# Do you ever go to your city's "bad part of town"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645 "2019-10-29T15:23:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/41 "2019-10-29T23:41:58Z")
When I was living in Fort Wayne I was really into bicycling for a while. I did a lot of urban exploring, riding around brownfield type sites and riding through some neighborhoods that had a reputation for being “bad.” This was always Saturday or Sunday morning/afternoon rides and nobody ever bothered me. The city has an extensive bike trail system that skirts some rough areas and judging by the graffiti some gang activity but again, I was riding during the daylight hours. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/42 "2019-10-30T01:13:27Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > That’s a lot like Ladue, no? One has a lot of murders, one has a lot of lawyers. Potato, potahto. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/43 "2019-10-30T14:05:07Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Put me down as another in the bad part of town. I actually had to work my motorcycle out through the man-door and through the yard because the body across my garage door hadn’t been moved yet. At one point it was nice, then bad, then nice, and now bad again. Cycles happen. How long did that body remain there? Did you ever report the corpse in your driveway? I guess this is a good reason to live in a small town. Dead bodies get cleaned up in a timely fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/44 "2019-10-30T14:36:38Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Put me down as another in the bad part of town. I actually had to work my motorcycle out through the man-door and through the yard because the body across my garage door hadn’t been moved yet. At one point it was nice, then bad, then nice, and now bad again. Cycles happen. 'e’s not dead… 'e’es pining for the fjords! ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/45 "2019-10-30T14:47:37Z")
When I was a lot younger I lived in San Francisco in the Western Addition which was certainly one of the bad parts. An acquaintance was killed for pocket change by a couple of hopheads while I was there. I came across bloodstains on the sidewalk a couple times. You learned to walk in the middle of the street, no matter what the traffic, and stay extremely alert at all times. It wasn’t restful. I moved out when I could. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/46 "2019-10-30T15:32:07Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > When I was a lot younger I lived in San Francisco in the Western Addition which was certainly one of the bad parts. An acquaintance was killed for pocket change by a couple of hopheads while I was there. I came across bloodstains on the sidewalk a couple times. You learned to walk in the middle of the street, no matter what the traffic, and stay extremely alert at all times. It wasn’t restful. I moved out when I could. Are IPAs that expensive in San Fran? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/47 "2019-10-30T19:06:23Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > How long did that body remain there? Did you ever report the corpse in your driveway? > > I guess this is a good reason to live in a small town. Dead bodies get cleaned up in a timely fashion. Didn’t have to; opened the door and there is Victim A and a lot of cops and other city folks all standing around there. I wanted to back the Sportie around it kinda but noooooo – preserving the scene and all that. If I had gotten there first I would have gotten the bike out first and THEN called. After all it isn’t like he was going to get any deader. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/48 "2019-10-30T19:11:13Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > Are IPAs that expensive in San Fran? Um. Still can’t joke about it all these years later. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/49 "2019-10-30T19:25:04Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Um. > Still can’t joke about it all these years later. Sorry, bad taste. I just haven’t heard the term “hophead” before. Hooplehead, yes (thanks Deadwood). ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/50 "2019-10-30T19:36:34Z")
I live outside of town. Here the “good part” and “bad part” are almost side by side. There is one of the richest people in town two houses from a house that is falling apart and so she has to live in a trailer behind the house (with what seems like 100 cats), which is across the street from the house with the confederate and Gadsden flags with the weekly target practice (or something) with big guns, which is next door to a more upscale house. So, I don’t walk past the creek going one way but will go to the end of the street the other way. I do drive through the “bad part”. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/51 "2019-10-30T23:05:41Z")
Cary, North Carolina, population of approximately 170,000, is consistently rated as one of the safest communities of its size in the U.S. As far As I can tell, the “bad part of town” is that neighborhood where they are lazy about keeping the lawns mowed. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/52 "2019-11-01T02:28:35Z")
The new Family Dollar store immediately became the bad part of this remote mountain village. Previously the bad part was the biker bar across the road and the trailer park behind it. But the main danger here is cars speeding to and from the ski resort upcountry. We call this the Kirkwood 500. ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/53 "2019-11-01T18:21:08Z")
