Safety at the Avondale/Riverside area

[chachisweda]

We are about to relocate out family to the Avondale/Riverside area and we have not idea if is a safe place to live; we always lived in gate communities with not bad areas surrounding us. I would love to know more from local residents.

Thanks,

[fieldafm]

Get out from the gates and make the move!  This is one of the BEST neighborhoods in Jax.  There are probably more kids here per capita than in your current gated community.  Everyone waves to you from their front yards/porches when you run/walk/bike by in the afternoons.  And we have trees that produce actual shade too, not just a bunch of 6 foot tall Drake Elms spattered haphazardly around like you do in most of the subdivisions around here 

[Dog Walker]

Great place to live and work!  You WILL get to know your neighbors whether you want to or not.  Terrific for kids as you have sidewalks everywhere and neighborhood parks within walking distance.

If you have a problem with people of another color or who grew up speaking a language other than English, stick with a gated community.  Of course there you will have to worry about the spoiled rich kids who get their kicks vandalizing your car.

[JeffreyS]

I am jealous I can not wait to move back to the Riverside area from the burbs.

[Sportmotor]

Its a nice place for sure

[Jaxson]

There is something in Riverside-Avondale for everybody.  I used to live there, and only moved to be closer to my job at the Beaches.  Otherwise, I would have stayed.  I still enjoy visiting Riverside-Avondale because of its character and variety.

[RiversideLoki]

I hate gated communities with the false sense of security. My car has been broken into more times in gated than in Riverside. You'll love it here, honestly. I don't know why I lived anywhere else!

[Brian Siebenschuh]

As a (somewhat) longtime Riverside resident and Avondale business owner, let's not get carried away with our neighborhood cheerleading.  I love my neighborhood, but we have issues like any other.  I live in the 2000 block(s) of College Street and my house HAS been robbed (once in the past 6 years).  That being said, I had three or four car breakins when I lived in gated apartment complexes in the early 2000's.  There are plenty of sketchy spots in Riverside - generally speaking, the farther away you get from the river, the rougher it might be.  But there are plenty of great houses on Myra and Green and Ernest; hats off to the responsible property owners that are maintaining a stronghold on those streets.  It's block by block.  If the surrounding properties look bad, don't take that house.  Or - like me - take the house, get an alarm and a couple 90 pound boxers.  Surrounding properties be damned.

All that being said, I wouldn't live anywhere else in Jacksonville.  The houses, the trees, the parks, the residential/commercial mix - you won't find it anywhere else.  And you can live near Orsay :-)

[Jaxson]

Agreed, Brian.  Every side of town has its issues.  I don't mind, however, 'cheerleading' for Riverside-Avondale because it is a key component to reviving the urban core.  Of course, we have to still maintain diligence when it comes to safety issues.

[Steve]

As a Riverside resident and a board member of Riverside Avondale Preservation, I'm obviously partial.  However, I wouldn't live anywhere else.  Now, I'm not going to say that crime never happens.  However, 90% of the crime that occurrs is small-scale robbery (not trying to minimize Brian's break-in at all).  I've never been a victim of crime (as I knock on wood).  My neighbors have had a GPS stolen out of a car before, however the criminal didn't break into the car; it was unlocked (I'd like to point out, the same thing happened to my parent's neighbors in Ponte Vedra).

If you have any more detailed questions, feel free to PM me.