St. John Police/Keeping the town safe (Indianapolis, Merrillville: apartment complexes, rentals)

[PalmBeachG]

I am thinking of moving to St. John from a suburb in Illinois. I have spent many days in St. John trying out the area by shopping, eating at nearby restaurants, visiting homes - just doing what we do at home to see how we like it. So far we really like it, found a home we love, but we are not 100% sold on the area - but we really want to be so we can feel like we are making the right decision. St. John has received awards for being one of the safest towns in Indiana but I am wondering how that can be with the close surrounding high crime areas and towns of Illinois being so close to the West right over the state line. What is the contributing factors in keeping the crime so low - a great police department? The crime does not overflow over the state line?

[flamadiddle]

Not sure about the crime, but one other thing to check out is traffic during commute times. I have a friend in Crown Point that was telling me traffic out there is out of control. They are building homes left and right, but not adding any lanes to the roads. He said just commuting to/from Munster takes forever.

[PalmBeachG]

Originally Posted by flamadiddle

Not sure about the crime, but one other thing to check out is traffic during commute times. I have a friend in Crown Point that was telling me traffic out there is out of control. They are building homes left and right, but not adding any lanes to the roads. He said just commuting to/from Munster takes forever.

Yes, I noticed the traffic - with the main road it seems the whole town is on it and I can see how that is going to get bad in the future.

[svillechris]

A few thoughts:
-St John has very few rentals and very few (none that I can think of offhand) apartment complexes. That always is helpful to keep crime down.
-Which close surrounding high crime areas are you referring to? Dyer, Schererville, Crown Point and Cedar Lake all have low crime, especially violent crime. On the Illinois side, the Willowbrook area and Crete aren't bad for crime. Sauk Village isn't terribly far away, but there's a whole forest preserve and another town in between. Chicago Heights and especially Ford Heights might as well be in different universes... definitely no spill over from them.
-When you look at "crime" overall, you have to keep it in context. St John also has much less retail shopping available, which inherently leads to fewer thefts, which helps keep down the overall crime numbers. Crown Point, Schererville, Merrillville obviously have far more thefts, in large part due to each being a bigger retail shopping hub.

[CyberGuyPR]

Great points by svillechris. I moved from the south Illinois burbs to St John 5 years ago. Best decision ever. What exactly do you mean by "not 100% sold on the area"? Other than why crime is low here (is that really a concern?), what other concerns do you have?

[PalmBeachG]

Originally Posted by svillechris

A few thoughts:
-St John has very few rentals and very few (none that I can think of offhand) apartment complexes. That always is helpful to keep crime down.
-Which close surrounding high crime areas are you referring to? Dyer, Schererville, Crown Point and Cedar Lake all have low crime, especially violent crime. On the Illinois side, the Willowbrook area and Crete aren't bad for crime. Sauk Village isn't terribly far away, but there's a whole forest preserve and another town in between. Chicago Heights and especially Ford Heights might as well be in different universes... definitely no spill over from them.
-When you look at "crime" overall, you have to keep it in context. St John also has much less retail shopping available, which inherently leads to fewer thefts, which helps keep down the overall crime numbers. Crown Point, Schererville, Merrillville obviously have far more thefts, in large part due to each being a bigger retail shopping hub.

I was thinking of towns so close by like Chicago Heights and Ford Heights. I see on the news everyday about shootings and crimes there - just recently a little girl shot for no reason at all. I have been visiting St. John to see if I like it (and I do) but I have been driving down I294 going East, and then 394 going South, then 30 East to 41 South, and not too familiar with the drive. I keep telling myself not to turn the wrong way or when going home not to miss the turn or I might be shot or car jacked or killed. I looked it up online on wikipedia and the crime looks horrible there and I thought it must spill over as it doesn't look very far to me - robberies? drugs? I figured if the shootings are over drugs that close then it must all spill over state lines. But then it says St John is safest city in Indiana so I thought the police is either very good at keeping it safe or the crime just stops at the state line. Also I was thinking if I move there and I have visitors I will have to tell them when you go home don't go that way or don't miss the turn or you might be shot - I am wondering if I want to live somewhere where I have to tell my guests that. So other's have no problems from those crime ridden communities so close?

[PalmBeachG]

Originally Posted by CyberGuyPR

Great points by svillechris. I moved from the south Illinois burbs to St John 5 years ago. Best decision ever. What exactly do you mean by "not 100% sold on the area"? Other than why crime is low here (is that really a concern?), what other concerns do you have?

I just explained my concerns to svillechris why I am not 100% sold on the area yet. I want to be. I visited again and still really like it.

