New to parkchester (New York, Ridge, Inwood: apartments, crime, mortgage)
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You guys are free to play up Parkchester if you'd like but I wouldn't live there, even with the express bus. There's a ghetto element there that needs to be dealt with. Guys hanging out in front of stores and congregating and loitering. They should be out working and being productive. We don't have that in my neighborhood. The occasional teenagers hanging out from the private schools after school, but that's it. After 7 or 8pm it's dead. I can come home at 1 or 2 am in the morning and feel completely safe coming from the commuter train or the express bus. I'm not sure I could do that in Parkchester. It just isn't there yet in terms of safety.
Not everyone is daddy Warbuck's like yourself. You don't need to down play an area that is perfectly safe just because it doesn't meet your Warbuck standards.
I am a woman, and I feel safe almost all of the time. ( I never feel safe all of the time in any neighborhood because some men are pigs and rape women in every neighborhood. Those men are M&M's, rich, poor and in between. )
I think there needs to be a better variety and quality of retail. But my local super-market surprises me every day with it's snooty food offerings. Only whole foods would rival its variety in nut milks and non-wheat based flours! lordy lordy lord. I don't over pay for produce with organic. That's for suckers, but they do carry a variety. And I'm glad they carry Udi's GF bread. That's the only GF bread that doesn't taste like cardboard. And I like the Barkthins as one of the few GF snacks that one doesn't have to make themselves.
For what it's worth, the food taste like crap at WFs. I've tried their salad / hot offerings. BLECK. My cooking is way better! Have they ever heard of this thing called herbs? Nice vinegar, nice oil? Salt!
It could use better quality restaurants and more broken windows measures.
But really, it's perfectly safe, and after living in some snooty areas (like Park Slope) worlds apart friendlier.
You are right. I didn't really notice that this was a list that had nothing to do with crime and that was what I was addressing.
As far as safety though, NYC is a safe place, even in the worst neigbhorhoods. Parkchester is not in the top 10 worst neighbhorhoods and the chances of being a victim of crime is 1%. That's almost zero.
I think having a position that "oy vey, a crime happened where someone participated it lived in my neighborhood" is beyond alarmist. Being vocal about it silly, especially when the crime rate is so ridiculously low.
I also think the fear of crime is way overblown. It's much more dangerous to live in the suburbs and drive every day, but people exaggerate their probability of being a victim of crime for whatever reason.
You guys are free to play up Parkchester if you'd like but I wouldn't live there, even with the express bus. There's a ghetto element there that needs to be dealt with. Guys hanging out in front of stores and congregating and loitering. They should be out working and being productive. We don't have that in my neighborhood. The occasional teenagers hanging out from the private schools after school, but that's it. After 7 or 8pm it's dead. I can come home at 1 or 2 am in the morning and feel completely safe coming from the commuter train or the express bus. I'm not sure I could do that in Parkchester. It just isn't there yet in terms of safety.
Oh and you are obsessed, maybe scared to ride the subways. I will grant you, the 6 train sucks big time because it is overly crowded. But I'm a real new yorker. I'm not a snob who is afraid to rub elbows with all demographics. It's filled with a lot of people simply going to work. The riff-raff you speak of are not usually on the train during rush hour prime. But what is going on during rush hour prime is a lot of friggin cars and a lot of friggen traffic. Until that express bus becomes the Concord, no thanks. An hour is already far too friggin long to commute. I don't have any desire to double it, even if the seats are upholstered, maybe slighly wider and there is wifi. (Never mind that I freeze my butt off on the express bus because it's half filled and over AC'd)
Not everyone is daddy Warbuck's like yourself. You don't need to down play an area that is perfectly safe just because it doesn't meet your Warbuck standards.
I am a woman, and I feel safe almost all of the time. ( I never feel safe all of the time in any neighborhood because some men are pigs and rape women in every neighborhood. Those men are M&M's, rich, poor and in between. )
I think there needs to be a better variety and quality of retail. But my local super-market surprises me every day with it's snooty food offerings. Only whole foods would rival its variety in nut milks and non-wheat based flours! lordy lordy lord. I don't over pay for produce with organic. That's for suckers, but they do carry a variety. And I'm glad they carry Udi's GF bread. That's the only GF bread that doesn't taste like cardboard. And I like the Barkthins as one of the few GF snacks that one doesn't have to make themselves.
