Oakland Park - in transition?

[tom77falcons]

Originally Posted by blueherons

Wilton Manors still isn't as expensive or as nice as Victoria Park but most people choose Poinsettia Heights or Lake Ridge over Oakland Park. Both are nicer.

Oakland Park just isn't a nice neighborhood yet but that is just my opinion.

Victoria Park is a really beautiful area, and if I knew then what was going to happen, in 2007/8 I would have bought a nice three bedroom ranch there. Now it is very high priced. Pointsettia Heights I seriously considered before Oakland Park, but I really wanted to be near action. I like to have a very active social dining out, bars kind of life. So I wanted to walk to Wilton Drive which I live 4 blocks from and am very pleased with my neightbors and Wilton Manors. I have walked to Scandals in Oakland Park and that area was fine to me, even at night. I know a number of folks that I have met that live in Oakland and really like it.

[HotandHumid]

Oakland Park east of Dixie Highway has come back up but most of the areas west of Dixie Highway are iffy.

There's a lot of strip malls and fast food restaurants that attracts a low class element between Dixie Highway and I-95 on Oakland Park Boulevard and an industrial sort of area with cement buildings off Oakland Park near the Taco Bell where people get cars repaired, etc.

The boulevard is also very ugly with no thought put into planting a nice landscape along it, Moderator cut: Off-topic trolling on greenhouse gasses

Almost of the housing in that area is very run down from Oakland Park up to Park Lane with a few well cared for homes here and there that are more the exception than the rule. There are a few apartment buildings here and there but they basically look like cement bunkers.

The 6 lanes of traffic on Oakland Park Boulevard is mind crunching and you don't want to have a home anywhere near it as the traffic noises carry over off the Boulevard.

The big store and empty parking lot where K-mart used to be has been empty for years and although it would have brought a lot of much needed jobs to the area, Walmart has put the property up for sale after being fought by so many at City meetings to not allow Walmart to put a store there.

The downtown area of Oakland Park has been redone with landscaping, brick walkways and some fountains but it's a bit of a dead zone because of the horrible configuration of the main street there.

Parts of the main street there have been turned one way but some of it isn't. In some places you can turn onto the main street from other streets and from others you can't because of the one way signs. It's a total mess and a big deterrent to people wanting to go there.

The City of Oakland Park officials failed to reply about my concerns about the crazy layout of that area that has drivers so confused trying to drive in to get to local businesses and the Post Office location there.

[Spottednikes]

Originally Posted by Rumann Koch

The eastern parts of the city of Oakland Park, east of Dixie Hwy, have some nice, well-established homes with middle class families. Only blocks from the main North/South thoroughfare US-1(Federal Hwy) are shopping centers, restaurants, clubs, and Holy Cross Hospital. I-95 is also nearby, accessed at Oakland Park Blvd and Commercial Blvd. And the ocean is just one mile to the east.

I have some friends that live just on the other (west side) of US-1 in a section called 'The Corals'. There you can find some of the nicest homes in OP. All the roads have recently been repaved after upgrades to the water and sewer systems. Many of the homes have been renovated from their original 1960's design, adding pools, enclosed garages, and custom landscaping. There are several large lakes connected by canals with access, albeit only for small water craft, to Middle River and the Intracoastal Waterway.

But I would not recommend any other areas of OP (west of Dixie Hwy) to move to, especially if you have children as the schools are not too good. Sadly Oakland Park Elementary School, the oldest elementary school in Broward County, is only rated a 2!

I went to oakland park elementary in 70, and it was awful then!