What's so bad about NW Roanoke? (Orange, Courtland: apartments, houses, neighborhoods)

[Life'sABeach]

Just curious.

I purchased a home on Courtland Road in NW Roanoke in October, and haven't seen any shady characters lurking about. But I've heard from a few sources that it's the "bad part of town". Courtland is off of 10th Street, about 3 blocks from Williamson Road, on the opposite side of 10th Street from Orange Avenue.

I moved here with my husband and new baby from out of state, so we're unfamiliar with all of Roanoke.

[headnsouth]

My son has a friend who lives a few blocks from you. Nothing wrong with it at all, it's a nice enough neighborhood, although I have never once seen a single person outside, ever, in that neighborhood.

It could be that the neighborhood is early in its transition from aging original owners to young families like yours, and it will become more lively as more young people move in. It's eerily quiet though!

The public high school that serves that neighborhood is William Fleming, which does have a successful IB program and some really talented kids in the performing arts but otherwise is not a great school.

[Rtom45]

My wife and I are moving to Roanoke at the end of this summer. We have done quite a bit of research and made a visit to Roanoke. We plan to find a home in the general area of the Valley View mall. Like you, we have heard things about NW Roanoke, but we could not find any reason not to locate there, so that will be part of our home search area.

[Life'sABeach]

Lol, that's one of the things I like about the neighborhood, the peace and quiet!

We've actually met more neighbors living here for 5 months than we did living for 8 years at our old house. One of our dogs has gotten loose a few times (it took us a while to figure out she was CLIMBING the chain link fence, so we added more privacy fence to keep her in), and a lady across the street was nice enough to put her back in our yard and called to let us know. Before that, we'd never even met her. So I'm hoping NW Roanoke just has a bad rap from things that happened years ago (fingers crossed).

Rtom, we're about five minutes from Valley View, and absolutely love the location because it's centrally located to everything we could want and need (restaurants, the mall, Walmart, Lowes, movie theater, etc.). Good luck on your search!

[roanoker 4]

Location Location location is the advantage of the NW, NE part of town.
It is close to Valley View Mall, restaurants and downtown. The neighborhoods
are older BUT they have sidewalks, something that is rare in the County subdivision areas. The homes are older BUT they have character, tree lined streets and established neighbors. The conveniences of living in the City outweigh the negative aspects in my opinion. I believe people are moving back to these older neighborhoods where home prices are lower, especially for young families, couples. I am especially encouraged by the re:development of older
warehouses in the Wasena area of SW simply because of location and the amibiance it affords. I would hate to live in a "cookie cutter" subdivision where
everyone looks the same, drives the same car and sends their kids to the same school where everyone is also the same.

[radfordphysics]

The area around Courtland isn't too bad but it gets tossed into the "Bad Neighborhood" category. A lot of people generalized the whole side of Williamson road a "Shady" area. Mostly because that neighborhood is surrounded by not so good neighborhood. If you head South down Williamson you hit Liberty which heads into Lincoln Terrace which isn't good. If you head West down 10th street you go through a lot of questionable areas on your way to Melrose. On the north side of your neighborhood there is that whole area around Parke Town apartments heading back behind Taco Bell and the otherway as you head towards Huff Lane can be sketchy but not as bad as the other 2 neighborhoods. But where you're at and a few more blocks down 10th street and the neighborhoods surrounding it aren't bad. Even as you head back towards the area behind Carmike and surrounding area.

[540_luv]

Dont worry about it your fine and safe NW roanoke has had a rep for years an really just still has a bad rep basically cuz of its past. Nw roanoke has a lot of beautiful neighborhoods in valley biew area that id recommend TO ANYONE! Yes nw Roanoke does have its sketchy ones as a whole (Melrose,Lansdowne,Villa Heights,Lincoln Terrace) but rlly none of those neighborhoods are as bad as they once was ESPECIALLY Lincoln Terrace and Lansdowne I know personally with Lincoln Terrace I lived there my whole childhood in 90s when it was ain open air crack market an we were responsible for over half of the homicides within the city in 1995.Now I live in SE roanoke off 9th street better life job an loving girl .