Altadena, east of Fair Oaks and south of Altadena Drive (Lincoln: apartments, crime)

[bettyklang]

Hi All, I've been driving around Altadena area a lot lately thinking of searching for our first home there and was curious on thoughts of anyone who lives in the area east of Fair Oaks and a block or two south of Altadena Drive (near the cemetary too)

I know the general consensus is that north of Altadena Drive its fairly safe...and east of Lake, but how is the Fair Oaks area north of Ventura?

Any input would be appreciated...

[Hamish91106]

Hi, I've been wondering the same thing myself. I went to the Altadena Sheriff's department today and they let me go through a notebook full of crime information. It is currently updated through April 2008. I noticed the following:

Crime was worse in April 2008 than in April 2007. This makes sense if you consider that the economy has also gotten worse.

The areas west of lake have double the crime than the area east of lake. I thought that east of fair oaks would be an improvment over the area near Lincoln, but the data has them at about equal.

I also drove down Fair Oaks on my way home from the house I was looking at (Fair Oaks and Altadena drive) and it looks pretty dire. Its a huge contrast to driving down Lake.

I feel this is enough to merit a limit to my search.

[Sorcerer68]

In that part of Altadena it gets down to the specific street. The best way to find out (besides police dept visits) is to ask the neighbors or someone who works in the area. I was working with one house on Navarro at the south end of Altadena and the street was delightful with great neighbors. You can tell most of what you need to know by going there various times of day and Sunday afternoons (check for "oompa oompa" music).

As for Fair Oaks north of Ventura specifically, drive just a little bit north of Ventura and it will go from better to homes most of us can't afford to gated communities with nearly identical McMansions up against the foothills. South of Ventura, Fair Oaks is icky through to just north of the freeway.

[streetscenes]

East of Fair Oaks and south of Altadena is OK. The further you get from Fair Oaks the better. If you look at the aerial views from that area you will notice bigger apartments and higher denisty right around Fair Oaks, this turns into more SFR the further east you go. This would also be evident driving around, higher density means more cars parked on the street, especially in the evening and weekends.

The area just north and east of the cemetery has some really nice properties.