The next big neighborhood (Buffalo, Rochester: crime, houses, neighborhoods)
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Family of 3....assuming this includes a kid that is/will eventually be school aged? If so then 19th ward and really anywhere in the city is going to put you in subpar schools...especially compared to Brighton schools. If saving money on a home in the 19th ward would allow you to afford private school then I might consider it...otherwise stick with Brighton or another more affordable suburb; all of which will have better/safer schools for your kid.
Basically.... Unless you can guarantee that your child can get into School of the Arts, the International Baccalaureate program at Wilson Magnet, charter schools like UPrep, RACS, etc or private schools, then you'd have to look into suburbs. As for walkable suburban areas besides Brighton, look into Irondequoit or villages like Fairport, Brockport, Spencerport, East Rochester, etc and areas just outside of those villages.
Yeah, the quality of the city school district seems to be the main factor keeping families from moving into the city proper if they can help it. I'm not sure how living in a cool city neighborhood and sending your kids to private school compares with choosing a suburb and sending them to a public school, in terms of affordability (I don't have kids) although I know plenty of people who do it.
Residential and otherwise, I see the area between where Harris (manufacturing operations)/Stromberg-Carlson used to be, north across Atlantic and all the way to E. Main, and over to Winton is cleaning up nicely in spots. Seems like folks are settling there and investing in the housing. Nice houses around there go for $80K or so, with the nicest ones in the $90K or so range. It's mostly residential however lots of established businesses along Winton and a few on Atlantic are doing well, I kinda know the owner of a bar on Atlantic and he was saying the area has definitely been on the upswing for 5+ years, now.
With Wegmans opening in the new year, and other retail which will surely follow, I'd expect housing values through there to creep up. Last time we were in Rochester we spent an afternoon in that area, and over at Tryon Park (great place to hike and mountain bike, BTW). Quiet Sunday afternoon in a quiet, urban neighborhood.
... the area between where Harris (manufacturing operations)/Stromberg-Carlson used to be, north across Atlantic and all the way to E. Main, and over to Winton ...
My only concern, especially west of Culver, would be the train noise. But I've never lived over there, so I don't know if it's really an issue.
Don't laugh, but I think JOSANA (originally called Dutchtown) belongs here. Ten years ago it was giving 14621 a run for its money; today, it has a strong, active neighborhood association and many involved residents. Violent crime has plummeted and the area is steadily improving. Check out this amazing master plan. It's pretty much a JOSANA novel.
It's never going to be a trendy place like the South Wedge, but if it stays on this trajectory, it looks like JOSANA is returning to its roots as a respectable working-class neighborhood.
Hmmm...yeah, I think that personally I'm convinced that if there's going to be a new 'hot' neighborhood (like the south wedge is right now) anytime soon it's going to have to be the 19th ward. It's large, pretty safe and due to it's proximity to the University and the sheer number of college kids living in the damn place I'm frankly suprised that there isn't loads more commercial activity there already. I graduated from U of R quite recently, and I can say with reasonable certainty that the 19th ward gets more visits from river campus students than any other neighborhood in town (even park ave and the like) it's really the only legit urban neighborhood that you can walk to from campus in 15 minutes or less. We were always crossing the river to go to Boulder, or to hit up parties at one of the many frat houses in the eastern ward and PLEX, or often times to buy alcohol from a certain liquor store that profits solely by appealing to the "underage student who likes to party but doesn't have a fake I.D" demographic (I won't name the institution purely out of respect). There's student shuttles that run up and down Woodbine, Thurston and Genesee all day and the majority of the kids I know ended up in the ward when they first moved off campus. And yet there's nothing resembling a 'college town' over there. Like, no resturaunts, no record stores, no botiques, a whopping 1 coffee shop (Boulder) and not a single bar that any college-age kid would go to. Not one. It can't go on forever, though. In 10 years I wouldn't be remotely suprised to see Brooks, S. Plymouth and Genesee lined with cafes and dive bars and groceries/pharmacies catering to students and the like, assuming that in 10 years you can walk north on plymouth and genesee for more than 15 minutes without winding up in the ghet.
South Plymouth from Brooks Landing to Corn Hill would be the ticket. The river side of S. Plymouth should be prime real estate. Not sure what's ever going to cause a change though.
An area to keep an eye on would be West Main near downtown. The old warehouses/factories on Canal/Litchfield streets are prime candidates for redevelopment into urban living spaces, with plenty of room for commercial or entertainment venues to service the population. (Think of a big grocery store there - you'd get all of Corn Hill shopping there as well.) The adjacent Susan B. Anthony neighborhood is already 75% of the way there, and I think people buying into that neighborhood now are going to be very glad they did--even if nothing happens with the rest of West Main. And a lot of money has been poured into West Main near Susan B. Anthony already.
It would take some imagination, but Brown Square and north on State up Lake is a possibility. I like this as a candidate better than South 19th Ward, because the commercial strip is already there. But purely from a residential standpoint, the 19th Ward and Maplewood are where the good housing stock is.
x2 on the Canal/Susan B. hood. That's an old neighborhood, in fact one of those buildings was used for auto manufacturing over 100 years ago. The warehouse you cited is (I think) the same one a developer told me he'd just bought last time I was in town. One of his workers, an electrician, gave me the run-down. Developer has deep pockets and invests just in the city. Think Corn Hill (they're restoring an old building right behind Nathaniel's, I believe it's on Plymouth), downtown, W. Main, etc. That one will have 5 individual apartments, in one of the oldest buildings in town.
So there's incremental development in parts of the city, which is encouraging. I still maintain that parts of 14609, think Atlantic area, will continue to improve (it was snaky over there at times, even as recently as 6 or 7 years ago). With Wegmans' new store a short drive from there, I predict Atlantic and other parts of 14609 will get even better over time. One realtor I know said nice houses in that area are selling well.
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