Can West Palm Beach really be that bad? (Riviera Beach: crimes, neighborhood)

[Manny561]

Originally Posted by Banx

west palm beach is not that bad. the bad areas are in the northern part. if you are coming from philly you will laugh at these neighborhoods. truth is, west palm beach has a feel of an empty ghost town in alot of parts... I always find myself wondering how there can be all this crime when no one seems to be around to commit it.

Yes it may not look as bad as it isnt nearly as old or populated but really its all about the mentality people have here. My friend(whose white) just moved to philly and he said he regularly drops his friend(whose black) off in the rough neighborhoods and hasnt a single problem, stops at the gas stations late at night and people will ask him if he needs drugs and he says no and they walk off.Here people arent friendly so the people who live in the bad neighborhoods really arent friendly lol. You will get shot for the just being in the wrong neighborhood in west palm. People are generally angry and rude in this county, so the "gangstas" are 10 times that, plus they all have something to prove. They shoot you, theyll probably never get caught and now they can call themselves real gangstas lmao. Ive seen people just passing through parks in lake worth late night just taking a stroll or whatever get beat until they cant move for the sole fact that they were in that park at the wrong time. Idk people can think what they want but ive lived here my whole life and I know the truth about this place and the people that live here. Its nothing but drugs and violence here.

[skylinet]

Originally Posted by TriMT7

I still don't know where "Clemens" street is though, sorry. Do you mean "Clematis" street?

Clemens St is a small st in Lake Worth off of Military just south of Tenth, North of Lake Worth.
A few newly built homes and a couple multi family residences.

Soso area...

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by Manny561

Yes it may not look as bad as it isnt nearly as old or populated but really its all about the mentality people have here. My friend(whose white) just moved to philly and he said he regularly drops his friend(whose black) off in the rough neighborhoods and hasnt a single problem, stops at the gas stations late at night and people will ask him if he needs drugs and he says no and they walk off.Here people arent friendly so the people who live in the bad neighborhoods really arent friendly lol. You will get shot for the just being in the wrong neighborhood in west palm. People are generally angry and rude in this county, so the "gangstas" are 10 times that, plus they all have something to prove. They shoot you, theyll probably never get caught and now they can call themselves real gangstas lmao. Ive seen people just passing through parks in lake worth late night just taking a stroll or whatever get beat until they cant move for the sole fact that they were in that park at the wrong time. Idk people can think what they want but ive lived here my whole life and I know the truth about this place and the people that live here. Its nothing but drugs and violence here.

With all due respect Manny, it appears that the people you associate with are not the people that most other people associate with. None of the people I know have "gangsta" mentality in PBC, and none seem to attract beatings, or getting jumped just for being "themselves" in a park.

Perhaps if you upgrade the quality of person you associate with, you will hear less stories about drugs and violence from personal acquaintences?

[Reedsmit]

Originally Posted by lunarose

Thanks everybody and thanks SKB for your thoughts on Royal Palm Beach. I looked on the map for that area and found two hospitals in Wellington where my RN husband could work. There are two apartment complexes right near there that seem wonderful and even reasonable - Polo Lakes and Estates at Wellington Green.Does anybody know them? I wouldn't even have realized that Wellington Regional and Palms West Hospital were there had you not given me the idea to look at RPB. I think the quality of life would be much better than downtown WPB and it's still not far from the beaches. I plan on going down next week to take a look. Hopefully I won't be in the middle of a hurricane. Thanks again.

I think Wellington is a very nice area. They have a nice Mall, Costco, Super Walmart, and other shopping areas. It is close to the Turnpike. And we don't hear about a lot of crime on the evening news.
Can't say that about other areas.

[MoItaly]

PBC has more crime than it should based on the size of its cities, but saying that it's all drugs and crime is a huge overstatement.
If you compare it to walking in Manhattan, then PBC is bad. If you compare it with some suburbs in West Chicago or in Blatimore, then PBC is not that bad when it comes to violence.
If you come from TN, SC, NC odds are you might think of PBC as a crime ridden area. It depends on what you are comparing it too.

There are several shady areas that get really bad at night, but I also have to say that most of regular people don't walk in those areas at night so odds are that if you are not a shady character yourself, you are going to be fine with a bit of common sense and in a little time with some knowledge of the area.

