I was going to say “South of Roosevelt” has some prime real estate through about Cermak. I see Lamborghinis down there (and I’m not exaggerating at all.) And even south of there, Pilsen and Bridgeport are becoming quite hipsterish parts of town, even bleeding down a bit to McKinley Park if you follow Archer a bit to the southwest. And Kenwood, of course, is where the Obamas live (and the Farrakhan mansion is there, too), so it’s got some swank there, too. And Hyde Park, also mentioned, has million dollar homes there, as well. And then if you head somewhat the hell down south to Beverly (because Chicago goes pretty far south in parts–we’re talking 90s and 100s here around Western), you’ll find gorgeous and expensive homes out there as well.
In northern New Jersey, wild life is apt to be anywhere. The ducks were swimming in a big puddle after some heavy rains, and the deer was eating leaves off a tree. I once came out of my house only to be held captive (both literally and figuratively) by a mama deer with her two fawns. If I had made one move, the doe would have attacked. And they were so beautiful.
I’ve also seen wild turkeys, one who flew from the ground to a fencepost.
In my experience, people tolerate lots of crime as lonq as the neighborhood is hip enough. Lots of expensive well-kept houses and bars, restaurants, and shopping within walking distance make people kinda forget about crime.
Take away the ammenities and the rich people and suddenly the crime is all anyone can talk about.
Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
I live in a boring middle-to-upper-middle-class suburb so there’s no “bad side.” But people have gotten it into their heads that our Wal Mart is a very dangerous place because there’s shoplifting there because it’s Wal Mart. Also people come from out of town to shop there.
No one’s ever been killed or mugged or molested or stabbed or injured at our Wal Mart, though. So while others will go 20 miles away to a different Wal Mart where they feel “safe” I continue to patronize ours at any hour because, geez people…
As for Cleveland and Akron, no I am only ever in the regular “tourist” parts of the cities where the sports teams and music venues are.
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.
Just don’t go listening to Paper Lace songs. You could drown trying to visit the east side of Chicago.
I work in Sauget, IL. Which is essentially East St. Louis. So…
Business takes me to bad parts of town, but not the worst parts.
Same here. The worst parts of our town are just a little seedy, nothing dangerous about it. We did have one murder a couple of years, less than a mile away from my house, but that was a rare event. There are two small poor cities that border this town and they don’t really have any particularly bad part either, just poverty stricken. Some parts of Providence may be considered the bad part, but they aren’t really that bad compared to real cities in real states.
For a brief period of my life, I lived near Chicot and Baseline. I got the hell out as soon as I could. I moved up to the north end of Reservoir Road. Much better up there. 
To the OP: No, never – unless absolutely forced to by circumstances.
That’s a lot like Ladue, no?
I had to look up crime stats to figure out what the “bad part of town” might be. Looks like by most metrics (I think ‘serious assault rates’ is the best one) it’s the one in between my house, University, and my kids school, that I cycle through every day.Kambukta’s former stomping ground (I believe?) of Fitzroy - one of those places you have to mortgage your firstborn to be able to afford to buy a house there.
The suburbs that have a *reputation *for being ‘rough’ these days are mostly on the city fringe, and I don’t have reason to get out there usually (also, there’s a hell of a lot of fringe, and only really tiny pockets of ‘rough’)
The bad parts in my actual city, sure. But while they have more crime, it’s not that a random person has to be scared. Now, the bad parts of city of Milwaukee, not if I can avoid it. I mean, I’ll drive through them if that’s the way to my destination, but if I was just driving around I wouldn’t joyride through some of those areas. Far too much random violence and too many reports of people getting hit or killed by stray bullets/crossfire.
I drive to a small university town once a week or so. I like to go in the junk shops down on the ‘front’. I’ve never had a problem.
I understand it gets pretty rough at night.
OTOH, years ago I was taking my MIL to an eye doctor in a very upscale area. We came out and she walked around the back of my car and was mugged. They stole her purse and knocked her down. You just never can tell where crime wiil occur.
Our neighborhood is considered the “bad part” of the affluent county we live in. I’ve heard cashiers at our Giant Supermarket say that people who work in ritzier areas call our store the “Ghetto Giant.”
In the 5 years I have been living where I am now there have been two murders in my street in a generally rough area. The street is only about 130 yards long. It doesn’t worry me, I am frequently walking around here to go shopping or strolling to the park to read.
Sometimes I get off the CTA Red Line at 35th (the station near the stadium where the White Sox play) and walk a few blocks to work. There are worse parts of town, but that’s all I got.
I’ve been in housing projects on Cleveland’s East Side. I was there with my mom, who was visiting her “honorary grandchildren”, former students who just sort of attached themselves to her.
I’ve also walked through some neighborhoods which a lot of folks would probably be scared to go near, but which bore the signs (if you knew where to look) of folks just trying to make the best of life, but starting from the bottom.
In Chicago, there’s a few to choose from.
I’ve been driven through Englewood a couple of times.
We used to go to the Jehovah’s Witnesses Assembly Hall way back when it was at 79th and Ashland. That area didn’t look great. This was during the 70’s.
Some suburban types might think the Uptown neighborhood is shady, I love it. It’s like a second home to me. Great restaurants, and a Starbucks somebody got shot to death in. Plus the Green Mill and its gangster past. Walking over Prohibition tunnels. It’s history come to life.
We did move away from the Cragin/Belmont area when it became too gang infested. But those were white gangs, and they weren’t dangerous. Just really a bunch of assholes. Who wants to live around loud drunken assholes every night?
It occurs to me that this part of my post might be construed as racist. I didn’t mean it that way. The gangs in my old neighborhood never scared me, they just pissed me off.
Anyway, now I live with a mix of races and religions and I like it just fine. Beats living with loud drunken assholes any day of the week.