Can West Palm Beach really be that bad? (Miami, Orlando: condo, violent crime)
West Palm Beach - Boca Raton - Boynton BeachPalm Beach County
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OK theres three parts to this palm beach county lifestyle part 1, your rich and want to move to palm beach you'll be living in wellington, palm beach island, jupiter, north palm beach or boca raton, you will be in a gated community or in a country club setting, the only gangstas you'll really be interacting with will be serving you your food or getting you your drinks, part2. your a renter with about 1000 a month to spend now you will be interacting with the gangatas if you cant afford to rent in one of the above mentioned areas once out of the above mentinoed areas be prepared for drugs and violence and everything that comes with them if your older good luck trying to merge you might be loneley unless your willing to lower your standards way down part3, your broke can only afford to pay like 500-750 a month rent your neighbors will all have gold teeth smoking pot all day cops in and out and people allways asking you for something, if your into that then more power to you
OK theres three parts to this palm beach county lifestyle part 1, your rich and want to move to palm beach you'll be living in wellington, palm beach island, jupiter, north palm beach or boca raton, you will be in a gated community or in a country club setting, the only gangstas you'll really be interacting with will be serving you your food or getting you your drinks, part2. your a renter with about 1000 a month to spend now you will be interacting with the gangatas if you cant afford to rent in one of the above mentioned areas once out of the above mentinoed areas be prepared for drugs and violence and everything that comes with them if your older good luck trying to merge you might be loneley unless your willing to lower your standards way down part3, your broke can only afford to pay like 500-750 a month rent your neighbors will all have gold teeth smoking pot all day cops in and out and people allways asking you for something, if your into that then more power to you
Could you carve out the different neighbourhoods based on parts 1, 2 & 3 ?
I know Palm Beach (island) is nice but relatively expensive than other areas but where do you think neighbourhoods that have high concentration of violences, druggies, people with gold teeth ?
everything you've heard is true and then some. we moved here 4 years ago from n.y. and cannot believe this place!! it is night and day from the reputation we knew of Palm Beach before we got here. Yes there are "good areas" but bad things happen there too. this place is good for the very rich who live on the island or in gated communities, people to vacation but mostly career criminals and drug addicts love it here. Ex: when I found out we had 46 registered sex offenders in a 2 mile radius of my house and over 100 with in 5, a so called "middle class neighborhood", the common response is "that sounds about right." The worst part is that the people down here think this is normal and the rest of the country is like this too. There are some descent people here but they are few and far between and none of them are native Floridians. Don't even get me started on the health care, schools and government. Believe me if we had the money to get out of here I would run and never look back!!
From what I read, this is scary !
Could some WPB natives add comment on the above quote ? Is it true ?
Please add your insights on the above quote except health care & schools as I don't worry about health care & schools.
Originally Posted by Prettygyrl777 Close to 100% of the areas of Riviera Beach are a little scary.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PBCboy
I fixed the quote for you.
After reading various threads and talking to someone works in the library who advised me "You wouldn't even want to go to Riviera Beach during day time", I tend to agree that Riviera Beach is scary, especially for non native Floridian like me.
WE moved here from Atlanta 8 years ago. If you like 7 months of gorgeous weather in the winter, if you like tropical landscaping, if you like great seafood, if you like beautiful beaches and water, if you like low traffic, you will like WPB. However if you dont like rude new yorkers, you will hate it here.
I am not from NY (I am from Canada) but I think I will have no problem with "rude" New Yorkers. Why should I ? I only mind my own business snowbirding in S Florida, if they or whoever are rude, I simply ignore them. There are rude people everywhere, so I wouldn't let them spoil my winter in S Florida.
But just curious, how "rude" are New Yorkers (no offense to NYers, I was just asking a question) ? Does any WPB/S FL natives shed some light to this ?
Could some WPB natives add comment on the above quote ? Is it true ?
Please add your insights on the above quote except health care & schools as I don't worry about health care & schools.
Thanks
Snowbird... there are 1.3 million people in Palm Beach County, and probably a dozen or more incorporated towns and cities. We have ocean front condos, we have tract housing, we have 55+ communities, we have historic neighborhoods, we have farms and acreage properties, and even properties with private landing strips.
At this point, rather than carving out every pocket of bad, it may be best for you in your search to provide us a street name of any particular listing you are looking for.
Seriously, the hyperventilating by other posters about how its so dang violent or drug ridden or whatever is NOT the experience of most people, unless they surround themselves with people in that element, or live in the hood or barrio. Most often the complaint about the Palm Beaches is that it is too quiet, too many old people, or too boring.
It is a statistical fact West Palm Beach is safer per capita than other popular cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Nashville, or any of a plethora of other cities in the United States, and crime in general in the city has gone down FIFTY PERCENT since 2000. Because of the media, however, and the 24/7 news cycle, we may hear of more crime than we used to, but things were a LOT worse in the early 2000s and 1990s, back when a lot of people think things were just great. Don't let yourself get worked up by what you read on the internet. When I moved here I allowed that to happen to me, and almost talked myself out of it. Indeed, the suburbs of West Palm Beach (which is more like a traditional city, which accounts for its higher general crime rate than the suburbs) ... are essentially on par or less than the national average for crime. Jupiter, Tequesta, Boca, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, West Boynton, West Delray, etc. All are below average for crime.
Now, WPB (and Palm Beach County) DOES have bad sections. You will never drive through the bad section to see a listing and live there unwittingly. You will know in an instant that you are not in a good place.
