Is Lake Worth a Ghetto? (Miami, Hollywood: houses, neighborhoods, college)

[big mean bear]

Is Lake Worth a Ghetto? Or are there nice enclaves within the city? Or has the city been written off just like Miami? Just wondering...

[heydade]

there are some nice parts...but there are also very bad parts.

[luckysnap]

Lake Worth is a very eclectic city. There are some beautiful and charming areas on the Intracoastal. There are also buildings and houses dating from 1910, 1920, 1930 and after WW2. Many mom and pop businesses. There are also many illegal mexicans, guatemalans who live 10 to a room in some of the lower priced areas. There are a lot of homes waiting to be remodeled and modernized.
There are plenty of good restaurants as well.

[compelled to reply]

Lake Worth is very similar to Hollywood before it started transitioning, the key difference being that Hollywood is still very "American" in feel (even though the demographics are mixed) while Lake Worth has a very high percentage of central Americans of legal and illegal status, and it adds to the vibe. Also, Hollywood has more Spanish Mission and Art-Deco styles than Lake Worth.

[Manny561]

Lake Worth is about 75 to 80% poverty stricken. Some areas are all hispanic, some are all Haitian. But college park, and the neighborhood on A st by lake charleston are nice, and the area around downtown is nice as well. but other than that it is generally ghetto. anything south of 6th ave is comparable to places like compton. from about 7th ave north to 19th ave north on the west and some of the east side of dixie are bad too.

[PBCboy]

Lake Worth can be divided into three parts.

Lake Worth - The main city east of I-95. There are some interesting neighborhoods near downtown and near the water, but overall it's very dangerous and gang ridden. It is the section of Lake Worth that is home to many blacks though, whereas the second area, commonly confused with Lake Worth is...

Lake Worth Corridor - This is what one would consider a barrio. It is west of I-95 and is about 60-70% Hispanic. However, the neighborhoods here are more dangerous than most Hispanic sections of Dade (they may be comparable to the ones in Florida City/Homestead, though). You will find lots of homeless and odd people around here, gangs, run down neighborhoods, etc. Even if you're Hispanic it does not come recommended.

West Boynton - It is an unincorporated area that uses Lake Worth addresses. It is not counted into any stats unlike the two previously mentioned areas. If you're going to compare it to Dade then I guess it would be what Kendall is to Miami (though the demographics here are quite different, home wise and look wise, it being a suburb, is true).

So that's it. If you're looking towards Lake Worth or Lake Worth Corridor, then forget it. I'm not even fond of West Boynton because of how generic it is and how bad the drivers are. Lake Worth has really changed drastically during the past few years, though it was never what I'd consider a "good" city. Comparable cities are Greenacres, Lantana, and suburban West Palm Beach.

[big mean bear]

What made Lake Worth such a mecca for undesirables?? Why couldn't they drive the extra hour to the Miami dump site?

[PBCboy]

Originally Posted by big mean bear

What made Lake Worth such a mecca for undesirables?? Why couldn't they drive the extra hour to the Miami dump site?

Lake Worth is cheaper.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by big mean bear

What made Lake Worth such a mecca for undesirables?? Why couldn't they drive the extra hour to the Miami dump site?

Miami is more expensive and Broward is generally losing it's undesirables for cheaper areas. Otherwise, every large-ish densely populated area has an area with a lot of supposed "undesirables" and Lake Worth happens to be one of the areas for PBC.

[PBCboy]

There was just an episode of COPS on where they busted a Lake Worth crack house.