What Is The Worst Neighborhood In Houston?

[TheNiche]

Can anyone tell me where the Gulfton area is? Like what are the street boundaries?

Hillcroft, Bellaire, S. Rice, and Southwest Freeway.

[TAK]

Here's a list of Houston public housing complexes and programs (not including "mixed-income" developments):

* Clayton Homes

* Cuney Homes

* Ewing Apartments

* Forest Green Townhomes

* Historic Rental Initiative

* Irvington Place

* Kelly Village

* Lincoln Park

* Long Drive Townhomes

* Oxford Place

* Wilmington House

there are many more 'projects' than that. i believe most are privately owned... like Garden City and Inwood something or other....

[VicMan]

Hillcroft, Bellaire, S. Rice, and Southwest Freeway.

Well, I would say that minus the Bellaire city limits is Gulfton.

[FilioScotia]

there are many more 'projects' than that. i believe most are privately owned... like Garden City and Inwood something or other....

Don't forget the most famous "project" of all -- Allen Parkway Village, built during WWII as San Felipe Courts.

[PureAuteur]

Well, I would say that minus the Bellaire city limits is Gulfton.

Ok, I was looking at a map and thinking, wow that looks like boundaries for Bellaire proper. If Gulfton surrounds Bellaire, wouldn't the residents be worried about that? I mean doesn't Gulfton have tons of crime and illegals? The Bellaire High School has been on the news a lot recently for incidents, so I'm thinking it has to do with the surrounding area. Does anyone know if they let students from outside Bellaire city limits attend the high school? If so, that could be a reason for the school's decline, because on Channel 2 news today, it was listed as an unacceptable school. Really sad, because it used to be the top school in the HISD area.

[sevfiv]

Ok, I was looking at a map and thinking, wow that looks like boundaries for Bellaire proper. If Gulfton surrounds Bellaire, wouldn't the residents be worried about that? I mean doesn't Gulfton have tons of crime and illegals? The Bellaire High School has been on the news a lot recently for incidents, so I'm thinking it has to do with the surrounding area. Does anyone know if they let students from outside Bellaire city limits attend the high school? If so, that could be a reason for the school's decline, because on Channel 2 news today, it was listed as an unacceptable school. Really sad, because it used to be the top school in the HISD area.

bellaire has kids from all over (at least when i attended). i also don't recall it ever being in the news for anything negative back then...

[TheNiche]

Ok, I was looking at a map and thinking, wow that looks like boundaries for Bellaire proper. If Gulfton surrounds Bellaire, wouldn't the residents be worried about that? I mean doesn't Gulfton have tons of crime and illegals? The Bellaire High School has been on the news a lot recently for incidents, so I'm thinking it has to do with the surrounding area. Does anyone know if they let students from outside Bellaire city limits attend the high school? If so, that could be a reason for the school's decline, because on Channel 2 news today, it was listed as an unacceptable school. Really sad, because it used to be the top school in the HISD area.

Bellaire HS is part of HISD, and although located in the City of Bellaire, it serves a much larger area. The sharp divide between race/class within the school is certainly not a new thing. It's been going on for a long long time.

[PureAuteur]

Yes, but from what they were saying about the Gulfton area on this thread, it would seem as if the residents of Bellaire would be concerned about their surroundings. Their area isn't the safest anymore. So if Gulfton is mostly apartments and mostly illegals, I don't know, maybe they don't go to school or something, but if they did, they'd definitely be in the school's boundaries, and it just seems like a stark contrast against the community of Bellaire the way I view it, as almost 100% white with lots of parental involvement in the schools and high academic standards and good athletic programs; very similar to the way my high school was (Jersey Village), which was also in an enclave city.

[PureAuteur]

So is Gulfton in that area south of Bellaire around Bellfort or is it that tiny corner NW of Bellaire close to 59?

[sevfiv]

here is the website for the Gulfton Super Neighborhood:

http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nbhd_svc...rInfo/SN_27.htm

[VicMan]

Here's the boundary map. Notice that most of the area considered to be "Gulfton" is not zoned to Bellaire.

Yep, he's right.

Gulfton, more or less, is zoned to Robert E. Lee High School - The kids have Lamar and Westside as transfer options.

