What's it like living in West Palm Beach? (Miami, Tampa: apartment, crime)

[FloridaHawkeye]

[quote=32sho;19248130]If you don't agree with us then you obviously haven't been here long or explored around all of west palm beach or you would clearly know what we are talking about! EVERYONE I've known all my life down here agrees with me too...... quote]

Wow talking about speaking in absolutes.

[ra1007]

[quote=FloridaHawkeye;19263991]

Originally Posted by 32sho

If you don't agree with us then you obviously haven't been here long or explored around all of west palm beach or you would clearly know what we are talking about! EVERYONE I've known all my life down here agrees with me too...... quote]

Wow talking about speaking in absolutes.

ITA ---------AND wow, also generalize much?

[flagirl28]

Originally Posted by P Andrews

I have no problem with Port St Lucie, used to go there all the time on my way to Micco to go clamming. As far as a place to live I have chose Palm Beach County as my preference. More to do, better for work, raised all my children, and now all 6 grandchildren, are growing up here.
No one can determine where random crime is going to take place. It does happen in Port St Lucie too. Like the 80 some yr old women, beat to death by a teenager, because she commented about his loud music, yep it happened about 20 years ago in PSL.
PSL, is OK, but it does have a lot more going on then you must be aware of,
it's a great place to retire, raise kids, and grow marijuana, Post St Lucie has been very popular in the news as a prime location for marijuana grow houses.

Yeah, I don't care what happened 20 years ago, though. And crime does happen everywhere, but not like in West Palm (palm beach county). Didnt like 3 people get shot and killed in one night there about a week ago? There were a good amount of growhouses here about 5 years ago, I haven't heard of any recently, but someone having a growhouse isnt a violent crime.

[flagirl28]

Originally Posted by allhavoc

I think it really depends on the person moving and the income. If you are young (late 20''s, 30's) and you can afford at least $800/month in rent, you'll enjoy the place. There's a lot to do in the city of WPB downtown area, including free shows and a generally nice city center atmosphere. Most of the other cities in the county also almost always have something going on.

I can't really argue with the people who grew up here and think it has gone to sh*t; I only moved down here about three months ago. I'm not so sure about the whole locking your doors when you are on Tamarind - maybe at some point it was really bad, but the city of WPB has done a really good job cleaning the downtown and adjacent areas up. People walk freely downtown until 4/5am in the morning no problem. Besides the downtown area, there are plenty of decent places to stay off the main thoroughfare (Okeechobee RD), again if you can afford at least $800/mo in rent.

I moved here from Tampa, and before that, Tallahassee, and West Palm Beach beats those two cities hands down. That is not to say some people would not prefer the sprawl of Tampa or the 'nothing to do' of Tallahassee, but if you are looking to move to an urban area that doesn't have anywhere near the crime rate of places like Chicago, Atlanta, or even, Miami, you can do worse than WPB.

My 2 cents (or dollars).

At some point tamarind was bad? Dude, Tamarind has always been bad. It always will be unless they just knock the whole place down and rebuild. You have only been there 3 months? So are you going to take your morning jog down beautiful Tamarind avenue now? LOL.

[flagirl28]

Try the West Coast, it is really nice over there and the people are nicer. Much calmer. I don't know what it costs, but it couldn't be too much more if not less than Palm Beach County. At least you will be getting your money's worth over there.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by flagirl28

At some point tamarind was bad? Dude, Tamarind has always been bad. It always will be unless they just knock the whole place down and rebuild. You have only been there 3 months? So are you going to take your morning jog down beautiful Tamarind avenue now? LOL.

Again, who goes to tamarind avenue? Why would anyone ever have to go tamarind? Or dunar village, unless looking for trouble? You realize that fort pierce, in st. Lucie county, is statistically more dangerous per capita than west palm beach, right?

[flagirl28]

I'm not sure who would go to tamarind avenue. It is real close to Clematis and City Place, so someone not familiar with the area might accidentally go through there. I was warning the person asking the question to stay away from there earlier. Then, someone said Tamarind isn't that bad, the city cleaned it up. So I was simply replying to that. I am pretty far from Ft. Pierce and I know Ft. Pierce is bad, so I am not sure why you are speaking of Ft. Pierce. Either way, no West Palm Beach is worse than Ft. Pierce. It isn't mentioned on the list of most unsafe cities, like West Palm Beach is. I would never advise anyone to move to Ft. Pierce though, just like I wouldn't advise anyone to move to West Palm Beach.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by flagirl28

I'm not sure who would go to tamarind avenue. It is real close to Clematis and City Place, so someone not familiar with the area might accidentally go through there. I was warning the person asking the question to stay away from there earlier. Then, someone said Tamarind isn't that bad, the city cleaned it up. So I was simply replying to that. I am pretty far from Ft. Pierce and I know Ft. Pierce is bad, so I am not sure why you are speaking of Ft. Pierce.

