Moving to south SO - Tichenor/Irvington - advice please

We are considering a move to SO and I was wondering if any of you could share your thoughts on the area around Tichenor/Irvington Ave. It seemed beautiful and safe driving through but I saw some posts online about armed robberies around there. Is that true? Can anybody provide some insight? Thanks so much!

Where are you moving from and what locations are you also considering?

The reality is that the type of crime you describe does occasionally happen in South Orange and Maplewood. Fortunately, it rarely ends up with someone getting hurt. Doesn't make it pleasant.

I love the towns and generally feel safe, but the trade off of being close-in vis a vis NYC is we're also close to some high crime areas and there is some spillover.

We are moving in from Brooklyn (Carroll Gardens) and loved the look of Maplewood/South Orange.

We moved from Kensington, Brooklyn to South Orange in 2008. In general I feel very safe here but to be honest I also don't spend a lot of time walking around the streets in the evening/night because we have young children at home. I do make sure to keep our house and car doors locked and we have an alarm system on our house as well as a very noisy beagle who likes to spend most of his time outside in the backyard. So, I do find this area to be safe but you have to be smart and aware that it is not a neighborhood that is devoid of any crime (if in fact that exists anywhere!). I would highly recommend coming out to visit the towns in the evening and check it out for yourself. Comfort levels can vary greatly depending on the individual.

That being said, I love living here. It may not be perfect, but for us, it is the perfect place to call home.

May I suggest taking a look at the SO Police Blotter? See http://southorange.org/police/blotter.asp .

Print out a map of South Orange (https://www.google.com/maps/place/South+Orange,+NJ/@40.7429587,-74.2525036,14z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c3ac86a845f5f5:0xd2abe88bc4886849), then put dots on the locations where a crime has recently occurred.

Track over time and decide for yourself.

Hey cupoftea! Another Kensington Brooklyn transplant (since 1997). Beverly Road and Ocean Parkway. When I lived there one of my neighbors was shot and killed in a drive by. Also heard of others and muggings. It's better here, but you have to use common sense and some precautions. For example, don't leave an unlocked bike in a garage.

Hi Nan! The only thing I used to miss about Brooklyn was the food but since we moved here things have greatly improved restaurant-wise. And with the BOT vote last night to go with Landmark for Village Hall it will hopefully only continue to get better and better

Manhattan--->Park Slope--->Maplewood--->South Orange. Dragged out here kicking and screaming...15 years later, wouldn't move back. Kids loved/love it, schools were great. I still love getting off the train and seeing our cute downtown, then walking home through the beautiful greenery to our comfortable, spacious (compared to Brooklyn, palatial) house. Ah.

The food here is fine compared to what I got in Kensington, Brooklyn circa 1996. They had one diner downtown that served moldy muffins and watery coffee. There was a good deli and a butcher, but both closed. The pizza place got held up regularly, or so I was told. We usually ended up ordering Chinese delivery. The Chinese place was not bad, but not worth staying for. Things might have changed after I left, but I went back once a few years later and it seemed worse.

I messaged you

JCSO said:
May I suggest taking a look at the SO Police Blotter? See http://southorange.org/police/blotter.asp .
Print out a map of South Orange (https://www.google.com/maps/place/South+Orange,+NJ/@40.7429587,-74.2525036,14z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c3ac86a845f5f5:0xd2abe88bc4886849), then put dots on the locations where a crime has recently occurred.
Track over time and decide for yourself.

My guess is that if people started to lock their vehicles the crimes reported on the police blotter would decrease by 50%. I read the police blotter fairly regularly and I'm constantly amazed by the number of thefts from unlocked vehicles.

eta - Quokka,

Welcome to South Orange! It's a wonderful town.

I live a few blocks from where you're talking about, and I can say that we definitely don't live in fear. I don't think you really need to think about crime any differently than you would in the city (we previously lived in Washington Heights before moving here in Feb.) We love it here so far - welcome!

qrysdonnell said:
I live a few blocks from where you're talking about, and I can say that we definitely don't live in fear. I don't think you really need to think about crime any differently than you would in the city (we previously lived in Washington Heights before moving here in Feb.) We love it here so far - welcome!

Agreed. I live on the other end of Tichenor (by Garfield) and have for the past 16 years and feel very safe. I've walked to town, walked to restaurants on Irvington, Grove Park, the train station, etc., in the AM, PM, at night, etc. Like anywhere else, you need to be aware of your surroundings, but I feel as safe (or safer) here as anywhere else I've lived as an adult - Brooklyn, UWS, Washington DC, Atlanta.

Yes, there has been random crime, as there is anywhere, but we have a great neighborhood association (The Village Colonials) and we're all pretty aware of what's going on, and are pretty vigilant about reporting suspicious activity and keeping an eye out for each other.

cramer said:

My guess is that if people started to lock their vehicles the crimes reported on the police blotter would decrease by 50%. I read the police blotter fairly regularly and I'm constantly amazed by the number of thefts from unlocked vehicles.

Boy, that's right.

Then again, I recall the smash and grab era in Philadelphia, so I'm not sure it's the locking that matters so much as the leaving of expensive goods in a car. Like an iPad and watches.

The area is safe but of course with high-crime urban cities directly to the East, crime does occur. Most of it, as mentioned above is people rifling through unlocked cars at night but not unlike Brooklyn, there have been robberies. I would definitely say that it is a safer area than where you are moving from but a big difference may be that when a crime happens here, we hear about it and it is reported on and discussed on sites such as this. The SOPD is extremely responsive and effective and crime rates have been dropping steadily for decades, making the area safer than it has ever been. I live in a different part of town but have been spending a lot of time in the Irvington Ave area at all hours of the day and night and have never felt unsafe. From my perspective it is also a great time to move there as a lot of attention is being brought to improving the area and it is showing. Welcome to town!