[Reedsmit]

Originally Posted by MoItaly

PBC has more crime than it should based on the size of its cities, but saying that it's all drugs and crime is a huge overstatement.
If you compare it to walking in Manhattan, then PBC is bad. If you compare it with some suburbs in West Chicago or in Blatimore, then PBC is not that bad when it comes to violence.
If you come from TN, SC, NC odds are you might think of PBC as a crime ridden area. It depends on what you are comparing it too.

There are several shady areas that get really bad at night, but I also have to say that most of regular people don't walk in those areas at night so odds are that if you are not a shady character yourself, you are going to be fine with a bit of common sense and in a little time with some knowledge of the area.

One of the things that I see happening, is that areas that surround or are near questionable areas are being targeted by criminals. In the last 4 or 5 years there have been a lot of building of apartment complexes and retail stores along Congress Ave. between Blue Heron Blvd. and Northlake Blvd. The early looks great, but... auto thefts and robberies have occurred a lot in that area.

There have also been incidents where businesses right off main roads like I-95 have been hit.

I live in Jupiter but worked in West Palm Beach near the Turnpike. I use to take 1-95 to 45th St. than over to Haverhill. After the bottom fell out of the economy last year, I became more cautious, didn't wear jewelery which looked valuable, became more aware of my surroundings, and stopped driving in areas that I felt uncomfortable in.

Maybe it boarders on being Paranoid, but sometimes that is not a bad thing.

[goofykid]

West Palm is like any other city in the U.S. It's just that it's bad parts are just as bad if not worst than these major cities people talk about. It's definetely a small city with big city crime. West Palm has a big gap between the rich and the poor.

Some bad parts look like a ghost town so Detroit is that a safe city too? Just cause it doesn't look as old or runed down?! Let's think here Florida cites are not even 50 years old some places in the hood are brand new houses. I guess people never herd of don't judge a book by it's cover either?

It's not just West Palm either it's the cities around it like Riviera Beach to the north and Lake Worth to the south that make West Palm Beach and Palm Beach county one of the most dangerous metro's in the U.S. Wether it's gang homicides in Lake Worth or drug related homincides in Riviera Beach makes the area much worst. You can drive from Lake Worth to Riviera Beach and it all look the same. Just cause your out the city don't mean your safe unlike most US cities. Crime happens everywhere but it's more likely to happen sometimes outside the city than in it. Same thing goes for Ft. Lauderdale & Miami.

[goofykid]

Here's a link i forgot to put

In Pictures: America's Most Dangerous Cities - Forbes.com

[TiredOfSFL]

Perhaps you mean south of Northlake? Jupiter is north of it...

[Reedsmit]

Originally Posted by goofykid

West Palm is like any other city in the U.S. It's just that it's bad parts are just as bad if not worst than these major cities people talk about. It's definetely a small city with big city crime. West Palm has a big gap between the rich and the poor.

Originally Posted by goofykid

Some bad parts look like a ghost town so Detroit is that a safe city too? Just cause it doesn't look as old or runed down?! Let's think here Florida cites are not even 50 years old some places in the hood are brand new houses. I guess people never herd of don't judge a book by it's cover either?

It's not just West Palm either it's the cities around it like Riviera Beach to the north and Lake Worth to the south that make West Palm Beach and Palm Beach county one of the most dangerous metro's in the U.S. Wether it's gang homicides in Lake Worth or drug related homincides in Riviera Beach makes the area much worst. You can drive from Lake Worth to Riviera Beach and it all look the same. Just cause your out the city don't mean your safe unlike most US cities. Crime happens everywhere but it's more likely to happen sometimes outside the city than in it. Same thing goes for Ft. Lauderdale & Miami.

You are right, there is crime everywhere. And there are people who will victimize people every where, some of these people (Bernie Madoff) lived and owned some of the most expensive real estate around. But old Bernie was an out and out Thief.

Problem is when a person does not live near here, doesn't know one neighborhood from another, and is asking for help finding a place to live. I would hope that people responding, if they know there is a safety problem or a high crime rate, would be honest and tell the person. Than the person planning a move, knows what they are getting in to.

A person does not usually look for a forum such as this to ask those questions if it is not important to them.

I am very sensitive to this subject as my daughter will graduate from college in Dec. and is moving to MT in January. I have never been to MT, I have no idea what to expect. But the people on the MT site, have been kind enough to give me their thoughts and answer my questions. I hope they are being honest.