How do I say this?? Do any of you live in a not so safe side of town?

[lori in tx]

We moved here in February, and while during the day it seems safe, it also seems on the edge of not being safe at all. It is a duplex neighborhood so people move in and out all the time. We walk around during the day and I am not scared but when school is out it is a little different story. We can't move because we are barely scrapping by and besides we have moved 3 times in the last 25 months I am done with moving for now.

 

Sometimes I feel like we are the only one, my sons who are 13 and 11yo play with a neighbor boy outside only in the front yard but as far as riding around the neighborhood alone nope and I am in kitchen cooking or something so I can see them the entire time. ohh and dh thinks I am wacky our upstairs front facing bedroom window's lock are broken off, they don't lock dh thinks I am wacky for worrying about it. I don't he says who would break in a front facing window, most windows have no screens!!!

 

Anyway am I alone? By the way I do really like were we live it is incredibly quiet all day long, I think we are the only ones home on a duplex block of 20 homes. We have an incredible amount of nature in our major town home (baby possums, doves and squirrels galore)

Just curious

lori

[Mommieeeee]

Yes, we are in a similar situation. Only we have lived in this neighborhood for 13 years now. Of course when we bought this house we were only going to live here for "a couple of years" and move on. Right! Once we started having kids, we figured out that we had to stay awhile.

 

We live in a neighborhood where there are drug dealers, gangs and the things that go along with it. My children don't play outside unless dh or I are out there. We have locking windows and doors. In fact we have 3 locks on our front door! Part of our security system is two large dogs. So, no one really approaches our house for fear of the dogs (if only they knew they would probably be licked to death! but we don't tell anyone that!)

 

So, I just wanted you to know that you aren't alone. For us, we know this is a season of our lives. We won't live here forever. It is very expensive here (we live in the SF Bay Area of CA) but there are opportunities galore, so that part definately makes it worth it to stay, especially as a homeschooler.

 

If you need any more "security" ideas ask, I have probably done it all! Try a board across the bottom of the sliding window to use as a temporary lock for your broken lock on the window. It works, we've done it!

[Sue G in PA]

where we can safely leave doors and windows unlocked. That is, until a string of burglaries took place about a month ago. :glare: But still...that was the first scary event that really took place. It's a hunting town around here so 9/10 people have at least a hunting rifle in their home...nobody wants to mess with that.

 

Our last neighborhood...not so safe. The day we moved in, we were greeted at the entrance to our court by 3 police cars and officers w/ shields trying to protect themselves against a knife-wielding, emotionally disturbed teenager who lived just 5 doors down from our new home. :001_huh: Daytime was fine, but at night the teens all congregated at the little play lot directly adjacent our house and bedroom window. :glare: Drinking, smoking, loud carousing, cursing, vandalizing, etc. We had the local police on speed-dial but they never did anything until well after midnight. And then...one of the parents of one of the teens knew several of the officers so the teens always go away with it! :glare:

[forty-two]

We live in an unsafe area. During the day I don't worry much, but I wouldn't walk around at night. Our street is quite well-known to the police. We have manhunts in the area every month or so, complete with circling helicopters, and in the 2.5 years we've lived here, there have been two drug-related shootings in the projects near our house. On a related note, my dh thinks the guy who lives two houses over is a drug dealer, but me in my obliviousness haven't noticed a thing.

 

That really sounds bad, but honestly I don't worry much. I always keep the doors locked, and we have a dog, who is *very* barky. I close and lock the windows when I hear circling helicopters. But most of the crime - particularly the violent crime - seems limited to the criminals involved. We are more likely to read about it in the paper than see it out our front window. We just go about our lives, and it isn't a big deal.

