Experiences living in Maxwell Park?

Not sure exactly where you are moving to, but it's a little busy/can get a little wild on 55th and on Seminary.  It's a safe neighborhood, but sometimes doesn't feel like it.  More of a perception thing than actual depending on where you live.  Everything is a drive, the neighborhood is nice to walk through. Going up the hills past 55th is a nicer neighborhood than below.  The neighbors are great.  Lots of kids.  We have a baby and I've seen a lot of others here too.  It all depends on what you are looking for, but I think it's been a net positive for us since we moved in December.

Hi! We’ve lived in Maxwell Park for over five years and have two little kids, and we love it here. I feel a strong sense of community here. When we go for walks around the neighborhood or see other families at the park everyone is always friendly and welcoming. It feels like a pretty diverse neighborhood, in terms of race and age - lots of older folks, but also lots of families with little kids. Less diverse socioeconomically though there’s some of that. To me it feels like people here are invested in their homes and communities without being pretentious or annoying about it.

You ask about safety which I never know how to answer. You will hear gunshots here sometimes, and if you spend a lot of time on Nextdoor it may sound scary. That said I have lived here with my young kids for 5 years and have felt very safe during that time. We regularly walk around the neighborhood, which is pleasant and lovely. We leave toys and other stuff in our unsecured front yard without a thought. If you recognize that you’re in an urban environment and stuff sometimes happens, Maxwell Park is a safe and friendly neighborhood.

one downside is there’s not a lot within easy walking. If you’re willing to walk a mile or a little more, the Laurel is not far and has lots of shops/restaurants/etc. 
 

Overall, we love it here and don’t plan to leave! 

We lived in Maxwell Park for quite a while and then moved to Berkeley for the schools (and that is another story). I really liked living in Maxwell Park. Our neighbors were wonderful. It was not, however, a very walkable place--with the hills and not many places nearby to walk to. The safety issue was rather mixed bag. We had a young child at the time and walked around the neighborhood with them and they played in the front yard with us supervising of course and felt pretty safe. But then there was the neighbor, working on his car in broad daylight, who was robbed at gunpoint. And, that said, I'd move back to Maxwell Park, but it's out of our price range...

We moved to Maxwell Park in January, having bought a home here after renting in Jingletown for 2 years. We love it!

I don't know if we just lucked out on our neighbors but our street is very friendly, look out for each other and everyone came over to introduce themselves. There is one family that has kids the same ages as ours but there's others nearby I've seen too. Our neighbors are socioeconomically, racially and ethnically diverse. There is a welcoming and open atmosphere.

I feel safe in our neighborhood, though there's been a few scary incidents recently. I think they make the news/nextdoor because they are unexpected. It is good to be careful and aware, take what precautions you can but generally I feel good walking around, safe in our home at night and safe leaving it for the weekend.

The one downside is that generally you do need to drive places though that kind of depends on where you are in the neighborhood. We live in the edge and could theoretically walk to businesses on Foothill but that's not a very pleasant road. We do walk to Maxwell Park quite a bit. And my son has speech therapy at one of the schools and we walk. We tend to drive to shop, go to library and run general errands. But the location of the neighborhood makes it pretty easy to get anywhere by car. My husband hadn't quite figured out how he's going to commute to SF once that starts again but part of that is where we are in the neighborhood too. There are some possible options depending on where in Maxwell Park you are.

All around, I'd recommend Maxwell Park and I'm glad we moved here. I think it's a neighborhood they could work well for many families.

Maxwell Park is awesome. We moved here four years ago and have a wonderful community. There are so many families with kids of all ages (our now 4 and 6 year olds have several playmates) as well as couples of all ages without kids, and many longer time residents. There’s a huge sense of neighborliness and warmth. Strangers greet one another when passing by. We know all of our neighbors! Lots of folks with dogs (and cats too). You will end up driving almost anywhere, but it’s a short hop in the car. Can you tell we love it?

We have lived in Maxwell Park since 2015.  Since that time, our family has grown from just the two of us to having a toddler and baby and a dog, and we are so grateful that during shelter in place, we had a backyard and lovely streets to take walks on where I feel safe and see plenty other families taking walks or walking dogs.  It's a very friendly community, everyone waves, looks out for one another, and we know all our neighbors who are all great people, and i am also seeing a lot of young families moving in.  This year for National Night Out we had 3 participating blocks, and there is also an awesome Halloween block party for the kids every year (but obviously on hold due to covid)

Safety would depend on which part of the neighborhood you are on, 55th is a very busy corridor, and some sketchy stuff happens on the other wide onHigh St, but within the neighborhood, it feels like a different world with many tree lined streets and many beautiful and well maintained homes.

It is not every walkable (yes  you can take nice walks around the neighborhood, but for groceries and errands you would have to drive everywhere).  It is also a bit hilly so it's not very conducive to kid things like learning to ride a bike, but on the flip side you get beautiful views from some of the vantage points!  It's a quick drive to Safeway (on Redwood or Dimond), really great restaurants in the Laurel district, playgrounds (Dimond playground and park is great!) and if it matters to you, so many options for kids swim lessons nearby (Mills, Ohana, Lion pool, etc).  We pretty much go to the Oakland Zoo every weekend since it's literally one exit away, we also have gems like Redwood Regional Park and Joaguin Miller right in our back yard which I love and is great for our kids.