30 Street-Smart People Share How To Spot The Signs Of A Bad Neighborhood Early Enough To Leave Unharmed
Your safety, and that of your loved ones, is paramount. Whether you always believe in the best of humankind or are overly suspicious of absolutely everyone you meet, the fact of the matter is simple: not everyone will be kind to you as you go through life. Some people may want to hurt you, take your things, and generally turn your life into hell, whether for financial gain or for pleasure.
Naturally, when you’re looking to buy a house or you’re visiting a new location, one of your priorities is staying safe. If you’re planning to take out a huge loan and finally buy a family home, odds are that you want friendly and polite neighbors who respect your boundaries. What you don’t want is fretting that your spouse or kids might get attacked every time they head out to school or work.
Internet users shared their life experiences in an informative r/AskReddit thread, revealing the red flags that indicate that you’ve just found yourself in a bad neighborhood. From bars on windows everywhere to a suspicious lack of joggers, they pointed out the signs—both overt and subtle—that you might not be all that safe in a particular area. Scroll down, upvote the red flags that you found useful, and share your own insights in the comments, Dear Pandas.
Bored Panda got in touch with personal finance expert, investor, traveler, and best-selling author Rick Orford to get his opinion about how to tell if a property is situated in a good or bad neighborhood, as well as how to pick out a great area for real estate. Read on for our full interview with him!
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In Turkey you check the stray cats out. If cats are friendly towards you, approaches you for pets etc. you are in a good district. Means people in the area are seemingly nice towards animals which aren’t even their pets. Whereas if they are afraid of you, you understand that the people around are not to be f****d with. They are not nice towards harmless animals, why would they be nice to strangers?
"When buying property, there’s an adage that says, 'Buy the worst property in the best area.' However, the best area can mean different things to different people," personal finance and travel expert Rick told Bored Panda that a lot depends on an individual's priorities and lifestyle.
"For instance, the 'best area' could have the best schools, libraries, and access to public transportation. Not only that, but the 'best areas' could also include sports facilities such as indoor/outdoor swimming pools, gymnasiums, tennis courts, and so on," he said.
"For example, living by the beach and having access to good schools are desirable factors in California. Other areas might have different requirements that make them more desirable. Suppose you’re living in a historical city such as Rome. In this case, locals value living near famous landmarks such as the Colosseum and quick access to public transportation. The bottom line: properties tend to appreciate more in areas that tick more boxes."
Confederate flags flying at many homes and businesses
Not gonna lie, I burned a few Confederate flags in my time. I hate that flag and anyone who flies it.
Dogs left out all day and night in fenced yards barking their heads off.
Meanwhile, the expert shared his thoughts about some of the indicators that can help you figure out if a certain neighborhood is 'good' or 'bad.'
Some green flags include:
- "Things look beautiful. I.e., architectural structures, buildings, etc.
- Clean streets and lawns (If in suburbia)
- Lots of desirable schools
- New cars
- Desirable for tourism
- Proximity to high-end stores."
On the flip side, here are some signs that you're probably in a bad neighborhood:
- "Run down infrastructure
- Dirty roads
- Old cars
- Visible homeless population
- Lots of check-cashing stores."
I found out I lived in a "bad" neighborhood once when I was told pizza places didn't deliver to our house.
I have read all the posts and understood that there is no safe place in the world...
When the police see me and offer me an escort out of the area. Yep. For real.
Me too, many, many years ago (1980's I as I remember) when me (a young, very white British guy) wandered into an 'interesting' area in Harlem (which at the time was 99% African American and in parts apparently extremely anti white people), got given a lift out of there by 2 of New York's finest policemen who informed me that snipers would often take pot shots at people in that street !!!
People crave certainty and routine, psychologist Lee Chambers explained to Bored Panda during an earlier interview a while ago. These things help us feel safe and help us plan the future in an organized manner.
“When unpredictable situations or accidents impact us, it can be traumatic, and we will likely feel a sense of disappointment, frustration, and loss," he told us. "It is important however that we embrace the fact that the world can be unpredictable and uncertain, and become more tolerant of this being a reality.”
“Understanding that things are sometimes out of our control helps us to accept that not everything goes to plan, and accept when things happen to us that are negative. This acceptance allows us to embrace the change and difference, and manage our expectations so we can become more resilient to the ups and downs that all our lives lead,” the psychologist said that uncertainty is an inseparable part of life. How we deal with this fact is down to us.
Needles on the sidewalk, as well as a bunch of litter in general. It’s a sign that people are so exhausted by living and trying to survive in an oppressive environment that caring about their surroundings mostly falls by wayside.
You can see that in expensive neighborhoods also, depends on the homeless people count.
I live in a bad neighborhood in Baltimore, so I'm used to a lot of the things people have already put in the comments.
