Maps with all areas of Palm Beach County rated by quality of life/crime/walkability - Neighborhood-O-Meter Map & Other 2 (Miami: section 8, apartment complex)

[JacobMAX]

I've made a new map - actually 3 of them in total - (based on the launch of the successful Neighborhood-O-Meter Maps I did for Miami-Dade & Broward County) covering all neighborhoods and Cities within Palm Beach County (PBC) rated by general quality of life/desirability (this is the main one - the Neighborhood-O-Meter - including all factors, as well as the factors on the other 2 maps) & crime/sex offenders/violent crimes (Crime-O-Meter) & walkability/public transit/urbanity/density (Walkability-O-Meter).

Important notes: Input/comments to make further updates soon on the map are very appreciated. It's a project that will be updated continually also based on feedback.

Neighborhood-O-Meter Map: Neighborhood-O-Meter of Palm Beach (West Palm Beach)

Crime-O-Meter Map: Crime-O-Meter of Palm Beach (West Palm Beach)

Walkability-O-Meter Map: Walkability-O-Meter of Palm Beach (West Palm Beach)

Remember people that this is still not all final/concluded and has a few faults and slight issues for now.

Thanks!

[Flash3]

Nice work! Though as a Royal Palm Beach resident, I was confused by some of the coloring, as it makes it seem like the blue area is the lowest quality area of Royal Palm, when a good chunk of it is not. (Google Street View links provided.)

I totally get why part of that area is blue, as there are some sketchy apartment complexes in it, like Archstone Hidden Harbor on the west side of Royal Palm Beach Blvd., The Trails north of Okeechobee, and basically every apartment complex west of the Village Golf Course but east of RPB Blvd. The Winn-Dixie plaza is also sketchy at night (though the Publix plaza is nice at all times). Sparrow Dr. itself is not great either. But that said...

Within the blue part of Royal Palm Beach, the Heatherwood Dr. and Stamford neighborhoods should definitely be light green.

They are certainly not worse than the light green Counterpoint areas off of Belvedere west of State Road 7.

Nor are they worse than the currently light green south-end of Royal Palm Beach Blvd., which is bounded by Hibiscus Dr. and Camelia Dr.

I can see why those two neighborhoods are light green, but they honestly might be closer to blue, as they're older and a bit run-down as far as Royal Palm Beach goes.

The blue area SW of Okeechobee and Royal Palm Beach Blvd. containing the Library, Cultural Center, and Tax Collector's should probably also be light green.

I totally agree with Sparrow Dr. itself being blue, but the area northwest of Sparrow, but south of Okeechobee and west of that baseball field contains the reasonably new Veteran's Park on the south end, and the Fire Station, Police Station, and Village Hall, all of which definitely have a nicer feel to them than the Counterpoint/South Royal Palm Beach Blvd. areas.

You made a great map overall. Thanks for all of the hard work!

[JacobMAX]

Thanks for the support! And great tips by the way, this is the sort of suggestions I'm needing to make the map(s) more concise. I'll review them more carefully this Saturday and you can check back after I make the changes in the map, and if there's still something to take a look / fix; even also somewhere else in PBC that you think it may be better with another color / rating, just reply here.

[TriMT7]

Interesting maps, I would agree with them for the most part for West Palm Beach proper.

What walkability metric did you use?

[JacobMAX]

Well, one of the main points was public transit - used the official maps from the County, the other was the sidewalks themselves (which is actually more important than it would appear to be - as a pedestrian myself too), number of nearby amenities/stores nearby, density (not a giant factor, but considered as well) plus safety (which is the main differential of this map to other walkability related maps - from what I know all of them completely forgot that's something that matters also).

And if you have any suggestions, or areas that you think it would be better with another color - regarding all maps, just reply here.

[JacobMAX]

Originally Posted by Flash3

Nice work! Though as a Royal Palm Beach resident, I was confused by some of the coloring, as it makes it seem like the blue area is the lowest quality area of Royal Palm, when a good chunk of it is not. (Google Street View links provided.)

I totally get why part of that area is blue, as there are some sketchy apartment complexes in it, like Archstone Hidden Harbor on the west side of Royal Palm Beach Blvd., The Trails north of Okeechobee, and basically every apartment complex west of the Village Golf Course but east of RPB Blvd. The Winn-Dixie plaza is also sketchy at night (though the Publix plaza is nice at all times). Sparrow Dr. itself is not great either. But that said...

Within the blue part of Royal Palm Beach, the Heatherwood Dr. and Stamford neighborhoods should definitely be light green.

They are certainly not worse than the light green Counterpoint areas off of Belvedere west of State Road 7.

Nor are they worse than the currently light green south-end of Royal Palm Beach Blvd., which is bounded by Hibiscus Dr. and Camelia Dr.

I can see why those two neighborhoods are light green, but they honestly might be closer to blue, as they're older and a bit run-down as far as Royal Palm Beach goes.

The blue area SW of Okeechobee and Royal Palm Beach Blvd. containing the Library, Cultural Center, and Tax Collector's should probably also be light green.

I totally agree with Sparrow Dr. itself being blue, but the area northwest of Sparrow, but south of Okeechobee and west of that baseball field contains the reasonably new Veteran's Park on the south end, and the Fire Station, Police Station, and Village Hall, all of which definitely have a nicer feel to them than the Counterpoint/South Royal Palm Beach Blvd. areas.

You made a great map overall. Thanks for all of the hard work!

