Hopkins & St. Louis Park--Blake Corridor Crime (Minneapolis, Bloomington: real estate, apartment complex)

[Jen Lee]

Hello,

We are narrowing our house search and thinking about the future value of homes in the Twin Cities area (as we want to give our son the home we buy--maybe 20 years from now). Of course, no one knows how a city or area will evolve and long-term home values, but I keep reading in various places about this "Blake corridor" between Hopkins and SLP--and we are looking at homes in SLP. Is this area getting better or worse? I am in Seattle now and have watched one wonderful low-income to middle class neighborhood (where I used to teach) turn into a gang-ridden nightmare! It started small and didn't seem to be a problem and everyone ignored the crime and never did any communty-building, etc. and then it snowballed and is even spreading to the neighborhoods around it.

Are Hopkins and SLP working together on this area? Are they being successful? SLP is a pretty small place to have what some have said is a "ghetto" or "potential ghetto" possibly growing into the city. I have always worked with inner-city kids as a teacher and have some very strong ideas and opinions about how areas like that can be improved and I'm sure I will end up working towards that improvement if I live in SLP, but I do want to get a sense of how it's going right now before we buy.

Thanks for any help!

Typos by iPod.

[uptown_urbanist]

Are you considering buying a house in that immediate area (which seems unlikely, as it's almost entirely rental)? (Blake Road Corridor, I mean, not SLP or Hopkins in general) If not, I think it's really a moot point. That area is really small, and is hemmed in by big roads. In fact, I think the relative isolation of the neighborhood has been cited as part of the reason for its problems. St. Louis Park is overall considered a nice, safe place, and I think values are only going to go up. It's really seen a lot of development in the past decade or so, and with light rail I think it's going to become even more popular. As far as the Blake Road area itself, I don't have much familiarity with it, but don't think it's all that bad -- more like relatively bad compared to the rest of the area (although of course it's good that it's not being ignored). From what I know about Blake Road, it sounds like most of the crime has been very concentrated even within the area itself (at the park, but they've redone some of that in the recent past, which may have helped). It has been my impression that Hopkins has been very proactive working on addressing some of the problems. LRT and all the associated planning has also provided enormous opportunities, not just when it actually opens, but even just during the initial planning process. In any case, I don't really think that whatever happens in that neighborhood will have an impact on most neighborhoods in SLP or their long-term desirability.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

I'm afraid to answer your question because the Twin Cities, by and large, has more crime than Seattle, but it still pales in comparison to most Midwestern or American cities that crime is rarely truly an issue in most places. Blake has a bit of a bad reputation but I used to bike there all by my white self and I've never even had so much as a 2nd thought about being in and around that area that I can't imagine it's much to be afraid of. It's also so small and isolated that there's really no chance of some kind of gang take-over in that area (surrounded by light industry). Some areas of the metro I can see that happening much moreso. I don't hold great prospects for the Richfield side of the I-494 strip. I can see parts of NE Minneapolis with old and crumbling housing stock and cheaper real estate becoming a bit more rundown, as well as the suburb Colubia Heights nearby (from purely a "perceived ghettoness" standpoint I can see many people griping about Columbia Heights in the very near future). Sometimes I wonder if there will be suburban kingpins for drugs like there are in Chicagoland (Aurora or Elgin, for example), and even though there is nothing even close to something like that in the metro area I always felt like Shakopee or Burnsville could become something like that -- a place that has a moderately large percentage of affordable housing and declining housing demand. In some ways parts of Bloomington have seen some of that: a rise in prostitution, drug busts, gang presences, etc....but very little violent crime. But I have the worst prognosis for Brooklyn Center, which I'm afraid doesn't have much of anything good going for it and I'm afraid it'll go from bad to worse over the next 10-20 years -- I'd never invest in real estate there, personally.

I'm not sure what you saw in Seattle and how it could compare to Minneapolis, so it's tough to give advice. I have a buddy who lives in SLP about a mile from Blake so we go there if we want to/have to but don't hang out there everyday. My wife had a friend who lived in that large apartment complex at Excelsior & Blake and it was harmless (albeit a bit trashy). I probably wouldn't want to live right there personally, but I certainly wouldn't fear for my safety if I did.....just kinda trashy.

