Living in Emmaus/Allentown (Philadelphia, Reading: crime rates, dangerous, gangs)

[alexiskai]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

As long as he can find a place in his budget, I don't know why he would look at Allentown at all.

I was mostly thinking about the bit of Allentown south of I-78, close to Emmaus.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by alexiskai

I was mostly thinking about the bit of Allentown south of I-78, close to Emmaus.

Do you mean near South Mall or over on Emaus Avenue? Both areas would probably be affordable, but wouldn't be walkable for shops would they? Not like any of the towns anyway.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by Mossy

Is Allentown that dangerous? It has me second guessing myself if we should move back to PA? I am from PA and don't remember it being that bad.

Allentown's violent crime rate is lower than many nearby cities like Lancaster, York, and Reading. It is much lower than Philadelphia, and not even in the same league as the hyper violent cities like Harrisburg and Camden, NJ.

It is the center of violent crime in Lehigh Valley. As a kid I always thought Easton could be dangerous, but Center City Allentown has displaced them.

It isn't a good situation, but keep it in perspective.

[johnp292]

Something to keep in mind is that there are areas with an Allentown address that aren't actually in Allentown. We had an Allentown mailing address when we actually lived in Lower Macungie. Big difference.

[julian17033]

We live in Southern Allentown in zip code 18103.
Our house is in a very nice neighborhood south of Emmaus Ave.
Our neighborhood is considered South Mountain that backs up right to I-78.
The Emmaus line is approx. 4 miles south of us.
The South and West ends of Allentown are very nice and house middle and upper middle class families.
It appears that when it comes to certain cities one must dissect the nice areas from the garbage by using zip code boundaries.

[MatildaLoo]

Originally Posted by julian17033

We live in Southern Allentown in zip code 18103.
Our house is in a very nice neighborhood south of Emmaus Ave.
Our neighborhood is considered South Mountain that backs up right to I-78.
The Emmaus line is approx. 4 miles south of us.
The South and West ends of Allentown are very nice and house middle and upper middle class families.
It appears that when it comes to certain cities one must dissect the nice areas from the garbage by using zip code boundaries.

Or streets.

[julian17033]

Originally Posted by MatildaLoo

Or streets.

Or streets, you are indeed correct.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by shadeofgreen

I just started the interview process for a job in Emmaus. I'm still a long way from a job offer, but they've presented a salary range and I need to decide if it's a practical move financially based on that. I'm not really familiar with the area, so I also need to determine if it's somewhere I want to live.

I currently live in Lexington, Kentucky. I'm 31, no kids, just a dog. Right now I live less than a mile from the center of downtown, so I'm in pretty easy walking distance of restaurants, coffee, bars, farmers' market, etc. The neighborhood I live in is sort of low-income, I guess, but it's pretty safe. I really like where I live now. Before this, I lived in a subdivision and while it was quiet and safe, I hated it. That said, I think I'd be fine in a small-town environment as long as there was somewhere nearby to get a coffee or a beer.

Basically, I'm looking for
-Dog-friendly rentals
-In walkable neighborhoods (with cafes, restaurants, etc.)
-The closer to Emmaus, the better
-And I'd prefer not to be mugged.

In Lexington, you can rent a decent single-family house for less than $1200. You can find a good 1-2 br apartment for less than $600. It seems like Allentown is comparable, but not knowing the area, I don't know if those are places I'd want to live. And it seems like Emmaus doesn't have much for rentals at all. I briefly looked at Bethlehem, but I think I'd have to find the neighborhood of my dreams to make it worth the commute.

Any insights?

Let's get back to what the OP is looking for. I'm thinking that he doesn't just want a bunch of houses - he wants a neighborhood where he can walk to places. Any suggestions?

[Mossy]

So, which are the safest towns in the lehigh valley?

[toobusytoday]

Safest? I don't think any of the towns are dangerous. At least I've never heard anything about a dangerous area outside of the cities. You could do a crime comparison Police and fire coverage map for Allentown and the Lehigh Valley - themorningcall.com Most of the crime is petty vandalism or crimes where the people know each other, not gang violence or armed robbery, etc. A lot of us don't tend to lock our cars when we leave them in the driveway and a few weeks ago someone opened up all the unlocked cars and took change and a couple of ipods. They left my son's old GPS, but took all of our change.