Cherry Creek is a neighborhood on the westside of Columbus

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. It contains the Oakbrook Manor (formally Lincoln Park) apartments and the Westview apartments. It is bounded on the east by Interstate 270

Interstate 270 (Ohio)

Interstate 270 is the beltway loop freeway in the Columbus metropolitan area, commonly known locally as "The Outerbelt," or the "Jack Nicklaus Freeway." The "western" terminus of I-270, at least in terms of the zero-milepost, is at the junction with I-71 east of Grove City, Ohio...

, on the north by Sullivant Avenue

Sullivant Avenue

Sullivant Avenue is a street in Columbus, Ohio, United States, running east to west. It starts at the western city limits, and runs to near downtown. Sullivant Avenue has many neighborhoods alongside it.-History:...

, on the west by Norton Road, and on the south by Hall Road. It is in the ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 43228. Its official area is West Columbus

West Columbus, Ohio

West Columbus, or westside, is a loosely-defined term used to describe a broad geographic area in Columbus, Ohio, United States. It is not a true "neighborhood," but rather a geographic label or term...

 Although they are technically two separate neighborhoods, Cherry Creek and Murray Hill

Murray Hill, Columbus, Ohio

Murray Hill is a street in a neighborhood on the westside of Columbus, Ohio. It is part of the Lincoln Village subdivision and is colloquially known as Lincoln Village. It is bounded by West Broad Street on the north, Sullivant Avenue on the south, South Grener Avenue on the east, and Redmond and...

 are often considered the same neighborhood. They are only separated by Sullivant Avenue, and many people just consider the two together Cherry Creek. This is reflected by the Columbus Police Department grouping the two together as one neighborhood. A shopping outlet is scheduled to be constructed in the neighborhood in 2008. The neighborhood has gained some notability from being listed on 10TV's list of Top 5 neighborhoods in Columbus for auto theft.

Conveniences

Cherry Creek is known for several things. First, the Brandenberry shopping center on the western part of the neighborhood, which includes a grocery store, and several other places. It also has its own church, the Cherry Creek Church of Christ, and its own YMCA

YMCA

The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...

, the Hilltop YMCA. The neighborhood is the future home of Shoppes at Cherry Creek, a retail outlet scheduled to be constructed in 2008.

Demographics

It is known for being very diverse, as well as a place for crime. The neighborhood is a mix of African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s, Hispanic

Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

s, and Caucasians

Caucasian race

The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...

. Recent school district statistics had shown the area is 45% white, 26% Hispanic, 24% African-American, and 5% mixed races. School statistics from Stiles Elementary, the school that serves the Cherry Creek-Murray Hill neighborhood, show that 79% of those in the neighborhood live in poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

.

Notoriety

The neighborhood has gained some notoriety on the westside of Columbus for several things. First, it is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city with three races totaling at least a quarter of the population. Second, the high poverty rate which currently stands at an estimated 79%. Third, the lack of English-speaking residents which is shown by statistical estimates which say 30% of the neighborhood is non-English speaking. Fourth, the crime rate. For a small, single neighborhood, Cherry Creek has an unusual high crime rate with crime statistics in most categories comparable to those of Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

. Recent police interviews have also mentioned the presence of two gangs in the area, one being a Hispanic gang and the other being the large Hilltop Blood gang. The latest incident to bring attention to the neighborhood was the January 27, 2008 murder of a 19-year-old man who was shot to death at the corner of Wesliegh Run and Westmead Drive in west-central portion of the neighborhood and the double homicide involving a bartender in October at her Cherry Creek home. The neighborhood is ranked among the top 5 neighborhoods in Columbus for car theft.