Temple University Neighborhood Questions (Chester, Darby: apartment, rent, homes)

[Larry Bowa]

Originally Posted by MB1562

What? I have walked around Center City many times late at night after getting out of bars and have never been bothered or felt unsafe.

I'm pretty observant, plus my woman is with me, she's observant and she doesn't drink. There's a lot of crazies, junkies and desperate crazy junkies slithering around down there, I've felt uncomfortable and have been hassled on a few occasions. Look at the crime stats, there's a good bit of "robberies no firearm," which means people are being strong armed.
Don't get me wrong, I love it down there, it's mostly safe, but there's all kinds of sh#t going on ...
Sit and observe @24th and Sansom one night, or 16th and Spring Garden.

[K 22]

Add Chestnut and Walnut west of Broad to that list. Definite amount of "characters" along those strips.

[MB1562]

Originally Posted by Larry Bowa

I'm pretty observant, plus my woman is with me, she's observant and she doesn't drink. There's a lot of crazies, junkies and desperate crazy junkies slithering around down there, I've felt uncomfortable and have been hassled on a few occasions. Look at the crime stats, there's a good bit of "robberies no firearm," which means people are being strong armed.
Don't get me wrong, I love it down there, it's mostly safe, but there's all kinds of sh#t going on ...
Sit and observe @24th and Sansom one night, or 16th and Spring Garden.

Of all my late nights spent in Center City, the worst that has ever happened to me was a guy offer to sell me "candy" outside Woody's. Maybe I just stay in the safe parts I guess lol.

[Larry Bowa]

Originally Posted by MB1562

Of all my late nights spent in Center City, the worst that has ever happened to me was a guy offer to sell me "candy" outside Woody's. Maybe I just stay in the safe parts I guess lol.

Always an interesting part of town.

[Micktooth]

Thanks everyone for the "enlightening" replies. I grew up in New York, and have lived in New Orleans. I know what it is like to live in a large city and how to be vigilant. I'm just not familiar with the neighborhoods surrounding Temple and I just wanted an insider's perspective, before we came out and visited.

[Cnote11]

You have to admit that you're in a bubble being up on the Temple campus. You can't wander too far in any direction or you run into not so friendly areas. Sure it is changing, but I see the word "relatively" being thrown out a lot. As for Center City, I don't go out late often, but when I do I can feel a tiny bit unsettled but nothing ever very serious. It has more to do with it being a ghost town a bit, but I've been hassled and there have been shady characters about. I've never had any serious problems, though. It is a bit dark in this city at times.

[Cnote11]

Originally Posted by Larry Bowa

I'm pretty observant, plus my woman is with me, she's observant and she doesn't drink. There's a lot of crazies, junkies and desperate crazy junkies slithering around down there, I've felt uncomfortable and have been hassled on a few occasions. Look at the crime stats, there's a good bit of "robberies no firearm," which means people are being strong armed.
Don't get me wrong, I love it down there, it's mostly safe, but there's all kinds of sh#t going on ...
Sit and observe @24th and Sansom one night, or 16th and Spring Garden.

My fiancee is much more afraid to be out at night than I am, that is for sure. She gets nervous here quite a bit and it isn't like she isn't from a big city, as she is from downtown Toronto which is a much bigger city than Philadelphia. However, the difference you feel walking around at night between the two cities is honestly night and day. Sometimes I wonder if people on this forum have really spent time living elsewhere in big cities across the globe. I can truly understand why someone wouldn't feel safe here despite the fact being that they are more than likely safe. There definitely is a high element of American big city grit that many people just aren't used to.

2 homicides, 13 rapes, 98 robberies, 80 aggravated assaults, 104 burglaries, 448 thefts in the area surrounding Temple so far this year can be a large pill for some people to swallow and I am not one to blame them. The murder rate is 20+ per 100,000 and no doubt higher in some areas of Philadelphia than others. In cities like Toronto the murder rate is floating somewhere around 2 per 100,000 and a whole metro area of 6+ million will only have 70 or so murders for the year and the city around 50. The area extending not too far from Temple probably has almost as many itself. Again, it is clearly understandable why some people wouldn't want to live in an area that is bordered by such neighborhoods and effectively cut off from Center City by foot.

Also, here is an interesting map where you can see homicide and shootings. If you look around Temple's campus you see numerous shootings. Sorry but, one shooting is too many shootings in my opinion.

http://apps.axisphilly.org/ten-years...39.982/-75.156

[Larry Bowa]

A woman was raped in Rittenhouse over the weekend.

[Cnote11]

Originally Posted by Larry Bowa

A woman was raped in Rittenhouse over the weekend.

Indeed she was raped in the area. There is video of the encounter outside of the home. There was a woman raped in Rittenhouse area earlier this year too, if I'm not mistaken. Infrequent, but indeed too frequent.

[AlohaFriday]

I went to Temple and lived in West Philly, first by Drexel and then by Penn. this was almost 10 years ago, but I just didn't like the vibe around Temple. It felt a little rough. West Philly was by no means Manayunk, but the two colleges side by side meant tons of kids around. The subway was easy every day, but I also made sure to avoid 8 am classes, lol. I really liked West Philly and think it's a great alternative.