Relocating from Ca. - need advice (El Paso: violent crime, homes, neighborhood)

[malamute]

Originally Posted by holmes

In my neighborhood, you still see iron bars on a lot of homes, however I think this is an artifact of 15-20 yrs ago when this area was REALLY bad. But that isn't the case anymore. In fact, I'm planning on removing the iron bars on my home this summer. One, they look ugly and cheapen the beauty of my historic home. Two, I really do feel safe enough here that they seem unnecessary.

One thing to keep in mind is that everyone's experiences will be different. My experience will be different to someone living in the upper valley, the northeast, or segundo barrio. On average, for a city of this size, El Paso does deserve its reputation as a very safe city.

I agree everyone's experiences are different and a lot depends on what part of town you live in, what neighborhood. I know a number of kids who have been stabbed at parties -- not killed but stabbed and needed medical care.

I agree iron bars on windows and doors are ugly and I don't see them in other cities like I see them here -- and people don't spend that kind of money to have their home made ugly and fortress-like for no reason -- it almost always means a high crime area but not always a high murder rate area. The murder rate is pretty low and that's good.

Still there have been some pretty gruesome murders and that rules advising people that it's very safe here I think. I've never seen police stationed at high schools before here either -- and that's a good sign of gang problems at the school.

[lipbalm]

It's all relative. If you live in some small town with zero crime then yes El paso might seem bad. But here in Houston we just had the honor of having the second highest murder rate in the nation, just below philadelphia which I understand it's a war zone right now. I felt safe anywhere in El Paso, in some parts of Houston you better not let your guard down for a second or you can end up a statistic.

[holmes]

Originally Posted by lipbalm

It's all relative. If you live in some small town with zero crime then yes El paso might seem bad. But here in Houston we just had the honor of having the second highest murder rate in the nation, just below philadelphia which I understand it's a war zone right now. I felt safe anywhere in El Paso, in some parts of Houston you better not let your guard down for a second or you can end up a statistic.

Are the 'burbs pretty safe out there? I imagine the inner city is the rough part of town, but then again I guess I don't really know. In Chicago there were a lot of areas that were REALLY bad when I first moved over there for ~6mo back in 1999. The neighborhood right off UIC (forget its name) was abosolutely horrendous. I remember my wife's cousins taking us out there for an authentic maxwell polish. I was stunned and told them it looked just like the bad parts of juarez back home! Cabrini Green was another really bad part of town back then.

However, we recently visited this past thanksgiving and I was amazed at just how much has happened since then in these two neighborhoods. Gentrification is in full swing.

[lipbalm]

The area with highest crime right now is southwest houston, especially where there is a large concentration of appartment complexes. Is seems like somone gets killed or shot on a daily basis in and around that area, but things can happen almost anywhere. The suburbs (sugar land, katy, kingwood, spring, friendswood, pearland) do seem to overall have lower crime but that does not mean they are immune from it. As a matter of fact home invasions and driveway robberies are more common in the nicer suburban neighborhoods (I guess they figure that's where the money is).

What's strange is that the Houston area has probably the hottest economy in the country right now since the energy sector is booming, while medical, and aerospace are not far behind. I guess some people just refuse to make an honest living.

[alanap98]

I live west of the west side and as for the safety its extremley safe out here! We are currently considering putting house on market had realtor come over and said he will need a key for the door to which I said its never locked no need for a key! We leave for days at a time and have never locked door and have never had a problem! If we do put house on market we will I guess have to get new locks on doors as we have no idea where the key to the house is! So Safe YES definatley! As to other qualities everyone has their own We live in the Canutillo school district not a bad district brand new high school and all and the elementary schools are pretty good some are even blue ribbon But would I recomend it no but what I dont like maybe things that you do to each their own and best of luck!
PS we are orig from Castro Valley.live

[KimK]

I agree with those who think El Paso is relatively safe. No where on earth should one throw precaution out the window but as I said before somewhere for a population as large as ours, its pretty good. That does not mean I would go down on Alameda at 1:00 a.m. and do a little walking. As for the bars, my personal gripe (another one), most of those should come down. I have two homes that had them and I took them down. They make your neighborhood look like a war zone unnecessarily. After I did that, I inadvertantly left these homes open a few times while renovating and nothing was ever touched. As far as I am able to determine, the bars largely came with people from Mexico. In Mexico, people need bars on their windows so when they move they take some of those same ideas with them regardless if they are actually needed. Also, those bars often have no fire releases or non-operational released and those homes are fire traps. Yes, there are hordes of sex offenders here and many of them are never listed on any websites. If you are not aware, child molest of young family members is quite common. Do they get put in jail, no they don't. No one reports it. So, do I let my daughter go over to some friends' homes? Not until I find out what extended family live in the home and meet the parents. As I say, take precaution but all things considered, I do feel quite safe here.

