Worst Areas (Cleveland, Lorain, Elyria: high crime, houses, neighborhoods)

[BelieveInCleve]

I just wanted to know what areas of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County people think are the worst areas. No offense to anyone that lives in those areas because there are nice people everywhere in Cleveland but I just want to know what people think. The worst areas are based on crime, decay, drugs, vacant lots, abandoned houses, public housing, bad schools, and anything else bad. I wanted to start this thread to inform people visiting the Cleveland area some possible areas to avoid.

Ive lived around Cleveland my whole life and Ive been to Cleveland many times and spent time there so I have a basic idea of what the some bad areas are. St. Clair-Superior neighborhood seemed like it was one of the worst areas last year. Also E 93rd St on the Eastside is pretty bad looking. 79th Street and Kinsman is bad. Most of the city of East Cleveland is considered bad. Most of St. Clair East of 55th is pretty rough also and Superior is too.

[ottomobeale]

E105 & Cedar. had a client there. Come out to my car. Temperature is like -4F that day. Locks are frozen. Im trying to turn the lock. Im not messing with the locks 20 seconds when a mountain sized black man comes up behind me and speaks in a very low baritone voice. "What are you doing?"

He sees the keys in my hand, his voice goes up 2 octaves to a normal male voice, "oh frozen locks". He had lock deicer. His job was parking lot guard.

[complexsimplicity]

Cle440, I had the same neighborhoods in mind. Also Superior Ave from the 60's all the way down to Ansel and Superior is pretty bad as well as Hough and Wade Park around East High school. Back in the day there was a lot of gang fights going on over there, not sure how it is now though.

Kinsman around 71st-79th is the Garden Valley Projects. I'm not sure if it is the worst projects in the city, but I bet it comes close. I don't even like to drive in that area. The Community College area by dowtown near 30th is pretty rough, I think there are some projects around there as well. The Tri-C metro campus is right in the neighborhood, but I haven't heard any bad stories from people who attend college at that campus. I think the 131st area by Harvard is a rough neighborhood as well, but I'm not to sure about that.

I wish I new more about the westside, I need to start venturing out to that side of town...

[WeSoHood]

From a standpoint of crime, right near Metro Health is very bad. 2nd district had the most homicides - along with 2 other districts. The west side has the perception of not being bad - that is true to the extent in the Kamms Corner/West Park area. The rest of the west is in just as much trouble as the east. Particularly, west of downtown to the Detroit-Shoreway area. Just outside of Cleveland, Lorain and Elyria have bad areas. Lorain and Elyria are the worst areas of the West Side area of Cleveland, although not in Cuyahoga.

[CTownNative]

Im not living in Cleveland right now,but I lived there most of my life in Euclid right near the Cleveland border,and I get back to Cleveland alot.In my opinion the areas with the worst decay is the St. Clair-Superior area,parts of Euclid Ave.,Kinsman.I like those areas of Cleveland,but they have some problems.Lakeshore Blvd. has some decay problems,not as bad as Euclid Ave. or St. Clair Ave. but theres some decay.I grew up around E. 185th street which is in 44119 zip code,its partly Euclid and partly Cleveland.I love that area,always will,and I'd definetly live there again,but theres some decay there,nothing terrible though.You don't have to go very far from there though to find some areas with alot of decay.E. 156th isn't far from 185th street,and theres alot of boarded up buildings on that street.Im pretty sure the area in Cleveland with the most crime is the 5th district.

[BelieveInCleve]

The Eastside is worse than the westside but the westside has some pretty rough areas too. Madison Ave on the Westside isnt too good. Also some areas close to Tremont are pretty bad. Clark ave has some bad parts and some of the streets off of 25th arent too good. Other then that Im not 2 sure about the westside. The worst areas on the westside outside of Cleveland are South Elyria and South and Central Lorain.

The areas that have the most abandonment and most vacant lots and decay seem to be South East of Downtown especially some of the streets off of Kinsman around the projects, theres really nothing left in that area except a few boarded up houses. Also 93rd Woodhill and Buckeye are pretty bad looking.

[1watertiger]

in my opinion streets going east from 55th. (st.clair,superior,wade park,cedar,carnaige,central,buckeye,woodland,kinsm an,union) . i dont care what anyone says there are not many nieghborhoods left in cleveland that i would want to raise kids let alone live there myself.

[WeSoHood]

Gun shots in Cleveland in one year span.

BTW - District 2, 4, 5 had 35 murders each I believe - I know 3 districts tied with murders. So, the westside DOES have a bad neighborhood contrary to popular belief by most. Just west of downtown - aside from some areas of Ohio City and Tremont - is just as dangerous as the east. As you can see, the West Park area is the only one with essentially no gunshots reported.

[BelieveInCleve]

Dont forget to factor in that in inner city neighborhoods and high crime neighborhoods they hardly ever report gunshots. I know when I was in bad area of Cleveland for a couple days I heard gunshots and noone reported them and the police never came.

[BenFlesh]

My take is that some of the higher crime areas are also some of the most interesting. I put neighborhoods into three categories:
1. Safe (relatively): old brooklyn, most of west park, edgewater, archwood, shaker sq

2. High crime, but interesting (that is, businesses are operating and has a functioning economy): north collinwood, clark-fulton, buckeye, st clair-superior, harvard-lee, ohio city, tremont,glenville; all of these have reasons for going there

3. Dead; some of these neighborhoods are so far gone they're basically rural: kinsman, central av, most of hough, willow (if you've never been there, make the trip; a fascinating trip through time; I believe stranger than paradise was filmed here), warner-turney (all the crime of the inner city plus the blandness of the burbs).

By the way, I moved from cleveland seven years ago, so my understanding may be somewhat outdated. I miss it, though; boston is a bland simulacrum, an alphaville posing as a real city.