Where is the preferred/safest place to live?

Seriously planning a move to Ajijic within the next 4 months, will be visiting in the next 2 months looking at properties for rent...single guy just retiring. Reading here/elsewhere seems like break and enters are a serious problem. Looking for some guidance relative to safest areas to live and some precautions long term residents have taken to protect themselves. Thanks for this great board and everyone's participation, it has been a great help to me.

There's something here for everyone!!
Security Issues are blown wayyyy out of proportion... nuth'n a little razor wire, electric wire, and maybe a few land mines wouldn't fix....


I sent ya a PM

There is no safest place to live except for Los Arroyos Sur . You just have to check the security measures in the place you're interested in renting. I wouldn't live where there are no bars on the sliding doors & windows, for example.

hockables wrote:There's something here for everyone!!
Security Issues are blown wayyyy out of proportion... nuth'n a little razor wire, electric wire, and maybe a few land mines wouldn't fix....


I sent ya a PM

Couldn't agree more...31 years in the same house, same street, same village. No razor wire, electric wire, or land mines...just common sense and eyes wide open. Choose your friends and relationships carefully, your daily habits prudent. Plus a little

hockables wrote:There's something here for everyone!!
Security Issues are blown wayyyy out of proportion... nuth'n a little razor wire, electric wire, and maybe a few land mines wouldn't fix....


I sent ya a PM

Couldn't agree more. Everytime there's one burglary, people go off the wall into their paranoid state. Do they have burglaries, robberies and home invasions NOB, you bet, but everyone left their memories at home.

Carry Bean wrote:There is no safest place to live except for Los Arroyos Sur . You just have to check the security measures in the place you're interested in renting. I wouldn't live where there are no bars on the sliding doors & windows, for example.

WOW, you're finally realizing how safe Los Arroyos Sur, Los Arroyos and some other neighborhoods are. No one has bars on their windows here. We don't need to. I will NEVER live where there are bars on windows. Only paranoid people live that way. If you feel so unsafe that you need them, go back NOB. It's really safe there. Yeah, right!!!

I didn't come from NOB, John. Where I've lived before I've been robbed (not burgled) beaten up & raped. I wouldn't dream of living in a gated community where in many instances they're run by nosey parker boards on huge power trips. Don't be so cocky because the next house robbed could be yours.

It's none of your business how I live & when did you get to be a psychiatrist that you can diagnose ME as paranoid? When you pay my bills, you'll have that right. Until then, STFU. I wouldn't live where you do for all the money in the world.

poster might also consider chapala.... different strokes for different folks.

Chapala Jail never had a break-in, as far as I know!

gm

gringomojado wrote:Chapala Jail never had a break-in, as far as I know!

gm

Good one gringomojado! Please get bounced from the board and get a shorter name....LOL

gringomojado wrote:Chapala Jail never had a break-in, as far as I know!

gm

TFF.

You need to direct your question to θЯRθ or MelWhitlock. The only person in the area that knows anything. Snork!

http://www.lakechapalacrime.com/

This information may be helpful to you in deciding where to live at Lakeside.

Bman, your question is one that obviously elicits a lot of strong feeling, but it is a reasonable question with many different points of view. Me, I'm a renter and choose a gated community, the rules don't seem to have much effect and as a renter I'm outside of the politics. For others they look for securing a home, and taking reasonable security precautions in their daily lives and that seems to work. Others choose to jump right into a neighborhood where they become part of the local community and Mexican & Gringo neighbors look out for one another.
There is no single answer, and it depends on your risk tolerance level, degree of wanting to be part of a local community, and level of security precautions you are willing to take.
But, as stated above, some of what you read is overblown, so if you are getting most of your info from these boards, you might look for a little grain of salt also.

RE: gated communites. I have been looking to buy in Ajijic and have seen several ways in most gated communities, INCLUDING Los Arroyos, for bad guys to get in. I'm thinking, perhaps a false sense of security?

If you have any sense of security, probably some of it is false...just sayin'
And I think that applies to everyone with any sense of security, only the totally paranoid would be exempt.

Minervajt wrote:RE: gated communites. I have been looking to buy in Ajijic and have seen several ways in most gated communities, INCLUDING Los Arroyos, for bad guys to get in. I'm thinking, perhaps a false sense of security?

