin.

That's the point you visit! I lived there the last 17 years until this past Dec. I've seen the changes and believe me there not for the better. I'm Italian and my wife is West Indian(Guyanese) and we have 3 children. As you could see race wasn't an issue, we like the diversity. Before I moved someone broke into my wife's car that was in the driveway and took about 2 dollars in change and the chord to her GPS. My son which is 10 had his bike taken from him in front of CVS by the High School by two older kids he thinks around 14 or 15. I lived off Grand Ave only a few blocks from the HS and have I've seen many fights after school and the police there on many occasions. It's not the hardworking African Americans that come from the City and are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. It's the unsupervised children that still think they are in ENY. Go shopping at Pathmark and walk up north to the parkway it's starting to looking like Church Ave(BKLYN) or White Plains RD(BRONX) Run down, empty store fronts, litter everywhere, people hanging out(yes with gang colors), sorry this is not the Baldwin I remember 17 years ago. It took me 9 months to sell the house and in that time I didn't have one White family look at it, kind of told us something.

[azzurrony]

BigMike--Those are definitely bad signs. Sounds like things are turning for the worse.

[DonnaReed]

Originally Posted by BigMike50

That's the point you visit! I lived there the last 17 years until this past Dec. I've seen the changes and believe me there not for the better. I'm Italian and my wife is West Indian(Guyanese) and we have 3 children. As you could see race wasn't an issue, we like the diversity. Before I moved someone broke into my wife's car that was in the driveway and took about 2 dollars in change and the chord to her GPS. My son which is 10 had his bike taken from him in front of CVS by the High School by two older kids he thinks around 14 or 15. I lived off Grand Ave only a few blocks from the HS and have I've seen many fights after school and the police there on many occasions. It's not the hardworking African Americans that come from the City and are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. It's the unsupervised children that still think they are in ENY. Go shopping at Pathmark and walk up north to the parkway it's starting to looking like Church Ave(BKLYN) or White Plains RD(BRONX) Run down, empty store fronts, litter everywhere, people hanging out(yes with gang colors), sorry this is not the Baldwin I remember 17 years ago. It took me 9 months to sell the house and in that time I didn't have one White family look at it, kind of told us something.

BigMike,

I shop at Pathmark all the time especially (didn't mention) when I actually lived in Baldwin, while I still had my home in Queens.

Sure it's changing and has changed.

I don't think it's crime-free or ever has been. What area of LI is or ever has been crime-free?

Although no one wants to have a car broken into or a bike stolen, I don't consider those the worst of the worst crimes, more like an "it can happen" over the course of 17 years.

Moreover, I doubt you and your family are the first victims of those type of offenses then, in the past or throughout the history of Baldwin.

Although it's never happened to me anywhere, nor any other crime, thank God -and I've lived in, travailed, socialized in areas considered by many to be the best as well as areas considered by many to be the worst of Queens throughout my life thus far.

Comfort level, fears, concerns, confidence, alertnessses, senses all come into play although crime can happen to anyone anywhere.

I suppose the best and least case scenario would be for the poster/potential buyer to start hanging out and lurking and observing and become at least somewhat familiar with the goings on.