Quote Originally Posted by warreng88 View Post
We bought our house in the Crestwood addition in late 2007 and even since then we have seen more young couples and other people buying houses in the area and fixing them up.
We bought into the Cleveland neighborhood in 1967 so that our three sons could go to good schools; one of the three had to repeat third grade because the school system could find no record that he had completed it (at Longfellow!) the previous year. Vince Gill grew up just a block north of us and I used to hear him practicing most every evening. Manny Cruz was a couple of blocks farther north, just off Venice. It was a great area, with great neighbors.

It remained a typical middle-class neighborhood through the 70s but began declining in the early 80s despite efforts of the Cleveland Neighborhood Association to keep it up. We sold out in 1982 and moved to what was then far NW OKC (near NW 122 and Council). What were the far outskirts of town 30 years ago is now reasonably packed in, and hasn't yet begun that spiral of decline.

Just a week or so ago, I drove through the old neighborhood for the first time in many years, and was heartened to see it apparently rising once again.

The same thing seems to be happening to Crestwood; I lived at NW 20 and May from 1946 until the early 50s, when I moved out of my parents' home into my own apartment. They left the house to my youngest son when they died, and he stayed there until 1999 -- watching the area decline. Now, however, it seems to be coming back.

I think there's hope for such areas. It just takes time and a few dedicated crusaders...