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Walkability (meaning driving downtown, parking your car and spending a few hours browsing shops, eating at restaurants, etc, I don't mean being able to live without a car)
Lively Vibe - things going on
Density
Core Downtown
Proximity to other attractive towns with things to do?
Low Crime (Burglary, Robbery, Murder)
Weather
Proximity to and ease of getting to Philly
Amenities
Public Transit
Health Care
Housing Stock (Variety of styles - apartments, townhomes, condos, SF - and variety of price ranges/age)
Doylestown is far more walkable than West Chester.
I'm not "worried" about it, but relatively speaking, if these stats are correct, this is what is reported for violent crime in each locale:
Where I live now - Mount Pleasant, SC (a Charleston, SC suburb) - 98/100K people
Where I used to live - Newburyport, MA (a Boston suburb) - 107/100K people
Doylestown - 137/100K people
Phoenixville - 188/100K people
Boston - 551/100K people
Media - 596/100K people
It seemed (to me - again, I don't know how to interpret these stats) that if a place that is 5K population has as much violent crime as a city of 654K people, and a lot 5x the violent crime where we live now, perhaps it's "higher crime" that we want to live in.
It appears that these numbers don't make sense, because West Chester has 4.9 murders/100K, Media has 0, West Chester has 54.2 Robberies/100K, Media has 37.3, and West Chester has 226.6 Burglaries, and Media has 111.8/100K.
Because of the way the stats are factored (incidents versus residents) it adversely affects the smaller towns. It's ridiculous to suggest that Media has a higher violent crime rate than Boston, which is why I have always mandated crime stats are the most useless source of data for relocation purposes. You have to dig deeper...
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by macalan
I'm not "worried" about it, but relatively speaking, if these stats are correct, this is what is reported for violent crime in each locale:
Where I live now - Mount Pleasant, SC (a Charleston, SC suburb) - 98/100K people
Where I used to live - Newburyport, MA (a Boston suburb) - 107/100K people
Doylestown - 137/100K people
Phoenixville - 188/100K people
Boston - 551/100K people
Media - 596/100K people
It seemed (to me - again, I don't know how to interpret these stats) that if a place that is 5K population has as much violent crime as a city of 654K people, and a lot 5x the violent crime where we live now, perhaps it's "higher crime" that we want to live in.
It appears that these numbers don't make sense, because West Chester has 4.9 murders/100K, Media has 0, West Chester has 54.2 Robberies/100K, Media has 37.3, and West Chester has 226.6 Burglaries, and Media has 111.8/100K.
That statistic seems off somehow. I grew up 5 miles from Media, and my father worked in downtown Media for 20 years (granted this was in the 1970s-1980s but I was there last year). I have never known Media to be anything other than a safe, pleasant town. I wouldn't hesitate to move to "Everybody's Hometown" for a second because of supposed crime. It's very nice place with a sweet downtown. It is conveniently located to I-95 and has some mass transportation options. You should definitely add it to your list. It was on my short list.
Because of the way the stats are factored (incidents versus residents) it adversely affects the smaller towns. It's ridiculous to suggest that Media has a higher violent crime rate than Boston, which is why I have always mandated crime stats are the most useless source of data for relocation purposes. You have to dig deeper...
Yes, very true. Per capita statistics can really inflate numbers for small cities, because all it takes is a few incidents to make their per capita numbers start to look really bad.
I've said it a million times but I'll say it again: statistics are an art more than a science.
It appears that these numbers don't make sense, because West Chester has 4.9 murders/100K, Media has 0, West Chester has 54.2 Robberies/100K, Media has 37.3, and West Chester has 226.6 Burglaries, and Media has 111.8/100K.
You're overthinking it. You have everyone familiar with these towns telling you that they're very safe. Crime statistics are often fraught with errors, and that doesn't even account for under-reporting, which is far more common in big cities, and in the South, from what I've gathered.
The biggest factor in anyone's sense of safety is what they actually feel in person on the ground. NOTHING is more important than that. And posts on the Internet, or whatever crime data website happens to be "compiling" that info, will never be a replacement for real life experience.
You're overthinking it. You have everyone familiar with these towns telling you that they're very safe. Crime statistics are often fraught with errors, and that doesn't even account for under-reporting, which is far more common in big cities, and in the South, from what I've gathered.
The biggest factor in anyone's sense of safety is what they actually feel in person on the ground. NOTHING is more important than that. And posts on the Internet, or whatever crime data website happens to be "compiling" that info, will never be a replacement for real life experience.
Nope. Not overthinking it. I just made note of it, but I'm on here because people know better than I what it all means. Now I know to take those #s with a grain of salt. I've added Media to the list.
Doylestown is far more walkable than West Chester.
Having visited both, I wouldn't say that. Downtown West Chester covers more territory than downtown Doylestown as well.
Just about any place that attracts many outsiders to work in and visit it will probably have outsized crime/100k residents stats because many of the crimes occur when, say, someone steals something from a parked car in the downtown (a burglary) or accosts an unsuspecting visitor walking the streets (a robbery). The suburban county seats, Norristown excepted, usually don't generate fears of crime among either their residents or their visitors. (You might want to check out the stats for Norristown for comparison purposes. It's the most populous and least affluent of the four.)
I'm not sure how much outsiders are aware, but Phoenixville is now one of the fastest-growing towns in the Philly area, and in particular is building up its downtown pretty impressively; its reputation may be still be lagging, but it's quickly approaching West Chester levels as far as a highly-sought suburban hub.
To the OP: I'd recommend reposting this/requesting a move of this thread to the Philly forum. I don't know that there's enough potential commenters on the national forum to give you more opinions.
I will second this. I think even some people in the Philly area aren’t aware of the dramatic changes for the better in Phoenixville over the last twenty years. Plus, it tends to still be much more affordable than West Chester and Doylestown while offering similar amenities. You can’t go wrong with any of the three though. Along with Media, in my opinion they are the four best walkable suburban towns in the PA side of the Philly suburbs.
I will second this. I think even some people in the Philly area aren’t aware of the dramatic changes for the better in Phoenixville over the last twenty years. Plus, it tends to still be much more affordable than West Chester and Doylestown while offering similar amenities. You can’t go wrong with any of the three though. Along with Media, in my opinion they are the four best walkable suburban towns in the PA side of the Philly suburbs.
Having gone on a Bridge Street pub crawl on Blobfest weekend about five years ago, and having attended the grand opening party for an apartment building Scully Company manages on the borough's west side before that, I was aware. There's a fellow Harvardian who's a real estate agent in the borough and has been trying to get me to write about it.
I haven't told him this yet, but I haven't forgotten. I do intend to do something on Phoenixville.
Only because it's a bit smaller than we wanted and crime seemed a bit high. But perhaps worth a look.
I also vote for Media. I don't know what stats you are looking at, but Media is incredibly safe. The actual borough itself is very small - less than 1 square mile. But generally, the entirety of the 19063 zip code is considered Media. So there are events that are easily accessible and even walkable, but technically not in the borough itself. I technically lived in Upper Providence, but easily walked to downtown Media nearly every day.
If anything, I would think West Chester would have a higher crime rate just due to the sheer number of drunken college students. I like West Chester a lot, but the large number of college students can get old after a while. I don't mean to imply that it's unsafe. None of the towns you listed are. But when you have 15,000 college-aged kids in one place, some of them are going to do stupid stuff.
I'm not as familiar with Phoenixville or Doylestown, but I've heard great things about them. But ease of access to Philadelphia from Phoenixville may be an issue, if that's important to you.
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