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“When The Restrooms Have Blue Lights”: Netizens Share 30 Ways To Identify Bad Neighborhoods
Sometimes you roll up to a new place and you’ve got a gut feeling that something is just… off. The people there are looking at you all weird, there’s strange smells assaulting you from every direction, and you just want to get out of there ASAP.
But it’s always good to know what to look out for in places like this, right? Broken glass, suspicious people, unknown businesses… Some signs are not as obvious, though, but I’m certain you’ll find something to expand your street smarts by checking out these bad neighborhood red flags in today’s list.
More info: Reddit
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If you have to play the "Was that fireworks or gunshots?" game in any month of the year besides July.
Edit: Specifically in the city, you'll find this sort of thing all over rural areas.
An adult man on a child's bmx bike slowly riding in the middle of the street.
When I see this I assume they’ve a suspended license AND a bench warrant.
In my neighborhood someone posted on nextdoor that they woke up to someone standing over their bed then 2 days later someone else posted that a dude was walking around the street naked asking strangers if they wanted to touch his weewee oh and car theft is so common that I no longer lock my car because it's financially smarter for me to let them have a look around than to pay for any more broken windows I might be in a bad neighborhood
Lots of dollar stores, payday loan and title loan places. No or few actual grocery stores.
Ghetto Diamonds
See broken shards of glass in the parking lot? Those are from thieves crow-barring your car windows, not bad driving.
When you ask a cop for directions cause your lost and he tells you the way but to drive very fast and to not stop at red lights.
(We were lost in Camden NJ after a concert)
My husband was lost in south bay in Boston while he was in the US Navy on shore duty. A policeman actually stopped him and escorted him back to the shipyard.
when the restrooms in businesses have black/blue lights to make it difficult to find your vein.
Ah how I miss the 80's and 90's when I used to spray all ledges in the toilets of the establishments I worked in with WD40 then wait for the howling of the coke addicts whose lines have just dissolved ..... how we laughed (especially me as I was doing bucketloads of coke at the time but would only ever do my junk in private or at friends places!!)
pizza places won't deliver to your house/apartment/neighborhood
It's the middle of the afternoon on a weekday and people are just hanging out on porches and yards, just walking around. It's a neighborhood with a lot of unemployment. If you are looking to rent or buy, visit in the middle of the work day and at night to see what it's like.
Or, alternatively, it could be a rich area where people don't need to work, or an area with a lot of retirees ..... Here in the UK the bad areas tend to get worse that later the day goes on ...
The businesses just outside the residential area are pay day loan operations, rent-to-own furniture, rent-to-own wheels
When the 1 decent human being there flat out tells you its a bad area and you should leave.
Yup, did this once when I got off a ship that I'd been on for 2 months straight in New York (I was a young, white UK merchant seaman at the time), went for a walk with a friend to get my land legs back, walked about 2 / 3 miles stopping every mile or so for a beer, without noticing the areas becoming a little more shabby as we went. Got stopped by an elderly African American chap who kindly walked with us back the way we'd come ; on the way, he told us that had we walked another 500 yards or so in the direction we had been going, there was a very high likelihood we would have been either robbed and beaten or robbed and killed ... this was New York in the '80's, I reckon we were lucky. After that we always checked where to go before setting off for a stroll.
The cats are afraid of you, and run away when you get closer.
In a good neighborhood, the cats stay put, and give you superior looks.
That's not a bad neighborhood thing. I live in a good neighborhood and the stray cats run away from me and dogs and cars and kids.
Bars/bulletproof glass on gas station windows, and they don't let anyone in the store past a certain time, you can only walk up to the window.
If every building on the street has bars over all of the first floor windows, you're in a bad area.
The weight of the bathroom key. My family stopped for a bathroom break in The Wire era baltimore. My dad had to carry the car rim keychain over to the bathroom for my sister.
The Chore Boy, tube socks and roses in glass tubes are in a locked cabinet at the local Quickie-Mart.
I get the chore boy and the glass tubes but what the heck are the socks for?
