Is Broward County That Bad?? (Miami, Fort Lauderdale: middle-class, rental, car insurance)

[thrillobyte]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

lol, you named four cities that often make the list as being the 100 safest in the United States.

Funny, just the name, Plantation conjures up images in my mind of shacks with broken windows and graffiti all over them and crumbling brick walls and broken water mains and puddles of mosquito-infested water. Mustn't judge a city by it's name.

There is some spillover crime however in the center of the Miramar area that comes from Carol City to the south, from about University Dr to Red Rd. The only really bad part "on it's own" is Sherman Circle and it's still not as bad as points east. Still, it's the only city that breaks the University Dr rule, it kind of follows the north Dade rules instead, which also gets better west of Red Rd (more upper middle class) and EAST of University/27th (more working class). Davie also has two bad pockets (off Davie Rd extension to the extreme south, and some of downtown Davie area), but they are small. The worst parts of Plantation are so far east, that I wouldn't describe them as being in the "center", and I can't think of a single bad part of Pembroke Pines except for maybe a couple of those apartments off of Pembroke Rd by the turnpike in front of Pines Village, which is also pretty far east.

It sounds strange that you can be in a very good area and then "just down the road" you are suddenly in a small pocket that makes Baghdad after 911 look like Beverly Hills. Why doesn't the crime and infestation in these "pockets" bleed over to the good areas "up the street"?

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

Funny, just the name, Plantation conjures up images in my mind of shacks with broken windows and graffiti all over them and crumbling brick walls and broken water mains and puddles of mosquito-infested water. Mustn't judge a city by it's name.

The name "Plantation" actually comes from it's massive "Plantation-style" estate homes on large plots of land. It's also known for it's shade trees and green lawns. It has a rough part that looks nothing like you suggest (just some 1960s homes and apartments that look a little tired) but again, far east and very well seperated from the "good part" with a transition zone. The median income in the city is over $70,000 with a low poverty rate. You might find some puddles of mosquito-infested water throughout the city, though, and the schools also suck.

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

It sounds strange that you can be in a very good area and then "just down the road" you are suddenly in a small pocket that makes Baghdad after 911 look like Beverly Hills. Why doesn't the crime and infestation in these "pockets" bleed over to the good areas "up the street"?

Miramar is the exception because the bad area "down the street" is not in Broward County but Miami-Dade County. When you cross into the county, the neighborhood gets nicer. The bad part of Miramar itself I am talking about (Sherman Circle) is just a couple of section 8 condos, not "third world" looking. East Miramar is also rough around the edges but again, that's east, and only resembles anything on the TV show at it's EXTREME eastern points. So even though the area is a little bit of a mixed bag, the median income is over $72,000, also with a low poverty rate and has even made the "100 best places to live" list a couple of times.

The bad parts like you saw on TV are exactly where you presumed them not to be; Pompano Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood, Oakland Park, Dania Beach, SOME of Lauderhill, SOME of Lauderdale Lakes and to a lesser extent Deerfield Beach. Again, it's really simple: just say west of University Dr and it's 99% except for Miramar where it's about 90% on it's own but borders on Miami-Dade, down there just go out past Red Rd and it's 99% and away from anything bad.

[Rock Newman]

Originally Posted by mango23

It is a weird town. You can drive through an area with luxury homes and in two blocks be in a place you lock your doors as you drive through. There was a shoot out just a block from my house recently and I live in a good area. I am going to be brutally honest. I have a gun permit and never leave home with out my gun same with my wife. We go to the gun range at least twice a month. We are not right wing radicals but liberals living in the real world. Even though I live here, sometimes I play a mind game when driving around. I pretend I just drove into town and what do I think. I look around and see a place I would not live if they were giving houses away. Mean time I haven't left yet, go figure.

Broward is not a "town " but a large county just like hundreds of other counties in our great country .... you have ghettos in some areas and pristine suburban communities in other areas think ... Cooper City , Weston , Parkland , Davie and others .. you have areas of opulence wealth and beauty think again areas of Parkland , Las Olas , Rio Vista , Ft.Lauderdale Beach and also blight think Sistrunk ... it is no different then many other counties in the country . You can actually avoid the areas seen on silly reality shows if you prefer ... I have no reason to go to east Miramar , Lauderhill , the shady parts of Hollywood and Dania or Sistrunk if I do not have to do so .

