Just how bad is Harrisburg?

[briguy1]

To get there, I drove up 17th street to Market St. from I-83 South. The museum is right off of Market St. in a decent area called Reservoir Hill which overlooks a good chunk of the city. However, 17th street is a big mess, and after the museum I went down Market St. and took a left onto 13th Street which is god awful. There was a real dirtbag yelling obsenities at his 5 year old son, while about 6 other kids were watching. Run down houses, thugs and a general unsafe atmosphere was all present. Made it to safety when I got to Paxton St. however which leads to the wonderful Troegs brewery.

All in all I'd say the riverfront areas are the best. Front St., 2nd, 3rd, 4th, all the way up to the capitol building are pretty nice. Lots of great nightlife & restaurants around there as well. Behind the niceness is the rest of the city....which is god awful. Ed Rendell the DEMOCRAT elected governor needs to do a lot more to gentrify and clean up the capitol. It is not safe beyond the riverfront areas.

[CarlaP37]

drugs and shootings and so forth. the suburbs are pretty safe. there are occasionally bank robberies and there are a lot of drugs, if you knoiw where to look.

this past year there was one random homicide, when a truck driver killed some girl... they speculate that he drove past her house, saw her on the phone and parked his truck and came back to kill her. but you wont have to worry about anything like that. perry county doesnt even have a traffic light for Gods sake.

my dad grew up in camden, merchantville and cherry hill back in the 40s and 50s.... our grandmother lived there until the 80s... he said it is the worse town around. harrisburg is not great but nothing like that. harrisburg has one or two bad neighborhoods.[/quote]

[CarlaP37]

I live on allison hill for 37 years its not ass bad as people think its up too the way you live i have never had a problem its the way you life i mind my own business i am just find.the most recent crimes were in the mid town dont befooled crime is everywhere just now youre surroundings you will be find beacause hbg cops are the best............

[fatgrat]

I was born and raised in Lebanon and readily admit I don't know feces about H-burg. I have lived in Allentown and can tell you it wasn't as bad as I'd heard, I've also lived in Ala, Syracuse, NY, and a few tiny little communities here and there. In all my parapatetic (or is that para-pathetic?) moving, I've discovered where you live is what you choose to make it. Right now we are in Lebanon, but are seriously contemplating re-locating to the 'Burg shortly, if only to have ready access to shopping variety and the River. It just depends on what you want and how you live.

[Lakeland Yankee]

Originally Posted by Debaroo

Hi all..I live in Central NJ, between Newark and Trenton, about 40 minutes from both. Thankfully I live in a safe area, near Hillsborough. Is it possible that Harrisburg is worse than Newark, NJ or Trenton NJ ? From what I have read it dosen't look good. It seems Philly has a better crime rate than Harrisburg but Camden, NJ is worse than Harrisburg. If Harrisburg is anything like Camden I better stay in NJ!!!!! I plan on living in Shermans Dale, Perry County. What's my chances of survival????? Atlantic City is bad, could Harrisburg be close to that crime rate? HELP!!! Safety is a MAJOR move concern and #1 on my list. I need someone to answer this that is familiar with all those areas if possible but any posts will be appreciated..

You'll be completely fine in Shermans Dale. Perry County gets a bad rap but it's not that bad. I rather doubt some drunken redneck with a gun is going to cause you any problems. Shermans Dale is so small if you blink your eyes driving through it you'll be in another town. Perry County is a beautiful mountainous area that offers great hunting and fishing. If you are not into rural life than why not check out Middletown,Pa. It's close enough to Harrisburg but far enough away from some of the problems there.

Harrisburg is nothing like Camden,NJ though. You can't even put the two in the same category. Like others mentioned stay away from the Allison Hill area. Overall you might be better off in Middletown. You got the Susquehanna river there and you'll be safe from the drunken gun-totin' "Perry County Rednecks" , lol.

[sharris]

Harrisburg is up and coming. Very pretty town with tons of history. I feel perfectly safe there. i work in and around the Harrisburg all the time and have never had any problems other then traffic can be a pain.