Looking to rent in Greater East Side of St. Paul (Bloomington: apartments, lease)

[Tacere]

I will be moving to the cities soon, and I have found a flat in the neighborhood called Greater East Side. It is close to the Minnehaha Avenue, fairly close to Maplewood.

I have been trying to figure out if the area has more crime than the rest of the city or if it is a safe place to live generally speaking. Will I be better off looking for something in Bloomington/Shakopee, like I wanted to initially?

Thank you.

[wamer27]

Are you working somewhere? I'm not a fan of the eastside of St Paul, look at crime maps or better yet, do what a St Paul cop told me, call the precinct near it and ask about the crime. I was looking online a few years ago at a place to buy and mentioned it to him, he told me to stay away, way too many calls to the neighborhood. I would suggest nicer areas of St Paul, Grand Avenue, Summit, Highland Park...if you want to be in St Paul.

[AndreaSoup]

Not the nicest part of St. Paul, but not horrid, either. What are the cross streets? If you are between White Bear and McKnight...it's a pretty decent neighborhood. Between Downtown and White Bear...eh. Can be sketchy. Houses are gorgeous, though!

[Atalanta]

East side of St. Paul and Bloomington are quite different.

I would not recommend the East side of St. Paul.
Crime has gone up quite a bit.

A lot of drug, gang, and crime.

[Tacere]

Thank you everybody. Safety is very important to me, so I guess I should stick to my initial choices.

[Govie]

If you're in Maplewood - literally - on Minnehaha, that's not a problem, in my opinion. It's a tad sketchy, but the East Side is a very odd place at this very particular moment. (You're talking to a born and raised and residing East Sider here, FWIW).



Payne Avenue is legendary as far as the East Side - it's like the center of it - and while I wouldn't like to see my elderly parents, or sisters, or girlfriend walk around there at night, it's trying to turn it around. For example: Munch Madness: Payne Avenue prevails in battle of St. Paul eat streets - TwinCities.com


I still am on Payne Ave frequently for various reasons (commute to Downtown, for example) and It's not South Central, but there's a rough crowd over here.


It's hard for me to sell the East Side, as, to be honest, I will not raise my children here when I have them, but I'm not really that afraid of it either because I've been here all my life.



Bottom line is if you're on the outskirts of the East Side (Maplewood, Oakdale, West St. Paul, Woodbury, North St. Paul) I wouldn't be too concerned. Inside the city limits even can have some pleasant areas as well, but all in all I'd say Bloomington would be better as a whole.

[PullMyFinger]

I've worked on the East Side for many years, along with a lot of other places around St Paul but for some weird reason, even with all it's problems I seem to identify with the East Side the best. There isn't a grey area, either the folks are really bad or they are really good, even if they don't have a lot of money. They like to drink their beer and smoke their cigarettes but they are just good folks. Then there are the bad ones, and I'm talking about murderers, rapists, drug dealers. Those guys are the worst of the worst so you have to tread carefully.

If safety is your concern, maybe Oakdale would be a good option for you. It's not much further east and I think a good upgrade.

[Squeamish]

a few months ago, when it became necessary to seek ABSOLUTE bottom-dollar apartment in the central/east metro, it was looking clear that I was going to end up off Payne or Arcade until I found a friend with a room for rent for even less. Congratulations on finding the bottom-dollar neighborhood in MSP. I think it's quite livable if you don't have kids in public schools, just don't leave valuables in your car at night. I've noticed that people on this forum don't seem to put enough value on saving rent money for other endeavors. Nor does the market, all these new apartments are high-end, leaving less and less of a percentage available for us low-end folks.

[PullMyFinger]

Originally Posted by Squeamish

a few months ago, when it became necessary to seek ABSOLUTE bottom-dollar apartment in the central/east metro, it was looking clear that I was going to end up off Payne or Arcade until I found a friend with a room for rent for even less. Congratulations on finding the bottom-dollar neighborhood in MSP. I think it's quite livable if you don't have kids in public schools, just don't leave valuables in your car at night. I've noticed that people on this forum don't seem to put enough value on saving rent money for other endeavors. Nor does the market, all these new apartments are high-end, leaving less and less of a percentage available for us low-end folks.

The problem is the "good" people keep abandoning places instead of working to make them better so the bad folks get free reign to run around breaking the law and hurting folks. What is the answer? I don't know, but when you are worried about your kids or your spouse, that is a powerful thing.

I work in St Paul, have really cool houses around my job that I could easily live in and walk to work, walk home for lunch. Virtually no one I work with lives in St Paul. It's sad really, 50-70 years ago most of the houses were built by people who worked where I worked. They walked to work, walked home for lunch or their wife (who didn't work) would come to our building and eat with them. Society used to be so much better, now we are all scared rabbits.

I don't hate the city at all, in fact I would love to live there but I just don't want to deal with the bad people who have moved in.

[Tacere]

Originally Posted by Squeamish

a few months ago, when it became necessary to seek ABSOLUTE bottom-dollar apartment in the central/east metro, it was looking clear that I was going to end up off Payne or Arcade until I found a friend with a room for rent for even less. Congratulations on finding the bottom-dollar neighborhood in MSP. I think it's quite livable if you don't have kids in public schools, just don't leave valuables in your car at night. I've noticed that people on this forum don't seem to put enough value on saving rent money for other endeavors. Nor does the market, all these new apartments are high-end, leaving less and less of a percentage available for us low-end folks.

The price of the flat isn't too different from the prices of apartments in other areas. I was only attracted by the fact that the owner was flexible on the data of the lease, really.