Windcrest and the Walzem & Rittiman areas (Austin, Victoria: section 8, apartment complexes)

[ZacharyDY4]

What's your take on this area? I delivered for the Dominos on Walzem for a while at night and here's my take...
First off, Windcrest is one of the best places to live in SA imo...houses are big, cheap, and well built...the city cops keep it safe and code enforcement keeps it clean. My parents have a 5/3 house with a pool that was bought for about 180k...hard to beat :/ Royal Ridge is very similar as well, though not part of Windcrest. The old neighborhood around Weidner is a little run down but all in all, pretty safe as well. Across Walzem, Camelot 1 also seems to be a fairly decent neighborhood...like all the areas I'll review I was in this one a lot after dark and never had any reason to feel unsafe here...I think that because it shares a name with Camelot II it gets a bad rep. Camelot II was designed to be a ghetto, drive down the streets and the houses are crammed together and most of them have nothing other than a garage door or run down carport facing the street. It's full of crime and trash....one of the few neighborhoods my store did not go into after dark (though sometimes it still happened). The Glen, not as bad as Camelot II, maybe because it has single family homes, idk...it's run down but not absolutely horrible, except for the part by E Walzem and Gibbs Sprawl (The Glen Mist area with rowhouses and duplexes)...I was always nervous in this area and was asked many times by residents if I felt safe there after night...some of them even told me they didn't....
Windsor Oaks is possibly the worst, another place that was on the DND after dark list, but occasionally we ended up in there...the apartments by the entrance look nice from the road, up close they're pretty bad...further down the road there are trash piles and boarded up buildings aplenty...other drivers have been robbed in there during the day as well. The newer neighborhoods that KB and others have built, Walzem Farms, Northeast Crossing, Cheyenne Village, etc are nice and safe but driving through them sucks because the roads are so narrow and everyone parks on the street. East Village, between Eisenhauer and Rittiman, is not bad...I never had any issues there and in fact bought a house in this neighborhood. It's run down looking but pretty quiet...I've never felt unsafe there (here). Park Village, off Ray Bon and Fratt, is similar but the presence of Section 8 apartments (more to come on that) on Ray Bon makes it sketchy.
Across 35 is East Terrill Hills...tbh I love that neighborhood, it's overall well kept and the people seem nice...the houses were built in the 50s and 60s and have nice appeal. Down Holbrook and Rittiman are actually some nice upper class houses as well. Off Rittiman is Wood Glen, similar to East Village.

The apartment complexes are as follows:
The Amberton: Huge and pretty nice...I could usually count on a good tip at this place, the residents keep clean apartments and management seems to care.
The Vantage: Easily the best apartments in my delivery area, still fairly new and absolutely beautiful.
Costa Biscaya: A beautiful complex but absolutely ghetto inside
Pavilion of Midcrown: Seemed alright...a weird floorplan, basically one gigantic building with hallways a mile long, but it's kept clean and well manicured
Midcrown Heights: Always hated going there, got a dangerous vibe off it. 3 or 4 of the buildings are burned out and boarded up and the apartments seem to be run down
Windsor Village: The nicer complex on Gawain...it's been updated and seems to be alright...
Victorian Village: also on Gawain, not uncommon to see people smoking outside late at night, always got a bad vibe off this place
Cobblestone Village: Basically the same as Victorian Village
Springhill: The Section 8 on Ray Bon I referred to earlier...I absolutely hate this complex and if it burned down I would be okay with it. I never met a single person there that wasn't a huge A-Hole...full of violent crimes and drug dealers. I was also robbed at gunpoint at this place, the cop was astounded that we went into there at all, day or night, since nobody else does. Since I left Dominos another driver was robbed there as well.
Fairdale: I laugh at the signs they put up along the freeway that say "The only thing missing is you" and stuff like that, these apartments are horrible...essentially little rundown cottages tucked into an alley
The Oaks of Terrill Hills...someone tried to sell me bootleg DVDs at this place...nuff said
Banyan Tree: Another complex I hated...went to their alot because nobody else goes in after dark...super dumpy and poorly lit
Cross Creek: ABSOLUTELY hate this place...another SAHA property...drug dealers galore and the one unfortunate time I went in after dark I was almost robbed...at the last minute he goes "Just kidding!"...then proceeded to warn me that if I hung around much longer I would probably get robbed for real
The Park of Goldfield: Extremely horrible apartments...another area that we didn't go to after dark...across the street from a halfway house which ironically is the nicer of the two places. I remember one time walking all the way across the complex and the tennis courts seemed like a prison yard, people were fighting, blaring rap music from their apartments, smoking, whatever...never felt safe at this complex.

