Is Alexandria a good area or not? I keep hearing different opinions

[slim04]

Originally Posted by pcity

Honestly Parker Gray has become pretty nice with all the new development there. Even Arlandria has improved.

I said it wasn't bad. I lived in Parker Gray for almost 15 years and moved away a few years ago. I still have friends there and I visit all the time. It's crime was lower than yuppy neighborhoods like Dupont Circle or Capitol Hill in DC. But it wasn't like McLean or Vienna, or even Clarendon or Ballston.

To give context, I NEVER had any problems that required me to call the police. In 15 years, not a single crime issue ever impacted me personally, or to my knowledge, any of my immediate neighbors that I knew well. I mean nothing. I parked on the street, never had my car broken into. I left for Christmas for a week every year like a lot of my neighbors, never had my place broken into.

But there were issues. If someone pulls the crime statistics, you'll see they are higher for certain types of crime than most of the City or probably NoVa. You'll see a lot of late night patrols. You'll see cops surrounding someone laying on the floor with handcuff on a couple times a year. You'll see the occasional old guy riding a bike in the middle of the street at 3am that is high or drunk. When the 7/11 near the metro was open, after midnight there would be a line of people trying to buy single use tallboys, cigarettes, and lottery tickets. There are still hundreds of public housing units in the area, and it can be a transient area because parts of Parker Gray is industrial and has a lot of low wage employees that work there. There is a homeless shelter for men there as well near the McDonalds off Route 7.

There were a couple of serious issues. A murder occurred 2 blocks from my home (the only one in 15 years that was anywhere close to my block), but it wasn't a resident and didn't appear to be a mugging. A PG County thug once targeted metro riders late at night for muggings, but flyers were posted everywhere about it and the police and security was ramped up tremendously until they got him.

So yeah, they are tearing down some public housing and building upscale luxury housing, but there are still crime issues that you just aren't going to find in say northern Arlington.

I note that I was totally fine with it, but I wanted to give the OP some context of what these negative opinions of Alexandria are probably based upon. Most are way overblown, but the area does and did have crime issues that were greater than other areas of NoVa. Where the OP living, I would assume crime is probably very low.

[NOVA_guy]

I know the Fairfax County portion of Alexandria is pretty safe. Alexandria City, like most places, has its section of neighborhoods/areas you'd want to avoid but still not awful.