Bryant neighborhood for single female: safety + thoughts? (Minneapolis, Nicollet: low income, apartments)

[rlh725]

Hi everyone, I looked at a home yesterday in Bryant, just south of 40th St & west of Portland Ave. The house itself is nice and more affordable than say Standish or Kingfield but I feel a little unsure of the neighborhood. Within a couple blocks radius there are churches and a school but also low income apartments and some run-down looking homes.
I've lived in not-so desirable neighborhoods in other cities without a problem but this would be pretty permanent and I'd like to feel comfortable. I'll be driving through the area a few more times before any decision is made either way.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[northsub]

If I were you, I'd spend some time looking at the Minneapolis police department crime maps for the third precinct. I would pick a bunch of random weeks throughout the year. Actually I'd probably look at all of the weeks in the year if I was contemplating buying a place there.
Precinct 3 Crime Maps - City of Minneapolis

[gweilo845]

I know the area you're talking about and I would not want to move there - especially not buy a house. I used to live at 39th and Portland. The houses in that area are cheap for a reason. It's basically on the edge of a very bad neighborhood.

I've gone into detail before, but the short version is that I caught someone trying to break in the house, I almost got mugged a couple of times, there was a brothel across the street, a crack house that got raided several times at the end of the block, gang graffiti all over even on churches, common to hear gunfire at night, etc etc.

I'm a pretty big guy (6' 2" 225 lbs) and I didn't feel safe there and couldn't wait to get out. The only reason I stayed there was because I was unemployed and couldn't afford to move.

The area does get nice once you go south of 40th (particularly once you go past 42nd) or west of the freeway (particularly west of Nicollet).

[Camden Northsider]

Rih725, what other areas are you looking in and/or what are you looking for in a home/area/neighborhood. You might get more helpful responses related to your search if you say a little more about what you're looking for and/or there are different areas to compare. My wife and I sort of rushed into home buying- we had a pretty good idea of the area we landed in (was our first choice) but also feel pretty fortunate to have landed where we did considering some of the areas we had looked at and were somewhat seriously considering (without a lot of knowledge about them). If things had gone another way, and we had ended up in a not-so-livable area and then had to deal with the steep decline in housing values (we bought in early 2007), I'm not sure how we would have dealt with the situation. Probably would have tried to make the most of it, but I empathize with folks who have dealt with $100K decreases in value in areas they aren't happy in.

With that said, I don't know enough about 40th and Portland area to comment, only that in that stretch people generally say that once you're solidly in the 40s or south (or south of 42nd) things get a lot nicer/more livable.

[pehl55]

I am looking at a rental apt at 39th and blaisdell. I am concerned about personal safety, crime, walking alone, etc. It is near Martin Luther King Park. Any thoughts?

[Beenhere4ever]

I'd push a single female in the direction of the 2nd and 5th police precincts. Those are the two lowest crime precincts in the city. Go to this web page and scan down. One column I particularly looked at was the aggravated assault column. And then zero rapes for a 12 month period is also a pretty good indicator to me.
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/gro...s1p-102905.pdf

[Terry1962]

it is safe

[jdele]

Originally Posted by pehl55

I am looking at a rental apt at 39th and blaisdell. I am concerned about personal safety, crime, walking alone, etc. It is near Martin Luther King Park. Any thoughts?

39th and Blaisdell is perfectly safe. In fact, that's a quite desirable area. Near MLK Park, near Lake Harriet, near lots of nice restaurants/bakeries/cafes.