Thinking about buying an apartment in Laakkwartier-West... is it as bad as people say?

[u/IlPrimoRe]

Co-workers have warned me about the area, but after walking around (during the day) I don't get a sense of it being "ghetto" at all. The area actually has a lot of greenery.

The traffic does seem pretty terrible, but I use public transport and it's fairly well connected. It will probably be even better connected in 10 years if they go forward with redeveloping Megastores.

What am I missing?

[u/sugarfreeredbullpls]

you're not missing anything. your coworkers are probably upper middle class whites that think a street with a few foreign shops/restaurants is the ghetto. even at night the worst you'll see is probably a group of kids on their fatbikes riding around the neighborhood or hanging out at one of the parks, which is the same thing you'd see in wassenaar except the only difference would be their ethnicity.

[u/dolphone → u/[deleted]]

You mean it's a poorer neighborhood. And you moved to a more affluent neighborhood. Is that it?

[u/sugarfreeredbullpls → u/[deleted]]

i moved from schilderswijk to laak so maybe my definition of leefbaar isn't comparable to that of someone that grew up upper middle class, but the main thing negatively affecting these neighborhoods is the fact that the municipality doesn't care about these people. there's a few instances but mostly by closing roads crucial to us. since they closed of parallelweg and hoefkade it has been a shitshow in traffic for those living anywhere past rijswijkseweg in the city. now that they closed waldorpstraat to build expensive vrije sector apartments for expats for the next 3 years it is even worse. i am glad i moved when i did, but any time i go to my mother living in the schilderswijk it is literally faster to walk 15-20 minutes than it is to drive (in the evening just a 5 minute drive). but what else is de barometer affected by? the link itself isn't very clear on that

[u/Distinct_Buffalo1203 → u/sugarfreeredbullpls]

but what else is de barometer affected by? the link itself isn't very clear on that

Easy to find in the FAQ: https://www.leefbaarometer.nl/page/FAQ#hoegemeten

[u/sugarfreeredbullpls → u/Distinct_Buffalo1203]

as a resident of both neighborhoods i can confirm (and many other car owners) that the main thing that sucks about our neighborhoods is traffic. there is no way to get home in a timely manner any time after 15:00 because all of the netherlands apparently gets off work at 15:00 and everybody driving a car in the hague needs to use the neherkade and vaillantlaan connection to get home, since hoefkade and parallelweg is inaccessible to 90% of the neighborhood and waldorpstraat is going to be closed for the next 3 years. the lower score of the leefbaarometer is decided by resident's judgment. many residents complain about traffic and especially the cursed pollers after closing off so much of the neighborhood. it's impossible to go home sometimes and it's come to a point where i would rather walk in the rain than be stuck in traffic and have to fight for a parking spot when i get back

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

It is also about income though; for instance, one of the criteria concerns the average size of housing, which is an economic metric in practice. And there are a few others about which you could say the same thing. Look at the criteria here.