I’m seriously considering renting a small house in St. Ann. Though I’ve heard it has a bad reputation, I’ve not seen anything in the area (south of St. Charles Rock Rd.) or read much in the paper (except for property crimes along St. Charles Rock Rd. ) that would account for that rep.
I’m looking at an area east of Ashby and just north of Baltimore. While it’s maybe a smidgen run down, it looks to me like your basic lower-middle class neighborhood, and it doesn’t look like it’s horrible.
I live just off Ashby about a mile south of Baltimore (a block north of Page). I’m in Overland, but the areas are similar.
The whole region is hit or miss. There are great neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods. You can generally tell which are which at a glance. The area that you’re talking about has always struck me as relatively nice.
I don’t know much about the politics of St. Ann, so I can’t help you there.
A lot of our acquaintances live in the area, and everyone is generally satisfied. We enjoy our neighborhood.
If you have any specific questions, I can certainly try to help you out
If that ain’t enough of a “There goes the neighborhood!” moment for you, I don’t know what is.
And to answer your question, I haven’t head anything specifically horrible about St. Ann. But that don’t mean much. The area looks like it’s still pretty “tame,” with lots of families, and churches and parks that see a lot of business in nicer weather.
Yeah, I’m impressed by the parks, at least on the map. Something like four of them within walking distance from where I’d be.
fachverwirrt, I know the city is hurting from the decline of Northwest Plaza (though you’d think it would be used to it by now) but as far as I can tell, it’s not on the critical list. That’s why I thought I’d ask.
I lived off of Adie and St. Francis for a time. Nice area, older well kept houses, and bigger yards with lots of trees. Two parks with-in walking distance.
Of course this was before Northwest Plaza began to decline, so YMMV.
St. Ann in general has a bad reputation because of some very high profile crime at Northwest Plaza, but once you get away from the high-traffic streets of Lindbergh and the Rock Road, it’s generally a pretty quiet place. Like fachverwirrt says, it’s hit or miss, but the “miss” areas are pretty clear cut.
In fact I used to live just off Baltimore on the border between St. Ann and Breckenridge Hills. I think “lower middle class” or perhaps “blue collar” sums it up nicely.
) that would account for that rep.