I live directly next to an abandoned housing project called The Perkins Homes. Many of the old convenience stores that were once open to serve the project residents shuttered when all of the people were moved out of their homes. Though the stores and many of the people are gone, a lot of the graffiti remains. The most striking are the children's paintings of guns with big Xs through them to signify that the store was a neutral zone. There are two such paintings on the sidewalks on my block.
Also, finding shell casings when you're taking the dogs on a walk is a good indicator. Or the bullet you find on your back doorstep the day you move in. Ahhh Baltimore - truly America's charm city.
"Post-traumatic growth isn't always simple to explain or utilize, but often the adversity we face can create a precedent for what we can overcome, help us to see what we need to be grateful for, and give us an understanding of the support we do have. A big part of opening the door to grow from our struggles is finding acceptance and taking ownership over what you can control and finding healthy ways to express the negative emotion that comes with challenges that test us," the expert told us that adversity can often help us see what truly matters in life. Traumatic and unexpected situations can also help us better understand our values and purpose in life.
You never see someone jogging.
Conversely, you see lots of people jogging, and all of them are carrying lots of nice things.
Someone with a car stereo system loud enough to vibrate the dishes in your kitchen cabinets every 10 minutes. Just a little reminder, in case you forgot, that you live in a sh*thole
That's my new neighbor where the cops used to visit nightly. At least the new tenants don't need the police to help solve their disagreements.
An adult man riding a child's BMX bike down the center of the road.
The "bail bonds' billboard next to the "having a problem with your heroin addiction " billboard.
Random grocery cart just chillin on the sidewalk. Bonus for missing wheels.
I once found one while swimming in the ocean. Does this mean I was swimming in a red flag neighborhood?
When you mention to locals where you live and they just have a brief look of pity.
Really worn old beat-up cars right next to brand new extremely expensive cars.
Someone once told me when looking for a good apartment to rent to always go there after dinner and look in the parking lots, then count the cars. Next go back during the day and count again. Are most of the cars gone during the day? Good building with employed residents. About similar number of cars still there during the day? Unemployed residents. (Not sure how this works if workers take transit but I checked this theory out on a couple of the more notorious buildings in my area and it it proved to work)
And how does that work when so many people now work from home??
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Clearly none of you have lived in a bad neighborhood because this is spot on
That was some advice my Mom told me when I was looking for my first apartment - check out the cars in the parking lot.
depends where u are because i think it might be a regional thing, but shoes hung up on power lines
In my neighborhood it meant the local kids were bored and just needed something to do.
Your neighbors get raided by the police.
A couple months ago, I was just chilling with my kids, waiting for my husband to be off work. Around 7 or 8pm, I hear what sounds like a semi truck pulling into the neighborhood. We live near a fire station, so I don’t think much about it at first. Within seconds, I see a BUNCH of lights flashing through my curtains, my kids are at the OPEN windows, my camera notifications are going off like crazy, and I hear a policeman over a bullhorn saying “this is the police, come out with your hands up.” Repeatedly. I look out and police cars are parked all over the street and a huge armored swat truck is parked across my driveway. I gathered my kids and took them to the back of the house for fear there would be shooting and stray bullets. Luckily, we think it was a drug bust (there has been LOTS of suspicious activity there) and the people surrendered somewhat peacefully it seemed, but it was still the scariest night of my life.
They were all back like a week later and seem to still be selling drugs.
I was doing geotech work on site for a potential cell tower years ago & had to give directions to a coworker (years before google maps were a thing).
I told him it was across the street from the burglar bar manufacturer and the attack dog training school. -pause- "really???" "Yep."
The fluorescent strip club sign has at least 2 letters unlit - 1 is ok but 2 or more you know s**t goes down around the area
Or maybe just having one strip club sign, lit or not, in your neighborhood is a red flag 🤷♀️
Dead gardens and giant weeds everywhere
That would be my neighbor. She has lots of plants, she's in her 80's, and she thinks she's taking care of the plants properly.
Kids sitting on steps who bolt inside when a cop car rolls by.
Based on the conduct of a lot of police, it's often for good reason.
Empty Swisher Sweets packages strewn around the neighborhood.
Had to use the google for this one...in case anyone else is wondering.. Swisher sweets are little cigars and cigarillos.
Here in England at least, I would say that having a higher than average number of independent and non-mainstream fast food eateries (like kebab shops) are a pretty clear red flag. If an obviously low-income area can sustain that many independent fast food businesses, it’s a sign that the area gets a lot of drunks.
In the UK, lots of betting shops... they are placed in areas of high depreivation as people who can afford to gamble the least usually gamble the most.
Certain fast food restaurants always seem to be an indicator. White Castles and Checkers are two I’ve seen often.
