Considering Hampton, is it nice, and is it safe? (Manchester: crime, home)

[Valerie C]

Let's take the beach completely out of the equation. The Town of Hampton is very much not a "seedy beach town". On the contrary, it's generally quiet, and could be considered "boring" if you're looking for nightlife. There are a couple of restaurants in town that do have lounges, such as Galley Hatch, Lamies, Widow Fletcher's. The "beach crowd" doesn't venture into town much, because there's simply nothing there to attract them.

The "seedy beach town" that MassYankee seems to be referring to is a less than 2-mile strip along Route 101A/Ocean Boulevard, along with the alphabetically named streets (A through Q) that connect them to Ashworth Ave. Hampton Beach has a number of arcades, fry dough stands, a couple of music venues. If you're at the beach "people watching" on any given summer evening, you see the same cars cruising over and over... Lots of Massachusetts plates, loud thumping music, teen and 20-somethings being kids and trying to look cool. It's sure a different crowd than when Hampton Beach was my summer hang out, but that seems to be the case everywhere... With the reference to strip clubs, I wonder if MassYankee is perhaps thinking of Salisbury Beach, home of Ten's Showclub.

Another thing to remember is that many of the hotel/motels that rely on tourists to fill the rooms in the summer turn to the "winter rental" crowd to fill the rooms for the winter. This population of transient renters has a wide variety of age, income level and criminal records...

Originally Posted by MassYankee

I don't think those rape figures are wrong for Hampton. It's a somewhat seedy beach town with a few strip clubs and run down arcades, and of course lots of people are looking for action of one sort or other when they are visiting there, so there will be a fair amount of bikers, drinking, fights, and general knuckleheads looking for trouble, etc.

[dubthang]

There are no strip clubs in Hampton. None on the NH seacoast at all.

[Rexicana]

I have some great friends with young kids in Hampton. They are quite picky about schools and activities and have not been disappointed there. They have had no problems with crime.

One unique thing is that a number of migrant workers arrive there and their kids go to school - not a bad thing in itself, but it may drive scores and such down.

They tell me how they walk to the beach, go biking a lot - it sounds pretty nice.

[mhc922009]

I lived in Rye for 20 years (as a kid) and and in Hampton for 10 years as an adult with kids. We bought a house Hampton and here's why: Exeter is very nice but property taxes too high, Hampton Falls and North Hampton are beautiful but pricey and did not find suitable/affordable house there, ditto for Rye and Greenland. We would love to live in my old hometown of Rye but Hampton is closer to 95 and 495 which makes commuting to Massachusetts high tech beltways reasonable.

Yes, Hampton Beach is nasty in the summer. We locals go to other beaches and let the tourists have Hampton Beach. And yes, there is cheap rental property there in the winter which leads to an influx of lower income people/families, including in my kids' classrooms at the local schools. Personally, I blame easy access from Route 101 and 95 as the source of bad elements as that's the way most tourists get here from interior NH and MA. The natives are just fine. Overall, it's a good place to raise a family. And if public school's not your thing then there are many private/parochial schools nearby. The town has a good recreation department and civic events. And we have an amazing dump/transfer station which recylcles almost everything Hampton is really two towns: the Beach and everything else. Live off the beach and you'll be fine.

[Yankeehombre]

Whenever you speak of Hampton one needs to be reminded especially the crime statistics, they are compiled adding in (residents and transient people)the people spending their time from Trashachusetts. Crime stats are more closely to those of Salisbury, Lawrence, Lowell, in addition to actual Hampton residents. On a summertime day, it can be an all day job to get off the beach to fight traffic to go get a gallon of milk. I wouldn't take the gift of a piece of beach-front property there. even downtown (route 1) traffic can be impossible there.

[fishnfool]

there's lots of side streets that cut through most of hampton. I can make it almost all the way to portsmouth without driving on 1A, 1, or 95, and there is no traffic there and it doesn't take any extra time. It is a relief though once labor day is finally over and the people finally head back south. It's funny how quickly we became resentful of the people walking around in Hampton and Portsmouth with those cartoon area maps. The never really seem to leave Portsmouth though.

[jingles689]

Originally Posted by movingover

Just took a look at a house I like there but noticed on the realtor's web site that the town has a very high crime index, with rape being 4x the national average. That seems insanely high for a town of 9k people and a median income higher than the state average, and much higher than the national average, so what gives? Was the data I was looking at wrong?

Okay thats total crap. I have lived here off and on for 25 years and am here year round now and Hampton Beach though noisy summers is the quietest safest area we have been in, in years. High crime rate? I see someone stating the beach offsets statistics but its just not true.
The winters here have a pocket area (mainly streets from just south of the Ashworth hotel to the bridge area) that isnt the greatest but the rest of the area is fine, and even that winter resident low income area is failry quiet here the past years.
I say someone isnt doing their homework on the city data updates or is just tossing in random numbers.
Have a drive here summer then winter and see for yourself! Talk to some of us here year round!
The data isnt always correct and there is little crime let alone any violent crime at all in Hampton Beach...puleeeze!!

[jingles689]

by the way had you checked out Manchester or Dover? Now THOSE are areas to avoid!

[NH2NCMom]

Originally Posted by jingles689

by the way had you checked out Manchester or Dover? Now THOSE are areas to avoid!

Manchester is a city of 100K people, and Dover? excuse me, I lived in Dover for over 30 years, and I feel safe walking ANY part of Dover, I'd like to see your data to make such a widespread defamation - and also compare these cities with comparison cities. Again someone who just comes on CD to flame - and I'm sorry I'll be the first one to say you're right if you are, but in this case you are WRONG.

[dubthang]

Originally Posted by NH2NCMom

Manchester is a city of 100K people, and Dover? excuse me, I lived in Dover for over 30 years, and I feel safe walking ANY part of Dover, I'd like to see your data to make such a widespread defamation - and also compare these cities with comparison cities. Again someone who just comes on CD to flame - and I'm sorry I'll be the first one to say you're right if you are, but in this case you are WRONG.

I second this. Dover is a great city. Manchester is not bad for what it is, a large urban city.