Recent College Grad maybe relocating to WPB- where to live? (Jacksonville: apartment complex, rentals)

[sunshinekid]

Hi! I'm seriously looking at a job in West Palm Beach (well, between West Palm and Riviera Beach). I'm originally from Atlanta- Midtown area- and I was wondering which places are fun/safe to live for a single girl. I really don't want to spend more than $800/month on rent, but I could spend a little more if it's that wonderful. I've heard a couple things about the crime and I'm a little scared; but Atlanta's pretty crime-ridden, and you just learn what areas to avoid. Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks!

[TiredOfSFL]

I am looking to get out of here and I'm feeling uneasy because my daughter, who just turned 24, will be staying here. My son (25) will also be staying here for the time being (although he's grown to dislike it here too)which makes me feel somewhat better as they will probably continue to live together.

WPB is a "mixed bag" IMO. It used to be much better when we moved here in '97 though. Also, if the job you're contemplating is in Riviera Beach, beware, that is not a very nice area nor pretty either... I believe they're trying to improve it but don't know much about that.

What I'm wondering is if you have any other reason besides a job to relocate, i.e. relatives or friends. I ask because if you don't know a single soul here and maybe have the misfortune of not making friends fast you could feel pretty lonely. It can be hard to connect with other people here unless you're really outgoing and not too picky. Otherwise you'd need to be involved in a large church that has a nice singles group or something like that in order to make good friends.

Now, to really answer your question, the best area for a single girl like you to find fun things to do would be City Place, I understand it's fairly safe too. Apartments run a little high there but since I suppose you only need a 1BR it's possible that you could find a nice one either there or around Clematis, another "hubbub" of night life in downtown WPB.

[pattianne]

Hi

I know what you mean about where you will feel comfortable. I have an entire master suite you can have that would be in a nice country quiet setting. Probably about 35 minutes to communte. Tell me where you will be driving to.
Plus share rest of house if you are interested.

Please let me know if this would be something you would do for a couple of months or so.
Thank you,

Patti

[sunshinekid]

Ok, so I have decided there is no way I can affoard city place boo. Anyways, I am now looking at the villages of Palm Beach Lakes. Which are the nicest neighborhoods there? I thought Fairway Vistas was pretty, I've seen pictures of the Milano that were nice (there are lots of rentals on craigslist), and Village Place got good ratings on apartmentratings.com. Any other good complexes?

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by sunshinekid

Ok, so I have decided there is no way I can affoard city place boo. Anyways, I am now looking at the villages of Palm Beach Lakes. Which are the nicest neighborhoods there? I thought Fairway Vistas was pretty, I've seen pictures of the Milano that were nice (there are lots of rentals on craigslist), and Village Place got good ratings on apartmentratings.com. Any other good complexes?

Have you thought about renting in somebody's guest house? Just south of City Place there are a few neighborhoods that often have guesthouses attached. Check out Craigslist, PBC, and type in "Flamingo Park," "Grandview Heights," "El Cid," and "Southland Park" with your address.... if you live in those neighborhoods, you can basically walk to Cityplace, and even the beach if you get ambitious. These are safe neighborhoods, and if you have a bohemian streak, it's great.


Otherwise, the Villages ARE where a lot of young people live.... I just don't know much about "the best" in that area unfortunately!


Examples:

El Cid (very close to the intracoastal): http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/apa/808223250.html (broken link)

http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/apa/843832961.html (broken link)

Flamingo Park: http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/apa/841568895.html (broken link)

http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/apa/861705072.html (broken link)

Grandview Heights: http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/apa/857228727.html (broken link)

http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/apa/850815456.html (broken link)

Southland Park:

http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/apa/813942424.html (broken link)


Many of the guesthouse rents are "electricity and water included" as well, so that's always good for $$ saving.

[JSnFla]

i'd suggest the palm beach gardens area and would stay north of west palm....or maybe look further south around delray/boca

[sunshinekid]

Delray and Boca are too far- I have to alot of traveling in the area for my job and I'd prefer to not add a long commute to it. Palm Beach Gardens seems like a suburb to me. I'm from Atlanta, and I'd prefer to be near things.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Originally Posted by sunshinekid

Delray and Boca are too far- I have to alot of traveling in the area for my job and I'd prefer to not add a long commute to it. Palm Beach Gardens seems like a suburb to me. I'm from Atlanta, and I'd prefer to be near things.

Hmmm . . . that complicates things, as the majority of Florida is "a suburb in search of an urb". To get city living like Atlanta has (and New York, Boston, Chicago, etc.), you pretty much have to be in Miami . . . and well, maybe Tampa or Jacksonville, but I really don't know them well enough to say whether they would have an atmosphere/layout/etc. like that. My impression of both Tampa and Jacksonville--although realize that I haven't spent tons of time in either--is that they're both a bit, um, "sleepy", so I doubt living in them would seem like city living to you.

