Safety in McKeesport (Pittsburgh, Allentown, North Versailles: high crime, houses, school district)

[Ken_B.]

is that whole Braddock, McKeesport, Versallies side of the river a bad area?

and what about the other side, the western side of the river? west mifflin? jefferson hills?

[Hopes]

Jefferson Hills is okay. Forget the others, Ken.

[Ken_B.]

thanks Hopes.

[505ci]

The title of this thread.."Safety in McKeesport" is an oxymoron.

[Dorian]

Originally Posted by Ken_B.

is that whole Braddock, McKeesport, Versallies side of the river a bad area?

and what about the other side, the western side of the river? west mifflin? jefferson hills?

Basically, that side of the river is basically all old mill towns that never recovered and you know how people get when they need money and there are no jobs, let's just say "creative". The other side (west mifflin side) is alot better neighborhoods except for dravosburg and clariton.

[MissShona]

Originally Posted by Dorian

The other side (west mifflin side) is alot better neighborhoods except for dravosburg and clariton.

You mean "Clairton" (my hometown!)

[Dorian]

Originally Posted by MissShona

You mean "Clairton" (my hometown!)

Oh yeah my fault, poor spelling lol. Thanks for the correction.

[MissShona]

Originally Posted by Dorian

Oh yeah my fault, poor spelling lol. Thanks for the correction.

That's ok. Your spelling was very close to that allergy medicine. I remember when I first saw the commercial for that medicine...seeing the fields of wildflowers and people running in slow motion -- all the while they were saying (what I thought was) "Clairton....Clairton". Then at the end, I saw that it was spelled differently. It was quite freaky!

[cryschap]

Originally Posted by MissShona

Wow...most of the posts here are pretty shocking...

Depending on the original poster's situation....if the housing was very cheap or free...why not live in McKeesport?

I grew up in the Mon Valley....and heard all the talk about how it isn't safe, and the violence, etc., etc. Although I was born in McKeesport and graduated from High School there....I had only lived in the city proper for a combination of 5 years. I had lived in Clairton, (another Mon Valley town...nearby) and Allentown, PA previously. Now I live in North Miami Beach, FL. LOL...and now I know what real crime problems are! All my years living in the Mon Valley....I never was robbed...no one in my family was robbed. No one in my immediate family was shot. Some cousins were involved in shootings; but they almost always involved people from Pittsburgh. If anyone has actually been around McKeesport....you'll see it's a pretty big place. More than 60,000 people live in McKeesport in the 1950s and 1960s. Now it's economically depressed and you have underpaid, sparse police patrolling a very big area where many places are not well lit and the roads are not in good condition. So thugs from neighboring areas...mostly Pittsburgh city proper...would much rather do their thing in McKeesport than in Pittsburgh where there are a lot of cops.

Same thing in Clairton. I actually grew up in the housing projects in Clairton back in the 1990s. When there was talk of a shooting or crime...it would be on the news...and even though it happened in Clairton...no one even knew these people. In many cases. And Clairton is small...so you know everyone. Even if a victim or perpetrator was from Clairton...it almost always involved people from outside of the area.

So back to McKeesport I would not equate it with any kind of urban ghetto (I think just about all of Miami proper trumps McKeesport in terms of crime. I will walk at night in McKeesport; I will not walk at night in Miami!). There are no people hardly in McKeesport. If someone wants to hunker around looking for someone to mug, they would be wasting their time in downtown McKeesport. It's deserted. What McKeesport is is poor. Simple as that. So yeah, some young thugs are running around....but it really depends on which part of McKeesport you're in. Ironically, growing up, we thought Pittsburgh was super unsafe and crime-ridden. When I went to college and started hanging out on the South Side...so many of my friends and family were scared stiff for my safety!

I have to say I sooo agree with you. I have never ben to Pitt but am moving there and when I think "crime ridden" i think about East St Louis and Some parts of Orlando that I have been to. East STL is somewhere I won't even drive through. I don't live there anymore I'm in FL If I go to West Palm I avoid certain areas, When I go to Orlando I avoid certain areas. Alot of our crime prob here in FL is homeless and runaways that end up here since they can stay warm year round I think. That said I am also aware than no every area is perfect and there may be "poorer" per say areas and if I can get a good deal on a nice house they why not consider it? I wish when people talk about how crime is I could actually get a real understanding if this is East St Louis crime or random punks with nothing better to do and is it violent crime or petty stuff? I don't want to live somewhere where they drive around shooting anybody and anything but if there is the occasional dumb***** that does something pointless.. thats not really a biggee. Thats something that is really everywhere some places just hide it better. Tourists have no idea what happens in Orlando! How unsafe it is and how often people are robbed,raped, murdered, mugged etc and that 70% are tourists. If they did it wouldn't be vacation capital of the world. According to the recent safest/dangerous city report NYC ranked safer than my small town of Palm Bay! To me that can't be right. Palm Bay is random punks and there aint nowhere here I'm afraid of lol!! NYC thats a different story. I guess crime is in the eye of the beholder and what your definition of it is.

[grandmatanzey]

I lived in McK. 25 years ago. It was a great place to live and raise kids. Now it is not so nice, but from all that I am reading here, they are making it sound like hell on earth. My parents still live there in a nice section of town. Haler Heights is a very lovely area to have a home. White Oak is nice, Greenock is nice, in fact as long as you are not right in the heart of McK., you are okay. People are nice there still as I go home twice a year and have for the past 25 years. Don't let everyone scare you off. A place is really what you make it. Just want to say that there are nice places around McK. The only reason I am gone is because of the steel industry shutting down. In fact, I will be in McK. in ten days visiting my folks, and I look forward to the visit. LAS