[Dee22]

on a nice street until our next door neighbors moved out and drug dealers moved in:glare: It was so sad to see our family friendly street turn into something else. So, we moved about 1 1/2 years later and bought a home 1/2 hour north in a more rural area which made my husband have to commute to work. But, we've never regretted it even though the gas prices have soared. My kids can ride their bikes, fish at the pond, and run around in the yard without me worrying too much. :001_smile:

[JFSinIL]

Safer back when we moved in....14 years ago. Now less safe, and we have an abandoned house on the corner two doors down, now across the street some neighbors have walked out of their mortgage so there is another empty house - and another corner house was watched by police for a time as the grown son was apparently dealing drugs out of his basement. And we have had a shooting across the main street. We also have many sex offenders within a few blocks - so I drive my kids places, they do not walk to the house of anyone not on our block.

[Mommieeeee]

On a related note, my dh thinks the guy who lives two houses over is a drug dealer, but me in my obliviousness haven't noticed a thing.

 

That really sounds bad, but honestly I don't worry much.

 

 

Wow! I guess that I am not the only one. This is exactly how I feel too. I take the precautions and let God handle the rest.

 

The dh comment was too funny! My dh is always pointing these things out to me too. I would never know if he didn't tell me. I might still think that we lived in a decent neighborhood with helicopters that are just "stopping over" if he didn't tell me. Now, as time has went past, I am know the signs of different houses, if you kwim.

[lori in tx]

Wow! I guess that I am not the only one. This is exactly how I feel too. I take the precautions and let God handle the rest.

 

The dh comment was too funny! My dh is always pointing these things out to me too. I would never know if he didn't tell me. I might still think that we lived in a decent neighborhood with helicopters that are just "stopping over" if he didn't tell me. Now, as time has went past, I am know the signs of different houses, if you kwim.

 

Well see that is why I brought this up, he told me to only open the back windows when school is out and said why? He said, " Do you think that group of kids hanging out are just friends who get in trouble?" I said yeah, he said "yep we call that a gang. Why do you think they were wearing the same color shirts?" UMM didn't notice that!

:lol::lol::lol:

[Fourmother]

When we were renting we lived in a much nicer neighborhood. When we were ready to buy a house we couldn't afford the area. So we ended up buying in the barrio. It's like watching the process of gentrification in slow motion. Older families and widows sell, younger middle class families move in. Also in the mix are transient apartment dwellers, gang bangers and the working poor. We get "ghetto birds" (helicopters) buzzing the area several times a month, sometimes a couple times a week.

 

This is how we cope: My kids play only in our backyard which is surrounded by an 8' high wooden fence. The kids and I don't have any neighborhood friends, though my husband occasionally plays golf with one neighbor. Doors and windows are locked, ADT security system installed, and barky dog adopted. All and all things really are pretty quiet, aside from the ghetto birds and distant gun play. We are removed from most of the shenanigans because our house sits up on a steep hillside, which also means we have a spectacular view. Plus things have gotten better since the house of rock-heads down the street was disbanded a couple years ago when the new owners moved in.

[Laurie]

We've lived here for almost 15 years. At one time this was a "Neighborhood of the Year", and in many ways it's still a great community. But it's been so sad to watch the increase in things like graffiti /vandalism, gang-related shooting at the nearby mall, etc.

 

I'm much more security-conscious than my husband. I don't know if it's because he grew up in New York City, rode the subway to high school, etc. or if it's just because he doesn't know what it's like to be a woman home alone with children all day.

 

We live in a Victorian-style home, and your first impression wouldn't be "fortress", but it kind of is! We've got a monitored security system, good locks on the doors and windows, and some decorative iron window guards on the more hidden ones that a burglar might go for. We keep our driveway and porch lit up at night.

 

You could check with your local police to see if they offer crime prevention programs like home safety inspections, Block Watch, etc. and maybe that might help you feel more secure and move your husband to make some improvements.

 

Like you, I'm home during the day when others are out so I notice when something looks suspicious. When a group of troublesome teens used to hang out across the street after school I'd just go sweep the porch to keep my eye on them. Now they've found somewhere else to hang out. I don't hesitate to take down license plate numbers just in case I end up having to report something. And I'm also a light sleeper which is a curse to me but a good deal for the neighbors. (Last year I got my first ride in a police car to go identify the drunk hit-and-run driver who totalled our neighbor's car ...how they slept through the crash, I'll never know!) I also carry pepper spray on walks around the neighborhood, but that's more because I'm afraid of an escaping pit bull than a mugger. Anyway, it pays to keep your eyes and ears open and have a notepad and pen handy!

