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Does crime from Plainfield typically spill over into the surrounding towns of Scotch Plains, Fanwood, South Plainfield, Green Brook, Watchung, Edison or even Westfield? I'm considering a home purchase in one of these towns (minus Plainfield) and the proximity to Plainfield is my only concern of these towns from a safety standpoint as I have young children.
Any insight or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!
We lived adjacent to Plainfield in Green Brook years ago and houses on both sides of us were broken into. We moved further away before we were victims. So to answer your question, yes it can and does happen.
"The amount of land area in Plainfield is 6.0 sq. miles."
"800 known gang members lnown to police'
"Police say gangs have a stranglehold over part of the Queen City, an area sandwiched by a blue-collar town on the west and white-collar suburbs on the east. If unabated, the pace with which people are being killed puts the city of fewer than 50,000 on track to finish the year with about 20 slayings and a homicide rate near 40 per 100,000 people. Last year, Newark had a homicide rate of 31. Camden, one of the deadliest cities in America, had a rate of 46."
Feeling lucky ?
So that's about 133 + gang members per sq mile.
Gangs are the source of violent crimes, gun violence is downstream of drug sales, perceived disrespect and territorial disputes. Business must be good in Plainfield and the surrounding areas. By the way, none of the gangs have a paid subscription to NJ's very strict guns laws. Legislators grandfathered them an exception and a promise not to pass any legislation which would hinder their business and behavior.
Sure, Plainfield is safe. Corey Booker got to be a senator with almost 3 murders a month, so by NJ standards Plainfield is like Winnie the Pooh's hundred acre wood.
law enforcement knows town officials in the most towns and cities in NJ deny the significance of gangs in their towns to downplay frightening prospective residents and visitors. They do no one a favor.
there was a post on Plainfield some time back by a beleaguered resident..... try plainfield gangs
Does crime from Plainfield typically spill over into the surrounding towns of Scotch Plains, Fanwood, South Plainfield, Green Brook, Watchung, Edison or even Westfield? I'm considering a home purchase in one of these towns (minus Plainfield) and the proximity to Plainfield is my only concern of these towns from a safety standpoint as I have young children.
Any insight or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!
In general, the answer is not very much. If you live RIGHT on the border, burglaries do happen on occasion. In general, issues don't cross 22 to the mountain.
As a current GB resident, I wouldn't want to live right ON Rock Ave S of 22. East of Jefferson Ave there have been a few burglaries that I know of, but nothing all that common. Oddly (to me) there never seem to be any issues with the developments on West End Ave, Cardinal Lane, etc that border the lower-end apartment complexes that are next door but over the town line.
Watchung stuck their police department right next to 22 basically on the only real road into the town from there (Somerset St) and again, I don't usually hear of many issues there.
I don't know the other towns well enough to have an opinion, but I believe it's similar there. Don't live right on the border, otherwise it's fine.
Both Green Brook and Watchung for example, the main parts of town are very isolated in reality from Plainfield. Green Brook's main development South of 22 is between Cramer and Washington Ave not out by the border. (and with the past 20 years of development, I think more of the population lives North of 22 than South these days). Watchung is setup so there's only one point to get into the town from the South, and there is always a cop there running speed traps and watching.
Piscataway suffers from a fair amount of spillover from Plainfield, but the areas on the other side of 287 are quite nice. The high school gets a lot of Plainfield kids who claim to live in Piscataway so they can go to a better high school. Overall P-way is pretty decent, but the areas immediately bordering Plainfield have a lot of "hood" attitude and look like hell.
South Plainfield was never a very well-to-do area, but does not seem to be suffering from the same spillover effect. The police dept I know keeps a tight lid on that. It is also a lot smaller.
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