How safe is Xavier? (and Cincy) (Cincinnati, Norwood: house, dorms, neighborhoods)

[goyguy]

Committing to the screen name "Xavier19" hints at a strong inclination towards becoming a Musketeer - j/k - but I hope you end up either enrolling, or opting out for reasons other than what the area around campus is like. (There's also the risk of not being accepted, but let's not go there. Of course you'll get in. )

North Avondale is a beautiful neighborhood indeed - the kind where some people, at least me, like to do "windshield tours" at about 10 MPH to gawk at the rambling old houses and even mansions. But the quality of the environment does drop, and fast. As does every city, Cincinnati has certain streets that serve as lines of demarcation between good and bad sections. When you're around Xavier that street is Dana Ave. North of it you have showplace homes and tranquility. South of it a lot of the housing is in bad repair and there seems to be no end to the crime. And Dana itself is a mixed bag these days moving westward from campus. Heading east it's also a divider, in this case between blue-collar and gentrifying Norwood on one side and, on the other, the troubled but also slowly rejuvenating Evanston.

The good news is two-fold. One is that you'll rarely have to venture far from campus on foot for anything, unless friends with an apartment on Dana have you over and they live on the other side of Victory Parkway. North Avondale has beaten significant odds by holding onto a great quality of life in the sector north of Dana, because its main commercial corridor is DEAD. With no place to shop or eat at on Reading Rd there's therefore zero reason to go there. (North of campus is a different story.) Ergo, no worries. The other up note is that XU - while calling it "isolated" is a stretch - really is a place unto itself all the same. Big new residential complexes have opened or are under construction. A street passing through was dead-ended in favor of the new quad, with its giant inlaid "X" that you've probably walked on. For basketball games and other events the Cintas Center is "right there." Everything academic is within relatively compact boundaries, so you don't have to beat feet from your 9:00 zoology class to your 10:30 tutorial in database construction (or whatever.) Chances are you can see the one classroom building from the other. And the campus is heavily yet unobtrusively patrolled, so - particularly at night - it's never not smart to go out with at least one companion but going alone shouldn't be a deal breaker. Given the population density brought on by large-scale dorm complexes woven into a small-scale academic/cultural area any feeling of "there's no one around" should, for good or bad, be rare.

Going car-less is also not a big deal at Xavier, because there's a "Metro*Plus" express bus between downtown and the Kenwood "mall sprawl" as well as the cross-town Route 51 to UC, Rookwood, the zoo, etc right on Dana.

Back, briefly, to crime concerns - south of Dana, whether it be in Avondale or Evanston, plenty of negative things happen. There's no denying it. However, as opposed to the vicinity of UC in some parts, the incidents are what I call "bad on bad." Word got out a long time ago about Xavier security, so would-be iPod snatchers and the like go where the pickings are easier. So put your fears aside and start adding blue and white to your wardrobe.

[Xavier19]

That's goyguy that's great information. I've already gotten in so I'm not concerned about that. I feel a lot better about the safety of campus now. When my family went for the first time we drove down Dana and Reading roads so I understand it looked the way it did.

[progmac]

A big part of the reason that college-towns in rural areas exist as anything more than a novelty is because parents feel unsafe sending their children to urban schools. If you brave the wilds of Cincinnati and are one of the few who manages to live in the City and stay alive, you'll be rewarded with rich career possibilities throughout the metropolitan area.

[Chemistry_Guy]

I could write a book about Jesuit Universities and Xavier in particular, but this isn't really the time or the place for that. I will say that the urban location is definitely by design. Nearly all Jesuit universities are in the middle of major cities, as this is part of the mission directive for the Jesuits to come to the people rather than have the people come to them. You simply will not find a Jesuit University with a rural campus, at least in the U.S.

That being said, Xavier has done a good job addressing the safety of its students. It has to, really, as its budget and reputation are highly dependent on tuition and market demand. As Wilson and others have suggested, much of the safety of Xavier's campus was engineered by the strategic placement of student housing, parking lots, academic buildings, athletic facilities, and physical plant resources in such a way as to limit the amount of "off the beaten path" type routes that students need to use as well as providing plenty of student housing either smack dab in the middle of campus or on the edge of campus against a geographic barrier.

[goyguy]

Originally Posted by progmac

If you brave the wilds of Cincinnati and are one of the few who manages to live in the City and stay alive,...

Sarcasm cordially called out. (The poster happily lives & works within the city limits, even rides the bus.)

[Zen_master]

Originally Posted by Ohio123

Ok, I agree on that definition of "isolated".

I once drove by UD Mercy in Detroit and they literally have a fence that surrounds the campus. XU is kind of like that except instead of a fence there are either parking lots or academic buildings that basically surround the quads and open areas where everyone is walking between class, etc.

Also, unlike lots of the housing at UC, many of the XU off campus housing is intermingled with regular Norwood residents who I think keep a better eye on what's going on around the neighborhood as compared to a bunch of college kids.

From my experiences with both campuses, this is the case. I would argue that Xavier is in a worse area from the perspective of once you step off campus (though it is a valid point to state there is a higher ratio of student housing to total enrollment - however, all UC freshman could acquire on campus housing if they so desired). There is roughly a two block perimeter around UC's campus that is well lit, recently developed and inhabited exclusively by college students ie) not populated by less desireables. Now it has probably been five years or more since I've been on Xavier's campus but the surrounding area was not someplace I would have wanted to find myself alone at 2 am. Perhaps Xavier has undergone much of the campus creep and development as UC making my experiences outmoded, but again, from this admittedly dated experience of the two I would say UC has a safer immediate campus halo than XU. Once you get beyond 4 or 5 blocks of either campus all bets are off. The same can be said for many urban campuses, however. Ohio State is no exception. The immediate surrounding blocks are fine. Go four blocks east of campus and you're in Fallujah.

[Ohky0815]

UC seems bigger and has more of a nightlife. Xavier seems smaller and quiet. Im not sure if Xavier is considered Norwood but Norwood Police have an average response time of under 5mins throughout ALL of Norwood, so id say thats better than Cincinnati Police.

[cincydave8]

I believe Xavier is technically in Evanston and maybe some in North Avondale.

[Wilson513]

All of Xavier's off campus student housing is in Norwood. And, Xavier has its own excellent police force. I-71 and Victory Parkway insulate Xavier from the surrounding neighborhoods, except for Norwood, so it is nothing like UC or the UC's ghetto surroundings. UC is bigger, about 5 times bigger.

[progmac]

Originally Posted by goyguy

Sarcasm cordially called out. (The poster happily lives & works within the city limits, even rides the bus.)