Safe place to rent? - Clara St and Soniat, Freret Area (New Orleans: crime, neighborhoods)

[Kongfuzi]

Wife and I are now two weeks from moving to New Orleans and couldn't be more excited. We are still looking for the right place to live. We have a list of some places we are going to check out once we get there and wanted the city data advice on the saftey of this part of the city.

We currently have 4 places on the list we are going to look at when we get there on May 1.

We have found a nice place to rent near the intersection of Clara St and Soniat in the Freret part of town. Any feed back on saftey of this area would be greatly appreciated! You guys have already helped us avoid two places we would not have been happy.

Thanks in advanced you guys have been a HUGE help.

[rburnett]

Not too bad crime wise. It looks worse than it really is. The lake side of Freret between Jefferson and Napolean is pretty run down, but it's slowly gentrifying near Freret. You'll notice that if you cross Jefferson, it gets really nice and if you walk towards Napolean it starts to look sketchy. Again, though, not a lot of crime. However, If you were on Clara St on the other side of Napolean, then eh....

Your biggest problem there is going to be street flooding from heavy rainstorms. The topography slopes down towards Claiborne, which is built up at a high elevation, so you have a "bowl" on the river side where water likes to pool. Clara and Soniat is probably far enough away from Claiborne to not be a problem, but if for some reason you have to park a block or two away from your house, you'll want to keep this in mind. Bad street flooding usually happens once a year.

[aab7855]

From what I hear, you should avoid Milan Street (on the other side of Napoleon) around Freret. Otherwise I think you'll be okay if you use common sense.

[David910]

Not the best of neighborhoods, but there are far worse options to live. You shouldn't have any crime issues, but that is an area where crime is certainly not out of the question.