[svillechris]

Originally Posted by PalmBeachG

I was thinking of towns so close by like Chicago Heights and Ford Heights. I see on the news everyday about shootings and crimes there - just recently a little girl shot for no reason at all. I have been visiting St. John to see if I like it (and I do) but I have been driving down I294 going East, and then 394 going South, then 30 East to 41 South, and not too familiar with the drive. I keep telling myself not to turn the wrong way or when going home not to miss the turn or I might be shot or car jacked or killed. I looked it up online on wikipedia and the crime looks horrible there and I thought it must spill over as it doesn't look very far to me - robberies? drugs? I figured if the shootings are over drugs that close then it must all spill over state lines. But then it says St John is safest city in Indiana so I thought the police is either very good at keeping it safe or the crime just stops at the state line. Also I was thinking if I move there and I have visitors I will have to tell them when you go home don't go that way or don't miss the turn or you might be shot - I am wondering if I want to live somewhere where I have to tell my guests that. So other's have no problems from those crime ridden communities so close?

The short answer is that there is no reason to be concerned about safety in St. John. I think anyone familiar with the area on this board would agree with that. I'm not saying that your concerns aren't valid, but the spillover of crime just hasn't been seen in any measurable way. Ford Heights is about 10 miles from St. John, and Chicago Heights even more. That's farther than LaGrange and Elmhurst are from Maywood, although few would ask about the crime spillover there. I know Ford Heights is probably worse than Maywood, but the point I think is valid. You're correct though, if you take (from NWI to IL suburbs or Chicago) Route 30 to 394 north, you don't run into any dangerous areas. Yes, if you miss 394's turnoff and keep heading west, yes you'd run into Ford Heights. I'm not here to defend Ford Heights by any means, but I've driven through there many times going toward New Lenox and never had a problem. If someone is super unfamiliar with the area and you're worried about them taking a wrong turn... if they're coming from Illinois to St. John, just tell them to take 80/94 to Indianapolis Blvd and head south until you hit town.

[iidreamtheaterii]

Originally Posted by PalmBeachG

I just explained my concerns to svillechris why I am not 100% sold on the area yet. I want to be. I visited again and still really like it.

I recently moved from Cedar Lake to Valparaiso partly because the area just didn't offer enough. One of the main reasons I don't understand why people are flocking to the new builds in St. John to pay the prices is what does it really have to offer? The small strip of Strack and Van Til (grocery) and Target is nothing to be excited about as they are found virtually anywhere. The abandoned K-Mart is such a sight for sore eyes and there's no plans to do anything with it. You really have to get out of town over to Crown Point or up to Schererville/Dyer to have the businesses for a night out.

Even with the "new development" in the works, i don't foresee a slew of new amazing restaurants or things to do. Yes, Chop House and St. John Malt Bros. are pretty awesome, but that's not enough variety for the "wealthiest town in Indiana" - (24/7 Wall St.) in my opinion.

I concur with the traffic flow for Wicker Ave (Rt. 41) as well. In order to visit that Schererville/Dyer area, you're sitting at too many stoplights for far to long to enjoy the area anymore. Yes, Whole Foods is awesome to have up there but man is it annoying to get to.

Ironically moving from Cedar Lake to Valparaiso literally made 0 impact on my commute time to Chicago... which is really weird. It feels that much farther away, yet no added minutes. I suppose winter will test that theory though.

[CGab]

I moved from the North side of Plainfield IL to St. John almost 4 years ago. If you currently live in Westmont, I can tell you that there is definitely more crime there than here in St. John. With that said, we are not exactly around the corner from Chicago Heights or Ford Heights. If any town would need to worry I would say it would be Dyer, but even Dyer has low crime. Those high crime towns in Illinois just to seem to stay to themselves. Maybe they're afraid of the police here? LOL!

As far as the abandoned Kmart, I believe something is in the works for that space. Across from it a shopping center and a few restaurants are going in. Tons of shopping and restaurants down 41. I don't feel deprived of anything by living here except our parks district is lacking, but again nearby Dyer and Munster make up for it. Yes, 41 can be quite busy at times, but it's been under construction most of the summer. Almost done now. I don't think it's any busier than where you're coming from!

I will mention to be careful what school district you move into though. The Northern part of St. John is Lake Central schools which I have two children currently in. Lots of opportunities with class selections, sports, etc. Don't let the big high school scary you! Hanover school district serves the Southern part of St. John and the schools are over crowded and the tax payers voted against a referendum to build two new schools, so there will probably be students learning in trailers by next fall if it doesn't pass again. I have friends who have kids there so this is true! Even if you don't have kids it will affect your property value. Just do you homework on that one!

Overall, I'm very happy we moved here and wish we had done it much sooner!