Worst or pooriest sections of trenton (Hoboken: hoa, job, sick)

[DessertRat]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

I'd assume it would factor into the decision in some form, no?

See the post I just did above . . . I've never really been anywhere that I personally would say "I'd never live here because of the neighborhood". It's not that there aren't any places like that in the world--I certainly wouldn't want to live in Kenya or at the moment, for example, or Botswana, given that I'm a middle-aged white guy (they've had a lot of problems there in recent years; it's a complicated situation) . . . and there are other examples, but in the US, there is no place where I'd not be open to living. However, as mentioned above, my wife is a bit racist, so that's the main thing we have to watch out for on that end.

What factors into our decision instead is:
(1) Where are we likely to find the kinds of work we're looking for, insofar as we have to be in the same geographic location?
(2) We like cities, where is or is near to a city we like? My wife especially likes many of the amenities you can find in a large city--the shopping, restaurants, entertainment, etc.
(3) I especially (more than my wife, who has only lived in large cities) also love being in the "country", wilderness, deserts, etc. Where can we live that's in or close to that, too?
(4) We love hiking. Where can we live that's close to lots of good hiking?
(5) We love national parks. Where can we live that's close to those too?
(6) We also love amusement parks. Where can we live that's close to those too?

There are other factors, too, but given the above, Las Vegas seems to be our best choice. There are plenty of places for us in terms of employment, including opportunities as a musician. We've been to Vegas plenty of times and like it as a city. It's also in the desert and close to lots of wilderness, wide-open spaces, etc. There is a lot of good hiking nearby, including some of my favorite national park areas--Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Zion, Joshua Tree, etc. There are amusement park areas and attractions right in Vegas, and it's also an easy drive to the LA area for places like Disney (we're huge Disney fans), Magic Mountain, Knott's Berry Farm, etc. The only negative we can think of with Vegas is the summer weather, which is hotter than we like. But I've been watching the weather in the other seasons for awhile now, and at least for the last few years, the weather in the other seasons is more or less perfect to me.

Trenton as a candidate, on the other hand, has a number of strikes against it. There aren't near as many employment candidates. We're not very enamored with it as a city (it's just an average, older, mid-sized US city, nothing really special about it to us), and it doesn't have any particularly unusual amenities (although granted it's not too far from Philadelphia, which we do like). Except for the Pine Barrens, which I'm not too fascinated with, it's not very close to anything that could really be called "wilderness", and there are certainly no deserts nearby, there's not a lot of exciting hiking in the area--although it's not on the bottom of the list for that, either, there isn't much in the way of National Parks nearby (the closest is Shenandoah, which we do like (I don't think there's a National Park I don't like), but which isn't really a favorite, and it's at least 4.5 hours away from Trenton (it takes us about six hours to get there from JC . . . I don't drive like a bat out of hell, but I'm not going to anywhere else either)). There are a few amusement parks in the area, but no Disney, and I don't like most of them as well as Magic Mountain, etc. either. It also has the same weather as JC, which we don't really care for, and the same northeastern US congestion--to get out of the gridlock, you've still got to drive hours away from home.

Those are the kinds of things we care about. And wherever we end up, then, we'll try to get the best house (best shape--I'm no handyman, most space, etc.) we can for a price we can modestly afford.

[DessertRat]

Originally Posted by JackedInPrinceton

I opened the paper yesterday ... The Trenton Times. And just this weekend there were 5 different robberies on the street. 5 RANDOM people were held at gunpoint at seperate locations/times and were forced to give up their money. Two of them were stabbed after handing it over. So life as a regular person in Trenton is not very safe most times.

I'd have to actually see the stories. At first blush, I'm skeptical that that's something you could determine from a short newspaper blurb. I checked briefly online, and one item I found was (not that I'm saying this is what you were referring to): "Walter Gleaton, 28, was shot multiple times in a drug-related robbery last Wednesday in the 100 block of Sanford Street by two men who wore black-hooded sweat shirts, police said. Gleaton was in stable condition yesterday at Capital Health System at Fuld hospital. Gleaton, police said, is a felon him self, with drug and eluding police convictions." That's probably far more typical. It was drug-related, Gleaton is a felon drug dealer himself.

[MECCALOVE]

Originally Posted by christina0001

Of course there are better and worse sections.
The worst section IMO is the area between Rt. 29, Parkside Ave, Rt. 31, and Calhoun St. It kind of makes a square. The side streets off of the major roads in that square are mostly bad. There are too many corner bars, too many boarded up homes, and too many people hanging out on the street 24/7. Of this area, I feel the side streets off of Stuyvesant are probably the worst. Gang activity is very heavy, and businesses have steadily been pulling out, although somehow the little shopping plaza on Hermitage is hanging on. The gang/drug lords drive pimped out Cadillac Escalades and other supernice rides. They have complete control of this area. It's not unusual to see armoured police vehicles dealing with stuff here.
My #2 on the list is the area between North Olden, Rt. 1, Mulberry, and N. Clinton. The area just south and west of here on N. Clinton (i.e. Poplar, Hart) is almost as bad. I have seen several drug deals in both neighborhoods. Again, too many bars, too many people hanging out on the street, too much gang activity.
My #3 is Perry Street. The blocks between Broad and Rt. 1 are rough. The side streets are also bad. Drugs, gang activity, etc. This area is close to the capital section and I wish they would do more to clean it up.
#4 would be the lower blocks (maybe blocks 100 - 300) of Walnut Ave. Over the past few years, the Trenton police have been bearing down heavily on Walnut, so it has improved. But there is still too much drug and gang activity.

