Areas to avoid in Dayton? (Columbus, Riverside: crime, safe area, buying) - Ohio (OH) - City-Data Forum

Remisc · 06-27-2010, 09:37 AM

I'll be visiting family in Dayton in August. I'm not familiar with the city, as I haven't been there in 15 years. Are there any areas I should stay away from? If so, where are they? Like, what streets border those areas? Any input's appreciated. TIA.

dayton_ohio · 06-28-2010, 02:46 PM

No place in Dayton is as bad as the worst parts of Michigan -- namely, inner city Detroit.

I think you could drive almost anywhere in Dayton during the day with minimal risk of problems and almost zero risk of very serious problems (homicide, car-jacking).

I choose to avoid some parts of Dayton at night and on foot during the day, like the areas west and east of downtown. I certainly wouldn't walk around there at night, but driving through may or may not be a problem (I don't know, as I'm not there at night).

Remisc · 06-29-2010, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dayton_ohio

No place in Dayton is as bad as the worst parts of Michigan -- namely, inner city Detroit.

Well, I hope not! But, thanks anyways.

VideoEngineerAJS · 06-30-2010, 07:49 AM

Like every city there is usually one general area that people are usually told to steer clear of. In St. Louis it's North St. Louis. In Columbus it's the Near East Side.

In Dayton, I would say west of 75 for the most part is the one area that isn't exactly the best place to just hang out. However, there really isn't all that much on the west side so you really shouldn't have that much to worry about.

Like the other poster said, there are a couple of spots just east of downtown that aren't the best places to hangout either, but again, not a lot around there. Most of the stuff to do around Dayton is around 675 anyway and you really won't have any issues there. Now there are some things you may want to see that are downtown like the Oregon District or Victoria Theatre or the Convention Center, but all of those places have really good access to 35 so you still shouldn't have to drive through the bad areas.

SmartGXL · 06-30-2010, 01:35 PM

VideoEngineerAJS's answer is pretty accurate.

For the most part, stay off of West 3rd St. There is not really anything out on West 3rd, so there should not really be a reason to drive thru there. Like Video said, most of the activities and shopping, etc these days, is out on I-675, or along Rt 725, which is south of town, and if you want to hang out in the Oregon Distrcit etc, those are in relatively safe areas of Downtown and there probably wont be any problems being there...use common sense, however.

Ohio Rifleman · 06-30-2010, 07:47 PM

Stay out of west Dayton. Lots of crime there.

Billy from Dayton · 07-01-2010, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ohio Rifleman

Stay out of west Dayton. Lots of crime there.

Yes there are areas of "west Dayton" that are rough, though none I'd worry about during the day. However, it isn't fair to say that ALL of west Dayton is dangerous. Empty, yes - but dangerous, not necessarily. And I'd guess that over 95% of all crime in the city is between known acquaintances (gang, drug deals, domestic violence, etc.). The correlation between most suburbanites' fear levels of the city and the chances of them actually being victims of a random crime is way out of wack.

As somebody from Chicago, I tend to laugh at what people here are scared of. You have no idea! Unless you are coming into the city of Dayton to buy drugs, there is very little chance you'll be a crime victim.

Of course, if you watch the local news everyday then I understand if you doubt me.

VideoEngineerAJS · 07-01-2010, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billy from Dayton

Yes there are areas of "west Dayton" that are rough, though none I'd worry about during the day. However, it isn't fair to say that ALL of west Dayton is dangerous. Empty, yes - but dangerous, not necessarily. And I'd guess that over 95% of all crime in the city is between known acquaintances (gang, drug deals, domestic violence, etc.). The correlation between most suburbanites' fear levels of the city and the chances of them actually being victims of a random crime is way out of wack.

As somebody from Chicago, I tend to laugh at what people here are scared of. You have no idea! Unless you are coming into the city of Dayton to buy drugs, there is very little chance you'll be a crime victim.

Of course, if you watch the local news everyday then I understand if you doubt me.

Just because Chicago is worse doesn't mean that you can't get hurt in Dayton. I live in St. Louis so it's worse here than it is in Dayton, however that doesn't mean that things can't happen everywhere.

You don't have to be buying drugs to get killed. Why do people always make that stupid argument? You wouldn't believe how many stray bullets have killed people this year in East St. Louis, IL and in North St. Louis. And all except for a few of them were DURING THE DAY.

The point was simply that you don't want to just hang out in west Dayton just like you wouldn't want to just hang out in north St. Louis or East St. Louis, IL because the longer you hang around an area that's bad, the higher the chance of something happening.

Billy from Dayton · 07-01-2010, 09:29 PM

Stupid argument? How about this whole conversation being stupid... as in, why would anybody hang out in a bad area with no reason to be there? Here is a simple answer to the original question: it is safe to be anyplace in Dayton that a reasonable person would have a reason to be in.

As for driving through - there is no place in Dayton that is dangerous yet necessary to drive through to get to someplace worth going to.

Downtown - safest district in the city. I've lived here for several years, never experienced crime. Sure there is occasional crime happening late at night around the Oregon District, but if you're street smart and not an idiot then you'll be fine.

SmartGXL · 07-09-2010, 10:51 AM

Hi Billy,

Actually, I live in Chicago now (Wicker Park), but was born in Dayton and lived there for 25 years (actually, I lived in Englewood as a suburbanite).

In 1993, I was 20 years old, living with my parents out near Englewood, going to Wright State, and working part-time for Key Bank (at the old key Bank building, which was accross the street from the existing Key Tower). I worked evenings, as a proofing/encoding clerk.

When I would leave, at 9pm, I would walk to wherever my car was parked that day, and would drive up Riverside Drive to what is now WBP, over to Main St, and then drive north towards Englewood. I took this route, instead of taking I-75, because I preferred to drive thru the city and look at the neighborhoods as I drove.

However, one night, as I headed up Riverside, a car with two males in it, began threatening me, and throwing garbage at my car, for no reason that I knew of. They continued to chase me up Riverside, all the way until I got to where Riverside dead-ends at WBP. There were numerous cars there, and some cars behind me, and the guys yelling at me/threatening me from their car, were several cars behind me. As I approached the red light, and stopped, I thought I was safe. One guy got out of his car and approached me, asked me if I had 'a light", i said no, he said "Well why not??" I said, I dont smoke, and he PUNCHED me right in the face and then walked back to his car!! NO ONE around me did anything, called the cops or anything, and quite frankly I did nothing, just drove away as fast as I could, when the light turned green.

About a month later, I saw in the paper that these same two individuals were arrested and convicted for carjacking. They had killed one guy, and tied up the other guy and left him in the woods.

This all happened only 3 months after starting to work in Downtown Dayton. Does this happen to most people? No - maybe I just had bad luck that day. But, it did happen, and Dayton has even more crime now than it did back then.