Looking at apt in Jersey City: Pearsall Ave, between Ocean Ave. and Garfield Ave. (Bayonne: apartments)

[Robustus]

I'm not from the area. My girlfriend and I are looking all around Jersey City and the surroundings.

What's the area referenced in the title like? Any gang activity, violent crime, etc? It's 3 blocks from the Danforth Ave. light-rail stop, and seems mostly like a working community, but again, I don't know the area, and we only went twice (once to look at the apt. in the day, and drove through once at night).

Any guidance would be helpful.

[fischfan13]

Stay away.
If you don't believe me then go park around there on a Friday or Saturday late night.

[smither687]

I'd say look into newport, paulus hook, hamilton park, liberty harbor areas for apartments in Jersey city. Also a nice place is hoboken, best places on the waterfront. try Condos in Jersey City, Apartments in Jersey City, Homes in Jersey City, Condominiums in Jersey City | Liberty Harbor

[Robustus]

Originally Posted by fischfan13

Stay away.
If you don't believe me then go park around there on a Friday or Saturday late night.

Yeah... We noticed it starts to get a little rougher heading West (or North) a few blocks, but the particular street the apartment is on and heading South/East (the three blocks to the light-rail stop) felt fine.

We're going to go back tonight and park and walk around a bunch, but we probably won't get a chance to observe on a fri/sat night since we'll have to make a decision on the place one way or another by tomorrow afternoon.

Do you live in the area, fischfan?

[tommyc_37]

Robustus, the only place I would live in, in Jersey City, is Downtown. This is where I live. It's 10x safer than the rest of the city. Look for apartments in Van Vorst park, Hamilton Park, Paulus Hook, Exchange Place, Harsimus Cove. These are all neighborhoods within Downtown Jersey City. All have excellent access to one of the 3 Path stations.

[fischfan13]

I used to live in Bayonne, and I found driving thru Garfield Ave during the night and OCean Avenue at anytime as not a really good drive.
I used to work near Garfield Ave and I do remember a car-jacking one night at the traffic light on the Garfield Ave exit of the Turnpike.
Look around.
I am anti-JC.
Look at Bayonne and Cliffside Park.
I wish you the best.

[Robustus]

Thanks for the info. I'm definitely open to suggestions and will check out the other neighborhoods, though I expect them to be too expensive (don't really want to pay more than $1600 for a 2-3 bedroom, etc).

If anyone has lived in or near the neighborhood that I'm talking about (ie, within a few blocks), I'd be interested in hearing their opinions. Seems like a fairly mixed, mostly working-families, neighborhood.

We'll definitely walk around a good deal late tonight to try and get a better idea, though.

(note: my viewpoint might be a little skewed, since last time I lived in the NYC area, which was 10 years ago, I lived in Brooklyn, at the corner of Grand St. and Bushwick Ave., which was *much* more run-down (at least a decade ago) than the neighborhood I'm talking about above)

[cf77]

Im familiar with the area but not that particular street and its not good what so ever. I dont know how else to put it. Honeslty theres waaaaay better places you can move too, Bayonne, Downtown JC, Harrison etc etc.