For what it's worth, the food taste like crap at WFs. I've tried their salad / hot offerings. BLECK. My cooking is way better! Have they ever heard of this thing called herbs? Nice vinegar, nice oil? Salt!
It could use better quality restaurants and more broken windows measures.
But really, it's perfectly safe, and after living in some snooty areas (like Park Slope) worlds apart friendlier.
It isn't about meeting my standards. It's about the area improving and attracting more higher income earners. That's what elnrgby has been preaching about non-stop. lol As I have noted, most of my food I buy at WF and cook myself, so I don't do lots of their prepared food or anyone else's for that matter. Quite frankly the best WF is in Union Square for prepared items. I used to live in that store when I came back from living in Europe and started working in my early 20s. Would pick up lunch there regularly.
Parkchester is ok for someone on a budget who can't do much better. In fact outside of the complex there are some nice blocks with good housing stock. I think the complex itself could be better though and better kept too.
Just because some are overtly paranoid about the infintismal low percentage of crime, comparable with many neighborhoods that are considered "good" simply because they have a lot of millenials, doesn't mean it's a ghetto. It's just not gentrified. If you don't like Bengladeshi, perhaps you might have a problem. That is the population that is growing both in size and political power.
According to NYC Crime map, the 43rd precinct had 2,165 Crimes in the period of July 2017-July 2018. That's 12.5776 Crimes per 1,000 residents with a population of 172,131. In other words, the odds of being a victim of a crime is 0.0125776% With just slighly above 1%, I think that is pretty good odds. https://maps.nyc.gov/crime/
Here is the data:
The 20 NYC Neighborhoods with Highest Violent Crime Rates
These neighborhoods have the highest rates of violent crime per capita across New York City:
It isn't about meeting my standards. It's about the area improving and attracting more higher income earners. That's what elnrgby has been preaching about non-stop. lol As I have noted, most of my food I buy at WF and cook myself, so I don't do lots of their prepared food or anyone else's for that matter. Quite frankly the best WF is in Union Square for prepared items. I used to live in that store when I came back from living in Europe and started working in my early 20s. Would pick up lunch there regularly.
Parkchester is ok for someone on a budget who can't do much better. In fact outside of the complex there are some nice blocks with good housing stock. I think the complex itself could be better though and better kept too.
Don't keep misquoting me (or make incorrect guesses about me based on common prejudices). I have given up on Parkchester because of violent crimes reported in the police summaries that I get e-mailed to me weekly, but when I WAS still hoping for Parkchester, I was hoping for more educated and therefore less criminal people moving there - NOT for higher earners. Higher earners are not interested in Parkchester, and will extremely likely never be. But educated people who don't have money either because they are very young and have high school debts/low savings, are immigrants from countries where nobody has money (including the highly educated), or are in totally non-lucrative fields (generally but not exclusively humanities) could really use a cheap but solid (ie, non-criminal) neighborhood. I have been in the first two categories myself (with my parents being permanently in the last category as well), and I am speaking from experience; my numerous posts about Parkchester served to put that neighborhood on the map to people who may be in these 3 categories, but do not know about Parkchester. But I have also said that in order to live in Parkchester one has to be able to tolerate some degree of crime risk. Parkchester does have the lowest crime among the cheapest areas of the Bronx, but it still has some crime (ie, at this time still an amount of crime that I personally could not tolerate). While the crime in Parkchester is not high by any criteria, the fact that there is some gang activity in Parkchester area also not exactly a secret.
