Columbia, MO- am I in a dangerous neighborhood? (St. Louis, Deerfield: apartments, lease)

[mkm528]

Hello all! I had an interesting (to put it kindly) situation yesterday and wanted to get your input.

I live in Columbia, MO and go to college at Mizzou. I work part time and live with my partner who also goes to college. We both come from lower middle class families and can't afford much in the way of rent. We live in the Deerfield apartments on Sylvan Lane because its all we can afford at 385$ a month.

So yesterday I ordered a pizza from Papa Johns to be delivered after I got off work at 10 p.m. A little after ten they gave me a call. They refused to deliver my pizza because they "don't deliver to the whitegate/sylvan/quail area after dark for safety reasons." I told them I was a college student and they said "you live in the worst part of town and we won't risk the safety of our drivers." I felt like this was rude but then I got concerned- am I really in the worst part of town? I live very close to The Colony Apartments (a BIG no no) but my actual complex is nice. Mostly college/grad students and recently renovated. We walk our dog around our complex, we run regularly in the evening and I use the nearest bus stop to get to class. We have passed some sketchy people but nothing has happened in those cases. We did have some neighbors vandalize our car, but we got it fixed and moved on (they moved out the night they did it) thinking it was an isolated incident.

I feel like I'm answering my own question here, but should I be concerned? I'm a 5'2" female without much muscle. We live here because we are trying to put ourselves through college. I'm particularly concerned because in January my partner leaves for bootcamp. I'll be running on my own, coming home late from work, etc. She has been told by fellow military (big Marines nonetheless) to avoid this area or to conceal and carry. I carry mace on me at all times but we aren't allowed to have guns in our lease agreement. What should I do? I can't afford to break my lease, but for future reference are there other complexes in a similar price range? I'm not being particularly clear here.... I guess I just need some advice. Thanks in advance.

[aragx6]

Hopefully someone here can offer you better advice, because I'll admit to not being super knowledgable about that exact area, but I've lived on every "side" of Columbia over the years and I have neither a) ever heard anything about the neighborhood being dangerous or b) in the (admittedly little) time I've spent there have I felt in any way in danger.

It's clearly a little trashy, but dangerous? Doubtful.

I've had a couple female friends live on "the wrong side of town" -- one aalllll the way down Scott in this really trashy duplex in an area with a bunch of other really trashy duplexes. And another who lived in what people call the 'hood near Worley and Garth. Both of them were fine and nothing ever happened to them.

I would worry a bit about you running by yourself -- you're already paying that huge fee for the rec center -- use it! Especially now since the weather is getting colder and the days shorter anyway.

[mkm528]

I should add this: Like I said, I live extremely close to The Colony Apartments. I was reading reviews about them to get a sense of the area and its really frightening. Gun shots, mugging, prostitution, drug dealing, etc. A police officer told a resident there that "its my duty to protect you, and to be honest, if you can break your lease you need to move if at all possible." I can see The Colony from my window. We don't have the same kind of people in my complex but I wonder if I should be concerned because its so close.

[aragx6]

I've never known anyone that lived there and they're definitely not nice, but I'd take any and all online reviews with a massively sized grain of salt. Prostitution wouldn't surprise me in the least though -- Columbia has a pretty big issue with that as a whole.

Is your complex gated or locked up in some way? Is your parking secure? -- As long as those are true and you quit running in the neighborhood as I mentioned above, I really think you'll be OK.

As for other places in that range: I'm pretty sure most of the complexes are higher than what you're currently paying -- when we looked around 5 years ago Deerfield was the cheapest we saw -- but you might have better luck with some of the property management companies. In 2006-2007 we lived in a 2 BR/1 1/2 BA apartment right near Columbia Regional Hospital (very safe area) and we only paid $460 -- I'd imagine that would put a 1 BR/1BA right around your price range. We used A&B Management, but there are a ton of others.

Keep us updated!

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by mkm528

Hello all! I had an interesting (to put it kindly) situation yesterday and wanted to get your input.

