Salem... is it safe?

[leatherneck8541]

Super random question to anyone that may have an answer. In short, I'm considering to attend school for one of their glass programs in Salem, i heard a million great things about it and I'm itching to go really bad. I took a look at the place and it is literally in the middle of no where, but thats not the problem. Problem, well more of a concern is that to go to that school i need to relocate to the local area to make commuting easier. It seemed to me that one side of the town was small houses but clean and tidy look, then literally a few blocks over was SUPER GHETTO SLUMS with just about every house boarded up and tons of bums... i have a family and a kid is why I'm super concerned about this, my wife looked up town "rating" on neighborhoodscout.com, along with many other sites that do just the same thing. The crime rate there was through the roof, and one site said that you have a 1 in 17 chance of becoming a victim of a crime there, yes thats very vague on what crime but i still find that to be horrible odds... Anyone that has any experience with the school/area please chime in. Thanks;)

[JGglassproductions]

Carney's Pt. is where the main school is located, and sadly, it is in a bad area. However, the glass studio was built several miles from the main campus in rural Alloway/Mannington area. There is absolutely NOTHING there but fields. Southern NJ doesn't have much to offer as far as excitement, but there are neighboring towns that you can deal with like: Swedesboro, Cherry Hill, Mullica Hill... These are towns a little north of Salem County. Penns Grove, Pennsville, Carney's Pt., Salem....stay away from these areas if you have kids. Most of the SCC glass students have apartments in these areas because they are cheap and close, however you are dealing with locals that are crack heads and other bad news goes on in these areas.
When you go to SCC for glass, that's really what you will be doing...nothing but glass work! So if you are serious about going there, just know it's eat, blow glass, sleep...and hang out with people from class.
Others will even go over the Delaware Bridge, which is very close to school and live over in Newark, DE, which is a college area because UD is there. There is also Philly! These two locations are a little bit of a drive but at least you will be around civilization! There are a few people on this forum now that go to SCC. I graduated back in 2006 and it is also my home town (sadly). You just missed the conference, but every year there is a flameworking conference that is helpful for networking and deciding if you would want to go there or not.

If you decide to live in one of the rural areas you probably would have the ability to set up a torch for when you are not at school. Most students do that so when they are not at school working they are home working. The rural environment will allow for privacy and that helps when you have a flame shop.

I can answer any questions you might have if I didn't get them all covered. You came to the right place!

[leatherneck8541]

Awesome man thanks for the info. Im going back to look at a house there today, its about a mile down the road from the glass campus, i love that its in the middle of no where and the house is in a nice area right on the outskirts of town. Has a HUGE detached barn with power, i wanna make it into a studio. Minus the slums being near, all i wanna do is school, torch, kick it, and learn, i don't see my self venturing over to those parts much hah

[BK]

Yo hit me up, in the 2nd year of the sci program. 347-602-0575

[Lyle Lanley]

i live in Penns grove its not too bad.. there actually is a nice area plus its very close to philly. but yes there are areas to stay away from I relocated here as well from FL i don't have a family but im older(29) compared to other students. call me i can give you some good info as well as get u in contact with Dennis Briening if you have any questions about program. i have been working with glass for almost 10 years and im here for the scientific program. i do also know people in art program

716-912-0132

[JGglassproductions]

I graduated in the glass art program, been working for about ten years now, and actually thinking of coming back for scientific myself. I was going to mention that in Pennsville, Penns Grove, and Carney's Pt., though sketchy areas, there are some ok houses right on the Delaware river...but I would stay away from any of the housing complexes over there.

[jseden]

Just stay away from Penns grove, Carneys pt and most of Salem. Pennsville has it's ups and downs. Farmhouses are where it's at.

[BlueBeard]

woodstown and swedesboro are really nice little town minutes from the school.

[BK]

sweedesboro is kind of far imo, esp for 3 day a week 8am scientific. But I'm lazy I guess...I'm late pretty often coming from elsinboro hahah

[jseden]

Just live in cowtown

[JGglassproductions]

COWTOWN!!! LOLOLOL
When I was in high school I took the Russian exchange student to Cowtown. He cried that it was like Russia and wanted out of there!!!

If you don't get the hook up from someone currently at Salem, I can always get you a place to stay if you wanted to check out the school. I have plenty of family and friends in the area...just so you know.:)

[leatherneck8541]

Wow thanks a lot everyone for the info, BK deff going to give you a call just a little busy at the moment but deff think I'm coming to the area, finally almost got in touch with Dennis Briening and he wrote to me that he will contact Charles Foster to help with the application process. So i went back to explore and i was SUPER shocked, by this i remind everyone to NEVER "judge a book by its cover." Driving through some parts of Salem do look a little crummy but when i went to look at houses i can deff say i have NEVER in my ENTIRE life met a town that was as friendly, crazy right? hah Im born and raised in a small town in North Jersey where not even your neighbor would say hi to you in passing even if you lived next to him for a million years! The streets in Salem were super quiet compared to where i live now, and everyone in eyes distance, even if they were 2 blocks down, stopped and waved! hah i know that sounds silly but people in the area are really nice;) The house i was looking at happened to be right next to the Chief of Police, his wife came out and gave us a warm friendly welcome and said if we ever need anything to just knock on the door! Thats crazy?!? in my hometown someone would tell you to fuck off. His wife told us that many people in the area are always knocking on the door with whatever concerns they may have, super cool in my opinion. Honestly i spoke to several neighbors, most came right out of the houses and just started talking to us about the area and warned of the places not to go. Anyways i about ran out of stuff to say at the moment but I'm super excited to come down to the area, Im really hoping that i get accepted into the scientific program, but if not i won't quit until i do;) The house I'm looking at is about 6 miles away from the glass school there, i drove by it and it looks awesome, i love the area. If all goes well i would love to attend the school and when finished, may rent the house out to other students in the glass program because it does not look like there are dorms in the area. Honestly once again thank you so much for all the info to everyone that replied, i really never met a nicer down to earth group of people, Props to the glass community for helping one another out;) oh btw i laughed my ass off when entering town near the cracker barrel i believe it was and i saw this sweet sign.... haha

[jseden]

Hahahah

[daveabr]

We were just out there for the IFC. While there are plenty of rough areas in Jersey, you can find plenty of places to stay safe and sound in that area. Like mentioned above, the actual glass center is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields. It's a great place, you won't regret going.

[B-Rye-oNeR]

there's these Burndem krew hoodlums up there

[JGglassproductions]

Bon fires every night..

[purdy]

Hell yeah, salem is a blast. Its not about how good of a glass blower you are, but how many needle valves you have.

[jseden]

^How many 24\40's do you want for one?

[BK]

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/17357793.jpg

[BK]

One more

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/17358433.jpg

[purdy]

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/17363990.jpg

[BK]

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/17365890.jpg

[jseden]

http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g371/Foxtrotglass/1333073432-picsay.jpg

[BoroZillacate]

Keep calm everyone, this threadjacking is for the greater good

[full_kiln]

http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac33/readingtonglass/62ead2af.jpg

[BK]

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/17453448.jpg

[BK]

..

[jseden]

http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g371/Foxtrotglass/1333083213-picsay.jpg

[leatherneck8541]

hahaha awesome, well i got the house now waiting for the inspector to come and tell me how long till it falls apart hah hope it "passes" hah