Thanks -- I would work downtown near quaker oats...right on the river -- the employer says much what you say here -- don't know what to think................have to get up and look around if it gets that far -- thanks to all
OT: Cedar Rapids
- Thread starter rebecacy
- Start date
Nice area that runs roughly from 19th to 36th from the West to the East and Bever to Mt. Vernon Rd. from the North to the South. You run the gamut from average '50s bungalows to half-million dollar homes built in the 1910s. Beautiful area, we like walking there a lot.
In Iowa? you'll find worry warts everywhere. I've had people tell me walking in Mason City at night is dangerous ... please.
Random people do not tend to get shot on a regular basis in any town in Iowa minus Waterloo.
(sorry waterloo guy, I couldn't help it)
I'll agree with this. If you're working downtown this is a great location - very close to work, very easy traffic, and 10 minute (or less) access to the shopping centers on the NE side.
Mason City????? Hahaha.
Cedar Rapids is not dangerous at all. Especially when you where camo around town; no one will mess with you at all I guarantee it.
You've also got to factor in affordability. The Kennedy area is probably the best in the city for its price range ($115k-$250k give or take). Central location, nice homes and neighborhoods, and good school district.
I live in NE Marion, and it only takes me about 15 minutes to get to the intersection of Edgewood and 30 on the SW side. I only live a minute or two from Hwy 13, though.
I wouldn't live in Johnson county for anything as there is too much birdcrap around....... Cedar Rapids is more like home. Iowa City is too full of liberals and people who feel everyone should grovel at their feet. A town of the haves and the people who think they have..... IB
Washington isn't necessarily the best school. They are all very good. Kennedy is probably the overall higher income school. Jefferson is Blue coller, and your beloved Washington is the "highest of the high but lowest of the low." I love the Wash area around the school, but you can't get anywhere from that area quickly. SW is by far the easiest to get around, has nice solid homes and shopping is ok. I haven't been at Lindale in 9 years.... I used to live in Bowman woods area and miss it like a chapped butt on a 5-mile hike!
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Yes I am biased about my HS but Wash typically gets the most national recognition of all the area high schools and maybe even Iowa. Makes the top 100 HS in america list quite a bit. Linn Mar and Kennedy are also very highly regarded around the area, but I've never really heard of them getting national recognition. I will admit Dr Plagman (Wash's principle) kind of cheats his way to getting recognition, he will make up various awards and work around numbers to make Wash sound as good as possible. He will also just keep adding AP courses to make Wash look so good. Wash has a ridiculous amount of AP courses and even several colleges will ignore Wash applicants because they know their GPA and awards will be skewed.
SE side is great. I've lived on both SE and NE. I prefer the NE side just because I like new construction, and with young kids wouldn't trade our neighborhood on the NE side for anything. CR Wash is excellent, many of our friends have kids there. We're in Linn-Mar district and love it.
The concerns about the "Wellington Heights" area off of Bever Ave should be addressed as there are really people living there from the torn down projects of chicago. Don't believe me, drive by McKinley Middle School area on a nice warm Saturday evening, I feel very uncomfortable being white when I drive by lol. But it shouldn't be a concern if you know the boundry and it's a well known fact to Cedar Rapidians that the "cut-off" to the bad area while traveling down Bever is 19th St! Anything from 19th St and outward should be more than safe. I grew up as a child on the corner of Upland Dr which is near 5th Ave and 22nd street and we never had a problem. Actually I have fonder memories of that location than of my memories out by East Post Rd.
This post is a little deceiving NE side has those same type of properties, I should know I lived in one almost my whole life. My parents home is on 1.3 acres right off Blairsferry road. There are lots of homes in that area with large yards. You can also find them in marion as well.
I hate the cookie cutter developments too and they are everywhere.
As to the "bad" side of town, there are few areas to avoid, but for the most part it is not that bad at all. I flipped houses with my dad when I was growing up. We went through 19 or so houses that we fixed up rented or sold. All of these would likely be considered in bad parts of town. But in reality most the areas were completely harmless. But we did have few in Wellington Heights that was a area that we quickly sold the houses. We didn't like working on those at night at all.
If you are working near Quaker I would go NE or SE and avoid the river and you should be fine.