Moving to roanoke (crime rate, safe area, school district)

[jersey69boy]

Hello, We are thinking of moving to Roanoke. We are from N.J. but are in Florida right now. Can anyone please give me some information about Roanoke?
Decent neighborhoods?
Crime?
Average rent?
I am used to New Jersey, where the population is highly Hispanic. Some Mexicans, thousands of Hondurans, Guatemalans, Colombians, People from Central and South America, by the thousands.
My town in Jersey is a small town, 2 square miles by 2 square miles, 18,000 people. 15,000 are Hispanic. It is rated as the cleanest town in the area, (very clean), the crime rate has dropped by 80% in the last 10 years.
We are used to very diverse cultures and areas.
I am sure that Roanoke is not over populated by hispanics, but I am sure their must be some....??
Can anyone please give me some information on the good, bad, pretty, and ugly of Roanoke?
I do not care if their are many people of different nationalities and/or races. I just need to be in a safe area.

thanks.

[jersey69boy]

I think it is very amazing that 53 people have read this post, and not one has anything to say!

[headnsouth]

Have you read anything in the archives? There are really only a handful of people who post here at all, and this question has come up 100 times at least. There are lots of good discussions about neighborhoods, crime, rent, diversity, race issues, etc.

I've lived in Roanoke a little over a year and I just love it. I'm from DC, which has a very diverse Hispanic population, but had been living in a very vanilla upstate NY town for five years when we moved to Roanoke. It's not as diverse as DC, and it's a conservative-ish Southern town in some ways, but it's got a decent immigrant/ethnic population and a very active multicultural nonprofit that puts on all kinds of ethnic festivals & celebrations.

I hope you find the archives helpful. I sure did when I was looking to move here.

[roanoker 4]

Hi Jersey69boy, overall Roanoke is safe so no need to worry about those concerns here. All realtors will tell you to move to SW Roanoke County, that is the lilly white, republican part of town. It is also the most boring. Personally I like some diversity, although not of what you describe. Look at Roanoke City, you may like the Raleigh Court area(Grandin Village)it has a nice shopping/entertainment/school district all to itself with much diversity.
Good Luck and if I can help with other suggestions, please let me know!