Elementary school-wise, Gulfton is divided into three sections:

* Benavidez Elementary School - http://es.houstonisd.org/benavidezes/

* Cunningham Elementary School (look and compare the Cunningham boundary to the Condit boundary - City of Bellaire houses next to Cunningham ES are zoned to Condit ES, NOT Cunningham ES) - http://es.houstonisd.org/cunninghames/

* Sylvan Rodriguez Elementary School - http://es.houstonisd.org/rodriguezes/

All kids are zoned to:

* Jane Long Middle School - http://ms.houstonisd.org/longms/ (In Sharpstown)

** Pin Oak Middle School - http://www.pinoak.us - is an option (City of Bellaire)

* Robert E. Lee High School - http://hs.houstonisd.org/leehs/ (between Uptown and Briar Meadow)

** Lamar http://hs.houstonisd.org/lamarhs/ and Westside http://hs.houstonisd.org/westsidehs/ are options, but I suspect few Gulfton kids go to those schools

Compare this to the city of Bellaire:

* All areas east of the 610 Loop are zoned to Horn Academy - http://es.houstonisd.org/hornes/ (City of Bellaire)

* Most areas west of the 610 Loop are zoned to Condit Elementary School - http://es.houstonisd.org/condites/ (City of Bellaire)

* A few areas west of the 610 Loop (including the area around Bellaire HS) are zoned to Lovett Elementary School http://es.houstonisd.org/lovettes/ (In Meyerland in Houston)

All kids are zoned to:

* Pershing Middle School (in Braeswood Place in Houston) - http://www.pershingms.org

** Pin Oak Middle School is an option

* Bellaire High School - http://www.bellaire.org (City of Bellaire)

Profiles:

Gulfton schools:

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Benavidez_ES.pdf

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Cunningham_ES.pdf

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Rodriguez_ES.pdf

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Long_MS.pdf

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/PinOak_MS.pdf (option)

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Lee_HS.pdf

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Lamar_HS.pdf (option)

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Westside_HS.pdf (option)

Bellaire schools:

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Condit_ES.pdf

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Horn_ES.pdf

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Lovett_ES.pdf

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Pershing_MS.pdf

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/PinOak_MS.pdf (option)

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Bellaire_HS.pdf

Moral of the story: The city of Bellaire has better zoned schools than Gulfton, folks!

[Deadrok]

YES! I made the list!

And now, I live in Inwood. I'm still in one of "the worst" neighborhoods, even though I could afford to live almost anywhere in Houston. Funny how that has worked out.

Are you able to say honestly that IF is a good place to live? Would you recommend it to someone just moving to Houston? Do you ever worry that someone will just step up and kill you? Please explain what you like most about IF and why you choose it over other fine neighborhoods.

[blkmex]

But honestly I think many people look at neighborhoods and base their knowledge off a what they may have heard from a random guy

That is 100% true, most people look at the apartments/ area and judge the look of the neighborhood, for example : they might see blacks or Mexicans hanging around: and people want to make false judgements and think its a slum. On the other hand if they see white kids hanging around they think its a nice neighborhood. I always hear that from people in College Station AKA "Caucasian Station", whenever they go to Bryan and see the Mexicans and blacks just chillin they always like to call us "ghetto"and make un-true actuations.

[The Great Hizzy!]

Are you able to say honestly that IF is a good place to live? Would you recommend it to someone just moving to Houston? Do you ever worry that someone will just step up and kill you? Please explain what you like most about IF and why you choose it over other fine neighborhoods.

LMAO

[Vertigo58]

My money is on Gulf Freeway Oaks. I base this strictly on depreciation rates, quality of the streetwalkers, flooding, and odor.

Boy, I knew when I saw this topic it would hit the jack pot! As far as responses....

Just turn on the TV any given night and the odds are your going to see:

Murder

rape

car jacking

drug bust

theft

bank robbery

shoplifting

gang warfare and the list goes on in ....ALL TOGETHER GANG!

Southwest Houston Gulfton area

Here is a piece of thread from a very similar comment:

War torn Southwest Houston. Even police are afraid to go to that part of town. AK-47 is the order of the day. It rivals South Central LA and Oakland, Ca. Corner of Beechnut/59 frwy had been location of at least 4 killings where innocent drivers/people were merely waiting for the lights to change so they could get on the frwy. Basically, if a person doesn't dress/act like they just came out of prison you don't fit in. Gotta look gangsta or else! Cant beleive Sharpstown Mall is still there. death trap. Need to place a Mortuary next door to save a trip or 2 or 3. When you are on 59 frwy its best to just keep driving and do not get off the exit. Wear blinders like a horse would.The whole quadrant needs to be nuked, mushroom cloud the whole joint! Its urban blight at its worse/finest. The patient is now officially deceased! Everybody go home....

[TAK]

Are you able to say honestly that IF is a good place to live? Would you recommend it to someone just moving to Houston? Do you ever worry that someone will just step up and kill you?

Wow. IF is a good place to live - depending on your situation. There are some elements that I'd avoid - like education. If someone were moving to Houston, wanted to be close to the city (i can get home from downtown or the galleria in 25 mins at during rush hour and not even get on a freeway), but wanted to pay less than 200k for a 2,000sf 4/2/2 with a yard, I would suggest IF. I live here. and even though I am moving because we want a bigger, newer house and more amenities for our child, we are going to keep this house, too. I would never recommend an apartment in IF, of course. People fail to realize, there are really two parts to IF. The areas WITHOUT apartments are great places to live, IMO. Even the apartments on the northern end of IF aren't bad in terms of crime - the southern end is.

