Pensacola - zip code 32501 (violent crime, homes, live in)

[KFonseca]

Hi all,

Lived in St. Pete most of my childhood. Live in South Dakota now and want to move back to FL in my active retirement. My sister and I prefer a smaller town, but near ocean. We want to be able to walk to downtown, shopiping, restaurants, etc. We are looking at Pensacola and possibly getting a restored Victorian w/i walking distance to downtown. We would love a view of the bay, but not a deal breaker.

I am looking for thoughts on crime, realizing just about anywhere we move from Western South Dakota is going to have higher crime. I realize it has a military base, but so does Rapid City. We live 25 miles south of Rapid on 12 acres in the Black Hills.

We prefer Pensacola to Pensacola B each b/c we want a decent-sized yard for our dogs.

We like the cooler (relatively speaking) temps of Pensacola as compared to further down in FL. We also have dogs and it appears Pensacola tries to be pet friendly.

Any comments are appreciated.

Karen F.

[beachmouse]

I'm not overly familiar with crime and such, but looking up the zip code map, I'd say try to stay east of I-110. The North Hill area has some really lovely homes, but it gets sketchy pretty quick when you get to the alphabet streets.

[KFonseca]

Thank you very much,

Karen

[southernnaturelover]

Pensacola's crime doesn't crime from the military (except maybe some petty stuff), it comes from the ghettoes.

Like Beachmouse said, stay away from the letter streets, and certainly Cervantes St.

[KFonseca]

Hi,

Thank you for your response. I reread my email and realize how dumb my comment was. I did not mean in any way to imply that having a military base in Pensacola meant more crime. I should have separated my comments. My son is in the Coast Guard and I do not think that way at all.

I just know the larger a city, the more crime, generally. I live in the country now and do not lock my doors.

Karen F.

[beachmouse]

Pretty much everywhere in the panhandle is lock your doors territory. Outside a few problems areas in Pensacola and Ft. Walton Beach, violent crime against strangers is quite rare, but property crime can be common even in some pretty affluent areas.