I live in Columbia, MO and go to college at Mizzou. I work part time and live with my partner who also goes to college. We both come from lower middle class families and can't afford much in the way of rent. We live in the Deerfield apartments on Sylvan Lane because its all we can afford at 385$ a month.

So yesterday I ordered a pizza from Papa Johns to be delivered after I got off work at 10 p.m. A little after ten they gave me a call. They refused to deliver my pizza because they "don't deliver to the whitegate/sylvan/quail area after dark for safety reasons." I told them I was a college student and they said "you live in the worst part of town and we won't risk the safety of our drivers." I felt like this was rude but then I got concerned- am I really in the worst part of town? I live very close to The Colony Apartments (a BIG no no) but my actual complex is nice. Mostly college/grad students and recently renovated. We walk our dog around our complex, we run regularly in the evening and I use the nearest bus stop to get to class. We have passed some sketchy people but nothing has happened in those cases. We did have some neighbors vandalize our car, but we got it fixed and moved on (they moved out the night they did it) thinking it was an isolated incident.

I feel like I'm answering my own question here, but should I be concerned? I'm a 5'2" female without much muscle. We live here because we are trying to put ourselves through college. I'm particularly concerned because in January my partner leaves for bootcamp. I'll be running on my own, coming home late from work, etc. She has been told by fellow military (big Marines nonetheless) to avoid this area or to conceal and carry. I carry mace on me at all times but we aren't allowed to have guns in our lease agreement. What should I do? I can't afford to break my lease, but for future reference are there other complexes in a similar price range? I'm not being particularly clear here.... I guess I just need some advice. Thanks in advance.

Unless your apartment is on University property they cannot abridge your right to have a firearm for self defense.

Contact the person running this organization (in downtown Columbia) for confirmation and further info. about your rights to self-defense in Missouri. He helped write the state law and trains a number of the LE agencies in the Columbia area: Tim Oliver's LEARN TO CARRY - Missouri Concealed-Carry Courses, MO CCW Permit Classes, Info, News

[cyrano]

Yes, you are in a dangerous neighborhood. There's a website associated with the city of Columbia that can show you on a map the occurrence of crimes of various types around your address (which I found by googling your apartment name and the street you listed). Unfortunately, if I just give you the URL, city-data.com will quickly take it out because they consider it competition. Maybe they have a comparable tool, I don't know. Just go to the city of Columbia's website, look for "crime statistics" under "public safety and courts," and you should find it. I routinely send people to this site when they're looking for a place to move in town.

[mkm528]

Originally Posted by cyrano

Yes, you are in a dangerous neighborhood. There's a website associated with the city of Columbia that can show you on a map the occurrence of crimes of various types around your address (which I found by googling your apartment name and the street you listed). Unfortunately, if I just give you the URL, city-data.com will quickly take it out because they consider it competition. Maybe they have a comparable tool, I don't know. Just go to the city of Columbia's website, look for "crime statistics" under "public safety and courts," and you should find it. I routinely send people to this site when they're looking for a place to move in town.

thank you for the information. familywatchdog.org also pulled up over 300 offenders in the area. Now I just have to figure out how to get out of here

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

Unless your apartment is on University property they cannot abridge your right to have a firearm for self defense.

Contact the person running this organization (in downtown Columbia) for confirmation and further info. about your rights to self-defense in Missouri. He helped write the state law and trains a number of the LE agencies in the Columbia area: Tim Oliver's LEARN TO CARRY - Missouri Concealed-Carry Courses, MO CCW Permit Classes, Info, News

He also trained me for my CCW. The training, especially the legal components, was excellent and I'm a former LE officer from another state so learning MO's laws was necessary.

MO has a "castle doctrine" law and protection of yourself and your home is an absolute right.

[MOKAN]

Columbia has bad neighborhoods? Does Columbia have an outright ghetto? If so, why? Most smaller towns don't.

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by MOKAN

Columbia has bad neighborhoods? Does Columbia have an outright ghetto? If so, why? Most smaller towns don't.

North Columbia has some serious gang problems courtesy both KC and St. Louis via I-70.