This area has a lot to offer, but frankly my family is growing weary of the crime, the litter, the loud gangsta music rattling our windows at 2 a.m., the neighborhood fights, the indifferent neighbors, etc.

We would appreciate suggestions. If you had to choose a neighborhood outside of the city, is there any you favor or would recommend? Why?

There's a big difference between various places in NW Philly.

-Z

i've never lived there but the jenkintown/abington area seems to be supercute with lots of community events and convenient to public transportation. also, note that taxes in montgomery county are generally lower than delaware county.

personally, i've yet to experience any of those negative things in n.e. mount airy, though.

Personally, I would rank the different palces in the NW as follows:
Inside of the city limits:
1. Chestnut Hill (Especially anywhere near the Wissahickon and near Northwestern Avenue)
2. Roxborough (Especially on the southside of Ridge Avenue or near the Wissahickon)
3. West Mount Airy (Near the Wissahickon(A trend obviously)).
4. Manayunk
5. East Mount Airy (Towards the the northern end especially)
6. West Germantown
7. Cedarbrook
8. West Oaklane
9. East Germantown

Outside the city limits(but close):

Lafayette Hill, Erdenheim, Flourtown, Plymouth Meeting, Abington, Glenside, Blue Bell (Very nice there), Norriton, Glenside, West Cheltenham etc. There's alot more nice places than I can list.

I'd move to Mt. Airy or Chestnut Hill or Roxborough or West Philly or one of the many many great neighborhood here in the city where those problems aren't prevalent. Why the suburbs become this panacea for quality of life problems is beyond me?? My wife and I moved FROM Glenside (nice enough) to Mt Airy (wonderful) and we've been truly enriched. Where it took years to meet most of my neighbors in the burbs, it has only taken months here. We are close to everything, far from nothing, easy to get around, wonderful built-to-last homes, lots of beautiful gardens (as opposed to boring lawns), etc, etc.

I'd go more for Jenkintown than Abington. Jenkintown is mostly built on the old "main street" model, so it's pretty walkable. Plus, its train station serves four different lines.

Abington isn't bad, per se, but it's kind of boring and not particularly walkable. Also, its housing stock isn't nearly as nice as Jenkintown's.

Another neighborhood that no one has mentioned is Hatboro. It also has a nice little main street area and rail access.

I think you really ought to just move over here to Roxborough. It's close by if you're already in the NW, but it's a whole different world from what you're describing. And it's such a good place for families in many ways. If I were going to leave the city limits, I think I'd pick Narberth, but I could never afford it. Just come over and go to some open houses some Sunday, get some water ice at Neveah's at Ridge and Gerhard, Check out the stores btwn. there and Hermitage, look at Gorgas Park, note how close many areas are to the Wissahickon, see how many kids are out playing in front of their houses, go check out the ShopRite and the SuperFresh, look into Crossroads, Starbucks, Spoons (a little farther out), Lennie's Hoagies, the Ugly Moose on Shurs, etc. I think you'll find we have everything you're looking for without a big suburban move. And the homes are very affordable. You can take the train or three different busses to Center City, and you can walk to Manayunk if you want a special dinner or a night out. It's a great place to live.

I would move to Montana.

There is absolutely no sarcasm in my answer.

Ive looked at homes out there and the job market.....If I could id move there tomorrow.

Dont get your hopes up though....

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I can't say for sure yet, BUT, my husband and I are moving to Elkins Park in two weeks, and we anticipate a fantastic neighborhood. Elkins Park abuts to Jenkintown. We preferred the housing stock over that of Abington (also cute in its own right, IMO) and we seemed to get better bang for the buck. The school district is great, from what we researched. (no kids yet!) We walked around the neighborhood, went to the church, went out to eat and shop in the area before we decided to buy, and we found that the people seem to be so much nicer than we're used to, having lived in center city and out in lower bucks county. Also, we noticed that during open houses in the area, the potential buyers that we would run into while we were all looking at the same houses seemed to be very nice people as well. I don't say nice and mean, not offensive, I mean, REAL people, friendly people. We also love the proximity to CC and the mass transit options available to us from Elkins Park. The neighborhoods appear lovely and well maintained, and frankly we're just so excited to move there. We've been in Yardley for five months in temporary housing, and it just sucks out here.

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