A few mobile home parks as well...Summit Ridge on Kitty Hawk is very nice, Regency Village on Montgomery is alright as well...the one off Villa Drive has old mobile homes on large yards but is very trashy. Jasper Park on Walzem Rd....old mobile homes on a gravel lot behind a machine shop...super ghetto but extremely cheap...I considered renting there but was able to buy instead...I was quoted $515 for 3 bedrooms...not bad but the houses are all incredibly beat up...so beware. Oak Crest Point on Crestway is decent. Top Hand on Holbrook is disgusting...wreaks of cat "stuff" the instant you enter...the houses make Jasper look like the Dominion 0.o Lamplighter on Goldfield is another story...seems nice when you enter but the actual park is a dump...the fact that it's next to the apartments does not work in its favor either. And BTW, the apartments are 4848, the park is 4801...on the same side of the street...wtf?

That's about all I have to say....I personally have googled alot of these places while I was looking for a place to live and couldn't find opinions on a lot of them, so that's basically why I made this thread...drop in with your 2 cents

[Buffyfan]

Windcrest proper is very nice. It is aging, though, most of the residents are now elderly. I taught at the elementary school for a couple of years. I fondly recall the heyday of Windsor Park mall in the '80s. Times have changed, of course. I also student taught at Montgomery elementary...wow. Rough rough area/school.

[Buffyfan]

I remember one section 8 area...it looked 3rd world. Trash strewn on the streets, boarded up duplexes, kids running around throwing rocks through the windows of the abandoned duplexes. Can't remember the name.

[L210]

Isn't Cross Creek now Banyan Tree? I used to live in Cross Creek and Fairdale when I was very young. My personal experience with the 78218 zip code is west of IH-35. I don't have much experience with 78239 outside of some work experience where it was my job to deal with the worst of the worst anywhere. I have a few family members and close family friends who have lived in East Terrell Hills for a long time. The houses are cheap and the neighborhood is quiet. What some might not know is that Oakwell Farms is also in the 78218 zip code.

[ZacharyDY4]

Cross Creek apartments are on the corner of Cross Creek and Austin Highway...they're two story 4 plexes...it's a dangerous place to be after dark, alot of the lights are burned out, the fences are all broken, old clotheslines strewn about, kids wandering around unattended while drug deals are made at neighboring apartments...not painting a pretty picture, am I? Banyan Tree is next door and only slightly better. Pretty sur ethe area Buffyfan is referring to is in fact Windsor Oaks

[RedNeckRick]

The entire area is a crime infested cesspool of thugs, gangs and criminals. If it isn’t a traffic violation, don’t expect the WPD to much of anything about other crimes. I had my truck broke into at the Home Depot in Wincrest off of Walzem. There was an eye witness that picked the person out of a group of mug shots; yes the perp had a past conviction. The WPD had the guys name, address, address of all his family, work info and STILL never picked him up. I avoid that whole area like the plaque and suggest the same to others.

[L210]

I shop in that area several times a year without any problems. Burglaries of vehicles happen everywhere. One of the worst places I know of is Bass Pro Shops at the Rim. As far as not always following up with investigations, I can tell you from firsthand experience that Windcrest PD is not the only agency in the county guilty of doing this.

[Timclarey]

Windsor Oaks is 3rd world... There's 2 quad-plexes that were burnt down because their mom was evicted....the city should finish the job...

[thenewtexan]

Windcrest proper is beautiful. I saw Marcia Brady practicing her cheerleading routine in a front yard there. F-F-F-I-L...L-L-L-M-O...well you get the point! LOL. I do know that it is NEISD, and they go to Roosevelt, not exactly Westdale, but still among the better half of schools in the city. Windcrest reminds me of an oasis, though. The town has lots of beautiful, long, ranch style homes, with sunken living rooms, and beautiful, well kept yards, etc. Once you cross the town line, you're in the east side. Enough said.

[LovingSAT]

Originally Posted by RedNeckRick

The entire area is a crime infested cesspool of thugs, gangs and criminals. If it isn’t a traffic violation, don’t expect the WPD to much of anything about other crimes. I had my truck broke into at the Home Depot in Wincrest off of Walzem. There was an eye witness that picked the person out of a group of mug shots; yes the perp had a past conviction. The WPD had the guys name, address, address of all his family, work info and STILL never picked him up. I avoid that whole area like the plaque and suggest the same to others.

Absolutely not. There are many good, hard working people who live in that area. I work there and know many people in the area are upstanding good people.