College Grad Moving to Youngstown (Cleveland, Warren: apartment complexes, rental, crime)

[PAR86]

Hi All,

I just graduated from college and got a job in the Youngstown area. I'm working in retail stores in locations across the city. I also need to have access back to Cleveland for the occasional work training trip.

Basically, I'm not sure where I want to live. I grew up in Solon (Cleveland) and spent four years in Oxford OH.

My real concern is safety. I enjoy running and want to be able to jog outside at night and not have to worry.

Any advice on towns or apartment complexes would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[truemuck]

First off, whereabouts is your job?

If you find yourself going back to Cleveland, look somewhere in the Niles or Howland area.

Austintown is another good place as it close to where all the freeways come together. I lived in Austintown, in Westchester Square Apartments for about a year and found it a decent place to live. Everything is pretty convenient there.

Boardman is also another option, but the location of the apartments in Boardman aren't very convenient to the freeways in my opinion.

[v8aarons]

for saftey but for a single guy .... boardman ( cl equiv strongsville) and austintown (cl equiv Brooklyn) are both actually really nice and built up boardman is the largest though .... they both are safe and 15 mins from youngstown.... both have major highway and turnpike access to get back to cleveland or to pittsburgh... if you have a family for schools and safety choose canfield (cl equiv its much like westlake in terms of safety and schools but much less built up and only 5 -10 mins to boardman) ...youngstown gets a bad rap for good reason there is basically no workforce anymore inside the city limits they have the college and a few small banks but thats it as with any decent size city who has had most of its residents move because of steel economy it has lots of crime but around the university its nice.... but as for the burbs they are really nice and should never get a bad rap ..... as for niles its to close to warren its ok but youd be better suited to be boardman and austintown .... warren is even worse then youngstown for crime and crappyness

[CortlandGirl79]

^Warren is no where near as bad as Youngstown..............

If you are wanting to be closer to Cleveland aka Solon you might want to look into Howland, Niles, Cortland, NE Warren or maybe Champion. Many people in our area commute to Cleveland everyday and i know a lot of people that work in the Solon area. I live in NE Warren in the Howland school district and it's very nice here. There is a nice park in Howland and all the shopping you want is nearby in Niles at the Eastwood Mall. I work in Austintown and i would never want to live there or in Boardman, it's way too congested and there is definitely an ugly strip mall feel to those places. There are plenty of nice apartments in Niles, Howland and NE Warren and if you're looking for a nice quiet small town that is very walkable i would check out apts in Cortland. Good luck and if you need names of rental places let me know.

[BoardmanFrank]

Like any place, you need to drive through it, or take a walk in parts of Youngstown and the burbs to see if it matches what you are looking for.

If coming from Cleveland, I'd take the interstate to I-680 and get off downtown, cruze around the downtown one evening and make your way up 5th avenue from downtown. Lots of good safe houses around there, and the north side is closer to Cleveland than most southern suburbs.

A previous reply mentioned Westchester Apts. I moved from there a year ago because it is such a transitory place - people coming and going to its many buildings in the complex at all hours. I did not feel as safe there. You really need to find a neighborhood with good neighbors, of which there are plenty.

Good luck with your move and welcome to Youngstown.

[speedskier]

What about living in Solon or another east side suburb of Cleveland and commuting to work each day? I think you're going to find that there isn't much of a nightlife in the Youngstown / Warren area.