Downtown Davenport - Safe to Live? (Bettendorf, Crescent: apartments, lofts, crime)

[Pelikan2]

I'm moving to Davenport soon, and I've come across a lot of nicely renovated apartments downtown. I'll be working downtown and would love to walk to work, but I am curious about the safety of the area, during what seems to be a mid-revitalization period. I've heard that the Palmer College neighborhood can be a little rough.

For context, I'm a mid-20's male and am used to fairly urban environments. I'm looking at both City View apartments and Crescent lofts. Is there much to worry about in this area? It's hard for me to imagine this area? Thanks so much for your help.

[QuadCityImages]

You'll be fine in any of the newly renovated apartments downtown. The CityView is on the northern edge of the downtown, so its closer to some of the less desirable areas, but even in those areas, its not like you get mugged walking down the street. CityView has better finishing than the Crescent stuff, but its less urban/industrial. I lived in the Crescent Macaroni building for 3 years and never had an issue.

Here are a few links and threads about those 2 apartment projects:

CityView Apartments -review on my blog

Downtown Davenport progress -City-Data thread

City-Data post with a bunch of pictures of the Crescent Lofts area

[Pelikan2]

Excellent; thanks for your reply.

I'd love to live in the Crescent Lofts, but they don't have anything available in a 1BR. As such, it's looking like City View might be my option, and I've heard those are quite nice. Thanks for the links; I'd already stumbled upon your City View blog post, which was also helpful.

[carol sims]

i was born and raised in davenport, i worked at the cresent maccaroni plant reas ago.
great place to live could no longer take the snow.

[jeffs]

You should be all right. If you head north between 8th and 15th, gaines st. around that area, you can get into some sketchy neighborhoods, around palmer college can be rough at times, but the downtown area as a whole isnt bad at all. They are in the process of building a huge riverwalk park downtown, and more bike lanes and trying to make it a lot more pedestrian friendly, because a lot of people are moving into the renovated lofts. When they get all the construction done, it should look pretty nice.

[Minuteman81]

I grew up on 7th and Marquette; Davenport aint that bad. I wouldnt move back though, not anywhere in the midwest.

[nickasarbata]

Here's my $0.02:

It seems like a lot of cool things are happening to downtown Davenport lately. The new lofts are really nice and there are several new restaurants popping up. Plus lots of bars and things to do. It could be a very nice area in time.

I'd try to stay south of 6th Street and east of Gaines St. I'm sure you could branch out a bit, but it quickly gets dodgy when you leave those areas. My sister went to Palmer College and lived at 13th and Main, and then moved to Farnam Street. She said both areas were pretty rough, but that the "troublemakers" in the areas seemed to know who lived in the area and who was just passing through. For example, her car was never broken into, but several friends' cars were when they came to visit her.

If you can't stay right in the downtown core, I'd recommend living on or north of Locust Street.

[NDak15]

My 97 year old great aunt had lived in Davenport since 1942. She has stated that in general the town has gone in cycles of urban blight and urban renewal. When I was there in 2003 it seemed like it was in the urban renewal stage.

[scimitar12]

Originally Posted by nickasarbata

Here's my $0.02:

It seems like a lot of cool things are happening to downtown Davenport lately. The new lofts are really nice and there are several new restaurants popping up. Plus lots of bars and things to do. It could be a very nice area in time.

I'd try to stay south of 6th Street and east of Gaines St. I'm sure you could branch out a bit, but it quickly gets dodgy when you leave those areas. My sister went to Palmer College and lived at 13th and Main, and then moved to Farnam Street. She said both areas were pretty rough, but that the "troublemakers" in the areas seemed to know who lived in the area and who was just passing through. For example, her car was never broken into, but several friends' cars were when they came to visit her.

If you can't stay right in the downtown core, I'd recommend living on or north of Locust Street.

Spot on. I used to live on Farnam and Kirkwood for years. It is what I would describe as a checkered neighborhood; one block is okay, the next is filthy. If you don't live in one of the complexes in downtown I would not even consider living anywhere south of Locust. For that matter, I would have reservations living south of Central Park Ave. for good measure.

[Dport7674]

Originally Posted by scimitar12

Spot on. I used to live on Farnam and Kirkwood for years. It is what I would describe as a checkered neighborhood; one block is okay, the next is filthy. If you don't live in one of the complexes in downtown I would not even consider living anywhere south of Locust. For that matter, I would have reservations living south of Central Park Ave. for good measure.

When people say don't live south of Locust, are you saying it because people get robbed, mugged, beaten etc. in that area? or because it's "filthy"??

What about all the Palmer students that live in that area? In my early 20's I spent years living on the corner of 6th and Brown.."The Ghetto" according to some and never had anyone look at me wrong, and I was a white dude from Bettendorf.

The crime in Davenport is soooo over hyped by people whose nuts have never dropped. The worse crime that's ever happened to anyone I know (in my entire life) is maybe a car was broken into and maybe some spray paint on the garage or something.