Good apartments in Madison, WI?

[brentspeak]

I'm considering moving to Madison, but from NJ, so I pretty much won't be able to visit whatever apartment I get before obtaining one. Now, I had read that Madison is considered one of the 5 or 10 best places to live in the USA, but apartment reviews for some of the complexes I looked up on rent.com indicate that many apartments are located in New Jack City: crack dealers, broken car windows, police sirens, etc.

So, for anyone who might know, what are the safe areas of the city, which are the unsafe, and what are the better apartment complexes.

[Rude Horner]

1. Madison is a wonderful place to live

I was born there. Grew up there. Lived there for about 35 years. And I still work in Madison, although I now live outside the city.

Currently, the Madison downtown area is experiencing a bit of a crime wave, especially on weekends and always at night. Some people have been beaten while walking alone at night. This is not normal for Madison. At least it hasn't ever been before, so I don't know if these crimes (the perps haven't been caught yet) are out of towners causing trouble, or what.

In general, most areas of the city are pretty safe. I absolutely hate to generalize, but I guess if I had to, I'd say avoid the south side, downtown (only because of recent events), and the Allied drive areas. The East and West sides of town have lots of very nice apartment complexes. Also, you could look into apartments in Verona, Fitchburg, Middleton, McFarland. These are communities right outside of Madison. Low crime, and just as convenient.

[brentspeak]

2. Thanks

I was surprised by some of the apartment review comments, but I figure that Madison's "best place to live" reputation must still be relevant in most parts of the city.

[IsIt1984Yet]

3. Cross post this in the Wisconsin Forum

Lots of good folks in there; many in/from Mad-town. It's a very cool place. I'm between Madison and Milwaukee.

D'OH, I see you did already!