Crime in Ventura and Oxnard? (Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks: low income, lofts, violent crime)

[knicksin8]

Is the crime seen in Ventura and Oxnard more of the violent or property crime variety?

I've read a lot of older posts about Oxnard and it seems to have polarized
reviews in terms of safety... either the haters say u will get shot or stabbed if
you leave your house by gangsters vs. the defenders stating it is extremely safe by the stats for an area with this population? So, which is it? The posts in Ventura suggest alot if homeless near the beach, but safety is seen east of the "Avenue," wherever that is.

I'm considering a VA job in Oxnard so being close would be ideal. If the public schools are not good, I'm fine with sending my kids to Catholic school. While no place is immune from crime, I need a relatively safe place for my family. Any safe areas to consider within either Oxnard or Ventura for a family coming from NJ? Thanks in advance.

[rgb123]

you will have to visit and spend some time to fully understand the place.

Oxnard and Ventura are basically the same place (though people who have lived there a long time would argue). Downtown Ventura is what really differentiates itself from Oxnard (along with mid town I guess). There are also probably more nice properties in the hills behind Ventura which Oxnard lacks...but Onxard has the much nicer beach properties with multi million dolloar homes.

I lived in DT Ventura for a year and a half, and Hollywood Beach for a year (which is in Oxnard). Hollywood Beach was actually very safe. I mean, boring safe. I left my trek bike on my patio and was never bothered, I left my door open many times ...my patio was in the back of the house and hidden from the street, but I would also walk around by myself late at night and even on the beach. never any issues for me. I'm female. There are parts of Oxnard that are more hispanic and some parts that are low income that are not nice and same with Ventura its harder for me to point out what those bad areas are as I rarely had need to go to them and don't have kids in school. I would drive through them but again never had problems and sometimes went to stores or for services in "bad" areas, no problems.

To be politcally incorrect the only thing that occasionally bugged me about living in mostly hispanic areas was just that they have bigger families and different culture....pretty much a guarentee for more screaming kids at the grocery stores like Costco

Downtown Ventura was more my speed but the homeless problem is out of control in my opinion and a real negative on the city. If they can get that figured out I think its one of the very best places to be in CA!! The downtown is livley, feels like a community, has great shops and resturants and there is local pride, midtown is nice too and the areas around it which include oxnard are just more suburban.

I wouldn't say Oxnard or Ventura are unsafe, there are just certain neighborhoods where there is either a homeless problem or in some maybe a gang problem but I never spent time in those areas and I doubt you would accidentally move there.

The areas questionable areas in Ventura near Victoria ave but I didn't visit them much either.

Look at Camarillo. I've heard a lot of complaints about schools in the Ventura area....but it doesn't necessarily translate to safety/crime issues for living if that makes sense.

Oxnard = more suburban and more potential for lower income neighborhoods
Ventura = more homeless out and about in public places with good and bad areas.

[rgb123]

ps. to answer your first question, I think it is more property crime. That includes Thousand Oaks which is supposedly safer.

Violent crime is rare, especially on innocent people. The violent crime that does happen tends to be to people who are up to no good and hanging with the wrong crowd. Not always, but generally speaking.

I had reservations about crime before I moved as well. I would probably be concerned about schools for the kids, but crime became of no concern for me once I got used to the area.

[sponger42]

Originally Posted by knicksin8

Is the crime seen in Ventura and Oxnard more of the violent or property crime variety?

I've read a lot of older posts about Oxnard and it seems to have polarized
reviews in terms of safety... either the haters say u will get shot or stabbed if
you leave your house by gangsters vs. the defenders stating it is extremely safe by the stats for an area with this population? So, which is it? The posts in Ventura suggest alot if homeless near the beach, but safety is seen east of the "Avenue," wherever that is.

I'm considering a VA job in Oxnard so being close would be ideal. If the public schools are not good, I'm fine with sending my kids to Catholic school. While no place is immune from crime, I need a relatively safe place for my family. Any safe areas to consider within either Oxnard or Ventura for a family coming from NJ? Thanks in advance.

Both places are Mayberry compared to LA, and probably parts of NJ too. To give you an idea; when I lived in the [San Fernando] valley (45 miles away toward LA) my roommate got stabbed. He waited for 4 hours with a deep bleeding leg wound while gunshot victims and other serious trauma cases were seen in the swamped local hospital.

When my family needed a test at CMH (Community Memorial Hospital) here in Ventura, we had to register at the emergency room because it was off-hours. The people at the window were asleep and the waiting room was totally empty. That's pretty reassuring.

A local paper has a poster of 6 people on "Ventura's Most Wanted" list. They are all wanted for "possession/distribution of a controlled substance". There HAVE been 2 murders and one or two shootings in Ventura in the past 9 months, but both murders were one homeless guy beating up another guy, who then died, because they're not in good shape to begin with. The shootings were gang-related and both happened on "The Avenue." This refers to Ventura Avenue, which runs parallel to the 33 up the valley to the West of Ventura's downtown. This area includes a homeless encampment near a trailer park in the wooded river bottom sometimes called the "hobo jungle", a lot of housing previously used by oil workers from the oil fields to the north of town, and some new lofts/artist's space. There's also a mental hospital a ways up the Avenue.

Not surprisingly, housing on The Avenue runs about 100k cheaper than anywhere else in town. Housing in the hills costs 100-300K more (because of nice views, distance from commercial/industrial areas, etc.)

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by sponger42

Both places are Mayberry compared to LA, and probably parts of NJ too. To give you an idea; when I lived in the [San Fernando] valley (45 miles away toward LA) my roommate got stabbed. He waited for 4 hours with a deep bleeding leg wound while gunshot victims and other serious trauma cases were seen in the swamped local hospital.

When my family needed a test at CMH (Community Memorial Hospital) here in Ventura, we had to register at the emergency room because it was off-hours. The people at the window were asleep and the waiting room was totally empty. That's pretty reassuring.

A local paper has a poster of 6 people on "Ventura's Most Wanted" list. They are all wanted for "possession/distribution of a controlled substance". There HAVE been 2 murders and one or two shootings in Ventura in the past 9 months, but both murders were one homeless guy beating up another guy, who then died, because they're not in good shape to begin with. The shootings were gang-related and both happened on "The Avenue." This refers to Ventura Avenue, which runs parallel to the 33 up the valley to the West of Ventura's downtown. This area includes a homeless encampment near a trailer park in the wooded river bottom sometimes called the "hobo jungle", a lot of housing previously used by oil workers from the oil fields to the north of town, and some new lofts/artist's space. There's also a mental hospital a ways up the Avenue.

Not surprisingly, housing on The Avenue runs about 100k cheaper than anywhere else in town. Housing in the hills costs 100-300K more (because of nice views, distance from commercial/industrial areas, etc.)

San Fernando Valley is LA. LA is a big place and the Valley is part of the City of Los Angeles.

[Winston Smith]

Both cities are among the safest in the country for their size, but in general: property crimes, theft, larceny. Things like aggravated assaults, rape, murder are low in both cities. It also varies hugely from neighborhood to neighborhood. Take note not to be fooled that because the beach neighborhoods are expensive they are safe. The more expensive areas can also have higher instances of property crimes, vehicle break-ins, and so on.

[BeanSi]

You can check here; www.crimereports.com.

[Onthenodd]

Where are the bad drug areas in ventura