Point Breeze Muggings / Safety? (Pittsburgh, Braddock: middle-class, best neighborhoods, apartments)

[BarryRabkin]

Hey There,
I am considering buying a house in Point Breeze right off Penn Ave. I love the house, but I've heard rumors about a string of muggings and break ins in the area, and I know it's only 4-5 blocks away from homewood. The house looks good, but I haven't been able to verify these crimes online and I was hoping you could give me an idea of whether a home here would be safe or whether I'd have to worry about muggings, home and car break ins. I really appreciate your help, it will be a big factor into whether or not we choose this neighborhood, thank you - Barry

[BrianTH]

The last time I saw crime statistics for the Pittsburgh neighborhoods, Point Breeze was very low on the list, basically right in the same range as neighboring Squirrel Hill despite being a bit closer to Homewood. I don't know about any very recent trends, but if you are looking at buying a house, I would imagine you would want to take a longer view.

[john7104]

Originally Posted by BarryRabkin

Hey There,
I am considering buying a house in Point Breeze right off Penn Ave. I love the house, but I've heard rumors about a string of muggings and break ins in the area, and I know it's only 4-5 blocks away from homewood. The house looks good, but I haven't been able to verify these crimes online and I was hoping you could give me an idea of whether a home here would be safe or whether I'd have to worry about muggings, home and car break ins. I really appreciate your help, it will be a big factor into whether or not we choose this neighborhood, thank you - Barry

Barry,

If it all you're never sure about a neighborhood please try renting first. With a weak housing market and a possible recession tossed in to the mix I'd hate to see you make a purchase that you not only regret but a decision that you might be stuck living in for a long time. Sure, if you rent you may miss out on this house but there will be other homes down the road. Trust me.

[subdivisions]

Originally Posted by BarryRabkin

Hey There,
I am considering buying a house in Point Breeze right off Penn Ave. I love the house, but I've heard rumors about a string of muggings and break ins in the area, and I know it's only 4-5 blocks away from homewood. The house looks good, but I haven't been able to verify these crimes online and I was hoping you could give me an idea of whether a home here would be safe or whether I'd have to worry about muggings, home and car break ins. I really appreciate your help, it will be a big factor into whether or not we choose this neighborhood, thank you - Barry

I own a home in this area (just N of Penn), and have had no problems with crime in the 10 months since purchasing the place. I have not heard any rumors about muggings or break-ins lately either, although one of our neighbors told us when we moved in that a few years ago there was a group of teenage boys who committed a few burglaries on our street. Although we are close enough to Homewood to occasionally hear faint gunfire in the distance, the neighborhood boundary of the railroad tracks + the Martin Luther King busway seems to deter extensive crossover. In fact, we are closer to the extremely safe and upscale neighborhood of S. Point Breeze than we are to Homewood. My neighbors mostly seem nice and normal - the only person who bothers me on a regular basis is a creepy old white dude who lives down the block (i.e., not a gang member). The neighbors I have met personally seem to range from grad students living in apartments to middle-class families + a couple of university professors and artists who are renovating/have renovated a few of the larger old Victorians.

Statistically, N. Point Breeze is comparable to Beechview, the South Side Slopes. It is a little safer than both Friendship and Bloomfield and a little less safe than Highland Park. It is much safer than Lawrenceville, a neighborhood often recommended on this site as a great up-and-coming neighborhood to purchase in. See Part Two: Pittsburgh neighborhood crime statistics

In general, I think this neighborhood has a worse reputation than it actually deserves, and (I hate to say it, but) I think that part of that is that it has a 50-60% African-American population - people see black faces on the street and assume that it automatically means the neighborhood has high crime or is gang-infested. I personally feel reasonably safe here. Also, our property values have gone up since we moved in, possibly because of the fact that some of our neighbors are renovating houses near us. And I read somewhere recently that N. Point Breeze was actually one of the fastest improving areas in the city price-wise last year. Bakery Square is going in right down the street, and I'm guessing that will improve Point Breeze also. One of my neighbors, an English professor at Pitt, told us that her house has tripled in value since she bought it 10 years ago. So I have many reasons to believe that it's an area that is on its way up (and of course some bias in wanting to believe that....)

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to do. And please feel free to PM me if you want. I'd be happy to talk more about my personal experience living in N. Point Breeze.

[LovetheEastEnd]

There have been a rash of daylight robberies in our neighborhood the past two weeks (Point Breeze). We've lived here since August and this is really the first sign of trouble we've seen. Oddly enough, I had the day off on Wednesday, and my fiance came home for lunch. When she went back to work, she called me and told me to look out our window at the corner of Brashear and South Braddock. There were three police vehicles around a Chevy Trail Blazer. I decided to be nosy and walked around the block and came up Brashear to see what was going on, and I later found out by listening to my police scanner that the vehicle had been stolen, which we don't see or hear about that around here either. It looks as though they ran the vehicle with all four tires flat and the vehicle was heavily damaged.

We've definitely been on alert, and I let a bunch of my neighbors know about this at a party last night. While all the police were gathered near the stolen vehicle, a robbery had taken place, and again by listening to the police scanner, they got a good description of the actor and his getaway vehicle.

When I lived in Shadyside there was a rash of robberies on students like this, so I know it will pass. We are both just on the alert and tell anyone we can in the area to be alert too. Other than the traffic on South Braddock, we love it here.

[Windwalker]

These kinds of things happen in the best neighborhoods--not often, just periodically.

The cool thing about Pgh is that neighbors watch out for one another. It's really a pretty safe city outside certain areas.

Where's the house? That makes a difference.