Corner stores and random businesses with cages on the doors and windows. Advertising is usually painted on the wall or something, and you see ads for really cheap foods and drinks that usually aren't big product names. Also there are potholes everywhere and random fences tend to be driven into and not fixed. Also where I live in the lower the street number the worse the neighborhood. Also random groups of guys gathered outside of random corner stores. Oh and if there are fast food places with nowhere to sit that's also how you know.
I don't think there is a county in the UK that doesn't have a pothole problem. Our councils are not very good at road maintenance.
Grocery carts on the sidewalk and streets, trashy looking corner stores, trashy looking beauty supply shops, Boost mobile, cars parked in lawns, bars on the windows.
My friend lives in Portland. One day she walked out of her building and saw a shopping cart with a toilet in it
Bail bonds offices, hair braiding salons, payday loans on the same street.
Convenience stores with "WE TAKE EBT" signs in hand written letters.
Weekly-rate "budget" motels.
Gas station locks its doors at 10 PM. If you want cigarettes, drinks, or snacks late at night, you have to tell the cashier what you want and she'll deliver it to you through a hole in a bulletproof glass window.
I disagree with the hair braiding salons, plenty of those places are lovely small businesses and not seedy at all.
In New Zealand a sure sign is someone walking the street playing music from their mobile phone speaker
Also noteworthy that if someone blasts their music out loud, it's NEVER good music. It's always the s#ittiest hip-hop or whatever I've ever heard.
The stores are named quite literally for what they are.
In my best friend's hometown, the bowling alley simply has a sign that says "Bowling Alley". Same with the nail salon, the laundromat, etc. It is a sketchy a*s place.
I the Uk , its has to be a broken bus stops (Glass smashed) with frosty jacks bottles lying around or a burnt out car or possibly a car on bricks as the wheels have been robbed
This is a scottish thing but if there is an old church its fine, if its a new building that says christian centre or a newly built church its probably a s**t hole and this is for towns and parts of cities not neighborhoods
This is specific to Toronto, but I always felt that if there was a Coffee Time instead of a Tim Horton's, you weren't in the right place.
Bonus points if there's one of the extremely few Dollar Trees.
The city I live in has too many Dollar Generals and quite a few Dollar Trees. Not as many Dollar Trees though.
Lots of kids with a surprising lack of adults anywhere in the area
That's got NOTHING to do with the neighborhood. That's got to do with the parents not paying attention to their kids because they either trust their kids or don't care if their kids get killed. I live in a good neighborhood and there are kids running all over the place.
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This post is tone deaf. Define what a bad neighborhood is. A lot of these descriptions are characteristics of low-income living which shouldn't be demonized.
Started strong, then became just poor neighborhoods. A bad neighborhood is one where you have to fear for your own safety. That does sometimes correlate with a poor neighborhood.
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The racism and classism in this post are both disconcertingly blatant.
I'm horrified. OOF. The examples here like.... The houses are small dont have cul de sacs? The cats run away from you?? People sit outside??? Stores accept EBT?? Stores have hand painted signs???? What the actual F.
Yeah most stores accept EBT ! just because they have a sign for clarification doesnt mean its a bad store 😟. Also, a lot of 'nice' neighborhoods hire artists to create signs for their businesses. Aaaaand many outdoor cats are skittish in general! I agree with you, Emily M, this was definitely an OOF for BP
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This post is tone deaf. Define what a bad neighborhood is. A lot of these descriptions are characteristics of low-income living which shouldn't be demonized.
Started strong, then became just poor neighborhoods. A bad neighborhood is one where you have to fear for your own safety. That does sometimes correlate with a poor neighborhood.
Load More Replies... The racism and classism in this post are both disconcertingly blatant.
I'm horrified. OOF. The examples here like.... The houses are small dont have cul de sacs? The cats run away from you?? People sit outside??? Stores accept EBT?? Stores have hand painted signs???? What the actual F.
Yeah most stores accept EBT ! just because they have a sign for clarification doesnt mean its a bad store 😟. Also, a lot of 'nice' neighborhoods hire artists to create signs for their businesses. Aaaaand many outdoor cats are skittish in general! I agree with you, Emily M, this was definitely an OOF for BP
Load More Replies...