Safety around Barnes Hospital (St. Louis, Clayton: apartments, crime rate, houses)

[bruceggoldman]

My daughter just got accepted for residency at Barnes Jewish Hospital and we just discovered that St. louis has the highest crime rate in the nation. What is the situation living in the neighborhood around Barnes? How is Clayton or Central West End?

[aragx6]

That neighborhood is perfectly fine, she should be quite safe. I have a couple of friends who live very near there, and it's a great hospital so congratulations are certainly in order for being chosen for their residency.

The gist of the reason that the crime data for St. louis are a bit skewed is this: St. Louis broke away from St. louis county many years ago for political reasons.

Because of this, as the metro area grew, areas in the county that would have almost certainly otherwise been annexed into the city limits never were. Some of the inner ring suburbs that are very safe are therefore not included in the crime data and St. louis is only 62 square miles whereas many other cities are far more (Like Kansas city, which is 311 square miles) Imagine if you only included 60 square miles of inner city Chicago or New York and didn't include some of the safest neighborhoods in the crime data- those cities would then appear far more dangerous than in actuality.

There are very dangerous neighborhoods in St. Louis (most of them shoved together on the North side) This is a shame and we should do everything we can to end the blight and poverty so prevalent in those areas (just as Chicago's west and south sides) but this doesn't meant that there aren't a plethora of perfectly safe neighborhoods both in the city and in the inner ring suburbs.

If you share a bit more about your daughter's budget and housing needs we can suggest neighborhoods that would meet those needs for ya.

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by bruceggoldman

My daughter just got accepted for residency at Barnes Jewish Hospital and we just discovered that St. louis has the highest crime rate in the nation. What is the situation living in the neighborhood around Barnes? How is Clayton or Central West End?

As the last poster just stated, please do some homework before believing everything you read.

That said, the living situation in all of those areas is good.

[illini84]

Barnes is a great hospital, so congratulations to your daughter! St. Louis is very spotty with its crime. One place may be fine, while just a few blocks over may be crime ridden. Overall though, the Central West End (CWE) is relatively safe. I have a few friends who live here and they've had no problems. They do know people whose apartments have been burglarized and cars broken into, but they were people whose apartments were on the first floor and whose cars were parked on the street. This is pretty typical of St. Louis, so just make sure you're not on ground level and you have some sort of gated or secured parking and you'll be fine! The CWE is lots of fun and is a neat little area. I loved living in St. Louis and would like to come back. Your daughter will love it!

[kpoeppel]

I lived in Clayton in the early '90's, and it was pretty safe then. It's a nice upscale area, but it's probably pretty expensive to live there. Clayton is to St. Louis what Oak Park is to Chicago...historic brick houses, wealthy, liberal, but close to bad neighborhoods just to the east.

[breer23]

Originally Posted by kpoeppel

I lived in Clayton in the early '90's, and it was pretty safe then. It's a nice upscale area, but it's probably pretty expensive to live there. Clayton is to St. Louis what Oak Park is to Chicago...historic brick houses, wealthy, liberal, but close to bad neighborhoods just to the east.

I'd say that's a fair assessment, though the areas to avoid near Clayton are a little further to the north than east. The stretch from Clayton to Barnes overall is pretty, with Clayton having more of a suburban feel, whilest the CWE has more of an urban feel (think Lakeview or Uptown in north Chicago)