For the most part, East Mt. Airy is a nice, clean, solidly middle-class neighborhood. There also some huge, beautiful old homes. There are a lot of streets, especially between Gtown Ave and Chew, that are full of smaller row houses that look like they could use a coat of paint. But I wouldn't even describe those as "dangerous and hoody".

I do think my perspective is different than it used to be before living in Philly (Center City, then Fairmount, then West Philly, then East Mt. Airy) for nearly 5 years. When I moved here, I would probably have been scared of the neighborhood you're describing. Now, it just seems normal to me.

I do get a little prickly when I come across the attitude (luckily it's not a very widely-held attitude) that West Mt. Airy is THE only part of Mt. Airy worth living in. Folks who think that just need to come over and take a nice long walk East of Gtown Ave.