Neighborhoods to avoid (Minneapolis, St. Paul, Brooklyn Park: apartments, high crime, townhome)

[xz2y]

I'm planning on relocating to Minneapolis summer 2007 and would like to live in the city. However, I need information on which neighborhoods to avoid due to high crime. Any help is appreciated.

[politikally]

North Minneapolis & Brooklyn Center. Those are the places to avoid if you don't like crime.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

for crime avoid the Near-North Community and the Phillips neighborhood.

P.S. People need to quit saying Brooklyn Center has high crime, it is barely above the national average. Minneapolis has more crime than Brooklyn Center in every major statisical category. Hilltop has FAR more crime than Brooklyn Center so if any suburb should be avoided it should be that one.

Brooklyn Center is alot like Brooklyn Park I think. Both suburbs are pretty average with one or two areas of subsidized housing and higher crime. Both are also about 15% black which is probably why people assume they are dangerous, which in this case is almost entirely untrue.

[politikally]

Statistics generally never come close to measuring reality.

When I moved here everyone told me to avoid North Minneapolis, and any town with the word Brooklyn in it. I took the advice, the news generally proves the advice every night, and now I give the advice

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I will tell from personal experience concerning Brooklyn Park. My guitar teacher while growing up lived there so I took lessons there, in a townhome off of 81. I also have a friend who lived in the Willows apartments off of 65th ave. Finally, a coworker of mine lives right by North Hennepin Community College. Through these three connections I have spent a fair amount of time in the city spanning over the last decade and don't have a single bad thing to say about the city. I have never once felt threatened or unsafe in the least. I don't know as much about Brooklyn Center but according to the statistics (even though they apparently mean nothing ) there are less murders there annually than Brooklyn Park.

Bottom line is that these two suburbs are middle class with more diversity than any of the other suburbs and slightly higher crime, yet far lower crime than Minneapolis/St. Paul. Brooklyn Park actually just passed a referendum to tear down the subsidized housing near Brooklyn Blvd and Zane Ave in the next few years and with all the development on Brooklyn Blvd (huge new bowling alley, etc.) the area is actually improving quite a bit.

I wouldn't write off the area just because what a few ignorant sheltered suburban folk say.

[brandtre]

Having worked in the public sector in that area- as with all larger cities, there is crime and the "type" of people one may not wish to associate with. It is diverse, its next to Minneapolis and its on a major freeway system wich often make it an ample place for criminals to come visit and pass through. In my opinion it is not any worse than any larger city would be. There are nice parts, and parts that may not be places one would consider. At least check it out for yourself if you can...

[Jim Stokes]

Based on my own experience raising my kids, I'd say stay away from North Minneapolis past Highway 55. All you have to do is watch TV news and read the Minneapolis Tribune daily paper to be very much aware that not only is the North Side a bad place to live but also Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center. They're always in the news for murders and rapes.

However you have to also add the Uptown area, which has become rather trendy otherwise. But at night, there are lots of murders and raps done in this area. That includes then Hennepin & Lake Street and the surrouding streets and avenues for several blocks. Why in the world investors are putting up slick high rises is beyond my understanding. You can't walk alone in that area after dark. And there's lots of crime in that area in the daytime. You should read the Southwest Journal, which regularly has at least a two-page spread of crime reports in the daytime and nightime.

Now then, where are the GOOD places to live? Kenwood, which is just west of the crime-filled Uptown area, and St. Louis Park. In fact, St. Louis Park is the overall best place to live in Minneapolis in my humble opinion.

[Jim Stokes]

There's a rather grim and unintended double-entendre typo in my discourse on the Uptown area. Indeed, it should read "rapes," not "raps." However one ponders if "rap" or "rapp" music may be linked to the other word. Oy!

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I lived in Uptown for 5 months this past year and not once did I witness or was victim to a crime, nor did I hear of anyone who was. Tons of murders and rapes there? Did you dream this up? There was ONE murder there this year. A mother and her son were walking out of a restaurant in Uptown and they were robbed at gunpoint by a couple of kids. All they wanted was the woman's purse, which she gave to them. This would've been the end of the story except the woman's son chased after them to get the purse back. One of them freaked out and shot him. It was his idiotic retaliation that caused the senseless death. Other than that there haven't been any murders in uptown and as a result of the event, police coverage in the area increased significantly. Yes, there are alot of crimes happening in the area on a weekly basis but they are very petty, people leaving their cars unlocked by Lake Calhoun getting their cds stolen and things like that. There aren't murders, rapes or narcotics arrests there like there are on East Lake at the southern tip of the Phillips neighborhood. Get your facts straight sir.

[Jim Stokes]

In reply to Stig or Slig, whatever your alias, you must live a sheltered life. You should read the local papers and watch TV. There was a horrible murder in the Uptown area not too long ago of a foreign student. Several black confronted him. He couldn't speak the language. So they killed him. The area is RAMPANT with crime. Gosh it's there in the news! I'll have to conclude that you are a flamer for whatever reason I don't know.

Here ARE the facts.
* Uptown is a haven for those who seek to or are already high on drugs and alcohol. Cops are continually arresting them for drunkeness, drugs and lewd behavior.
* Beatings and sex-related crimes are committed in broad daylight as well as under cover of darkness.

Why you would want to lie and cover all this up, I don't know. Perhaps you merely seek to flame people.

In any event, I do wish Uptown were more of a secure place. I will tell you that all the crime does not deter me from being a frequent vistor in Uptown. I seek the solitude of the Walker Library, which by the Grace of God has been spared. And I walk the streets. I am a big guy and look quite menacing, which was the way God made me. I've worked in manual labor for many years and as of late have come to enjoy the music, writing and adventurous life. I can handle myself very well in a fight. That seems to keep the druggies and killers away from me.

Also I find that the Uptown McDonald's is a wonderful gathering place for the dispossessed of the area and the world. It's one of my favorite places to go for coffee and two breakfast burritos most weekday mornings.

In addition, I have used Uptown streets as locales for my independent movies. That along with nearby Lake of the Isles are great shooting locales for movies.

Thus I say: Shoot movies and not people. {That is a joke}

In conclusion, Uptown is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!

To Life!

Happy New Year!