Is North Lauderdale safe? (Orlando, Fort Lauderdale: apartment complexes, rental, high crime) - Florida (FL) -Broward County - City-Data Forum

Julieomatic · 10-15-2010, 10:48 AM

I am thinking of moving to North Lauderdale from Portland, Maine. Rent prices do not matter. I do not have any children yet but I am married and am thinking about getting pregnant once we get settled. How are the home prices in North Lauderdale? Is it ghetto? We would be living rent free becasue of my husbands occupation. Any areas to avoid, especially certain apartment communities? Any honest advice would be great! If North Lauderdale is unsafe, are there any other areas that would be nice to live nearby?

Thank you

season10 · 10-15-2010, 10:58 AM

I used to live in that area. It is a very, very large area. I would suggest that you visit and drive around. If you are able to, Palm Beach county is better but even then, you would need to visit and look around a lot. Boca Raton is very nice, Deerfield ok, Pompano has gone down hill, not sure about Margate. We left S Florida and now live in F Florida partly due to hurriacanes, traffic (it's horrendous), people (too many New Yorkers and New Jesrsey folks who brought bad habits.) Good luck with it. You may want to brush up on your Spanish.

Rock Newman · 10-15-2010, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by season10

I used to live in that area. It is a very, very large area. I would suggest that you visit and drive around. If you are able to, Palm Beach county is better but even then, you would need to visit and look around a lot. Boca Raton is very nice, Deerfield ok, Pompano has gone down hill, not sure about Margate. We left S Florida and now live in F Florida partly due to hurriacanes, traffic (it's horrendous), people (too many New Yorkers and New Jesrsey folks who brought bad habits.) Good luck with it. You may want to brush up on your Spanish.

Where is F Florida ??????

fauve · 10-15-2010, 01:58 PM

short for (white) Flight Florida

Julieomatic · 10-15-2010, 03:12 PM

I am actually orginally from ny, so NYers don't bother me. I don't understand the white flight florida comment posted either. My husband is black and I'm white. Is there a lot of racism down there?

fauve · 10-15-2010, 03:30 PM

My comment was a joke in response to Rock's response to seasons10. You guys will be fine...racists have all moved on...

Nolefan34 · 10-15-2010, 04:09 PM

Julieomatic>

Ignore that poster. There are a lot of angry conservative white people who moved away from South FL years ago to Central FL, N. Florida, NC, and Tennessee due to the explosion in population and the influx of Hispanics to S. FL. In reality, there is crime and bad traffic here, but neither are too bad. The traffic in Broward County is not that bad at all for a metro area. You cannot compare it to NYC traffic, Atlanta traffic, or even Orlando traffic. The roads are very spread out and well planned here so traffic moves well. There are daily issues on I-95 and 595, but usually around rush hour and not too bad most of the time. The drivers are very aggressive here, actually worse than Northeast drivers in many cases. But the overall volume of traffic doesn't compare. Now, if we are comparing south FL traffic to North FL, well then yes I suppose S. FL traffic is terrible.

The only way I would ever live in North Lauderdale is if I got free rent. So it makes sense for you. Otherwise, I think it is a lousy area. The crime isn't terrible, but there are some bad areas. Just make sure you research the area you'll be living and visit the area before committing. Like I said, if I got free rent I'd live just about anywhere in South FL. But North Lauderdale would be one of my last choices otherwise.

Julieomatic · 10-15-2010, 06:11 PM

Thank you Nolefan34! I appreciate your detailed, easy-to-understand-from-an-outsiders-point of-view

Is it just an old, run down area? The community is on Avon Lane.... I see Kimberly Blvd is not so hot.... Is it not so hot due to murders and rapes or due to less serious property crimes? I'm not seeing it's a great area from peoples posts but nobody is saying it's ghetto... or I guess a better use of words for ghetto would be under privileged or dangerous. If it is one of the most dangerous areas we would probably not take the risk. I've also been checking out the colleges in that area too... It would be free rent with great pay. Thanks again ya'll

compelled to reply · 10-16-2010, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Julieomatic

Thank you Nolefan34! I appreciate your detailed, easy-to-understand-from-an-outsiders-point of-view

Is it just an old, run down area? The community is on Avon Lane.... I see Kimberly Blvd is not so hot.... Is it not so hot due to murders and rapes or due to less serious property crimes? I'm not seeing it's a great area from peoples posts but nobody is saying it's ghetto... or I guess a better use of words for ghetto would be under privileged or dangerous. If it is one of the most dangerous areas we would probably not take the risk. I've also been checking out the colleges in that area too... It would be free rent with great pay. Thanks again ya'll

I would say the biggest problem with Kimberly is drug activity and some related violence, and of course that element can lead to some extra property crime. As far as the rest of North Lauderdale, it's basically exactly what you describe. It's not even really run down, it's just kind of bland. Generally, any area with single family homes in North Lauderdale is fine in terms of crime, the suburban-style apartment complexes are hit and miss (mostly with burglary), and the older style apartment buildings have more criminal (drug) activity. As far as what the above poster said about black neighborhoods, here is a quick sociology lesson; North Lauderdale is basically a typical "black area" in Broward County and while it isn't Atlanta, it isn't like Palm Beach County either and the high crime zones are mainly restricted to the aforementioned rental areas. Most of these neighborhoods tend to be more working class but very quiet and clean compared to black neighborhoods in a lot of cities, and many blacks in Broward come from the Caribbean, so culturally it is a bit different from most places. You can find exact clones of this type of neighborhood in Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, parts of Plantation, Miramar, parts of Hollywood, etc. It's also not true that there aren't any more desirable "black areas"; I know of a few around Pembroke Pines and Miramar but that's not relevant for this thread. The more "ghetto" places to avoid are in Fort Lauderdale, Pompano, Deerfield, Hallandale, or parts of Lauderhill and Lauderdale Lakes.

Nolefan34 · 10-18-2010, 08:40 AM

Compelled said it perfectly. North Lauderhill isn't that bad compared to inner city neighborhoods. Its just a very large endless swath of lower-middle income housing neighborhoods. Lots of smaller ranch style housing and apartment complexes. Higher than average drug activity and burglaries. Lots of small strip plazas with low end retail along the main corridors. The areas bordering North Lauderdale are more of the same. Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, east Plantation, and western Fort Lauderdale are clones. The western section of Fort Lauderdale is very rough especially along Sistrunk Blvd. Avoid that area at all costs.

I wouldn't recommend this area to anyone on this board, except that you are getting free rent. For that reason then I guess go ahead and live there. You should be ok there. I just don't like the fact that there's really nothing in or around North Lauderdale that's really attractive in terms of housing, entertainment, shopping, or restaurants. You have to drive 5 miles in any direction to get to better areas.