Mystery of U of M area - College Park/University Park/etc. (Baltimore: rentals, crime)

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by Bigbluelandrover

I'm from the Midwest-Ohio. Most families do not want to live near a big college campus. My examples are Ohio State, Univ of Dayton and the Univ of Cincinnati. The surrounding areas of those campuses are seen as a bit more urban, robberies and break ins are higher. Criminals target students (and some of the students have sticky fingers too). Campus crowds bring noise, traffic and drunken behavior.

UMD seems a bit tame to me, but then I don't go near the campus at night. I think the perceptions are different because the campus isn't out in the middle of no where. Urban campuses scare some folks.

Interesting, I guess I'm not as familiar with Ohio.

I grew up in Michigan...and quite a few people who move to the Detroit area for jobs, will often choose to live in the college town of Ann Arbor for how much it offers to its community and residents. Even now, if someone said I want to move to Michigan, but where, Ann Arbor will always be on that list of places.

For Wisconsin, it is Madison. A similar state, where if people want to move to WI, the WI residents will quickly recommend Madison above Milwaukee or wherever else.

But, I am getting the impression that College Park has very little to offer except a college campus itself for its students. Looking at the community around it, it does seem predomimately residential with just basic types of amenities, fastfood restaurants and doesn't appear to have eclectic types of things or creative things or even independent movie theaters or any community theater either that I would quickly associate with college areas in the MI/WI area of the Midwest.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Interesting, I guess I'm not as familiar with Ohio.

I grew up in Michigan...and quite a few people who move to the Detroit area for jobs, will often choose to live in the college town of Ann Arbor for how much it offers to its community and residents. Even now, if someone said I want to move to Michigan, but where, Ann Arbor will always be on that list of places.

For Wisconsin, it is Madison. A similar state, where if people want to move to WI, the WI residents will quickly recommend Madison above Milwaukee or wherever else.

But, I am getting the impression that College Park has very little to offer except a college campus itself for its students. Looking at the community around it, it does seem predomimately residential with just basic types of amenities, fastfood restaurants and doesn't appear to have eclectic types of things or creative things or even independent movie theaters or any community theater either that I would quickly associate with college areas in the MI/WI area of the Midwest.

If you know Ann Arbor, then that helps when I tell you that College Park bears little resemblance to Ann Arbor. Your impression is correct.

[DonkeyTeeth]

The Big Ten schools are mostly near smaller cities (Lansing, Madison, Lafayette) where the school can sometimes double the population of the area and have a lot of influence. Univ of MD is plopped in the middle of the DC suburbs, so although its a big school it doesn't change the overall area much once you get a few miles away from the school.

The reason College Park may get tagged as 'undesirable' doesn't have as much to do with the school as it probably does with its west-side PG County location. The areas around it are residential with mostly older housing stock, but its not too far from some of the inside-the-Beltway parts of the county that get lots of headlines for high crime.

The campus itself is nice. A big residential population, but also a lot of commuters due to its suburban location. There's a very small stretch of Route 1 that has a college-town atmosphere, but a mile or two in either direction and it just looks like the rest of the area - older neighborhoods and lots of strip centers, etc.

[HurricaneDC]

Honestly I think College Park pales in comparison to Madison or Ann Arbor. We've got Route 1 which is mostly ugly, and downtown CP with a few cheap bars and restaurants. Of all the things that would make me really love UMD (I certainly like it and I've got my terp pride), turning College Park into a great college town would be near the top of the list.

Anyway the College Board site says 42% of UMD students live on campus which sounds about right. Remember we've got 27,000 undergrads, so fitting the majority of them onto a campus is a difficult task. Most off-campusers live near campus if I'm not mistaken (I myself live in DC). Some live as far as Charles County, can't imagine doing that commute but they do it.

[JD984]

College Park is a pretty good place to get an education. But it's just not an attractive place to live for a post-graduate wanting the benefits of a college/university town environment.

You're right that Ann Arbor and Madison are great towns (as is Evanston, Illinois, home of Northwestern), but College Park is nothing like these places.