Don't keep misquoting me (or make incorrect guesses about me based on common prejudices). I have given up on Parkchester because of violent crimes reported in the police summaries that I get e-mailed to me weekly, but when I WAS still hoping for Parkchester, I was hoping for more educated and therefore less criminal people moving there - NOT for higher earners. Higher earners are not interested in Parkchester, and will extremely likely never be. But educated people who don't have money either because they are very young and have high school debts/low savings, are immigrants from countries where nobody has money (including the highly educated), or are in totally non-lucrative fields (generally but not exclusively humanities) could really use a cheap but solid (ie, non-criminal) neighborhood. I have been in the first two categories myself (with my parents being permanently in the last category as well), and I am speaking from experience; my numerous posts about Parkchester served to put that neighborhood on the map to people who may be in these 3 categories, but do not know about Parkchester. But I have also said that in order to live in Parkchester one has to be able to tolerate some degree of crime risk. Parkchester does have the lowest crime among the cheapest areas of the Bronx, but it still has some crime (ie, at this time still an amount of crime that I personally could not tolerate). While the crime in Parkchester is not high by any criteria, the fact that there is some gang activity in Parkchester area also not exactly a secret.
What did I misquote? You have high hopes for the neighborhood, and you want the crime to go down. Well I'm sorry but that happens via people with higher incomes moving in. No other way around it. People with "less money" who are educated... That's a fairytale wish and the exception and not the rule.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roseba
Oh and you are obsessed, maybe scared to ride the subways. I will grant you, the 6 train sucks big time because it is overly crowded. But I'm a real new yorker. I'm not a snob who is afraid to rub elbows with all demographics. It's filled with a lot of people simply going to work. The riff-raff you speak of are not usually on the train during rush hour prime. But what is going on during rush hour prime is a lot of friggin cars and a lot of friggen traffic. Until that express bus becomes the Concord, no thanks. An hour is already far too friggin long to commute. I don't have any desire to double it, even if the seats are upholstered, maybe slighly wider and there is wifi. (Never mind that I freeze my butt off on the express bus because it's half filled and over AC'd)
Scared? That's a good one... I've been riding the subways for over 20 years on all lines, so I'm hardly scared. At this point why should I subject myself to overcrowded subways when I can ride in comfort AND have fewer transfers and arrive faster to work? Only a fool would put up such aggravation. Besides a lot of the 6 train cars don't have air conditioning. A rip off for $2.75.
Last edited by pierrepont7731; 08-22-2018 at 01:18 PM..
It isn't about meeting my standards. It's about the area improving and attracting more higher income earners. That's what elnrgby has been preaching about non-stop. lol
Yes, a person who doesn't live there, who is worried about the miniscule crime rate of under 1%. Not exactly a great spokesperson.
Quote:
Quite frankly the best WF is in Union Square for prepared items. I used to live in that store when I came back from living in Europe and started working in my early 20s. Would pick up lunch there regularly.
That doesn't mean it's not a clip joint and I challenge my cooking and food knowledge over yours. (I was married to a professional chef who cooked in some of the top restaurants in NYC and San Fran and come from a family of foodies. I know quality food, which is why, I rarely eat out. Most places suck or have uneven quality and I'm not spending a small fortune to pay for places that meet my standards.
Quote:
Parkchester is ok for someone on a budget who can't do much better. In fact outside of the complex there are some nice blocks with good housing stock.
I know because I live on what is considered one of the nicest streets in the area. My building is well maintained though they could have a little more imagination when it comes to landscaping.
Quote:
I think the complex itself could be better though and better kept too.
Sure it could be improved, but it isn't bad. I shortcut through one portion of it frequently when I go to the market. The landscaping has been overhauled and looks pretty nice. (ordinary but nice.) The grass is green and completely filled and well maintained. Though I'm not so bougie where I believe grass is meant to look at it. I would much rather have my bare feet in it. Grass for looks (not use) is old school and stupid. But that's a problem all over the US and not something exclusive to Parkchester. The squirrels are abundant. The trees are trimmed.
Incomes are what they are. You really can't have top priced ameneties when prices are reasonable. The money has to come from somewhere.
If I had a partner that made what I make, my income would be more than sufficient to live in most any neigborhood in the city. Question is do I want to pee away that much money on housing... probably not because of all things, I'm a practical person and not materially obsessed but I would like a shorter commute because experiences and time I value more than money. Unfortunately, you need one to get the other. Right now my focus is on my kid and my job. 10 hours of commuting bites. Lacking great ameneties in walking distance bites. But tomorrow is another day, and tomorrow is a gynormous infrastructure project with gynomrous funding and big plans of transforming some of the ugly duckling blocks in the area. That, and the ridiculous housing in NYC will bring higher incomes. I see it already in my building. The newbies are a different income level the the oldies. It's a matter of time. Either way, I need somewhere to live and I'm not moving in with mom and dad or rooming with some jerk to get 1/2 price on rent. I stand on my own two feet supporting myself and my kid. That's a lot in NYC.