This is the link to the police blotter for incidents 6/17/2015 - 6/26/2015. There are a total of 17 incidents for this period. There were 8 thefts from unlocked vehicles and one theft of a vehicle where the keys were left in the ignition. These are all opportunistic crimes. Two incidents occurred on the same street.

PLEASE, LOCK YOUR VEHICLES!

http://southorange.org/Police/blotter.asp

eta - Thefts from unlocked vehicles occur in all parts of town.

qrysdonnell said:
I don't think you really need to think about crime any differently than you would in the city (we previously lived in Washington Heights before moving here in Feb.)

This... if you were hoping to move to a Mayberry-like place where there's no crime and everyone leaves their doors unlocked, this isn't it. But there are very generous benefits to living here that you definitely wouldn't get in Mayberry.

South Orange has a really excellent police department. They have a community relations officer who, at your request, will come to your home and look at your house and property and make specific recommendations for how you can "harden your target" and discourage burglars.

What most thieves want is to get in and get out fast without attracting attention. Make it harder for them to get in, and they'll move on to easier targets. Lock all your doors whenever you leave the house. Don't leave ground-floor windows open/unlocked overnight or when you're not home. Don't put things like recycling toters right underneath windows where they'll provide a boost for someone trying to break in. And for goodness sake LOCK YOUR CAR. I can't stand the people who say "I don't leave anything valuable in my car, and I don't want to have to repair the damage that will be done by someone breaking in." I think I'm fairly safe in guessing that a thief won't bother putting in the effort to break into a locked car unless they know there's something inside that they want. By all means, don't leave anything valuable in your car (like a GPS), but locking the car contributes to a collective, community effort to send a message to criminals that they're in hostile territory.

As for armed robbery... it's rare but it has happened in this area. I would not be comfortable walking home from the train station by myself after dark if I had to walk through quiet areas with very few other people around. I think that exercising some basic common sense, of the same type that you probably use in the city, will go a long way toward keeping you safe...

bluepool said:

I think I'm fairly safe in guessing that a thief won't bother putting in the effort to break into a locked car unless they know there's something inside that they want.

Experiences may vary, and this may have been the "smash and grab era" that JCSO referred to, but when we started parking on the street in Philly in 1994, our car was broken into twice in the first month even though there was nothing in it. The would-be thieves rooted through the ashtray and glove compartment entirely on spec. From then on, we'd leave the empty ashtray on the seat and the glove compartment open, and never had another problem over the next 17 years.

Once in the city, someone broke into our trunk and stole a Costco-sized package of soap. We figured if they needed it that badly, it was a public service donation on our part.

Many, many years ago, Mrs. C's father was a physician whose office was in Newark, before he moved. He had MD license plates on his car. He never locked his car doors, because if they were looked, would-thieves would have broken into his car hoping that he had drugs in it. The would-be thieves no doubt looked in the car, but were disappointed, and never any damage.

Thank you all so much for your insight, and welcoming us before we even have our boxes packed. It's great to know there's such a supportive, communicative community in SO! We will keep all this in mind.

The car break-in stories are enlightening to say the least. But isn't it more likely that the "on spec" break-ins will happen in cities (Newark, Philly, NYC) where the perp is less likely to be reported to the police by someone who might witness them? Honest question, don't know the answer.

bluepool said:
The car break-in stories are enlightening to say the least. But isn't it more likely that the "on spec" break-ins will happen in cities (Newark, Philly, NYC) where the perp is less likely to be reported to the police by someone who might witness them? Honest question, don't know the answer.

My guess is that the spec attempts had more to do with the lack of easier alternatives, because unlocked cars containing potential loot were rarer (drivers were warier) than they are in the suburbs.

As for people who leave cars empty and unlocked, a la cramer's father-in-law, a follow-up honest question: Why can't you stand them? Other than the occasional homeless person who might need to be roused from the back seat in the morning, it was a strategy that several neighbors employed in Philly to their satisfaction, with no apparent harm to my own.

.

cramer,

Asked of bluepool.

bluepool said:
I can't stand the people who say "I don't leave anything valuable in my car, and I don't want to have to repair the damage that will be done by someone breaking in."

Well, I guess I can't stand them because out here in suburbia -- as opposed to the inner city where apparently the strategy is useless -- a plethora of unlocked cars is catnip for criminals. If everyone in town locked their car, maybe the word would get out that it's a waste of time to try stealing things out of cars in South Orange/Maplewood, and the whole community would be better off? Would be nice to get a law enforcement officer's opinion on this...

If you have an older car, and you are leaving it unlocked, you are asking for it to be stolen. Newer cars are a lot harder as they require the key to be present, but not older models. These are often targets of thieves who are looking for a common car to do a "job"

As someone who has had to fix two smashed car windows for non-valuable items, I see the sense in not locking cars. Sorry to learn this practice is so offensive to some people. Have never had a car stolen though, so at least there's that.

I live directly in this area and feel safe during all parts of the day.

Quokka said:
We are considering a move to SO and I was wondering if any of you could share your thoughts on the area around Tichenor/Irvington Ave. It seemed beautiful and safe driving through but I saw some posts online about armed robberies around there. Is that true? Can anybody provide some insight? Thanks so much!