[Spicey477]

I have lived in Ann Arbor and East Lansing, and like HurricaneDC, would LOVE it if CP turned into a real "college town". It is just the nature of the beast of being on the outskirts of DC, in a not so great area at that. I just find it amazing that with all of those students and employees, that they do not have more restaurants/shopping/etc right there in CP.

I would guess most students go to Rockville/Bethesda for their shopping besides grocery and Ikea?

[Alicia Bradley]

Tiger Beer, College Park has next to nothing in common, culturally, with college towns you may be used to (in the Midwest, for instance.. and not just the Northern Midwest, either - one of my favorite towns in the world is Columbia, MO, home of the University of Missouri [and tons and tons of indie restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques, book shops [both used and new], galleries, etc.].. but anyway, back to MD). The only UMD students who seem to spend much time in the area (and don't leave as soon as their classes are over, I mean) are not the artsy/bookish/coffee shop crowd - they're the type who pee in people's lawns in broad daylight (yes), literally live on beer and Philly cheesesteaks (hence the strip of fast-food places like Quizno's on Baltimore/Rt. 1.. this functions as College Park's 'downtown' area ), and bang on your door at 3 a.m., pantless (nope, no undies, even) and babbling drunkenly/druggedly/incoherently (again, true story). There are a couple cute neighborhoods with early 20th c. bungalows that I have a feeling are inhabited either by legacy people (from some period when College Park had more going for it? I dunno) or people who want a cute, relatively inexpensive historic home within walking distance of a Metro and are willing to sacrifice an appealing community. There's also University Park, as someone else mentioned - same situation, basically, only the neighborhood incorporated as an actual town (seriously) in 1936, so it has its own police force. Oh, and there's a neighborhood of larger, newer homes next to University Park that's in the CP city limits.

You'll hear people mention College Park's fewer-than-five independent businesses (including a coffee shop in an old house, separated from the 'downtown' [heh] area by a stretch of icky-looking quasi-highway.. also a mediocre vegetarian restaurant and hippie-ish herbal supplement/gift shop [again, in an old house], also a bit removed from CP's 'downtown' [heh] area, in another neighborhood-as-town called Berwyn Heights) as if each one were hugely, hugely important (which I suppose it is, when there are so few in total). This is a DC area phenomenon generally, though.. a neighborhood will be considered 'the place to be' because it has one pizza parlor in it (e.g., real estate listings for homes in Westover [in N. Arlington] will actually include a mention of 'the Lost Dog' [a pizza/sub place in the neighborhood]) in the brief passage describing the home's features!!

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by DonkeyTeeth

The reason College Park may get tagged as 'undesirable' doesn't have as much to do with the school as it probably does with its west-side PG County location. The areas around it are residential with mostly older housing stock, but its not too far from some of the inside-the-Beltway parts of the county that get lots of headlines for high crime.

Curious as to which neighborhoods those are.

Also, between Berwyn Heights, University Park, and College Parks...it seems the houses are certainly on the affordable side. However, since the entire area has so FEW local businesses....I am curious...is part of the problem that you have to drive into these more undesireable high crime areas to go to Wal-Mart or grocery shopping at major stores or whatsoever else? Is that an issue?

How much crime from the high crime areas around this area comes to College park/University Park/Berwyn Heights itself?

Personally, sounds like the area isn't all that interesting with little going for it...but college kids aren't as bad as high crime areas....and the prices of this part of PG County (while higher than the rest of PG it sounds like) are still less than NOVA or MoCo, it seems.

Lastly, just thinking that most DC area jobs....I mean gov't or gov't related or even NGO or whatsoever connected to the gov't...seems like most are over in that DC/Arlington side of DC...so would commuting over from a College Park/University Park by train be a tiring issue after awhile...or isn't that really much of an issue. How long does it take from College Park area to get over to that side of DC anyways?

[Cinnabele]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Curious as to which neighborhoods those are.

I'm assuming the poster was referring to Hyattsville, Riverdale, New Carrollton, Lanham areas? Those are the PG areas that automatically popped into my head when reading about crime.

[dkf747]

I would assume they meant Riverdale, but although it's gritty, I'm not sure 'high crime' is the right description for that area.