Church’s chicken
R u fking kidding me? Better than Popeyes, KFC. Wow, "stay away from black najbor hoods" is all I'm seeing on this list. 🖕 off with that. And we wonder why the USA is still largely segregated.
The street you’re on is called “Martin Luther King Blvd”.
This posts mostly is just hating on poor neighbourhoods. Yeah, things are tough in many of these places but it’s a bit shitty to put them all here without the context of why they exist… from the point of view of this article bad neighbourhood=poor neighbourhood
I was going to say the same thing. These are just stereo types. Poor does not equal bad
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Bad neighborhood apparently means "not wealthy and shiny". Well, I'm rural to my very DNA, and we're allergic to huge wasteful lawns, oversized houses, bragging vehicles (e.g., Mercedes instead of a Toyota or Subaru), and being told we're bad by people who *buy our produce to brag about buying local/organic*. I'm a farm kid, and I object to this whole post. :-)
Am I the only one who thinks this list got a lil racist and stereotypical the more it went on...
If you spot me walking around, you know that you've taken a turn onto a bad neighborhood.
Wow. Whether intentional or not this article is racist af. And classist.
Almost all of these are classist. A few of them are straight up racist. Edit to say they are intentionally racist, the people who posted them knew exactly what they were doing. This entire post didn't need to happen, but those last two in particular should never have seen the light of day.
So many of these, like food carts serving foreign food, are just indicators of people of color simply existing in the neighborhood. I don't think that's an indicator of bad neighborhoods, but some of these posts are good indicators that many people think the presence of different races indicates a bad neighborhood. Lots of racism here in this article. I've lived in very affluent neighborhoods I considered bad because the people were assholes. And I've lived in poor neighborhoods where everyone cared and looked out for each other. Half these OPs need to take a hard look at themselves and their priorities.
Is it just me or is most of this s**t just thinly veiled racist/classist stereotypes? I grew up rural in the country, most of my first apartments were in "bad neighborhoods" and now I live in middle upper class suburb - and some of those "bad neighborhoods" were some of my favorite places to live! Everything within walking distance, friendly neighbors, beautiful homes for lower cost rent... Yeah, sounds awful 🙄
When we moved to Kingston, NY we knew we were going to be right on the border of nice and seedy - I called the police and asked their opinion. Got an honest answer and that sealed our decision. We've had issues but that can happen in any city and our neighbors are some really outstanding people
That's a great idea! Wow, hadn't even thought of doing that, need to remember if I move to an unfamiliar area, thanks!
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Dog poop, litter (used condoms and drug paraphernalia!) and broken glass on the sidewalks. This is my neighborhood, so I drive to the next city's nice park to walk my dogs.
The 7/11 stores, which are normally open 24/7, close for the night. Very young kids are playing outside, bare-foot, past sunset, unsupervised. Fireworks are being set off every night as a diversion to the gunshots, so if people call in gunshot reports the police are not as quick to believe they're gunshots. (Seriously, I did this before and it was a bit of a battle and I was questioning myself what I was hearing in the end.). Police don't care if someone goes missing, especially a man. "He's a grown man. He can take care of himself. Why wouldn't he come home? What's going on there?" Like, geez.
In Sweden, BIG grey soviet looking buildings in the suburbs next to the train station= bad area
I lived in Fittja on the 10th floor. It was fantastic as my angle didn't look over to any buildings and all I saw was lush green. But yeah they're terrible. The guys in the supermarket that sold 1/4, 1/2 or whole goats kept asking if my wife was Greek or Eastern European because they couldn't believe a Swede lived out there. That was back nearly 20 years back, I don't know how it is now, probably worse.
Load More Replies... Broken glass on the street. Lots of very skinny people who are badly dressed. Badly maintained housing. People shouting up to windows..
F**k you!!... die yuppie scum! I love my hood, and the people in it are absolutely lovely. Regards from Durham, North Carolina!
I'd add that lots of non-winning scratch and lottery tickets littered around. Not necessarily a bad neighborhood but always a sign of a poor one.
I’m from Baltimore. I don’t like this- mostly good people in “bad” neighborhoods. But I have one to add- When you see a memorial for someone on a corner. In Baltimore, it’s common to put out stuff the person liked (sometimes liquor bottles, etc). The person was shot and killed there. Sad.
Love how BoredPanda has to use content from Reddit to make their own. Like, why not just make it a question here? Oh, wait, I forgot. BoredPanda is just filled with people who have never experienced a poor neighborhood. Seriously. Stop using Reddit! Make your own dang content!
I was looking for an apartment with my wife, and in one location, noticed the crowbar scars on the doors, with occasional screw-on metal door protectors.
