Can someone provide some information about reading, pa. A friend of mine was searching for homes on the north east. She ran across reading and thought the homes there was more in her budget. Any information on crime, schools and cost of living will be helpful. She is a single parent and not much of a n outgoing person.

"I heard"

That it was a crime infested ghetto but am not totally sure. I look forward to hearing other peoples responses on reading myself as I never been there.

Cappa

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I've been everywhere man! I been to Port Richmond, Kensington, Fishtown, Mayfair, Bridesburg -- I've been everywhere!

"I haven't failed. I've found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Benjamin Franklin

My mother lives just outside of Reading and works in the city.

I think per capita it has the highest crime rate in all of Pennsylvania.

The downtown area actually went through some revitalization and doesn't look too bad. There are some worthwhile restaurants there that I haven't been to in awhile.

however, a woman that sat right next to my mom at work was gunned down in that very same downtown area a few months back.

The outlying areas of Reading range from not too bad to very nice and offer both town, suburban and rural living. Places like Wyomissing where the upper middle class to the affluent live and smaller towns like Shillington and Sinking Spring which are of the 'one horse' variety. I just find many of the people in Berks county to be a little behind the times and that isn't for me.

Personally, I think your friend would be better off in Lehigh Valley somewhere. It has been mentioned by a few publications that this could be the next hot area... 2 hours to both Philly and NYC and alot of corporations are moving their business up there. I'm sure your friend could find something in one of the towns up there.

I've heard all the same things that Cappa and ml have said.

May I suggest Allentown, Bethlehem, or Easton. They are all much safer towns. I particularly like Easton becuz it's on the river. Plus it's got the Crayola factory!

Reading does not have the highest crime rate in PA... Darby does, and if you're only counting cities, Chester does. Philly has more crime than Reading actually.

I don't think the "bad parts of town" in Reading are much worse than the ones in Philly or Chester or Allentown or any other town. Random violence happens almost everywhere.

I think Reading's suburbs and the rest of Berks County are generally very conservative areas. "Behind the times" is a favorable way of looking at it... but it also has a lot of hate groups. The Aryan Nation is based there, and the KKK is active. Traffic is pretty bad in a lot of those former "one-horse towns" 'cause they're emerging markets for people looking for cheap new construction within a commute of the King of Prussia area.

The city of Reading has a lot of Puerto Ricans from New York. As you can imagine, there is friction between the conservative, sometimes racist, old timers and the new, darker skinned, Spanish-speaking arrivals.

Parts of it are nice, and it's not really a big enough city to have significant yuppie neighborhoods yet, I don't think.

Reading is quickly becoming a cesspool. it used to be really nice a few years ago. my sister teaches in a district just out side reading and said that a lot of criminals from philly and NY are being sent to the prisons in and around reading. this in turn is bringing the families to the area so they can visit easier. which in turn is bringing in a bad element that has risen the crime rate to appallingly high levels.

I grew up about an hour north iof reading and we used to go shopping there to the outlets all the time. Now everyone i know is opting to travel to allentown or KOP.

right out side reading is very nice with good schools, not sure on the price range though. places like exetor and fleetwood seem to be on the upswing and not effected by the crime as much.

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I had friends that lived Outside of Reading for a couple of years while she did her residency at Reading Hospital. They are from the West Coast and have since moved back out there . . . they both felt it was not a great place to live. I agree with the posters in re: to the Allentown area. It doe sit nicely between Philly and NYC and seems to be on a slight upswing. Bethlehem is nice, too. My understanding is that Easton is a little more pricey but that is only hearsay.

I've only been to Reading once. I agree, I would much rather be living in Philadelphia than Reading, but I didn't think it was the worse place I've ever been. We drove around some of the supposed "bad" parts of Reading, and while they weren't pretty, they weren't THAT bad. The downtown area is a bit boring. They've tried to spruce it up, but there is really only so much that you can do to a downtown that doesn't have much of anything.

Reading does have a few nice residential neighborhoods however. You can get a LOT of house for the money in Reading. For instance, you can get the same 3 story Victorian that you might find in University City for under $200,000. What a deal! So there is something to be sad in that, if nothing else.

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All I know about Reading is that they have outlets.
I have never in my life heard of Reading as some kind of criminal haven or whatever, I could be wrong.
I suggest you guys go visit,etc.

There will always be people who say a place is not that bad.
I agree that Reading is a livable place but when there are many other better choices, why would you want to?
My stepfathers side of the family still has a few holdouts that have watched their neighborhood fall apart around them and they are old timers who do not have the energy to move from the place they lived all their lives.

As for the crime statistics I use the info from city-data.com which has data that is current up to end of 2003. According to their data, Reading has a higher crime-index than both Philadelphia and Chester for 2002 which was the most current year all three had data available. 2003 Reading had higher crime-index than Philly and while Chester and Philly were showing a downtrend, Reading was going the other way. Maybe their data is wrong? I don't know. And yes, I was indeed only counting cities. Having looked at the crime-index for the smaller Darby, you are correct Jermain, Darby has a much higher crime-index. If you have a more current source of crime data (or correct for that matter) that you can provide, I would appreciate it.

As for Klan activity and a mass influx of New York Puerto Ricans you are dead on. I went to several flea markets in that area and I was surprised at how much Klan memorabilia the vendors had to sell.