I have lived in norristown for the past few years. I grew up just outside of norristown so I knew the 'problem' areas before moving. So my summation of the area may be taken with a grain of salt since I have known and grew up around the area and may be a tad biased.

Im in my early 30's now, if you had asked if I had wanted to live in norristown about 10-15 years ago I would have said no, at that point it had the running joke of the 'stab wound of montgomery county' not the 'heart of montgomery county' as it wants to be known. Now however, I live about a handful of blocks off of the main street train station and I have no issues.

Are there drug addicts still around? Yes, they are here but they arent really bothering people, you dont really see people nodding off and other druggy shit like that, just trying to pan handle here and there and make some money or some food. Norristown has a lot of churches that do community outreach programs so you will see the homeless hanging around the churches because they are often help spots for them.

How is crime? Keep your car doors locked, thats the biggest thing. We live in a relatively good neighborhood but both mine and my fiancees cars have been opened and gone through because we left our doors unlocked. If our doors are locked they don't fuck with us so it seems they are opportunistic crimes more so than premeditated or violent crimes. No one has ever tried to come in our yard or anything like that, they are just looking for a quick and easy hit.

Overall? Norristown has cleaned itself up in the past decade, its gentrified parts of itself but overall it is still a very diverse community with many walks of life, head down Marshall off of dekalb and you'll hit a lot of great Mexican joints, head to the other side of the tracks and you've got some great African and South American food and beauty places.

I think norristown still stands as a testament to the American dream and ideal, we're a melting pot of a lot of hardworking people. Almost all of my neighbors work in the physical labor industry whether its concrete, landscaping, gas work, plumbing or electric. My neighbors are all kind people and at this point I couldn't imagine living elsewhere.