Ha!
How do I know I may be in the ghetto? I’m at my sister’s house. 
(I wish she would move…)
Auto repair shop/junkyard, with a Doberman
All the streets are canals, and everybody has a Jewish last name.
Bulletproof glass divider between the workers and customers of the Chinese take out place. The divider is worth more than the rest of the store combined but probably pays for itself quickly.
BTW, Checkers does not imply “ghetto”. You know there are plenty of McDonalds’s in the ghetto too.
-Men wearing swastikas forced you to move there.
Yes, but McDonald’s also exists outside of the ghetto. Checkers, not so much. YMMV, but around DC it’s known as “Ghetto Burger”.
ETA: full disclosure, I like Checkers, but it’s still ghetto as shit.
For reference, Melbourne Australia.
*There are police/armed guards at the local railway station.
*Shopping trolleys hijacked from the supermarket, and left on a kerb some kilometers from the store.
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Petty criminals doing ‘community service’ (in lieu of a jail sentence) who meander alongside railway lines in groups collecting rubbish.
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Lots of pawn shops and Payday Loan storefronts.
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The pet of favour is a pit-bull, on a leash with a studded collar…owner is generally a white, skinny, acne-ridden gangsta wannabe called Jason.
Charity shops have closed
Loads of mobile phone unlock stalls
Mail is collect from depot only
Doors and windows made from metal sheeting - probably needs armour piercing to penetrate.
8 Year olds on every corner with a pay as you go mobile phone
If there is any bulk trash, then it will always contain at least one CRT television
There is one heavily customised, lowered and tweaked small car parked up - and it never gets vandalised
Welp, there goes my post.
Surprised this one hasn’t come up yet:
Blood plasma “donation” centers.
Together with payday lenders, they’re my top indicator that a neighborhood is in decline.
Here in Texas anyway, if the area is not particularly built-up or walking-friendly, but you still have a LOT of people walking everywhere, it’s probably pretty low-income and ghetto.
Also, if your area has a Williams Chicken or Church’s Chicken, it’s a pretty accurate sign as well.
Around here (Dallas), the presence of an Aldi grocery store is another accurate sign as are the presence of Pizza Patron franchises.
Oh… payday lenders = old & busted. Title Loan places = new hotness.
FWIW, I’ve never associated Checkers with the ghetto–back when there were a bunch in the Chicago area, they were everywhere, and the one I went to was in a nice middle-class suburb.
Of course, they’re all pretty much gone now, and the only one I know is (in fact) in a ghetto-ish area. But I don’t think of them (or Rally’s–same company AFAIK) as “ghetto.” (ETA: Actually, looking at the map, there’s a couple still left, generally all in lower income neighborhoods. Hmmm…I certainly don’t remember them having a ghetto reputation in the 90s.)
I thought we were talking about the auto parts chain ‘checker auto parts.’
I’m in Frisco at Preston and Stonebrook and we have an Aldi. The Cowboys just announced they’re moving in though so that’s a pretty sure sign the neighborhood was shot anyway!
This is true in South Louisiana, and has nothing to do with other characteristics of the area. Grocery store, convenience store, drug store, whatever…all sell booze. There are also drive thru daiquiri shops.
I used to live in Preston Vineyard on Concord! Probably about as close to a ghetto as you’ll find in Frisco.
I’m guessing the Aldi is where the old Albertsons used to be by the Taco Bell? (SW corner)
I used to live in Seattle’s version of the ghetto (right off Rainier Ave) and many of these things were not true of it. I’ve lived in a lot of neighborhoods that are not nice, and in fact have people breaking into cars left and right (which never once happened to me in my alley parking spot in the ghetto but happened nonstop in Lake Shitty), but aren’t called ghetto, and the differences I noticed were that there were more young kids out late at night unsupervised. I lived right by a park and there would always be groups of middle school kids hanging out there at 2am in the summer. The other thing was the car stereos. Everywhere has loud music coming from cars, but this was way louder, way more bass, and way more frequent. This was just on a side street. Right now I live in a decidedly not-great area in a building located in a large, busy commercial parking lot and I hear it a *lot *less.
Yup - that’s exactly where it’s at! I’ve never been in it and to be honest not sure it’s actually still open. There’s a handful of dopers- you and Shakes specifically, that I know I live close to (though in your case sounds like that’s former now) that I wonder if I’ve bumped into around town.
Skyway? Not too far from duh duh DUUUUUHHHH MLK Blvd, eh?
Just a bit north of Skyway, but yeah, MLK is one that is true. Thankfully the thing about not having decent grocery stores is not! The grocery and drug stores in that area are just as nice and I think have the same prices as the rest of the city. I didn’t think of my area as being any more ghetto than most of the other places I’ve lived, but everyone who visited would comment on it, either to joke (friends) or to express concern (family).