Is the recent Dogtown (63139) murder indicative of a decaying neighborhood? (St. Louis: apartments, lease)

[grrrzevske]

I'm a newbie, and I realize this thread is probably all-too-common. So I apologize in advance.

Right now, my husband and I live in the suburbs of Southern Illinois (Collinsville). We have decided to move to St. Louis since we do most of our working and our playing there as it is.

We looked at an apartment yesterday in the 6500 block of Berthold (Berthold & Louisville) in Dogtown. It was laid out like a dream, spacious, with tons of charm. We like that it is very accessible to 64/40 and 44 since I work in Kirkwood and my husband works on the IL side. Needless to say, we were leaning towards signing a lease.

As I was doing some research on the neighborhood this evening, I came to find that mere hours after viewing the apartment, someone was murdered and another critically injured by an armed gunman in the 6600 block of Oakland—only a few blocks away from the apartment we looked at.

According to some of the older city-data threads, I have come to understand that Dogtown is one of the safest neighborhoods for remotely inexpensive units. But is that still true years later? I don't want to get myself into anything that would put us in danger.

Of course, some (if not all) of my paranoia stems from the fact that I've never really lived in a more urban area. Collinsville is pretty sheltering.

Am I being too paranoid? Does crime of this magnitude happen often in Dogtown? Again, please pardon my ignorance!

[1greatcity]

Decaying neighborhood? I think not. What happened there was an isolated incident. The Dogtown neighborhood (offically called "Clayton-Tamm by the city) is generally a safe area. The neighborhood has few violent crimes.
According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police's crime summary tables- which can be viewed at http://www.slmpd.org/crimestats/CRM0005-C_20121205.pdf -the average number of all crimes reported this year through November, per city neighborhood, was 288 (that's 25,642 total crimes divided by the 89 official neighborhoods). In Dogtown (Clayton-Tamm), there were 104.
In that same period, there were no homicides in Clayton-Tamm. Compare that figure to the number of murders in Carondelet (3), Downtown (2), and Tower Grove East (3).

Perhaps it was overlooked, but the day after the news story broke about the Dogtown incident, the P-D also ran this: Dogtown to get microbrewery; new apartments possible : Stltoday
which announces a significant investment in Dogtown with a microbrewery and a new five-story apartment building in the works. Methinks this is a good sign that the neighborhood is not in decay.

[grrrzevske]

Originally Posted by 1greatcity

Decaying neighborhood? I think not. What happened there was an isolated incident. The Dogtown neighborhood (offically called "Clayton-Tamm by the city) is generally a safe area. The neighborhood has few violent crimes.
According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police's crime summary tables- which can be viewed at [URL]http://www.slmpd.org/crimestats/CRM0005-C_20121205.pdf[/URL] -the average number of all crimes reported this year through November, per city neighborhood, was 288 (that's 25,642 total crimes divided by the 89 official neighborhoods). In Dogtown (Clayton-Tamm), there were 104.
In that same period, there were no homicides in Clayton-Tamm. Compare that figure to the number of murders in Carondelet (3), Downtown (2), and Tower Grove East (3).

Perhaps it was overlooked, but the day after the news story broke about the Dogtown incident, the P-D also ran this: [url=http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/dogtown-to-get-microbrewery-new-apartments-possible/article_e667ea00-4665-59eb-a41b-0984c8499891.html]Dogtown to get microbrewery; new apartments possible : Stltoday[/url]
which announces a significant investment in Dogtown with a microbrewery and a new five-story apartment building in the works. Methinks this is a good sign that the neighborhood is not in decay.

That is exactly the information I was looking for. Thanks for the resources. I am very glad that investments are being made in that neighborhood. What a relief!

[RisingAurvandil]

Dogtown is still a great place and a great location. The only Southside areas I've seen take a true nosedive are further East.

[DogtownBnR]

FAR from decaying!! I have VERY good sources (unnamed) that told me this was not a random incident (victims knew the perps). Facts are not public, as the suspect(s) are still on the run.

The fact that the zoo is investing multi-millions, Tri-Star Mercedes is moving from the County to the area, a 5-story Apt. complex is proposed at Clayton and Graham and Heavy-Riff Brewing Co. is opening in the old Gewinner's Market location, tells me Dogtown is actually seeing another resurgence. I would describe the new developments as a boom for the area. As I said, Dogtown is far from decaying, just the opposite actually. Crime happens everywhere, but that does not mean a hood is falling apart, as you know. With it's prime location, close to Forest Park, Interstates 40 & 44 and close proximity to
Washington University, I'd be shocked to ever see Dogtown in a decaying state. There are too many great things about the area to allow that IMO.

[Sundaydrive00]

Originally Posted by DogtownBnR

I have VERY good sources (unnamed) that told me this was not a random incident (victims knew the perps). Facts are not public, as the suspect(s) are still on the run.

Yes, definitely not a random incident. This type of crime can happen anywhere. It had nothing to do with the neighborhood they were in.