I live in Los Arroyos Sur, not Los Arroyos, so maybe since you're a newbie, you can explain why we have NEVER been robbed. Try looking at the most often robbed places like Las Salvias, La Floresta, Mirasol and Riberas and maybe you can help them with your ideas.

seisdedos wrote:You need to direct your question to θЯRθ or MelWhitlock. The only person in the area that knows anything. Snork!

Must be from the raquet Club, after all they too know everything there.

Carry Bean wrote:I didn't come from NOB, John. Where I've lived before I've been robbed (not burgled) beaten up & raped. I wouldn't dream of living in a gated community where in many instances they're run by nosey parker boards on huge power trips. Don't be so cocky because the next house robbed could be yours.

It's none of your business how I live & when did you get to be a psychiatrist that you can diagnose ME as paranoid? When you pay my bills, you'll have that right. Until then, STFU. I wouldn't live where you do for all the money in the world.

BINGO, We're seriously looking at Villa Nova, and will take our usual security precautions once we move there.

Minervajt wrote:RE: gated communites. I have been looking to buy in Ajijic and have seen several ways in most gated communities, INCLUDING Los Arroyos, for bad guys to get in. I'm thinking, perhaps a false sense of security?

You are correct that with most of the gated communities you can find a way in. But, you need to think through what the average burglar is thinking.
If he wants to case your house, he usually cannot because he can't hang around on a street corner watching it. Maybe construction workers could case your house, but lowers the risk profile.
Most burglars want fast in & out access with a vehicle in close proximity so they can take your computer and flat screen and be gone in a matter of minutes. Not typically the case with the gated communities I am familiar with.

Gated communities are really just another layer of deterrence. The guy at the gate isn't going to take a bullet for you and like they always say, if they want to get in they will find a way.

There's pro's and con's to all choices, you just have to evaluate what works for you.

I have lived in Ajijic village in a mixed Mexican/expat area for over five years. We had lousy security in terms of entering the property, but good security on the house itself. Never been robbed up to the incident Dec. 31, when it appears that the would be thief was high on something, couldn't get in the house, so he set fire to our woodpile while we were out to dinner. Fortunately, we weren't gone long enough for serious damage. We added some entrance security and that's been that.

We also have neighbors who look out for each other when possible.
For those who say they just can't handle the idea of bars, etc.........they may be forgetting that we are free to leave the place; the bars are to keep others OUT, not cage the owner IN.

" For others they look for securing a home, and taking reasonable security precautions in their daily lives and that seems to work. Others choose to jump right into a neighborhood where they become part of the local community and Mexican & Gringo neighbors look out for one another."

Here is my take on this question, a former Big Apple resident: I feel totally safe in my village neighborhood, where eveybody knows my name, and we all watch out for each other. Except for another couple and myself, everyone on the block has lived in the same homes for generations, so strangers hanging around are quickly noticed. My neighbors know who comes in and out of my house, so if a truck pulled up and unknown people were loading my tv and computer, it surely would call attention to a probable problem.
As far as I know, there has never been a break-in on my street. I, personally, like living around the locals, and I doubt I'd be happy in a gated community, or a quiet neighborhood where people don't walk on the street, so no one would know if trouble were brewing at a neighbor's house.
[i]

Jim W wrote:

gringomojado wrote:Chapala Jail never had a break-in, as far as I know!

gm

Good one gringomojado! Please get bounced from the board and get a shorter name....LOL

I thought it was nigh upon impossible to get bounced here?

Oh, why?

gm

Si, por qué?

Me gusta la gringomojado nombre. Sabes lo que significa gringomojado, Jaime?

gringomojado wrote:

Jim W wrote:

gringomojado wrote:Chapala Jail never had a break-in, as far as I know!

gm

Good one gringomojado! Please get bounced from the board and get a shorter name....LOL

I thought it was nigh upon impossible to get bounced here?

Oh, why?

gm

It is gringomojado, however, my limited memory, lack of retention, and desire to personalize responses.....wtf, hard to remember your screen name.....me JIM....you nearly half the alphabet! LOL My problem, not yours!