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I'm getting comfortable with the idea of moving to Syracuse I'm curious about the safety throughout the city. I always check the Trulia crime maps when looking for places, but I kinda take it with a grain of salt. I mean according to Trulia, walking through Armory Square is about equivalent to walking through Highland Park of Detroit (terrifying). Are there any real concerns I should have and areas to avoid? I'll probably end up living in a suburb anyway, but I don't want to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time when I want to spend a lot of time Downtown.
Except for a few bars and places to eat in the Tavern district (Armory Square) DT Syracuse is almost completely abandoned.
So since most crime takes two or more people your chances of being a victim are prolly as close to zero as anywhere on Earth.
When the kids party at night thats in that one area so as long as your part of the herd your also safe.
DT Syracuse is actually kinda neat cause it was abandoned all at once and in tact. Most cities where abandoned over time and got pretty bad in the process. Syracuse it was as if somebody threw a switch. Like something out of the Walking Dead. From the street at least the buildings appear to e in excellent condition. Not counting government buildings I'd say 90-95% of street level DT Syracuse was empty.
Its worth seeing. Kinda surreal but worthwhile. And at least IMHO completely safe.
I'm getting comfortable with the idea of moving to Syracuse I'm curious about the safety throughout the city. I always check the Trulia crime maps when looking for places, but I kinda take it with a grain of salt. I mean according to Trulia, walking through Armory Square is about equivalent to walking through Highland Park of Detroit (terrifying). Are there any real concerns I should have and areas to avoid? I'll probably end up living in a suburb anyway, but I don't want to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time when I want to spend a lot of time Downtown.
No, I wouldn't say so and it tends to be a pretty well policed area. Maybe some panhandling or an occasional personal incident, but I wouldn't worry about going there. Armory Square, Hanover Square, Westcott, Tipperary Hill and to a degree North Salina/Little Italy and Crouse/Marshall(near campus) due to restaurants, tend to be places go for some night life. You may have popular spots in the court-Woodlawn area like the Change of Pace Sports Bar(good wings, btw) or Chadwick's in Eastwood(known for being a Steelers bar), among others as well.
There are good and bad parts in terms of crime in the city like every city. In a general sense, the inner portions of the sides of town tend to be rougher, but even that varies in terms of degree and area size. As you go further out, the better/safer/nicer it tends to get. South/SW Side has the worst rep, but as mentioned, the further out you go the better it is(i.e.-most of the Valley(especially South Valley), Elmwood up the hill, Strathmore, Winkworth). Near West Side and what I call the East Fayette Street strip near the public housing on the East Side can be rough, but outside of those areas on those sides of town, the rest can range from OK lower/working class areas to very nice middle, if not upper middle class areas. Similar with the North Side in terms of the some of the inner portion of that side of town, but as you get further north from about say 1st North or so up or east of Schiller Park, it can be solid to very nice as well. The vast majority of serious crime is between people that know each other or are involved in a certain lifestyle. Eastwood is generally fine, lower middle class chunk in the NE corner of the city and has a streetcar suburb feel to it.
East Side has the best rep due to it proximity to Syracuse University, Lemoyne College and the hospitals/facilities on University Hill. There's also nice old money areas like Sedgwick, Strathmore and Scottholm that are very nice.
If you are going to be in the suburbs, there really aren't any suburbs with high serious crime. You may have an apartment complex that has had an incident or 2 over a period of years, but there isn't a suburb with consistent bad crime.
As for suburbs, the Eastern suburbs, particularly the Jamesville-DeWitt and the Fayetteville-Manlius areas tend to be relatively quite affluent. That goes in to Cazenovia a small town with a quaint village just inside of the Madison County line. There's also the East Syracuse-Minoa area, which is more straight middle class, with a couple of railroad villages and this kind of spills over into the Chittenango area also in Madison County. Madison County is a part of the metro area.
There's also some solidly to relatively affluent communities in the Western suburbs/towns like the Westhill SD area, Camillus(West Genesee SD), Marcellus and Skaneateles. Solvay is a more blue collar, company town area, but it also has some old money and standard suburban areas as well. The Jordan-Elbridge area is a rural/small town area that butts up against Cayuga County. People in say that area and Skaneateles may go to Auburn for some things(shopping, events and maybe even nightlife). I dare say that Auburn is a sleeper in terms of things to do(revitalizing Downtown, Merry Go Round professional theater, Auburn Public Theater, minor league baseball, historical sites, etc.): Auburn Downtown BID
The Northern suburbs have the most people and are the Baldwinsville, Liverpool and North Syracuse SD's, with some spill over into the Central Square SD in Oswego County. Oswego County is a part of the metro area and the city of Oswego has some nice sunsets, Harborfest, a SUNY campus, etc. Generally solid suburbs where you can find just about any type of housing for a range of people. Plenty of big box shopping as well.
South of the city is pretty much rural, with the exception of the small working/middle class suburb of Nedrow. You also have the Onondaga Nation just south of that. Towns or parts of towns such as Lafayette, Tully, Spafford, Otisco, Onondaga and the Fabius-Pompey SD area are in that area. Some in the southern end may go to Cortland for some things.
In terms of suburban walkability, look into the villages such as Liverpool(has a great park), Baldwinsville, Manlius, Skaneateles and even Fayetteville and North Syracuse. There are maybe a few others that may be more blue collar/aren't as popular as well.