Fixed the issues; just one thing regarding that area in the light blue with the Library, Tax Collector and commercial stuff, it's actually neutral (but variable according to neighboring areas - so in that case it would work out to be an area mostly in either the light or the standard green actually). The light blue is exclusively for fully/nearly fully non-residential areas (commercial/industrial areas), so that's actually the proper rating for it. I'll see if I put an improved description for this color, it isn't 100% concise and proper now.

[Flash3]

Originally Posted by JacobMAX

Fixed the issues; just one thing regarding that area in the light blue with the Library, Tax Collector and commercial stuff, it's actually neutral (but variable according to neighboring areas - so in that case it would work out to be an area mostly in either the light or the standard green actually). The light blue is exclusively for fully/nearly fully non-residential areas (commercial/industrial areas), so that's actually the proper rating for it. I'll see if I put an improved description for this color, it isn't 100% concise and proper now.

Yeah, I think you made it better now. Though actually that area in Royal Palm Beach is currently showing as blue, not light blue. I guess it probably should be light blue by that description. Really, this is how I picture RPB's neighborhood-o-meter: http://i.imgur.com/v1ltA6j.jpg

1) Along State Road 7, the Counterpoint Estates area should probably be blue. It was originally built as homes for lower incomes. Some are now in disrepair, and it has a poorer reputation as far as Royal Palm Beach goes.

2) North of Counterpoint is an area RPB has zoned for industrial uses and no one lives there, so it should probably be light blue. Aldi Supermarket is moving their regional distribution center into that wooded area. Also in that square is a bunch of storage warehouses, the Regal Movie Theater, the Western Areas School Bus Compound, a Nursing Home, and a few restaurants.

3) Along the Okeechobee Blvd. corridor right next to the industrial area is probably the sketchiest, I believe Section 8, apartment complex in RPB, followed by (heading west) the high school, Willows Park (which for a long time was considered kind of a sketchy area to let your kids play or even use the restroom alone due to some weirdos hanging out there), the old RPB water plant, some older shopping centers, leading to Sparrow Dr. It should probably all be blue.

4) Then there's the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center/Village Hall/Police Station/Fire Station/Library/Publix/WinnDixie area which you discussed being light blue above.

5) The Southern Blvd. Corridor is completely non-residential there where I boxed it out, and I guess as such should probably be light blue. It contains the Royal Inn Hotel, the Royal Palm Beach Cemetery, Calypso Bay Water Park, some warehouses, and Costco and a bunch of other retailers/restaurants.

6) Finally, there were two areas that I think are miscolored. One at the NE corner of State Road 7 and Belvedere Road is a for-profit college I think should be light blue like the nonresidential area just south of it

7) The Poinciana Blvd. area of Royal Palm Beach Blvd. is filled with mainly retirees who keep it up well, and should probably be light green like the area just to the north of it.

That's my perspective at least. I'm sure someone else might see things differently.

[JacobMAX]

That's a good perspective, there are some very good points there. The expansion of the light blue, yes, that's something that should - and will - be done.

I'll review and - highly likely - implement all points above; but the only thing I still have my doubts about here would be the Counterpoint Estates...it certainly lacks in aspect, and the avg. income isn't as high as the other (better) areas of RPB...but the crime rate is very low, and the area is decently upkept, so it's one of these cases of an area that it's basically in between light green and blue...I'll research a bit more, but I'll probably defer to your judgement and put it in the blue, as it was done with the area bordered by Camelia and Hibiscus Dr (which is similar for the most part).

[Flash3]

I agree with that. I mean, some of these areas in Royal Palm Beach are tricky. Counterpoint and South RPB Blvd. areas are definitely not as nice as the other areas in Royal Palm Beach, especially in reputation, so I think they should be differentiated somehow.

But then I look at some other blue areas in Palm Beach County and think that the Counterpoint Estates and South areas of RPB Blvd. are clearly better than say, the blue Riviera Beach / Lake Park (Congress Ave Corridor), or the blue SW End of Lake Park, or the blue Riviera Beach (SW End - Lone Pine GC Area). Or the blue West Palm Beach Roosevelt Estates, Lake Mangonia, and Northwood Hills areas. To me, blue is very generous for those areas, if blue is for "average" areas.

But if that is what blue is, then really, in comparison to the rest of the county, I think there might be an argument that the Counterpoint areas are light green, and the NW End and central areas of Royal Palm Beach are closer to standard green than light green. They're both in between.

[JacobMAX]

I think it's (nearly) all correct right now. Also fixed Roosevelt Estates, the Lone Pine GC Area of Riviera (although it's way out west - technically Riviera but more like Unincorp. WPB) - plus parts of Northwood Hills (that's actually a better area than it seems - it was actually originally rated yellow - but I'll soon retain the more proper areas in the blue, and the other ones back to the yellow). These 3 areas are like that thing in RPB - they're basically almost in-between two colors, tough calls (but in these cases bet. the yellow and the blue). The other areas in Riviera and Lake Park i'll retain in the blue - well, at least in the short term; been there several times, it's not bad at all, and not unsafe - I know people who live in Lake Park too - the major problem are the neighboring areas - which we all know, are awful, and deeply unsafe.

Maybe I think we should put the south RPB Blvd corridor back in the light green, retain the blues as they are now; and upgrade the RPB area labeled as NW End to the standard/medium green. I believe that would be the more accurate thing to do. Agree?


And, everybody, I'm still (and will continue) open to more suggestions and comments. They're definitely helping in making the map as concise and as proper as it can be.