 

Sometimes I really feel like moving out of the city. We look from time to time, but the more rural areas can have problems, too. It would be just my luck to end up living next to a meth lab!

[Harriet Vane]

My husband and I have chosen to live in a difficult urban environment. We are white--we have chosen to live in an African-American neighborhood that struggles with issues of crime and poverty. Our little enclave of blocks is primarily blue collar, and we have many great neighbors.

 

We also, unfortunately, have some folks who sell drugs on our block, and we have an illegal drug rehab next door. (It's more of a flophouse--they are taking blatant advantage of people with addictions. It's pretty awful AND unsafe.) The winter is usually pretty quiet, but in the summer there is absolutely ALWAYS a party on the street. While I do find it easy to tune out most of the city noise (traffic, ambulance sirens, etc.) I cannot tune out "dysfunctional" noise like that of the children playing on the street till 11 or 12pm, or the young adults who like to stay up till all hours drinking and goofing off on the street.

 

Like you, I cannot EVER let my kids out of my sight in the front yard. They play in the backyard alone because it has a high, pointy fence, but I still feel I have to check on them every couple minutes. One other difficulty we face is the fact that my dd, who is 11yo, is quite capable and responsible to handle greater freedom, but our neighborhood is not safe enough to allow that.

 

I have to go pick up my son from Spanish class--gotta run for now. I wanted you to know that I commiserate both with the good things about this place (cheaper, good neighbors, access to many nifty city resources) but also how the hard things really are hard.

 

:grouphug:

[lori in tx]

Yes, we are in a similar situation. Only we have lived in this neighborhood for 13 years now. Of course when we bought this house we were only going to live here for "a couple of years" and move on. Right! Once we started having kids, we figured out that we had to stay awhile.

 

We live in a neighborhood where there are drug dealers, gangs and the things that go along with it. My children don't play outside unless dh or I are out there. We have locking windows and doors. In fact we have 3 locks on our front door! Part of our security system is two large dogs. So, no one really approaches our house for fear of the dogs (if only they knew they would probably be licked to death! but we don't tell anyone that!)

 

So, I just wanted you to know that you aren't alone. For us, we know this is a season of our lives. We won't live here forever. It is very expensive here (we live in the SF Bay Area of CA) but there are opportunities galore, so that part definately makes it worth it to stay, especially as a homeschooler.

 

If you need any more "security" ideas ask, I have probably done it all! Try a board across the bottom of the sliding window to use as a temporary lock for your broken lock on the window. It works, we've done it!

 

I do need a suggestion. We have two back doors, the first one is in the kitchen and the other in our living room both have window panes where some one could break the window and unlock the door. Any suggestions?

 

We have one of these http://astore.amazon.com/amazonshops-20/detail/B0006FV0D0/103-0741026-0839808 and the chain lock that does nothing any other tips?

[Mommieeeee]

I am assuming that you have regular doors, not sliding glass doors. We have security screen doors similar to these Security Doors.

 

We have this on our front door. It is very strong and a good visual deterrent. This door has two locks on it. So, in order to get into the front door, you have these two locks and the three on the front door.

 

Is this what you were looking for?

[lori in tx]

I wonder if our landlord would let us put these on? HMMM I know he wouldn't put them on, but maybe we can find a deal!

thanks

lori

[Mommieeeee]

I wonder if our landlord would let us put these on? HMMM I know he wouldn't put them on, but maybe we can find a deal!

thanks

lori

 

They are about $75 each and my dh put them on himself. They screw right onto the door frame. Not too hard... If your landlord wouldn't buy them and you did, they wouldn't be too hard to remove and take with you. We bought one second hand and put it right onto our door, no problem.

[lori in tx]

They are about $75 each and my dh put them on himself. They screw right onto the door frame. Not too hard... If your landlord wouldn't buy them and you did, they wouldn't be too hard to remove and take with you. We bought one second hand and put it right onto our door, no problem.

 

Good idea!