There Goes the Neighborhood!

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
The News & Observer	[9]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD	[7]

The Chicago Tribune called the set "energetic and immediate, very much the sinew of jazz."^[10] The Washington Post wrote that "Bartz's brash, headlong improvisations, accruing more momentum with every chorus and often sustained brilliantly by Barron, are tempered by the emotional vulnerability the saxophonist displays so readily on the ballads."^[6] The News & Observer advised: "Don't expect tenderness ... unless it's the tenderness following a burn," and noted Bartz's similarity to Coltrane's "whiplashing 'sheets of sound' days."^[9] Musician labeled Bartz "a burning improviser who can bring a club to a frenzy."^[11] In 1993, Newsday wrote that Riley and Barron "played to great effect on the underrated" There Goes the Neighborhood!^[12]

AllMusic praised Bartz's "rippling solos and dominant presence."^[8] The Encyclopedia of Popular Music called the album "a vivid record of one of modern jazz’s most intense and exciting living saxophonists, playing at his peak."^[4] The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD considered it "his finest hour."^[7]