[Rock Newman]

Originally Posted by harttogo

Gosh, I disagree with most of the posters. I have lived in Broward since 1959. I just don`t see it that bad. I disagree that you can be in a luxury house and 2 blocks away is a bad area. To me the "bad" areas are large and easy to identify. Unless I was working there, there would be no reason to be in those bad areas. To me police women is a dramatization. They often pick people in low socio-economic neighborhoods. Some of these people just never learned to be citizens and they are socially maladjusted. Those police shows go into these neighborhoods for ratings. Would they go into Weston for someone running a red light? If they did I`m sure they would not have many viewers.
The news picks people at their lowest common denominator to "entertain" me with these people`s terrible crimes. Rape, murder, kill? I can`t imagine being that fearful. I don`t see it and I`m a wuss. If I never watched the local news I would not even know about these things.
There are 250,000 school kids. The news will only broadcast the very small percentage of sociopaths in the schools. For me it is useless information.

Good post and I agree with you 100% .... we live in Parkland and used to live in Weston have friends in Cooper City , Davie , and Coral Springs ... love Ft.lauderdale Beach , Lauderdale By The Sea ..... I go boating , diving ... my kids have always played organize sports down here ... yes there are issues here but we surround ourselves with good friends and family and really enjoy it here the majority of the time . I also have a good income which helps .... if you make $ 30 K a year and live in an apartment in Margate or Tamarac ... I could see where it could suck .

[compelled to reply]

Margate isn't even that bad if you don't have a lot of money, ugly maybe, but not sketchy or anything. On the other hand, if you make 30k in live in Oakland Park or Dania...

[crisan]

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

It sounds strange that you can be in a very good area and then "just down the road" you are suddenly in a small pocket that makes Baghdad after 911 look like Beverly Hills. Why doesn't the crime and infestation in these "pockets" bleed over to the good areas "up the street"?

This is where gated communities come in. I had never seen gated communities until I came to So. Florida. For example, NW 78th Ave in Coral Springs has a very nice gated community on the east side and then a run down, drug infested community on the west side. This is on the NE side of Sample Rd. and Riverside Dr.

Maybe with the housing boom and new construction, developers were just looking for any empty space to build homes.

[eger]

Put it this way, the bad areas are quickly creeping into other previously good areas (going from South Broward and now into North Broward).

Broward has it's nice spots, but they too are on the decline.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by eger

\(going from South Broward and now into North Broward).

\.

Are you familiar with South Broward at all? There is one bad part that compares with ANYTHING on the north: Pembroke Park/Carver Ranches, and basically the Pembroke Rd corridor extending from there out to Sherman Circle leaves a thin ghetto strip with Miramar, and the latter isn't even THAT bad once you get a block of two away. Parts of Dania and Hollywood are also "sketchy" but not as bad as what can be found to the north of 595. That's it. South Broward has a lot of "mediocre" areas that are quiet though, which is something the north side doesn't have as much of. Pretty much every single good part of the south side is stable, and the bad parts are more shrinking rather than expanding. North has basically all NW Ft. Lauderdale extending all the way down to Davie Blvd, Oakland Park, parts of Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, most of Pompano west of Dixie, Deerfield between Dixie and 95, and yes areas east of University Dr are declining in Coral Springs, Tamarc, and Plantation, and most of Sunrise is declining.

[Marlin331]

Simple answer: no, Broward County is, in general, NOT that bad.

Imagine a show where the following "crimes" were showcased:

-Teenage girl in Parkland gets busted in her BMW SUV for texting at a stoplight on her way home from cheerleading practice
-Grandma is pulled over and questioned about why she is driving suspiciously slowly - 40 MPH - in the left lane of I-95
-Middle-aged man with a younger woman he's trying to impress is stopped by the marine patrol for ignoring the "no wake" sign as he speeds back to his waterfront place in Las Olas
-"Working girl" in a suit is apprehended and handcuffed for jaywalking in Downtown Fort Lauderdale
-The cops have to come into Pembroke Shores and break up the party because the salsa at Juliana's quinceañera is a few decibals too loud
-Law enforcement has to intervene out in Tamarac because Uncle Ira had the chutzpah to park his golf cart in the handicapped space where Grandpa usually parks
-False alarm - it turns out that speaking Spanish in East Davie isn't a punishable offense

[fauve]

lol, thanks crisp...that's a LOT closer to reality than the show!