My street is mostly retirees and 30 and 40 somethings who sit outside their houses and read the paper, work in their yard, watch their kids, or sip a beer and wave. There is a mix of ethnicities - white, black, hispanic - no asians on my block, oddly, as they own most of the strip centers around here.

I don't worry about anyone stepping up and killing me because I don't live in a crappy apartment on DeSoto where the drug dealers kill each other - and I'm not a drug dealer.

IF gets a bad rap because of the few extremes that make TV. It's probably the nicest and most affordable 'city' neighborhood. It's just rough around the edges.

[houstonmacbro]

Gunspoint, that is a mess. I love how the website and even the logo focuses SO MUCH on the few high rises they have (which I am sure were all built in it's glory days) since none have been built there since.

Greenspoint website

It screams, LOOK, we are like Uptown!

I'd say Greenspoint has the 'potential' to be a major player in the next 10 years. Their Greater Greenspoint Alliance seems to be regrouping, they are closest development to the airport (Bush), and on all the major freeway into town AND the beltway. I also hear the metro is supposed to be coming there in the next century ... I've always liked the outer/inner feel of the place.

Oh yeah, and if they tear down build a new mall, they even have space to grow out there.

[Loinmute]

Oh brother, Kelly Street and Hirsch Rd. are awful, what is commonly refered to as "the Kashmere Gardens" is in my opinion the poorest. However, Bissonet and Gessner are very dangerous at night more drug game and gangs on the Southwest side, very fast paced. The area from N. Wayside to Mesa Rd. (upper 5th Ward) is ALL black and low income. There is a Fiesta grocery store on Mesa and Tidwell, the parking lot also serves as a metro bus transit center; dude I have seen some really rough stuff i.e; fights, threats, jumpings, and very nasty looking tricks. This neighborhood is 12 miles from downtown.

[spikey2]

Amazingly, Third ward is not top on the list of many. A few years ago it would be in the top 5 on a list like this. Perhaps other areas can learn from 3 rd ward. The area has revived it's old Civic Club and works closely with law enforcement. The old area north of Alabama is being patrolled by both HPD and the constables plus TSU and the UofH helps patrol the area. Drug hot spots are constantly being targeted and hit. The new Midtowners and the old residents are starting to work together , which means a safer neighborhood. There are a few hot spots left, but the area seems a lot safer. But maybe the lack of large low income apartment projects might also be a blessing to the area.

[musicman]

Amazingly, Third ward is not top on the list of many. A few years ago it would be in the top 5 on a list like this. Perhaps other areas can learn from 3 rd ward. The area has revived it's old Civic Club and works closely with law enforcement. The old area north of Alabama is being patrolled by both HPD and the constables plus TSU and the UofH helps patrol the area. Drug hot spots are constantly being targeted and hit. The new Midtowners and the old residents are starting to work together , which means a safer neighborhood. There are a few hot spots left, but the area seems a lot safer. But maybe the lack of large low income apartment projects might also be a blessing to the area.

a friend of mine just bought off of hutchins, south of 45. the drug activity there just amazes me. and it is all out in the open, 2 blocks from the police station.

[Loinmute]

a friend of mine just bought off of hutchins, south of 45. the drug activity there just amazes me. and it is all out in the open, 2 blocks from the police station.

Some of what is considered 3rd Ward is alright, some of it can be very tuff, particulary at night. It all depends on the income of the population, number of gangsters, and the number of businesses in the specific area of 3rd Ward. I have always felt that certain parts of the 3rd Ward (Hutchins st. included) that are nestled close to the skyline, have a "funky" feeling in relation to the attitudes and actions of some of the local residents..I would not walk around Tuam/Hutchins at night, but I would at day. However, I would still take my watch off!

[Loinmute]

Amazingly, Third ward is not top on the list of many. A few years ago it would be in the top 5 on a list like this. Perhaps other areas can learn from 3 rd ward. The area has revived it's old Civic Club and works closely with law enforcement. The old area north of Alabama is being patrolled by both HPD and the constables plus TSU and the UofH helps patrol the area. Drug hot spots are constantly being targeted and hit. The new Midtowners and the old residents are starting to work together , which means a safer neighborhood. There are a few hot spots left, but the area seems a lot safer. But maybe the lack of large low income apartment projects might also be a blessing to the area.