and how would you know? do you live in Trenton? my brother works for the state and drives a 07 escalade bet you would think he was a drug lord/gang banger too.

[JackedInPrinceton]

Why dont you get yourself a copy of the Trenton Times then somehow if you believe Im making this up... I got better things to do than make up bull stories how can you be so stubburn... this stuff happens in Trenton all the time!

[CuCullin]

Originally Posted by DessertRat

I'd have to actually see the stories.

NJ.com: Everything Jersey

http://blog.nj.com/centraljersey_imp...29_Trenton.pdf includes homicide, panhandling, armed robbery (two shooting victims, 16, 42, separate locations and incidents), armed robbery of a 19yr old, and armed robbery of a 20yr old.

Trenton: Safe as safe can be.

[DessertRat]

Originally Posted by JackedInPrinceton

Why dont you get yourself a copy of the Trenton Times then somehow if you believe Im making this up... I got better things to do than make up bull stories how can you be so stubburn... this stuff happens in Trenton all the time!

No. You've got to read more carefully. I didn't say you were making something up. I said I'm skeptical that the claim that they were random stabbings (etc.) is something that one could tell from a short newspaper article. You can tell that there were robberies or stabbings reported, sure. You probably can't tell all the details of what actually happened in the situations. It would be odd for a newspaper to have that kind of detail, given how they usually get their information for such blurbs and the typical kind of coverage. I'm not saying it's impossible they have that kind of detail (and that's it's correct), but without seeing it, I'm skeptical it had that kind of detail. My guess is that you're reading that information into the story, since there was an absence of detail.

[CuCullin]

Originally Posted by DessertRat

My guess is that you're reading that information into the story, since there was an absence of detail.

So read the police blotter I linked to instead.

[JackedInPrinceton]

I understand... I just have a hard time believing you think most robberies arent random. My friends dad in was robbed in Trenton and beaten... and another of my friends, twice to be exact. And trust me they are not in any gangs

[DessertRat]

Originally Posted by CuCullin

NJ.com: Everything Jersey

Okay, that first story says that Garvin was inside a nightclub where fighting (it also calls it a "brawl", which has different connotations), was occurring. It doesn't say anything about Garvin's role or lack of role in the fight (or "brawl") that had been occurring. We'd have to investigate that more. Maybe he was involved with it.

Is that one of the stories that JackedInPrinceton was referring to?

In general, if you get involved in a physical confrontation in a bar, there's a good chance you might get hurt, no matter where you are in the country. Are we saying that it's more dangerous to be involved in a bar brawl in Trenton than it is in, say, Cody, Wyoming? What would be be basing that claim on?

Re the other link, the first story is about Gleaton. He wasn't a random person per the police, he was a convicted felon. The second story is again about Garvin, and we don't know his role in the earlier events. The third story tells us absolutely nothing about Mason, any suspects, etc. So we have no idea of what relationship, if any, he may have had with his killer(s). The next story certainly can't be what JackedInPrinceton was referring to (so I guess you're not actually providing that information in the link?), as it's about juveniles being apprehended after curfew. That doesn't mean they were doing anything that would make a potential resident unsafe. It just means that there's a curfew in effect (which I think is bogus, but that's another thread), and those juveniles happened to be out during the curfew period and were apprehended. The next item is mostly about panhandlers (that threatens no one's safety). The next three items, about robberies (maybe this is what JackedInPrinceton was talking about?), says nothing about the victim's relationship or lack of the same to the perpetrator.

Or, as I said, we can't tell from this information what might have really gone on/really been the circumstances. It wouldn't be difficult to determine this, maybe, but the information is not present in the link you gave.

[DessertRat]

Originally Posted by JackedInPrinceton

I understand... I just have a hard time believing you think most robberies arent random. My friends dad in was robbed in Trenton and beaten... and another of my friends, twice to be exact. And trust me they are not in any gangs

I said nothing about "most robberies". I don't have a belief about whether most robberies are random or not; I would need a good justification (which in this case would be a research project with methodology that checks out) for holding a belief like that. I'm just pointing out that I'm skeptical that you could tell that they were in fact random from newspapers items without actually seeing the items, because newspapers do not usually give information like that for various reasons (some of which I mentioned earlier, but also because it's not exactly easy to know, unless you're the victim or very close to the victim, that the victim indeed had no relationship to the perpetrator).