Northside Crime - Need a local's perspective (Richmond, Montrose: apartments, motels)

[airy311]

Hi there,
I'm a Virginia native living in Boston and planning a move to Richmond. I love the big, historic, and affordable homes on the Northside and am looking to buy. However, I'm finding major discrepancies among the crime maps, so I'm having a hard time figuring out what is and isn't safe. For instance, one map tells me that Highland Park is the most dangerous neighborhood in Richmond, while another says it's one of the safest.

I have lived in "up-and-coming" neighborhoods and I'm fine with it, but I do want to be able to walk around the block with kids without feeling afraid. I'd like to live in a place where the majority of my neighbors are decent citizens who take pride in their homes. It seems like all of these areas are seeing a lot of homes being renovated, which is a good sign, but I want to be sure. The specific areas I'm looking at:

• Highland Park (First Ave)
• Brookland Park (Lamb Ave)
• Ginter Park (Seminary)
• Church Hill North

I would love any locals' insight into these areas. Or if you have a map that you think is most accurate to share, let me know. Thanks in advance!

[Charlesaf3]

Of those neighborhoods, Ginter park fits what you are looking for. Brook land park is a little further behind in the gentrification scale. Highland park is not generally considered to be gentrifying yet. Church hill north... Depends on your definition of where that is, it's incredibly vague

[Riverdog]

I think Charlesaf3 hits it dead on (can't rep him again, sadly).

I moved here from out of town 2 years ago, and was attracted to all of those areas from afar, looking at the large affordable houses on websites. Once on the ground and walking through these neighborhoods, Seminary was the only one I could really consider seriously. I ended up in Stratford Hills, but sometimes have a bit of buyer's remorse thinking about the 2nd place house on Seminary.

[dapeaz]

May I ask why you're leaving Boston?

And while I'm not knowledgeable enough to know the best areas of North Side, I do remember going to my friend's house in a decent neighborhood on New Year's Eve and hearing guns being shot off at midnight. Scary wondering where those bullets might land.

[AJNEOA]

I lived on the northside in Bellevue for seven years and just moved out. While I'm no expert in all of the neighborhoods/streets you listed, I'll give you my thoughts on each one:

Highland Park (First Ave) - Black working class neighborhood. Depending on the block, I'm not sure how safe it is at night. I used to bike through this neighborhood daily and I never had any issues during the day. This is not a neighborhood that is going to gentrify anytime in the near future. It seems to be a stable neighborhood from what I can see. Only suggestion is to stay away from this intersection/area:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5804...wfnZxmcmJg!2e0

There are shootings there with people loitering all day/night.

Brookland Park (Lamb Ave) - Not too much different from Highland Park. Somewhat stable working class black neighborhood. Brookland Park BLVD itself is not a place I'd hang out at night, but has more potential to be "up-and-coming" in the future due to the good commercial bones.

Ginter Park (Seminary) - Seminary is one of the most beautiful streets in the city, depending on the block. This street is by no means up-and-coming nor is it cheap (again, depending on the block). It's been a socioeconomic wall between Brook and Chamberlayne for a long time. When Chamberlayne was built, it was used as a more of a thoroughfare vs. Brook, which was more neighborhood-based. Chamberlayne has motels, lower income apartments, including some working class. It's mostly black, whereas Seminary is more mixed, but higher income. It's an interesting contrast with Seminary having a somewhat strong neighborhood feel, but only a block away from some pretty violent areas (Chamberlayne at night).

East of Chamberlayne, which is most of where the Ginter Park neighborhood exists, has some great streets that are working class. It's one of the more diverse neighborhoods with lots of working class whites and blacks. I want to say it's pretty evenly divided, which is rare in Richmond. There are no amenities over that way however. So, Restaurants, grocery stores, etc. are somewhat lacking.

Church Hill North - As others have pointed out, this is less of a defined area. I'll assume you're referring to M street to Nine Mile and 25th to 34th. The more south you stay, the more "up-and-coming" this neighborhood is. I'm no expert, but I did have friends that lived there and just moved out. They were there for 10 years, and had everything from a wonderful experience to a young kid getting shot outside of their house. They lived at 31st and Marshall.

Their feedback, having sold their house just one week ago, was that they made some money on their house (finally), and that they were sad to be leaving. Lots of great restaurants moving in, the neighborhood was feeling safer, etc. They said that the neighborhood turned around a LOT slower than they had originally hoped, especially with the housing crash.

All of that being said, there are lots of great neighborhood in the northside. If you're looking for up-and-coming, you're probably looking in the right places. However, I think you'll find more stability west of Brook Road. For example, try looking west of Brook, south of Westwood and north of Overbrook.

If you're considering established neighborhoods, try Bellevue. It would also help some of the folks in this thread make suggestions if you provide some information like what size house you're looking for, price range, etc.

[airy311]

Thanks so much for your help so far, guys. It's very enlightening. I'm looking for a 3- or 4-bedroom with a yard, and trying to stay under $220K. I'm open to buying a fixer-upper. Sounds like Ginter Park is a pretty good bet.

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by airy311

Thanks so much for your help so far, guys. It's very enlightening. I'm looking for a 3- or 4-bedroom with a yard, and trying to stay under $220K. I'm open to buying a fixer-upper. Sounds like Ginter Park is a pretty good bet.

I think you're probably right because Church Hill North often times does not have a real yard. It's really not a north side neighborhood. The others (Highland Park and Brookland Park) are not quite as nice IMO. You should be able to find a 3 or 4 bedroom in Ginter Park for that money. You may want to find a realtor that knows each block well however. I would personally try to stick between Montrose and Hawthorne, although your personal comfort level may be different.

Also, I recommend that you try visiting the Bellevue neighborhood. You may be able to find an older four square or other model house that's 3 to 4 bedroom that's in your price range. There's a variety of houses there, and the neighborhood is tremendous. It's down to earth and it has some restaurants, markets, CVS, wine store, etc....all within walking distance. IMO, I don't think the other neighborhoods (Ginter Park included) will ever have much in the way of those amenities, simply because they're not zoned properly. Brookland Park BLVD may make a come back, but it's a ways off IMO.

[novanwbie]

AJNEOA -- nice history lesson, thank you! I love that area myself -- what do you think of the area of smaller houses west of Hermitage Road, I think it's called Rosedale?

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by novanwbie

AJNEOA -- nice history lesson, thank you! I love that area myself -- what do you think of the area of smaller houses west of Hermitage Road, I think it's called Rosedale?

Thanks, I know Richmondpics has been around longer than me, and he/she probably knows more about it than I do.

Rosedale has some very nice streets, some of which are lined with enough oaks to rival Seminary at Claremont. Houses seem pretty well kept, although probably not as consistently as Bellevue. The biggest concern I would have with living there is the proximity to the highway. Having lived at Claremont and McArthur, I can say that I could still hear the highway; although it was muted pretty well and not a concern. That strip of highway (where 95 meets 64) is very active and hums all day and night. I think at one point Rosedale residents were trying to get some additional barriers setup to constrain the noise, but I'm not sure if it's improved.

I don't know anything about Rosedale's history, but Bellevue's is pretty well documented:

History

Although I have no way to verify this, long-time residents of the Bellevue neighborhood have repeatedly mentioned that houses in the neighborhood that were south of Bellevue Road were built for railroad employees. The larger houses, like the four squares, were for railroad management, and the smaller were for the average employee. The northern end of Bellevue (e.g. Pope) I think may have been different.

[novanwbie]

Thank you! I hadn't thought about the road noise there. I love Bellevue; we looked at a fixer upper on Seminary last year that I just loved, but still back away from the schools. Maybe after graduation . . . .