Even Miami hardly has a downtown, but the areas immediately surrounding downtown give you a lot of variety, some interesting ethnic neighborhoods, etc. and are--for Florida--relatively compact without seeming too much like suburbia.

When it comes to West Palm Beach, CityPlace really would have been perfect for you, but I realize you can't afford it. A good possibility mentioned by someone else was to look for a guest house/efficiency in one of the neighborhoods close to downtown. Try to stay between Southern and Okeechobee, and east of Parker. There are a BUNCH of houses in that area where they rent guest houses/efficiencies as separate apartments--I lived in one on Crane's Nest for a couple years (right behind the Norton Museum of Art, which was great for me). The closer to Okeechobee the more you'll probably like it--all of West Palm's taller buildings are north of Okeechobee, and the closer to the Intracoastal probably the more you'll like it.

However, the neighborhood north of Okeechobee, between the lakes and a couple blocks from the Intracoastal going west to east, and north through Riviera Beach, with a few exceptions here and there, used to be VERY ghetto, and old downtown was basically dead (with the newer downtown buildings only being active during weekday business hours)--it was definitely the roughest part of Palm Beach County, and seemed far rougher to me than Harlem has ever seemed--it was more like Newark, NJ was before the recent attempt to revitalize that city. I went to school in that area of West Palm, I had (and have) a lot of friends in that area, and I lived in that area for a couple years. We could walk across the street from my high school and buy any drug you could possibly want. (Not that I actually did that . . . <cough, cough>)

However, beginning in the late 80s and early 90s, the city started working on a transformation of that area and a revitalization of old downtown. CityPlace is part of that. Entire blocks of houses were razed. (And lots of people on the low-end of the socio-economic scale were forcibly displaced to Lord knows where, lol.) A major performing arts center opened. My old high school was converted into an arts school. This was supposed to happen across the entire neighborhood, but it fell far short of that. I haven't been up and down those streets enough recently to know just how far the transformation went.

I'm mentioning all this to tell you to use caution if you find apartments/condos in that area. It is a place you should look at too--some might be on blocks that have been transformed and be very desirable--especially for the lifestyle that you're looking for. But some might still be a mess, especially west of the railroad tracks and as you go closer to Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard on either side of the tracks. For me, it's not so much that I'd be worried about crime (although I'm not a single woman--I'm a football player-sized, biker-looking guy who took martial arts for 25 years), but the places that haven't been fixed are likely to come with a host of structural and possibly pest problems . . . and they're likely to have landlords that aren't going to be very responsive. The place I lived in that neighborhood (at 9th St. and N. Railroad) had a problem with palmetto bugs (those huge flying roaches), mice AND termites, and being in an apartment complex, it wasn't easy to get control of that stuff.

As I mentioned, anything almost right on the Intracoastal should be okay, and as you get north of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, there's an older neighborhood called Northwood that's something like the neighborhood south of Okeechobee--but it's a bit more spotty. You don't have to go very far west to be in the heart of what's definitely still the ghetto.

There are plenty of apartments in nearby areas--various places west of Australian Avenue, but you're already away from anything that's going to seem kinda like city to you, some of those places are going to be too expensive, and you've got to cross the ghetto to get to downtown (well, or drive out of the way to the south and go around). But you might have some luck with apartments around Palm Beach Lakes and north, between Australian and Congress (well, and possibly just a bit west of Congress).

The bottom line is going to be that you'll definitely need to scope places out before you make any kind of long term decision. It's difficult in West Palm Beach to find someplace that gives a "city-like" vibe rather than suburbia vibe, but I have no idea just how ghetto a place would have to be before you'd be uncomfortable with it (I'd personally live anywhere--my wife wouldn't, though), and given that, there might be a lot of places in or near that "city-like" vibe that you wouldn't want to live.

What I would do is this: get a short term rental first--month by month, or even week to week. There are plenty of them around. Keep most of your stuff (if you have much that you're taking with you) in storage. Then in your off time, start to experience different neighborhoods and streets, then concentrate your longer-term housing search on those areas. You might even find that given the nature of West Palm Beach and the lack of a real city center there, suburban living might not be so distasteful to you there.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by sunshinekid

Palm Beach Gardens seems like a suburb to me. I'm from Atlanta, and I'd prefer to be near things.

That is an oxymoron.

[steelers44]

Originally Posted by sunshinekid

Hi! I'm seriously looking at a job in West Palm Beach (well, between West Palm and Riviera Beach). I'm originally from Atlanta- Midtown area- and I was wondering which places are fun/safe to live for a single girl. I really don't want to spend more than $800/month on rent, but I could spend a little more if it's that wonderful. I've heard a couple things about the crime and I'm a little scared; but Atlanta's pretty crime-ridden, and you just learn what areas to avoid. Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks!

Hey! I am also looking at a job in Riviera Beach, FL area upon college graduation in a few months. Have you gotten any good advice? I see you are from Atlanta - I am also looking at a job in Roswell, Georgia - any comments or opinions on Roswell? I appreciate your help!