Hope this helps.........
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 04-06-2017 at 08:18 AM..
The biggest area for crime is 421 Montgomery Street, 14th floor. That's the "office" of Joanie Mahoney-
the bitter, evil, vindictive "Queen of Nepotism". She and her cronies are bleeding all you taxpayers dry.
As someone who moved to Syracuse from the west coast ( Portland ) just 14 mo ago, I feel I should give my 2 cents here...
Before I got to Syracuse, I heard so much ( especially on these forums, but also on Sterling best places, etc ) about the out-of-control crime that Syracuse was plagued with, and that was one area I was worried about the most.
I don't have much experience being downtown a lot ( and only twice at night ) but as Sean stated, most of downtown, you won't find a lot of people; even on a Fri at around 4-5pm as my route ( I drive for a living ) has me downtown during this time of day, and the lack of traffic ( both vehicles and pedestrians ) is quite the stark contrast from Portland--it isn't even close by a long mile.
I got a place to rent in Liverpool, and am still amazed at just how often folks run into the store and leave their car running *and* unlocked!
You do that *anywhere* near Portland--even the most affluent, safest spots, and you'll come out to a stolen car!!
As ckh once told me, most of the crime takes place between people who knew each other--gangs, etc--which does seem to ring true. Not a lot of random crimes happen here. Syracuse IMO does have a lot of crime for it being a small city, but it also seems to be centrally located I have noticed, and yeah, between individuals who knew each other, so if you keep your nose clean and don't get involved with the wrong crowd, Syracuse seems very safe, actually.
It's old ( which has some charm ), neglected for far too long, as well as run down and abandoned in many areas ( especially the south side I've noticed ) but most folks here aren't rude ( many hold doors open for you if you're entering a building behind them ) and for Syracuse being a smaller city ( I know its considered a "medium-sized" city, but to me, its small because of so much open space between homes and a lot of open fields everywhere, they do have a lot of events they plan--St. Patricks Day parade, comedy club performers, the fans are into the sporting events ( S.U, the Crunch and the Chiefs ) and it's not a "boring" city, by any means really.
The biggest area for crime is 421 Montgomery Street, 14th floor. That's the "office" of Joanie Mahoney-
the bitter, evil, vindictive "Queen of Nepotism". She and her cronies are bleeding all you taxpayers dry.
You could say that about a lot of politicians, but uhh, ok..........
As someone who moved to Syracuse from the west coast ( Portland ) just 14 mo ago, I feel I should give my 2 cents here...
Before I got to Syracuse, I heard so much ( especially on these forums, but also on Sterling best places, etc ) about the out-of-control crime that Syracuse was plagued with, and that was one area I was worried about the most.
I don't have much experience being downtown a lot ( and only twice at night ) but as Sean stated, most of downtown, you won't find a lot of people; even on a Fri at around 4-5pm as my route ( I drive for a living ) has me downtown during this time of day, and the lack of traffic ( both vehicles and pedestrians ) is quite the stark contrast from Portland--it isn't even close by a long mile.
I got a place to rent in Liverpool, and am still amazed at just how often folks run into the store and leave their car running *and* unlocked!
You do that *anywhere* near Portland--even the most affluent, safest spots, and you'll come out to a stolen car!!
As ckh once told me, most of the crime takes place between people who knew each other--gangs, etc--which does seem to ring true. Not a lot of random crimes happen here. Syracuse IMO does have a lot of crime for it being a small city, but it also seems to be centrally located I have noticed, and yeah, between individuals who knew each other, so if you keep your nose clean and don't get involved with the wrong crowd, Syracuse seems very safe, actually.
It's old ( which has some charm ), neglected for far too long, as well as run down and abandoned in many areas ( especially the south side I've noticed ) but most folks here aren't rude ( many hold doors open for you if you're entering a building behind them ) and for Syracuse being a smaller city ( I know its considered a "medium-sized" city, but to me, its small because of so much open space between homes and a lot of open fields everywhere, they do have a lot of events they plan--St. Patricks Day parade, comedy club performers, the fans are into the sporting events ( S.U, the Crunch and the Chiefs ) and it's not a "boring" city, by any means really.
This is fair and it didn't help that last year, the city had a record year for homicides. I believe about a third of them were family/relationship related, with the rest being pretty much lifestyle(gang/drug deal gone bad, etc) related. Some involved those that didn't even live in the city, but occurred in the city and gets counted against the city as well(a hotel domestic incident comes to mind). This in spite of pretty much everything else going down in recent years.
I believe so far there have been about 3(maybe 4 if you count a vehicular incident) thus far this year.
Over a period since 1985, Syracuse has averaged about 16-17 homicides a year for a city that has had roughly between 145-165,000 people during that period. It has had over 20 about 6 or maybe 7 times ever.
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I'm curious about the safety throughout the city. I always check the Trulia crime maps when looking for places, but I kinda take it with a grain of salt. I mean according to Trulia, walking through Armory Square is about equivalent to walking through Highland Park of Detroit (terrifying). Are there any real concerns I should have and areas to avoid? I'll probably end up living in a suburb anyway, but I don't want to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time when I want to spend a lot of time Downtown.