Of course your idiotic comment completely ignores the fact that crime is higher in red states/red cities than blue ones. But then again what can we expect from people stupid enough to vote for a traitor.
Load More Replies... This posts mostly is just hating on poor neighbourhoods. Yeah, things are tough in many of these places but it’s a bit shitty to put them all here without the context of why they exist… from the point of view of this article bad neighbourhood=poor neighbourhood
I was going to say the same thing. These are just stereo types. Poor does not equal bad
Load More Replies... Bad neighborhood apparently means "not wealthy and shiny". Well, I'm rural to my very DNA, and we're allergic to huge wasteful lawns, oversized houses, bragging vehicles (e.g., Mercedes instead of a Toyota or Subaru), and being told we're bad by people who *buy our produce to brag about buying local/organic*. I'm a farm kid, and I object to this whole post. :-)
Am I the only one who thinks this list got a lil racist and stereotypical the more it went on...
If you spot me walking around, you know that you've taken a turn onto a bad neighborhood.
Wow. Whether intentional or not this article is racist af. And classist.
Almost all of these are classist. A few of them are straight up racist. Edit to say they are intentionally racist, the people who posted them knew exactly what they were doing. This entire post didn't need to happen, but those last two in particular should never have seen the light of day.
So many of these, like food carts serving foreign food, are just indicators of people of color simply existing in the neighborhood. I don't think that's an indicator of bad neighborhoods, but some of these posts are good indicators that many people think the presence of different races indicates a bad neighborhood. Lots of racism here in this article. I've lived in very affluent neighborhoods I considered bad because the people were assholes. And I've lived in poor neighborhoods where everyone cared and looked out for each other. Half these OPs need to take a hard look at themselves and their priorities.
Is it just me or is most of this s**t just thinly veiled racist/classist stereotypes? I grew up rural in the country, most of my first apartments were in "bad neighborhoods" and now I live in middle upper class suburb - and some of those "bad neighborhoods" were some of my favorite places to live! Everything within walking distance, friendly neighbors, beautiful homes for lower cost rent... Yeah, sounds awful 🙄
When we moved to Kingston, NY we knew we were going to be right on the border of nice and seedy - I called the police and asked their opinion. Got an honest answer and that sealed our decision. We've had issues but that can happen in any city and our neighbors are some really outstanding people
That's a great idea! Wow, hadn't even thought of doing that, need to remember if I move to an unfamiliar area, thanks!
Load More Replies... Dog poop, litter (used condoms and drug paraphernalia!) and broken glass on the sidewalks. This is my neighborhood, so I drive to the next city's nice park to walk my dogs.
The 7/11 stores, which are normally open 24/7, close for the night. Very young kids are playing outside, bare-foot, past sunset, unsupervised. Fireworks are being set off every night as a diversion to the gunshots, so if people call in gunshot reports the police are not as quick to believe they're gunshots. (Seriously, I did this before and it was a bit of a battle and I was questioning myself what I was hearing in the end.). Police don't care if someone goes missing, especially a man. "He's a grown man. He can take care of himself. Why wouldn't he come home? What's going on there?" Like, geez.
In Sweden, BIG grey soviet looking buildings in the suburbs next to the train station= bad area
I lived in Fittja on the 10th floor. It was fantastic as my angle didn't look over to any buildings and all I saw was lush green. But yeah they're terrible. The guys in the supermarket that sold 1/4, 1/2 or whole goats kept asking if my wife was Greek or Eastern European because they couldn't believe a Swede lived out there. That was back nearly 20 years back, I don't know how it is now, probably worse.
Load More Replies... Broken glass on the street. Lots of very skinny people who are badly dressed. Badly maintained housing. People shouting up to windows..
F**k you!!... die yuppie scum! I love my hood, and the people in it are absolutely lovely. Regards from Durham, North Carolina!
I'd add that lots of non-winning scratch and lottery tickets littered around. Not necessarily a bad neighborhood but always a sign of a poor one.
I’m from Baltimore. I don’t like this- mostly good people in “bad” neighborhoods. But I have one to add- When you see a memorial for someone on a corner. In Baltimore, it’s common to put out stuff the person liked (sometimes liquor bottles, etc). The person was shot and killed there. Sad.
Love how BoredPanda has to use content from Reddit to make their own. Like, why not just make it a question here? Oh, wait, I forgot. BoredPanda is just filled with people who have never experienced a poor neighborhood. Seriously. Stop using Reddit! Make your own dang content!
I was looking for an apartment with my wife, and in one location, noticed the crowbar scars on the doors, with occasional screw-on metal door protectors.
Of course your idiotic comment completely ignores the fact that crime is higher in red states/red cities than blue ones. But then again what can we expect from people stupid enough to vote for a traitor.
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