West Kendall / West Dade gang drive-by's (Miami, Hialeah: condos, high crime, big house)

[Your.Decision]

Originally Posted by Chelito23

To put this in perspective, people in general on City Data emphasize the negative and things tend to get skewed to a less favorable view than they really may be.

This sets the ground for people who think that to straighten the record they need to over compensate and make certain areas seem idylic or "the same" as everywhere else and to understate the problems or brush them under the rug or pretend they are isolated incidents.

Unfortunately, the people posting about Kendall and its crime increasing and lower quality of life are the ones who are more on the ball this time around. For a SUBURB as another poster wrote, Kendall is not "safe." It is physically far from everything and somewhat affordable, so people trying to escape the Miami ghetto make it out this way...so it's just basically thug migration and relocation within Dade County that is duing Kendall in...and these newcommers influence the youth from the area...and the area goes down hill.

And anyone who didn't see this coming has really been in the dark because this is nothing new, this trend has been going on easily over the past 10 years...and can be seen in all traditional middle class areas of the county, such as Westchester, Miami Lakes, Ives Dairy Rd, Hialeah, NMB, etc.

And to be fair, there are nice residential areas of Kendall that have little crime, are well kept and decent. But even the gated communities can be bad due to the residents who have moved in...

This phenomenom of the ghettoization of suburbs is common in Southern California also...so not totally unique to Miami.

I think I was the one who pointed out that Kendall is not safe, for a suburb. It's certainly not Compton or anything, but Kendall is a deceiving place, because it looks so cookie cutter that you wonder how such a place could be even remotely unsafe.

As you pointed out, Kendall does indeed have some nice houses and quiet neighborhoods. If you can put up with the traffic, it's not such a bad place to buy a house. The apartment complexes are the biggest deceivers though. Many look great at first glance (especially if you're from out of town originally and everything looks so tropical). However, when you move in (as I did), you quickly realize that it's all smoke and mirrors (I made that big mistake, although I did have a pretty sweet apartment). Many of those apartment complexes are badly run, do virtually nothing about unruly neighbors and are havens for small time drug dealers and other unsavory characters (not visible at first glance).

If you can accept and understand Kendall's flaws, it may be a reasonable and affordable place to live for you. Personally, the biggest problems I had with Kendall were the lack of places to walk/cycle and the endless plethora of chains and lack of small "mom and pop" type places to eat and shop and of course, the TRAFFIC (traffic was the dealbreaker).

If I were in charge, I would build a massive park smack in the middle of West Kendall complete with bike trails and woods. I'd encourage better zoning and a more favorable environment for family-owned businesses to thrive, rather than just chain stores and restaurants. I'd expand the Metrorail all the way to West Kendall and I'd demand that the police cracked down on reckless driving.

[Marlin331]

Chelito and YourDecision: when you are speaking of "Kendall," are you actually referring to West Kendall? The phrases "smoke and mirrors" and "wolf in sheep's clothing" don't really make sense when applied to areas like Kendale, The Falls, Baptist Hopital/Continental Park, etc. Though most of us know that there are some nice areas in West Kendall, East Kendall is uniformly nice and has always been known as an upper-middle class area that is safe and has good schools. I would guess that there is a lot less "riff-raff" in East Kendall than in West Broward, coastal NE Miami, and other areas that are so often recommended on this forum. Unfortunately, it seems that parts of West Kendall have become akin to Hialeah Gardens, but I just cannot picture anyone making such comparisons to anywhere in Kendall that is east of the Turnpike or 874.

[Your.Decision]

Originally Posted by crisp444

Chelito and YourDecision: when you are speaking of "Kendall," are you actually referring to West Kendall? The phrases "smoke and mirrors" and "wolf in sheep's clothing" don't really make sense when applied to areas like Kendale, The Falls, Baptist Hopital/Continental Park, etc. Though most of us know that there are some nice areas in West Kendall, East Kendall is uniformly nice and has always been known as an upper-middle class area that is safe and has good schools. I would guess that there is a lot less "riff-raff" in East Kendall than in West Broward, coastal NE Miami, and other areas that are so often recommended on this forum. Unfortunately, it seems that parts of West Kendall have become akin to Hialeah Gardens, but I just cannot picture anyone making such comparisons to anywhere in Kendall that is east of the Turnpike or 874.

West Kendall specifically, but my posts also refer to anything west (or broadly on) 107th Ave. I actually lived on 88th/107th and the area went downhill pretty fast, even when I was living there (partly because of issues with the building management company itself). East Kendall is very suburban and safe for the most part.

[Marlin331]

Originally Posted by Your.Decision

West Kendall specifically, but my posts also refer to anything west (or broadly on) 107th Ave. I actually lived on 88th/107th and the area went downhill pretty fast, even when I was living there (partly because of issues with the building management company itself). East Kendall is very suburban and safe for the most part.

Wow; I was thinking that you had lived on 147th! When do you think that area went downhill? I know that area well and don't know it to be rundown or low-class at all; I do agree, however, that the other side of 874 is nicer.

