Hi--I'm moving to Philly in August. I see an ad for two apartments available at 520 Montrose, and they look pretty nice--can anyone tell me what that neighborhood is like? Thank you!

isotope,

Welcome to PB and soon to Philly.

520 Montrose is a half block away from the low income housing projects. For whatever reason it seems to be more shady on the 5th Street side of the project then the 4th street which is considered Queen Village and has more expensive housing to it's east.

Maybe someone else can answer this better than me....this is based upon the perception I get when riding my bike down 5th.

-UC

5th is pretty blighted between Christian and Washington, though there are a few buildings for sale near the corner of 5th and Christian so hopefully they will be bought and fixed up. That stretch seems to be the last area of Queen Village that hasn't really gone through gentrification; I think I remember hearing that there were condos that were going to be built at the corner of 5th and Montrose, or maybe it was Carpenter?

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Hi--I forgot to say thank you for this information. So thank you! We ended up putting down a deposit on a place in Old City--whole 'nother neighborhood. Thanks for knowing and sharing about this location.

500 block of Carpenter Street dweller here. I was reading this thread and thought that folks might be interested in some more deatiled info about some of the things mentioned.

The syrup extract factory that runs along 5th street more or less between Christian and Montrose was supposed to be developed into 4-story single family homes like the ones that are being erected on the former Sunshine Playground (Christian to Montrose, between 5th and 6th) For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why the developers (who shall remain nameless) would think this was a viable idea. At the QVNA zoning meetings about the project, they stated they were going to be asking around 500K for the units. %00K to live across the street from low-income housing??

Needless to say, the plan has been abandoned and they are now trying to flip the land for an insane profit, which means that it will probably sit and rot for another ten years.

The same thing has happened with the open land on Carpenter between 5th and and 6th. Original plans (which were very nice; off-street parking , etc.) for single family homes were abandoned and the owner is now trying to sell 9 lots for about 800K

On the brighter side, there has been a lot of demolition of abandoned properties on 5th and Reese (small alley behind 5th) between Carpenter and Washington, and someone is building a number of new homes at the end of Randolf (bewteen Carpenter and Washington.

It's too bad that someone can't come in and build some more modest starter homes for younger folks who can't afford to drop 700K on a bloody row-home, but I guess the developers are mostly just concerned about turning a huge profit. Otherwise, why build in the city, right? It's probably more lucrative to destroy farm land and build row after row of cheap McMansions.

How is this area in terms of safety? Was walking around it seems there are some serious abandoned houses on Reese and other smaller alleyways, but turn the corner and you got gorgeous townhomes. is this considered QV even though its so close to Washington?

Yes, it is Queen Village. The area is surprisingly safe. It looks crappy in areas, but I have never had anything happen to my car, my house, or my person. In fact, if you look at the monthly QV cime report it looks like the area north of Christian and east of 4th is the dangerous part of the neighborhood. That's where most of the robberies and break-ins seem to happen.

I guess the old addage is true.

Dogs don't s*** where they live.