[EnjoyEP]

I think KimK is absolutely right.

I am told that the bars on windows thing is a largely Mexican-influenced custom, tradition, design, etc., yes, originally used predominantly for safety, but largely used often out of the Mexican custom just because "that is how you do it."

I know living up here in Albuquerque - obviously another town with a heavy Mexican influence - you can go to some of the nicest OLDER parts of the Northeast Heights (overall a rather affluent, very safe area of the city) and you'll still see the bars on the windows quite commonly - even in houses that could sell for $250K or $300K and again, in quiet, safe, nice communities.

I have seen the same in other regional towns like Phoenix, Tempe, Tucson, many parts of Southern Cali, etc.

I actually have learned to see the bars on the windows as not as ugly as other people think, or see them as necessarily indicative as a horrible crime area. They just kind of are what they are in the older parts of these Southwestern cities that have sizable Mexican influences.

[Six Foot Three]

Originally Posted by KimK

That does not mean I would go down on Alameda at 1:00 a.m. and do a little walking.

I'm 6 ft 3 and 220 lbs and would not walk down Alameda at 1.00 A.M. but overall i beleive EP ( up there with San Jose, California) is safe except with the Auto theft problem.....

[malamute]

Originally Posted by KimK

I agree with those who think El Paso is relatively safe. No where on earth should one throw precaution out the window but as I said before somewhere for a population as large as ours, its pretty good. That does not mean I would go down on Alameda at 1:00 a.m. and do a little walking. As for the bars, my personal gripe (another one), most of those should come down. I have two homes that had them and I took them down. They make your neighborhood look like a war zone unnecessarily. After I did that, I inadvertantly left these homes open a few times while renovating and nothing was ever touched. As far as I am able to determine, the bars largely came with people from Mexico. In Mexico, people need bars on their windows so when they move they take some of those same ideas with them regardless if they are actually needed. Also, those bars often have no fire releases or non-operational released and those homes are fire traps. Yes, there are hordes of sex offenders here and many of them are never listed on any websites. If you are not aware, child molest of young family members is quite common. Do they get put in jail, no they don't. No one reports it. So, do I let my daughter go over to some friends' homes? Not until I find out what extended family live in the home and meet the parents. As I say, take precaution but all things considered, I do feel quite safe here.

It's relatively safe as far as violent crime but I do think property crime is really quite high especially if you include acts of vandalism. I've never seen so much graffitti in my life anywhere and people where I work gripe about having to constantly repaint the fences, houses or other buildings.

Some crimes are very likely under-reported. But that would affect certain parts of town or the surrounding towns quite a bit more, some people may be reluctant to call the police especially if they're from areas of Mexico where they don't do that.

I used to think certain zip codes were very safe until I checked the pedophile and registered sex offender stats. I don't think it's wise to let kids play unless in the backyard or supervised.

As for iron bars -- they're actually pretty expensive to install and I think people tend to spend that kind of money when they're pretty worried about crime -- a couple I know on the West Side never felt the need for iron bars until their home was broken into -- now they have them -- and an expensive security system with alarms.

High fences, security systems -- those would all other signs, plus the presense of graffitti means gang activity. I guess looking at the security surrounding businesses use would be another indication of how safe the neighborhood is. Bars, and reinforced windows, and fence with barbed wire around businesses would mean they get hit.

I think most of us can live with high property crime rates as long as the rate of violent crime is acceptable. Better than the reverse anyhow.

[Chuco]

I've seen tons more graffiti in L.A., some parts of Phoenix, San Diego, Houston, N.Y., etc.. I actually think graffiti has gone down in EP compared to a decade ago.
The gang activity even though it is still out there is tame these days again compared to a decade ago. I remember just before I left El Paso in 1997...EP had murder rates of what? 40-60 and what do we have now? like 10-15 a year..not bad for a city of almost 600,000 inside the city limits.

I also think most of those iron bars were put in back in between the 70's-90's and I've actually seen more people taking them down these days instead of putting them up. My parents put up bars on their homes back in the 80's but thats when El Paso had higher crime rates..now today myself and my parents have no bars on either of our homes because I feel no need to put them on, plus I think they are ugly, BTW we live in Central.

I do agree there is still crime in El Paso (show me a city that doesn't have any) but it is like most people on here say property crime which is still bad..but property is replaceable, its the violent crime that destroys lives and families and luckily that isn't too bad here in El Paso.

El Paso has been in the top 3 safest large cities for almost ten years now and that doesn't mean we are completely safe from crime ..it just means that it doesn't happen here as bad as it does in other large cities.