Is Midtown safe for a 22 yr girl to live? (Memphis: rent, condos)

[rwadpi]

ok I know Im looking in a completely different area, higher than rhodes college, but how is 4500 Stone Gate Drive..Stonegate Apartments?

[Pearlbob]

Intersection of RaleighLagrange/Coleman and south of Stage.

I wouldn't live there. It's so far north (to me) and that's area is a little too close for comfort to north Memphis. From what I can tell, there is a big hispanic population around there (nutbush area, and north on RLG). Just driving along that road, it seems like a lower working class area of town.

hopefully someone else will have better specifics, but I'm just going by what I have seen driving through often.

however, I would generalize this: if you are set on living in a huge apt complex (as opposed to a house in a neighborhood) you should stick to the far NE suburbs. Any big complex in the city, especially towards that area, is going to have a lot of very poor families with lots of kids in them. IE families who can't afford to buy a home, so they pack 5 kids and 2 parents into a 3 bedroom apt. And that has been my experience living in complexes here, and having friends in complexes.

[rwadpi]

what do u mean as far as being too close to north memphis? Is it because you would rather stay in midtown or is it another area that just isnt "safe" to live in? And yeah..I was hoping it was close enough to the NE suburbs to be ok.

[Pearlbob]

North Memphis is one of the worst area's of the country probably. When you hear Memphis rap music, they tend to talk about north memphis, for example. "North Memphis" is an area of town; you say it and people know what you are talking about. It has nothing to do with me liking midtown. NO ONE will say "i'm thinking of buying a home in north memphis."

Now, far far north OF memphis is fine and has new constrruction, large homes. And NE is okay.

Another poster, strumpeace, just posted a comment on another post about this....I hope he reads this and can comment.

[Pearlbob]

Here is what strumpeace wrote, I hope he/she doesn't mind me copying it here:

"Typically, anything east of Old Brownsville Road is ok. Ideally, you would want to be east of Bartlett Blvd and north of Stage Road."

[rwadpi]

ok thanks..the street names like that where I can find an ending point are helpful

[Pearlbob]

If you want to be within the city limits, you can generalize that the further away from Poplar you get, the worse it is. Poplar runs all through town, west to east. It's a big generalization, and isn't always true, but typically, the further miles north, and miles south, from Poplar, the worse the area will get. (within the city limits)

[strumpeace]

I don't mind being quoted, Pearlbob -- and I'm a he


rwadpi --

I just moved away from the area you mentioned. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It's not so much the proximity to north Memphis as it is the fact that Raleigh has become way too similar to Hickory Hill in too many ways.

[Pearlbob]

I think there are good areas of every part of Memphis (well, most parts) But for a new comer who knows nothing of the city, I think it's best to limit yourself to searching in one area that you set ahead of time, find the best you can there, and then once you are here for a year you'll be able to better determine exactly where you want to live. If you are looking at rentals all over the city and burbs, you'll get way too confused and it's just too much to try and understand.

You said previously that you liked midtown and had agreed on that area with your bf, so you might want to just search for the best possible rental there. There are hundreds. If you throw the burbs, east Memphis, etc into the mix, you'll be wading through thousands of potential places.

It's just a thought....moving to a new city is hard when you know nothing of the area, especially Memphis. I've lived in places all over, SE, NE, downtown, midtown....and it takes a while to really learn where is good and where is bad, and even then it changes over time.

I know you said you live far away, but you just have to see for yourself. Unfortunately, with so much poverty in the city, you can find a great house online, looks pretty, renovated, great owner/agency, and then you get there and the home next door is boarded up and has bums living in it. Seriously. Or a great looking apt complex, and you get there and the people above you have 6 kids, and the guy next to you appears to deal drugs out of the apt.

Not to make Memphis sound so bad, but the fact is there just is a lot of sketchy people here....and thus you have to be extra careful about where you move. I have heard WAY too many times from people who move here that they found an apt and moved here, site unseen, and realized within a couple weeks they made a terrible decision.

[defiepilex]

Originally Posted by Pearlbob

North Memphis is one of the worst area's of the country probably. When you hear Memphis rap music, they tend to talk about north memphis, for example. "North Memphis" is an area of town; you say it and people know what you are talking about. It has nothing to do with me liking midtown. NO ONE will say "i'm thinking of buying a home in north memphis."

Now, far far north OF memphis is fine and has new constrruction, large homes. And NE is okay.

Another poster, strumpeace, just posted a comment on another post about this....I hope he reads this and can comment.

The Frayser/Raliegh area isn't generally classified as North Memphis and is usually called by those names. 'North Memphis' that is mentioned in most of the rap songs is referring to areas like Hollywood, Hyde Park, Watkins & Brown, and other areas that are north of downtown/midtown but south of Raliegh and Frayser. 'North Memphis' is generally within the 38107, 38108, and 38122 zip codes.