There's another "ghetto" of Hopkins that some people fear more, which is next to/in the downtown Hopkins area. Even that is pretty tame by most standards.

[Kebinminn]

I used to live in that area and it bums me out to hear how downhill it's gone.

I probably would avoid the area right off of Blake and focus on the homes off of Cedar Lake in SLP. It's a wonderful neighborhood. Louisiana gets a bit too busy for my taste so I would try to stay a few blocks off of that.

[wherespankakehouse?]

To make some purely anecdotal observations...

*I can't recall any major news stories coming out of that area since a gang shooting at the White Castle @ Blake & 7 a few years back.

*Pizza Luce put in a restaurant a while back and I can't see them doing that in an area that's going to hell in a hand basket

*The area does have an "other side of the tracks" feel to it, but I would say that's based more on the juxtaposition of the idyllic Blake School and the surrounding neighborhoods south of Excelsior, rather than the area north of Excelsior to Knollwood containing anything scary. As previously stated, just a little bit dumpy looking.

*Between the Cedar Lake Trail, future light rail, office complex at Excelsior & 169, and the reputation of the surrounding neighborhoods, I would say it's more likely you will eventually see an uptick in the rental units of this area.

[northsub]

Originally Posted by wherespankakehouse?

*Pizza Luce put in a restaurant a while back and I can't see them doing that in an area that's going to hell in a hand basket

Pizza Luce doesn't exactly put restaurants in the safest parts of town. Not areas that are all that dangerous, but it does seem that some are in areas that have some crime level (Franklin in Seward, Warehouse Dsitrict, Lake/Lyndale). Aren't those are all areas where you probably want to make sure you are aware of your surroundings at night?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Pizza Luce seems like the kind of place that would put a restaurant in a place that they might think is going to feel a bit gritty in the future. That doesn't mean that's the case here though.

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by northsub

Pizza Luce doesn't exactly put restaurants in the safest parts of town. Not areas that are all that dangerous, but it does seem that some are in areas that have some crime level (Franklin in Seward, Warehouse Dsitrict, Lake/Lyndale). Aren't those are all areas where you probably want to make sure you are aware of your surroundings at night?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Pizza Luce seems like the kind of place that would put a restaurant in a place that they might think is going to feel a bit gritty in the future. That doesn't mean that's the case here though.

I don't think so. They're more hipster havens than dangerous or sketchy, so I don't know how Blake fits into that formula because that's definitely a run down place.

[wherespankakehouse?]

Don't get me wrong, a Pizza Luce doesn't equal a safe neighborhood, and I'm sure you could find some stores that would serve as better indicators of an area on the upswing. But as it relates to the original question, are any of those locations going down the tube?

[Jen Lee]

Wow! Thanks so much for your help! I am moving to Minneosta in two months and have never been there...!?!

We are visiting this week to hunt for a house...I will personally visit the area and the pizza place to get a feel for it..

I lived in Kansas City and grew up in San Antonio and my parents were both from rather poverty-stricken families and neighborhoods, so I'm familiar with that but have no idea how to compares to Minneapolis and The SLP/Hopkins Blake area. I'll post back and tell you want I think based on a week's visit...

I really do appreciate everyone's thoughts.

It's all relative of course and dependent on a person's experiences and beliefs of course and, my family is a model example of how poverty does not equate to criminal behavior or immorality...but the housing values will be affected by areas that look run down or have higher property crimes..

Anyhow, thanks!

[Jen Lee]

Oh yes and I just reread my original post.. "A gang-ridden nightmare" was way too dramatic! Seattle has only 1-2 areas that might be called "gang-ridden nightmares" (especially compared to some areas where I taught in KC and San Antonio). But I feel like it is so out of control in the particular area here in Seattle that I originally refered to because I taught there for so long and just loved the area and families and now it is really scary how many of the kids are in gangs. But it's not like anyone is likely I get shot just walking down the street...

Just thought I'd clarify (in case you are thinking of visiting Seattle!)...Seattle is very very safe and I live in a very urban area that is often considered to have higher crime and I feel safe about 99% of the time!