In one of my two jobs, I routinely go into the homeless camps alone. This occurs three days a week. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/54 "2019-11-01T20:05:01Z")
**Do you ever go to your city’s “bad part of town”?** Go? I’m soaking in it. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2019, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/55 "2019-11-02T11:47:16Z")
Used to work in the Bad Area. The school was fenced in with security at the gates. My commute took me directly thru the intersection that was the geographic reference point for the whole zone. It was really scary after the Rodney King verdict. A bit scary a few other times. But generally just a normal, everyday poor part of town. In grad school, I spent two nights a week at the college’s adult extension branch. Also located at the nominal intersection for the area. There were two murders and a third body found within a block of the place while I worked there. All of us went there in one car as a group and stuck together going in and out. Got offered smack from time to time. But the students we worked with were just flat out great people. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2019, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/56 "2019-11-04T10:34:31Z")
I’ve lived in a couple places here in Missoula, MT. I currently live in a nice little apartment building right by some train tracks (a spur line) but I used to live in a townhouse across the street from a trailer park, which wouldn’t have been so bad except that right after I left, there was a police standoff with a methhead in that trailer park. Nothing before or since, really, so I guess that trailer park isn’t bad after all. Funnily enough, that trailer park is also right by a rather upscale bistro attached to a members-only grocery co-op, one of the more yuppified places in the city. But Missoula’s just kinda like that: You’ll get a rather nice section right by a poor one, and plenty of sections of just plain boring residential areas. The _worst_ place is probably the drug den of a cheap motel right across from the Poverello Center, the city’s homeless shelter, which is very close to a literal island in the Clark Fork river known for being a vagrant campground, with all of the drug- and psychosis-fueled violence that entails. That’s not far from one of the city’s hospitals, St. Patrick’s, which makes a certain kind of sense. Of course, I used to walk right through that part of town at 3 AM because I used to walk at 3 AM and I never had any problems. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/57 "2019-11-04T16:35:46Z")
In 1975, I moved to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago graduate school. I had student housing at 1369 East Hyde Park. Two days after I arrived, I had to fly to DC for an interview. I got back to ORD about 11:00P and, being unfamiliar with the city, decided to take the Green Line to 51st Street (which becomes East Hyde Park) and walk home. It was incident-free, though I got quite a few stares because I was in a business suit and carrying a briefcase. (I’m a very white boy.) My friends were appalled to learn that I had walked from the station at that time of night. I hadn’t given it a minute’s thought, though I would never have done it again after I got familiar with the area. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Maple\_Leaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a8b319/32.png) [@The\_Maple\_Leaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Maple_Leaf)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/58 "2019-11-06T13:34:38Z")
When I was a small boy, I lived with my parents for four years in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighborhood which, while there are worse neighborhoods, does have a reputation for a higher rate of crime and poverty. There is a lot of public housing there (though we lived in a good privately owned apartment) and it is considered to be something of a ghetto. When we lived there, though (1981-1985), it had more better-off people living there, and was, all things considered, quite a nice area to live in. Even today, there are, for example, a good public library, a lot of wonderful parkland, and a large university in close proximity. I spent some of the most carefree years of my life there, and have on many occasions gone for sentimental walks there in my adult life. On one such walk in 2011, I was stopped by two police officers in the parking lot of a strip mall and given a very thorough questioning (they even had a sergeant come and question me a second time), because apparently they thought I resembled someone who had gotten angry on a bus and kicked the door or something. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/59 "2019-11-06T15:28:23Z")
Lived there in various towns until I moved to DC. Sometimes actually bad (drug dealer next door, shooting in, per police, “known drug house.”, etc.) And sometimes “bad” as in it’s fine but some people are scared of brown people :dubious:. In the actually bad neighborhood, it was the white people doing sketchy shit. And in one town my neighborhood was meh but the grocery store had police all over because it was a bad area. But that was the closest grocery so I went there all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645/60 "2019-11-06T18:22:43Z")
My grad school was in the bad part of town, and I go back semi-regularly to give lectures and attend alumni functions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-go-to-your-citys-bad-part-of-town/842645.md?page=4)