Is East Palo Alto A Safe place to move too? (San Jose: 2013, apartment complex)

[LarryAllen]

California,. I was born in the state nearly 60 years ago - and grew up in the E. and S. Bay Area. When I was a kid in the 60ies EPA was already a violent hole. I left the US in ´71 and have never looked back. Seems that California is generally going down the tubes - except for the 1%, of course ... and the 20% that work for them. // Larry D. in a Swedish forest far far away ...

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by LarryAllen

California,. I was born in the state nearly 60 years ago - and grew up in the E. and S. Bay Area. When I was a kid in the 60ies EPA was already a violent hole. I left the US in ´71 and have never looked back. Seems that California is generally going down the tubes - except for the 1%, of course ... and the 20% that work for them. // Larry D. in a Swedish forest far far away ...

You would not recognize most of EPA today.

There are large retail complexes, a swanky hotel and law offices in areas that were no go as recently as 1980.

Most residential areas are more Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Asian than black these days.

[LarryAllen]

Hmm... then what is all talk about in the, " is it safe..." post? ( echos of Dustin Hoffman and Laurence O. in Marathon Man!...)
venlig hilsen / Larry

[steven1203]

I've driven through East Palo Alto and it's scary.

Stay away.

All the comments about East Palo Alto being scary and dangerous are correct.

Just look up the crime statistics.

Keep your family safe and stay away.

[ccm123]

Agreed, EPA is not a safe place to live.

Originally Posted by steven1203

I've driven through East Palo Alto and it's scary.

Stay away.

All the comments about East Palo Alto being scary and dangerous are correct.

Just look up the crime statistics.

Keep your family safe and stay away.

[DocGoldstein]

EPA has actually changed quite a bit. It's not exactly safe with great schools, but it's not 1990s EPA either. There's actually a lot of new development, and commercial space now. I was looking to invest in EPA in 2010, and wish I had. Prices in the area skyrocketed from then until now.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

There's okay pockets of EPA but like mayorhaggar said Ravenswood SD is pretty terrible. However, for high school EPA kids are bussed to neighboring cities since EPA doesn't have a real high school. Depending on where in EPA/East Menlo you are, you can possibly get into Menlo-Atherton, Gunn High, Palo Alto High (Paly), etc depending on what you want out of your kid's education. If you just want a challenging education, you can get it from Sequoia in Redwood City (International Baccalaureate program) without the snobbiness that Menlo and Palo Alto are known for. I would skip Woodside.

Where in EPA would you have to be? I would say no to anything off of Gardenia Way (G Town).

A limited number of children in EPA can attend Palo Alto schools under the Volunteer Transfer Program (VTP), sometimes called the Tinsley Program. However, I think there are some real conditions attached to it - the children have to enter in the early elementary grades and it's by a lottery system, I think.

[DocGoldstein]

The EPA of the 90s was literally one of the most dangerous cities in the Bay Area. Now days, EPA has changed so much, the city of the 90s doesn't even exist anymore. Literally 1/3 of the city has been rebuilt since 1992. The truth is, Silicon Valley's tech boom gentrified a lot of the area, and I could see in another 5-10 years EPA being thought of as an acceptable alternative for tech commuters, if it's not there already.

If they could improve their school scores, EPA real estate prices would sky rocket. They pretty much have gotten the crime to an acceptable rate, so schools are the last obstacle.

[dragontales]

Live elsewhere if you could.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by steven1203

I've driven through East Palo Alto and it's scary.

Stay away.

All the comments about East Palo Alto being scary and dangerous are correct.

Just look up the crime statistics.

Keep your family safe and stay away.

"Driven through" means absolutely nothing. Statistics are just statistics. If you're going to broach on a topic, you should at least do it in a substantive and helpful way. EPA has undergone rapid change in the past 20 years, but it still has an almost total lack of infrastructure and services due to its impoverished tax base. Unemployment is over 15% and the median income is quite low considering the cost of living. The population is majority Hispanic, with a shrinking minority of blacks. There are far fewer occupants of any other race, and that doesn't seem to be changing.

EPA has one of the strictest rent control laws in the country; if an apartment is covered by the law, the owner is severely limited in their ability to raise rents to competitive market rates, even if the unit is vacated. This creates a certain level of stability for families, but they are also effectively trapped because market rents have risen, but incomes have not, so they can't move. So these families and individuals find themselves more vulnerable and less flexible. On top of that, employment is difficult for many EPA residents because of the historical stigma the city carries. Many recruiters see East Palo Alto on the resume and skip on to the next one, moreso than they would even for Oakland or Richmond which have good areas.