Yes, the 3rd Ward is tame compared to the sprawled out apartments on the Southwest side. I still believe that "Kashmere Gardens" is the toughest spot in Houston. It might not be the most dangerous number wise, but man if you walk down Kelley near Weaver Rd. north of 610, up there by Laura Koppe, be prepared to get confronted by some youngster wearing colors, looking for trouble. If you dont believe me take a tour. They might not be packing the heat like they do around Gessner, but they will box. Hirsch Rd. at Weaver Rd.!Oh btw there is NO real estate up there. NONE

[donnieyen]

I'd go with Fondren and W. Bellfort area(SW Houston). I lived there several years ago and was robbed at gunpoint for the 1st time in my life. Just bad area period!!

[hbcu]

I grew up near Missouri City in a large africian american area and lived by Willowbrook Mall also and spent plenty of time at friends houses off I-45 and in 5tth ward

My old area, despite people moving away, hasn't really turned for the worst..but the local high school's (willowridge) enrollment has dropped damn near 50% in 10 years...at one time, we were the most well-rounded school in the state until rezoning and pure hate by FBISD made them worthless...I'm visiting my parent's house right now and outside of a few homes for sale on the major streets, not as many vacancies...but the location is great with Main being redone into a freeway and the tollway intersections

As for Acres Homes......you just got to know where you're going....it's not as bad as most of the folks have moved on towards 1960 in apartments or smaller housing developments....now, the corner of West Montgomery and Wheatley (ella) has been kind of rough at night with the Car Wash becoming nothing but a hangout but outside of that, the area isn't as rough

My dad worked in 5th ward and a good friend of mine lived off of Waco Street.....like Acres Home, you GOT to know where you're going...5th ward is the only ward where the "locals" still try to claim community pride which is exhibited in a variety of forms...urban gentrification will be very slow to hit the area alot of landowners actually live there

one of my good friends is a cop in 5th ward....you know what battles to pick...lol

[Vertigo58]

Yes, the 3rd Ward is tame compared to the sprawled out apartments on the Southwest side. I still believe that "Kashmere Gardens" is the toughest spot in Houston. It might not be the most dangerous number wise, but man if you walk down Kelley near Weaver Rd. north of 610, up there by Laura Koppe, be prepared to get confronted by some youngster wearing colors, looking for trouble. If you dont believe me take a tour. They might not be packing the heat like they do around Gessner, but they will box. Hirsch Rd. at Weaver Rd.!Oh btw there is NO real estate up there. NONE

Kashmere Gardens sounds so innocent. It was getting hardcore even as far back as the mid 1960's. This was the main reason we fled. Denver Harbor was a close runner up just across the Lockwood bridge. Thats where we would have had to go to school? Yikes! No way! Strangely enough almost 40 years have past and those areas have hardly changed for the better. Kind of tough when there are bars on most corners and pushing dope is the career of choice. We call it "The Land that time forgot" as it is still locked into 1967 no joke. On a brighter note I have to credit the people since they have been around that area for generations unlike the kfvjjfdv... that has saturated SW Houston ie; Gulfton aka Bosnia.

Break out your AK-47 and join the crowd. If you can't beat em join em I say!

[hbcu]

if you told me Kashmere Gardens was the first integrated school in HISD..I would've laughed....whites left Kashmere for North Forest but blacks followed and whites moved to Humble and Aldine...we found our way out there and Kingwood is built...

I drove up 59N today and it's amazing New Caney is an area where folks are trying to settle....

mock my words though....the NE area of 610 has alot of potential..close to alot of things and cheap land...

[TAK]

mock my words though...

i'm mocking your words now...

but i will mark your word - and agree - there is a lot of opportunity (ie cheap land) in the NE 610 quadrant. when HWY 90 finishes, it will bring more traffic through the E / NE. maybe if the bayou partnership plan park whatever actually happens on the east side, there will be more 'desire' to move to the E / NE... in the mean time, 5th Ward is still RIGHT THERE and not a lot is happening.

the only 'problem' i see is that E / NE area is quite industrial...

[The Great Hizzy!]

So, Vertigo, am I to assume that you feel the Gulfton area in SW Houston is dangerous? Or am I misreading your posts?

[Vertigo58]

So, Vertigo, am I to assume that you feel the Gulfton area in SW Houston is dangerous? Or am I misreading your posts?

I had a sudden change of heart. I was misinformed and fell for the hype. My error. I love Gulfton and am going door to door to apologize to all the warm, kind people. I and fellow PTA members are in process of giving each tenemant a cake in hopes they can forgive and be our friends. From now on it will be just like old times! The old team working together again as one. Nothing can stop us!

Sunshine, lollipops & rainbows everywhere. We layeth down our AK-47's

[hbcu]

Sugar Land is dangerous...people target you because they think you may have more....

Baytown, La Porte, Deer Park, etc. are quite industrial but that hasn't stopped building..I had a friend in Baytown where you could look out the backyard and their skyline was a big chemical plant..lol...lights up orange at night