Nearby Emerald Hill is named so either due to the green colour of the hill due to the large number of trees or its Irish connections – many of the roads in the suburb have Irish names, such as Dublin, Belfast, Wicklow and Cork. The area is also notable for its Catholic institutions such as St. John's High School and the Dominican Convent. While the area was home to an Irish Catholic community they have largely been assimilated into the larger white Zimbabwean community or have joined the ranks of the Zimbabwean diaspora abroad. Other parts of the North West are leafy and quiet but have become slightly rough around the edges since the mid-2000s. The country's economic crisis in that decade led to thousands of local university-educated residents and professionals emigrating to the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, thus the area lacks much of the wealth and vibrancy it had in the nineties.