Yes, a person who doesn't live there, who is worried about the miniscule crime rate of under 1%. Not exactly a great spokesperson.
That doesn't mean it's not a clip joint and I challenge my cooking and food knowledge over yours. (I was married to a professional chef who cooked in some of the top restaurants in NYC and San Fran and come from a family of foodies. I know quality food, which is why, I rarely eat out. Most places suck or have uneven quality and I'm not spending a small fortune to pay for places that meet my standards.
I know because I live on what is considered one of the nicest streets in the area. My building is well maintained though they could have a little more imagination when it comes to landscaping.
Sure it could be improved, but it isn't bad. I shortcut through one portion of it frequently when I go to the market. The landscaping has been overhauled and looks pretty nice. (ordinary but nice.) The grass is green and completely filled and well maintained. Though I'm not so bougie where I believe grass is meant to look at it. I would much rather have my bare feet in it. Grass for looks (not use) is old school and stupid. But that's a problem all over the US and not something exclusive to Parkchester. The squirrels are abundant. The trees are trimmed.
Incomes are what they are. You really can't have top priced ameneties when prices are reasonable. The money has to come from somewhere.
If I had a partner that made what I make, my income would be more than sufficient to live in most any neigborhood in the city. Question is do I want to pee away that much money on housing... probably not because of all things, I'm a practical person and not materially obsessed but I would like a shorter commute because experiences and time I value more than money. Unfortunately, you need one to get the other. Right now my focus is on my kid and my job. 10 hours of commuting bites. Lacking great ameneties in walking distance bites. But tomorrow is another day, and tomorrow is a gynormous infrastructure project with gynomrous funding and big plans of transforming some of the ugly duckling blocks in the area. That, and the ridiculous housing in NYC will bring higher incomes. I see it already in my building. The newbies are a different income level the the oldies. It's a matter of time. Either way, I need somewhere to live and I'm not moving in with mom and dad or rooming with some jerk to get 1/2 price on rent. I stand on my own two feet supporting myself and my kid. That's a lot in NYC.
I lived and cooked regularly in Italy in Florence and elsewhere - I traveled and spent lots of time in Bologna (known for its food) and my father was in the business. I know a good thing or two about cooking.
Yes, but lots of the sidewalks (not the street sidewalks per se but the ones cutting through the buildings) are cracked up and should be repaved. At night especially taking your shortcuts through those buildings with the limited lighting... You could easily fall and hurt yourself. That's not being superficial. Just a reality. Quite frankly you need to cut through the buildings there, or face an extra long walk.
I think for the rents now in Parkchester you can do better. If we were talking circa 2012, I'd say you were getting a steal living and renting in Parkchester because the rents were cheap compared to today.
What did I misquote? You have high hopes for the neighborhood, and you want the crime to go down. Well I'm sorry but that happens via people with higher incomes moving in. No other way around it. People with "less money" who are educated... That's a fairytale wish and the exception and not the rule.
Scared? That's a good one... I've been riding the subways for over 20 years on all lines, so I'm hardly scared. At this point why should I subject myself to overcrowded subways when I can ride in comfort AND have fewer transfers and arrive faster to work? Only a fool would put up such aggravation. Besides a lot of the 6 train cars don't have air conditioning. A rip off for $2.75.
People with less money who are educated are a fairytale exception? No. Young highly educated people with large educational debt and no money (none yet, and likely not much for a long time), highly educated immigrants without money, and people of any age with a PhD in literature without money - all of them are the rule rather than the exception.
I no longer have high hopes for Parkchester because the crime is exactly the same as it was 10 years ago. I don't have that many decades to live elsewhere until Parkchester possibly improves, so I'll just live elsewhere, period. I am keeping the Parkchester studio as a rental property because I don't have to sell it, I don't need a lump of additional cash.
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