neighborhoods to avoid burnsville/eagan

[misstee71]

Well, I'm not much of a nightlife person nor do I plan on going to a museum or theatre everyday, so I still feel Burnsville is ideal for me. I appreciate everyone's input but when I see comments about the 'element' in Burnsville and people referring me to neighboring suburbs where there are nearly no housing options under 200k (I think that's what I mentioned in the original post), I'm thinking maybe most of the people responding are living a different reality than myself(?)--meaning, I don't consider people of color 'an element' (if by some reason that's what was meant) and, I have a budget that I have to stick to, so even if everyone prefers Eagan over Burnsville (which seems to be the case), that's great for them, but it is unlikely I'll find the square footage I need in my price range there--or Rosemount, etc. etc.--I've looked at em all. Also, I don't consider an older neighborhood a bad neighborhood--I will definitely end up with an older home that needs work, that's something I enjoy doing and have done many times. With the exception of the new builder 'cookie cutter' community I lived in the house before this one (which I won't do again), all of the neighborhoods I've lived in were older/a mix of older and newer, yet very quiet and safe. That's what I'm looking for. So, I guess the better question would be what neighborhoods within Burnsville would be a good idea to avoid based on crime/being truly rundown, if anyone actually knows? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[uptown_urbanist]

I admit that I don't know much about Burnsville (have never lived there myself, only visited, and not much or recently) but I really have a hard time believing that there are entire neighborhoods that should be avoided due ot concerns of crime, etc. Yeah, there's some crime (you have already run across this: Burnsville Crime Mapper (http://gis.co.dakota.mn.us/ve/burnsville/crime.html - broken link)) but living out there you're still going to be at greater risk of getting in a car accident from all that driving you'll have to do than you will be to be mugged or robbed. I suppose you could check crime stats for whatever particular block you end up considering buying on, just to make sure there isn't a problem neighbor or something. I've read that there's been some trouble in some of the parks, but have no idea how significant of a problem that is, or whether it spills at all into adjacent residential areas.