I want to move to North Philadelphia! (Girard: crime, neighborhoods)

[krazymack]

I'm African American, 30 year old educator and familiar with challenged areas. I hail from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NYC. Parents have a place here in NYC so I will be back and forth.

I am really curious to try North Philadelphia because of the cheap rent. It'll be my first place. Am I nuts? LOL. I'm curious to know if any other professional took a chance with a challenged area and what was the outcome. hehe, I might have opened up a can of worms with that one...

[Tone509]

Originally Posted by krazymack

I'm African American, 30 year old educator and familiar with challenged areas. I hail from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NYC. Parents have a place here in NYC so I will be back and forth.

I am really curious to try North Philadelphia because of the cheap rent. It'll be my first place. Am I nuts? LOL. I'm curious to know if any other professional took a chance with a challenged area and what was the outcome. hehe, I might have opened up a can of worms with that one...

It depends. Coming from Bed-Stuy, obviously you're not looking for Wisteria Lane. Still there are some areas that you will feel more comfortable on a daily basis. Look into Germantown (technically NW Philly), West/East Oak Lane, Fern Rock and some parts of Olney. Transitioning neighborhoods close to Center City (downtown) include Brewerytown and the Temple University area.

Don't discount West Philly, either. Beyond diverse University City, there is also Cobbs Creek and Overbrook to consider.

[krazymack]

Originally Posted by Tone509

It depends. Coming from Bed-Stuy, obviously you're not looking for Wisteria Lane. Still there are some areas that you will feel more comfortable on a daily basis. Look into Germantown (technically NW Philly), West/East Oak Lane, Fern Rock and some parts of Olney. Transitioning neighborhoods close to Center City (downtown) include Brewerytown and the Temple University area.

Don't discount West Philly, either. Beyond diverse University City, there is also Cobbs Creek and Overbrook to consider.

Thanks for your prompt recommendations Tone509, I will look into those areas. Is Kensington worth any consideration by your standards?

[juniperbleu]

Yay for Oak Lane!! (I can't help it, I grew up with no one knowing where I lived so I get excited when it's mentioned)

I agree with the above suggestions. You can find a place that's safe (or reasonably so) and relatively inexpensive. Germantown gets better as you go north/west on Germantown Avenue towards Chestnut Hill, and worse as you get closer to Nicetown. East Mt Airy isn't bad either. Typically, East Oaklane is better/safer than West Oaklane. The neighborhing blocks of Olney aren't bad (it gets worse as you move south and east to Logan).

[Tone509]

I would advise against Kensington. There's a certain level of neighborhood pride there but there's also a fairly high level of crime.

[orrmobl]

There was an Aussie transplant who thought similarly - moved to Junogi or whatever the heck the realtors call it. The locals set his car on fire, he went back to Australia.

I would live in Kensington before I'd live North of Girard or some of the really bad places. In Kensington you just have to be in bed by midnight because people party and shoot each other in the wee hours. I wouldn't really recommend Germantown or Olney either but you know what they say about opinions...

[otters21]

Kensington is racially diverse but it is pretty dangerous with drugs, prostitution ,shootings and crime. However parts of it are gentrifying especially east of Front Street and south of Lehigh Ave.

[pman]

Originally Posted by krazymack

I'm African American, 30 year old educator and familiar with challenged areas. I hail from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NYC. Parents have a place here in NYC so I will be back and forth.

I am really curious to try North Philadelphia because of the cheap rent. It'll be my first place. Am I nuts? LOL. I'm curious to know if any other professional took a chance with a challenged area and what was the outcome. hehe, I might have opened up a can of worms with that one...

don't know anything about Bed stuy but, technically nothing north of vine is north philly. that includes northern liberties, spring garden, and fairmount which are are pretty nice places. If you're looking for a transitional but mostly middle class African American area I'd definitely suggest West Oak Lane. Kensington, OTOH, is an enormous area. Fishtown, part of old kensington north of girard east of front and, south of york/lehigh? is fairly nice but VERY white, esp south of york. north of lehigh east of aramingo is port richmond, a traditionally polish enclave. kensington, closer to Girard, is ok I guess. not much down there really but there are some decent streets...there's been a fair amount of gentrification but not overwhelmingly so. north of there to york, the area from front to second is largely puerto rican with some African Americans. it's not shangrila but there are much worse areas of kensington. it's close to an el stop (york dauphin). north of lehigh is worse and it gets worse between there and broad. lehigh itself is a wide, well lite commercial street.

lastly, there are some new places adjacent to the north philadelphia train station. building is ugly as sin but they were just built. the area has a fair amount of crime but it's right on Broad.

[john_starks]

Originally Posted by orrmobl

There was an Aussie transplant who thought similarly - moved to Junogi or whatever the heck the realtors call it. The locals set his car on fire, he went back to Australia.

I would live in Kensington before I'd live North of Girard or some of the really bad places. In Kensington you just have to be in bed by midnight because people party and shoot each other in the wee hours. I wouldn't really recommend Germantown or Olney either but you know what they say about opinions...

what is wrong with people?

[krazymack]

Originally Posted by orrmobl

There was an Aussie transplant who thought similarly - moved to Junogi or whatever the heck the realtors call it. The locals set his car on fire, he went back to Australia.

I'm sorry that happened to that guy from Australia. Do you know if there was a particular motive behind that or was that an act out of spitefulness? For something like that to happen out of the blue is a bit odd.