Either way, no West Palm Beach is worse than Ft. Pierce. It isn't mentioned on the list of most unsafe cities, like West Palm Beach is. I would never advise anyone to move to Ft. Pierce though, just like I wouldn't advise anyone to move to West Palm Beach.

Your statistics are years old, flagirl. Here is what City-Data says on the issue:

Crime index - Fort Pierce - (2008): 876.2 (2009): 664.4
Crime index - WPB - (2008): 563.1 (2009): 516.3


West Palm Beach is not on the list of "most unsafe cities," and has not been for a few years now. Crime has gone down about 50% the past 10 years. Here is the most updated "most dangerous" and "safest" list for 2010:

Morgan Quitno Press - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

West Palm Beach is listed at #60, below such cities as Savannah (beautiful, and somewhere I would live no problem), Columbia, SC, Tallahassee, San Francisco, etc.:

http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime/2010..._hightolow.pdf


It's perfectly fine to tell people to avoid high crime areas of a city. But you and Ms. Crystal are dead wrong when you paint the entire city with a broad brush. I could name half a dozen neighborhoods and areas of the city off the top of my head that you probably never even knew existed, let alone ever visited or lived, and thousands of people live these areas.


And by the way, Fort Pierce is a fraction of the size of WPB.... which is why it doesn't hit ANY lists, because it's not large enough. Same reason why Riviera Beach doesn't make any lists, when statistically, it is much worse in Riviera than WPB.

[ssclulow]

TriMT7 is stating current facts and statistics. Many others are stating opinions. Those using the posts in these forums to make decisions, need to be careful to discern between the two.

[P Andrews]

Originally Posted by flagirl28

Yeah, I don't care what happened 20 years ago, though. And crime does happen everywhere, but not like in West Palm (palm beach county). Didnt like 3 people get shot and killed in one night there about a week ago? There were a good amount of growhouses here about 5 years ago, I haven't heard of any recently, but someone having a growhouse isnt a violent crime.

20 years ago was an example, it wasn't the last crime that took place, so don't get on the defensive
And I am not even bashing the grow houses, I am a live and let live kinda person. I was born in the 50's grew up in the 60's and went to school in Palm Beach County, so I can truly verify that I have seen my share of transformation in the area.
So I can truthfully state it is not the laid back area that it was, back when i grew up.
But it is not the crime riddled ghetto that you described. As a matter of fact it is far from that. We have far more good here. than bad and we are constantly bettering our area all the time. We are a very vigilant area that is growing and we make ajustments and are always improving our cities in this county, we want to keep them safe and inviteing to our public all the time. We are not ignorant, we are on top of everything the criminals are up to, we have to be, crime can float up on the beach for Gods Sake!! This is south Florida, you have to stay vigilant, but you also have to live, we have the most educated law inforcement and our residents have very active Crime Watch Patrols in the residental communities. Our residents work together. We love our communities.
And for your information If you think having a grow house in the neighborhood is an OK thing, that's OK by me, But If you think some one would let anyone come in and try to confiscate that product, or steal the merchandise and not put up a fight. You seriously are very naive when it comes to what is happening out on the streets today. And as for the growhouses being 5 years ago here ya go:
Tip leads cops to marijuana grow house in Port St. Lucie




January 19, 2011 5:38 PM

WPEC - CBS12.com

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Police acting on a Crimestoppers tip visited a Port St. Lucie home and discovered a large marijuana grow operation in the garage.
A caller said an indoor marijuana garden was in operation at 1042 SW Baystate Road. After knocking on the door, a person in the home led police to the garage, which was converted into a “grow room."
Detectives obtained a search warrant and found 26 potted suspected cannabis plants that were cut down, drying and prepared for packaging. The plants were about as tall as 3 feet.
In the master bedroom, police found 19 gallon-sized plastic bags of suspected cannabis along with gallon-sized bags of suspected cannabis found in the refrigerator and kitchen closet. All the suspected pot weighed 64.2 pounds with an estimated street value between $96,000 and $128,000.
The grow house was in operation for a few months. The home is believed to be in foreclosure.
Three young children were found in the house and were released to their grandfather.
Karel Felipe and Alysen Acosta were both arrested for Cultivation of Cannabis, Trafficking Cannabis, Possession of Cannabis with the Intent to Sell and taken to the St. Lucie County Jail.


It's a point I want to make, this does not make Port St Lucie a bad place to live, it just makes it part of the norm.
It's 2011. You just take the good with the bad.