[QUOTE=Bearflag70]
How did you accomplish this?
I’ve thought of putting on some “homeless” garb and wandering around skid row just to see what’s there.
[/QUOTE]
I have walked through “skid row” (LA, SF both) several times with no danger. I might skip it at night.
I’d say anywhere in the world where a 17 year old girl puts a police officer in the hospital by punching him through his face shield… that’s gotta be the world’s most dangerous place.
Only some…? Jesus…
[QUOTE=msmith537]
I have to agree. I’ve been to Rio on vacation in the Ipanema and Copacobana areas and it’s probably about as safe as any city of it’s size. Those are the more upscale touristy areas though. I wouldn’t go wandering through the favelas.
I would have to think you were at a much greater risk in Mexico City.
[/QUOTE]
Why? Are you speaking from personal experience when it come to Mexico City?
[QUOTE=DrDeth]
I have walked through “skid row” (LA, SF both) several times with no danger. I might skip it at night.
[/QUOTE]
I drove through LA skid row exactly once and had a big knife pulled on my tire as I drove by this dude in the street. I assumed it was because I wasn’t wearing my “homeless costume” at the time.
In Nairobi, not only can you be murdered, but also have your blood decanted into a jerrycan for later consumption by a shadowy cult / gang / militia.
[QUOTE=Bearflag70]
How did you accomplish this?
I’ve thought of putting on some “homeless” garb and wandering around skid row just to see what’s there.
[/QUOTE]
Not literally- I just meant the clothes I was wearing would let anyone thinking of robbing me think I wouldn’t be worth the effort- cut off jeans, T-shirt, tennis shoes, no jewelry, etc.
[QUOTE=CBEscapee]
Why? Are you speaking from personal experience when it come to Mexico City?
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t venture out at night while in Mexico City (just because the hotel was in a commercial area that was deserted at night) but I had no problems walking around in various area during the day when there.
[QUOTE=MissGypsy]
I’d guess Darfur, or maybe Washington, D.C. Judging from the news I see every night, both are a bloodbath. 
[/QUOTE]
I live in D.C. Yah, there are some pretty dangerous neighborhoods, but that’s true of any large city in the United States. Hell, it’s probably true of any large city anywhere. And much of the city is as safe as you’ll find anywhere. I live on a pleasant, tree-lined street in Upper Northwest, and I don’t always even bother to lock the door at night. The city has real problems, but there’s a lot of neat stuff too - not even counting the “capitol of the nation” stuff. I hope you don’t get scared out of visiting someday.
[QUOTE=MissGypsy]
I’d guess Darfur, or maybe Washington, D.C. Judging from the news I see every night, both are a bloodbath.
[/QUOTE]
Sorry, but do you have any cites for DC being one of the world’s most dangerous cities? I’ve lived in Baghdad and had several scrapes, and my house is in DC and the most danger I’ve faced is a possum in my basement, but if you have some data that says that Washington is as dangerous as Baghdad, please share.
[QUOTE=madmonk28]
Sorry, but do you have any cites for DC being one of the world’s most dangerous cities? I’ve lived in Baghdad and had several scrapes, and my house is in DC and the most danger I’ve faced is a possum in my basement, but if you have some data that says that Washington is as dangerous as Baghdad, please share.
[/QUOTE]
It isn’t. And also note, big difference in wandering in the wrong neighborhood and maybe getting robbed/assualted (as in bad areas of DC, LA, and any large US city) and wandering in wrong area and getting your head chopped off with a rusty machete.
In Baghdad, an alarming number of my staff were killed just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, lots of folk caught up in car bombings and you have to consider that essentially, there isn’t a functioning government, so if your house catches fire, it burns until it goes out, or if you have a heart attack no ambulance is coming. Every week my staff would have stories of a wide range of deaths: not understanding what the American soldier was screaming in English, shot dead; downed power line in the middle of the street that didn’t have any charge for days suddenly gets a charge going through it, several kids electrocuted; unable to get dialysis, kidney failure; death squads backed by the police killing people in the street with power drills, death by power drill.
Gypsy if that sounds like DC to you, might I suggest you change your news outlets?
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
Appalling though that incident is, I saw MLK Blvd. mentioned nowhere in the article.
[/QUOTE]
The incident happened after the festival ended in the 3000 block of north 1st Street which is a short distance from the actual festival being held on 3rd street which is also named MLKjr Blvd here.
I’ll second (or third) that D.C is no worse than any other large city. It was pretty bad back in the early nineties due to the crack-cocaine epidemic but that was also prevalent in other cities. I’m a white dude living in a very predominantly black neighborhood (Georgia ave-Petworth) and I’ve never been physically assaulted, and was only verbally harassed one time in all the years I’ve lived there. Considering I’ve been there since the late eighties, waaaay before they started the gentrification process, I would say that there isn’t too much to worry about.
Cowboy8467, we’re neighbors, our house is in Petworth.
[QUOTE=madmonk28]
Cowboy8467, we’re neighbors, our house is in Petworth.
[/QUOTE]
Ah, excellent! Another doper nearby. I don’t know if you’re currently living there or are overseas, but if you were there over this past weekend I’m wondering if you had as much trouble as I did with that huge festival that was going on on Georgia avenue. Snarled traffic all up and down 13th st and was a royal pain!
No, I’m in Indonesia, but I’ve been around for the Caribbean festival before. We’re over by the Rock Creek Church cemetary, how about you?
Wow, well you’re probably about a mile give or take from where I am. I live pretty much across the street from that Metrobus depot at the corner of Buchanan and Arkansas if you know where that is.
[QUOTE=msmith537]
I have to agree. I’ve been to Rio on vacation in the Ipanema and Copacobana areas and it’s probably about as safe as any city of it’s size. Those are the more upscale touristy areas though. I wouldn’t go wandering through the favelas.
[/QUOTE]
It’s the favelas that I was talking about, of course.
And I claim ignorance on the subject. My suggestions of both Rio and Soweto are based on movies, which as we know are generally accurate descriptions of real life.
[QUOTE=bump]
Weird… I always thought Juneteenth was a Texas thing, not a nationwide thing.
Still, it is kind of perplexing why people would want to commemorate the freeing of enslaved persons by beating someone down at random.
[/QUOTE]
Perhaps because they’re not there to to commemorate the freeing of enslaved persons, they are there to cause trouble and steal anything they can when they cause a riot. Hello Watts.
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
Just in Minneapolis, or in any large American city? There was a book a few years ago exploring various MLKs around the country as microcosms of the urban black experience, and unfortunately many - most? - of them were less than pleasant boulevards, IIRC. Cleveland has an MLK which has both its nice and its not-so-nice stretches.
[/QUOTE]
Denver has a rather nice MLK Boulevard. It crosses a neighborhood that is predominantly black, but most of it has a middle-class feel, and the area around it is gentrifying thanks to that city’s high housing costs.
I’ve had no problems as an obviously Anglo guy in the slums of Cuidad Juarez.