Again, either let us know your budget (and we can suggest some areas for you), or let us know the name of a particular development and we can tell you if it's good, or if you should stay away.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Banx west palm beach is not that bad. the bad areas are in the northern part. if you are coming from philly you will laugh at these neighborhoods. truth is, west palm beach has a feel of an empty ghost town in alot of parts... I always find myself wondering how there can be all this crime when no one seems to be around to commit it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manny561
Yes it may not look as bad as it isnt nearly as old or populated but really its all about the mentality people have here. My friend(whose white) just moved to philly and he said he regularly drops his friend(whose black) off in the rough neighborhoods and hasnt a single problem, stops at the gas stations late at night and people will ask him if he needs drugs and he says no and they walk off.Here people arent friendly so the people who live in the bad neighborhoods really arent friendly lol. You will get shot for the just being in the wrong neighborhood in west palm. People are generally angry and rude in this county, so the "gangstas" are 10 times that, plus they all have something to prove. They shoot you, theyll probably never get caught and now they can call themselves real gangstas lmao. Ive seen people just passing through parks in lake worth late night just taking a stroll or whatever get beat until they cant move for the sole fact that they were in that park at the wrong time. Idk people can think what they want but ive lived here my whole life and I know the truth about this place and the people that live here. Its nothing but drugs and violence here.
Looks like the above response was from a WPB native.
Sounds pretty scary !
Please comment on the above, especially the 2 incidents in red.
Snowbird... there are 1.3 million people in Palm Beach County, and probably a dozen or more incorporated towns and cities. We have ocean front condos, we have tract housing, we have 55+ communities, we have historic neighborhoods, we have farms and acreage properties, and even properties with private landing strips.
At this point, rather than carving out every pocket of bad, it may be best for you in your search to provide us a street name of any particular listing you are looking for.
Seriously, the hyperventilating by other posters about how its so dang violent or drug ridden or whatever is NOT the experience of most people, unless they surround themselves with people in that element, or live in the hood or barrio. Most often the complaint about the Palm Beaches is that it is too quiet, too many old people, or too boring.
It is a statistical fact West Palm Beach is safer per capita than other popular cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Nashville, or any of a plethora of other cities in the United States, and crime in general in the city has gone down FIFTY PERCENT since 2000. Because of the media, however, and the 24/7 news cycle, we may hear of more crime than we used to, but things were a LOT worse in the early 2000s and 1990s, back when a lot of people think things were just great. Don't let yourself get worked up by what you read on the internet. When I moved here I allowed that to happen to me, and almost talked myself out of it. Indeed, the suburbs of West Palm Beach (which is more like a traditional city, which accounts for its higher general crime rate than the suburbs) ... are essentially on par or less than the national average for crime. Jupiter, Tequesta, Boca, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, West Boynton, West Delray, etc. All are below average for crime.
Now, WPB (and Palm Beach County) DOES have bad sections. You will never drive through the bad section to see a listing and live there unwittingly. You will know in an instant that you are not in a good place.
Again, either let us know your budget (and we can suggest some areas for you), or let us know the name of a particular development and we can tell you if it's good, or if you should stay away.
Hi TriMT7,
Thanks for the response, and it is encouraging !
I periodically found responses from people who claimed "WPB/PBC is full of druggies in all level of lives", or "I will run away from WPB if I could afford it" ... things like that.
After reading a number of threads and checking out the CrimeReports, I feel that Wellington/RPB is relative safer to my family, Canadians.
Basically gated and newer condos are what we are looking at the moment. We also love single family homes but was wondering how we could maintain it as we are only allowed to stay in the States for 6 months per year. I love those beautiful single homes in Wellington, beautiful palm trees, streetscape ... Canada is so boring in the winter: No leaves, grey sky and snow everywhere ...
Looks like the above response was from a WPB native.
Sounds pretty scary !
Please comment on the above, especially the 2 incidents in red.
Thank you !
Manny lives(d) in the low income ghetto, and was like 18 or 19 years old if I remember correctly.
Don't move to the ghetto. I think that's universally good advice. If you're going to keep getting worked up, then it's futile. Perhaps you should reconsider moving if you feel like you're going to be holed up scared of thugs everywhere you turn. You won't be able to enjoy what the area has to offer!
Anectdotes are not always helpful. My mother lives about an hour north of West Palm, in a city that was named safest city in the entire COUNTRY (for its size) a couple of years back. The same year her house was broken into. For her, statistics be damned, because her house was broken into. If you were to ask her back then about crime, she might tell you how awful the property crime is... but the vast majority of others were not victims of crime. Indeed, she lived in the safest larger city in the country!
I periodically found responses from people who claimed "WPB/PBC is full of druggies in all level of lives", or "I will run away from WPB if I could afford it" ... things like that.
After reading a number of threads and checking out the CrimeReports, I feel that Wellington/RPB is relative safer to my family, Canadians.
Basically gated and newer condos are what we are looking at the moment. We also love single family homes but was wondering how we could maintain it as we are only allowed to stay in the States for 6 months per year. I love those beautiful single homes in Wellington, beautiful palm trees, streetscape ... Canada is so boring in the winter: No leaves, grey sky and snow everywhere ...
Thanks !
A lot of people are situationally unhappy, or they lack resources and find themselves in bad areas. People who have reason to complain are also more likely to voice those opinions than those people who are content or happy where they are. Are there better places to live in the country? Probably, depends on the lifestyle you are looking for. Is it even CLOSE to being hell on earth as some people make it out? Not in a million years!
What price point are you looking at? And, what about homeowner's association fees? How much are you willing to spend per month?
If you want closer to the water, check out Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter and Tequesta as well, in northern Palm Beach County. Come to think of it, PGA National is a community that you would probably like a lot. Beautifully landscaped, and maintained. More affordable HOA. The homes, condos and townhouses are not new, but well maintained.
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