[Your.Decision]

Originally Posted by crisp444

Wow; I was thinking that you had lived on 147th! When do you think that area went downhill? I know that area well and don't know it to be rundown or low-class at all; I do agree, however, that the other side of 874 is nicer.

It was nice when we first moved in (or so it seemed). Then after Wilma, the complex seemed to go downhill, as did the area. There were drug dealers (small time), my car was broken into and the building management company were awful (the elevator broke and it took them 6 months to fix it). Traffic seemed to greatly worsen in just a 2 year span. The traffic was the main reason why we chose to move.

It could have just been the ebb and flow of the place and the fact that it seemed nice when we moved in. But that's my point about Kendall - it can be deceiving, especially if you're not originally from Miami and everything looks so tropical.

[♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥]

I'm not familiar with brickell or south beach condos but in general apartment buldings in Miami attract some bad element even if they are located in a nice area or even if the rent is expensive. Renters are renters. If that's all a person can afford then they really have no other choice, but I think it's better to rent a single family home or a townhome, but even some townhome communities are full of renters.

[flyers29]

Originally Posted by ♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥

I'm not familiar with brickell or south beach condos but in general apartment buldings in Miami attract some bad element even if they are located in a nice area or even if the rent is expensive. Renters are renters. If that's all a person can afford then they really have no other choice, but I think it's better to rent a single family home or a townhome, but even some townhome communities are full of renters.

I agree. And as I said earlier in thread (and as Your.Decision was just discussing in his personal experience) the large amount of apartment complexes in West Kendall means that there is some element of crime there. I guess I just disagree about the extent to which it spreads over the area (as opposed to staying localized to a specific apartment complex). If you're in a home or townhouse, I don't think you'll notice it that much.

[Chelito23]

I don't buy the "plagued" by apartments excuse. If that were the case, Brickell, Miami Beach, Avenutura and downtown Coral Gables would all be slums too. Kendall is bad because it is Kendall, not because of some random reason. Previous posters nailed it, the rich or well to do move back to the urban core and are fed up with having to drive 3 miles in 30 minutes to get to the neighborhood mega super center chain. People are fed up with the over crowded schools, long commutes, total absence of a sense of community, few parks and an aging stock of ugly track homes. At a time Kendall was the definition of the classic American suburb, new wide roads, tollways, expressways, big houses, new malls, etc. All of those things seem to be laibilities nowadays and the eventual downfall of the area too. Now the tides have turned in general and only suburbs that have staying power are that way because of their location: Pincecrest, Palmeto Bay, South Miami, Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, etc. It is no small coincidence the closer you get to the coast, the more desireable it gets. Everything way out west is bound to go down hill because it is more of a filler type community that provides more affordable housing options vs. people actually wanting to live there.

The same things that people liked about the suburbs, being able to have a nice place to live and having privacy, are the same things that draw undesireable people and a criminal element to the area.

The same thing that happened in Kendall will happen to most areas south of Kendall away from the coast. Look at Homestead for example, a classic boom suburb and then the bust...and now its empty housing in new subdivisions and section 8 renters are moving in...there are many abandoned homes, people have walked away from houses they owe too much on, no community maintence, developers have gone bankrupt and that is when they rent or sell dirt cheap to anyone. Empty strip malls where the chians have left.

The people who bought into the kool aid that just being in Dade County and owning land here was magical and would always go up in value were delusional. If you're an hour away from anything in traffic and it costs 10 bucks in tolls to get there on top of that...and your neighbors are riff raff...you are in trouble.

Dade County would have to have some sort of major employment center in the southern end of the county to help that area long term, like a new airport, sea port, industrial areas...and land is running out so that is seeming less likely.

Kendall is borderline far...and since East Kendall is decent, there is hope for some areas....but west of the Turnpike is a hard sell. The writing is on the wall.

[WINTERFRONT]

Your Decision, that's a nice area, you are making me feel BAD. I live pass 147 av (The wastelands according to some)

[♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥]

I have seen crappy apartment buildings in good areas like coral gables, Pinecrest, and East Kendall

I see aparment buildings all over Kendall drive from US1 all the way to 150 something avenue. One area that has more condos than usual is the hammocks but in my opinion it's not an undesireble area if you can afford a single family home.

I don't live in West Kendall, never have, so it's not like a have an agenda to defend the place I just think people are making it sound like Harlem or liberty city. Saying that it's full of slums is quite a stretch. I think the stats of the area speak for themselves

and you can't compare Kendall to homestead. While homestead has some descent homes on it's far west side, homestead has always been a high crime area. Always, even before the bubble burst. Maybe some of you are not that familiar with East Homestead but it has never been a great place. I go to homestead very often and I'm very familiar with it I still woulndt call those homes slums, just a high crime area(it's like 3 times higher than Kendall) the demographics in homestead are very different, more white and a lot of African Americans. Some complexes are better than others but most are below average, even some of the gated communities have the criminals living inside bulglarizing homes and cars in the communities