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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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#1
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.
#2
An adult man on a child's bmx bike slowly riding in the middle of the street.
ॐBoyGanesh 1 year ago
When I see this I assume they’ve a suspended license AND a bench warrant.
#3
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
#4
Lots of dollar stores, payday loan and title loan places. No or few actual grocery stores.
#5
Ghetto Diamonds
See broken shards of glass in the parking lot? Those are from thieves crow-barring your car windows, not bad driving.
#6
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)
Jaguarundi 1 year ago
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.
#8
when the restrooms in businesses have black/blue lights to make it difficult to find your vein.
Hugh Cookson 1 year ago
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!!)
#13
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.
Hugh Cookson 1 year ago
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 ...
#14
The businesses just outside the residential area are pay day loan operations, rent-to-own furniture, rent-to-own wheels
#15
When the 1 decent human being there flat out tells you its a bad area and you should leave.
Hugh Cookson 1 year ago (edited)
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.
#16
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.
Jessica SpeLangm 1 year ago
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.
#17
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.
detective miller's hat 1 year ago
If every building on the street has bars over all of the first floor windows, you're in a bad area.
#20
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.
#21
The Chore Boy, tube socks and roses in glass tubes are in a locked cabinet at the local Quickie-Mart.
Zoe DiAnni 1 year ago
I get the chore boy and the glass tubes but what the heck are the socks for?
#22
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.
Shark Lady 1 year ago
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.
#23
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.
Andy Frobig 1 year ago
My friend lives in Portland. One day she walked out of her building and saw a shopping cart with a toilet in it
#24
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.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 1 year ago
I disagree with the hair braiding salons, plenty of those places are lovely small businesses and not seedy at all.
ॐBoyGanesh 1 year ago (edited)
Tangent: I was talking to the kid at a liquor store in South Lake Tahoe, where we visited recently. The normal looking man ahead of me got a 1/5 of generic vodka & some cigarettes. He was dressed nice & I recognized him wearing $100 flip flops. Freshly shaven, coiffed hair. He paid with a state-issued EBT card. I jokingly made a comment to cashier when making my purchase. “You can buy vodka & cigarettes with food stamps?” He nonchalantly said, “Ya. We just ring it up as milk or something like that.” I said they must sell a lot of milk!!! He laughed and said, “you have no idea.” I didn’t realize food stamp fraud was so prevalent & unconcerning. There was no sense of worry. It was normal and accepted.
Squirrelly Panda 1 year ago
Report the store. I'm good with our taxes buying groceries, or even prepared food, for just about anyone. But not cigs and booze with food money.
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Spencer's slave 1 year ago
In many countries around the world, petrol stations are open 24 hours, they simply have a "night pay" window rather than have the shop area open. You can still buy everything, just ask the cashier.
#25
In New Zealand a sure sign is someone walking the street playing music from their mobile phone speaker
Luke Branwen 1 year ago
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.
#26
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.
#27
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
#28
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
#29
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.
Mojo Flizash 1 year ago
The city I live in has too many Dollar Generals and quite a few Dollar Trees. Not as many Dollar Trees though.
#30
Lots of kids with a surprising lack of adults anywhere in the area
What do you think ?
HungryPanda 1 year ago
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.
zgillet 1 year ago
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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Emily M 1 year ago
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.
Headless Horseman 1 year ago
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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Jessica SpeLangm 1 year ago
This is a horrible article, BP. MOST of these have nothing to do with "bad" neighborhoods. It has to do with neighborhoods that are catering to the people that live there. Many of these "bars on windows" stores happen in good neighborhoods too, because theives are ALL OVER THE PLACE, regardless of who lives there.
ॐBoyGanesh 1 year ago
Why would a thief rob his own neighborhood when there’s greater plundering in wealthy ones?
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Mojo Flizash 1 year ago
This is not good posting. Might as well said "Hey Pandas!, What are the best ways you like to thinly veil your racism and classism? Let's not do this to people less fortunate. I like it better when we hate on the rich. Fùck those guys.
Mark Karol-Chik 1 year ago
This is a sad reflection on how we as a society has failed those in a tough spot.
digitalin 1 year ago
Some of these are poverty-related, others are crime-related. There may be some overlap, but it's not the same thing. I live in a lower-income area and a lot of these describe my town. But I feel safe here, there are a lot of families. We've never had our cars broken into, or our house robbed, or been mugged. It's a pretty good place. Oh, except for that one time earlier this year where a Wendy's employee got shot in the drive-thru a few blocks from my house because he got the order wrong. But that doesn't happen very often.
J Adams 1 year ago
Obviously it will be different place to place but I’ve often found living in a poorer area to be a lot more safe than living in an affluent one, yes burglars and other criminals might live in poorer areas but they are less likely to rob a house near where they live because A, they know there’s not going to be much worth stealing and B, they tend not to commit crimes on their own doorsteps. If you live in an affluent area that neighbours a sketchy one that’s when you encounter problems
Will Cable 1 year ago
Snails have grown kevlar shells, hedgehog spines are now becoming steel.
HungryPanda 1 year ago
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.
zgillet 1 year ago
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... Emily M 1 year ago
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.
Headless Horseman 1 year ago
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... Jessica SpeLangm 1 year ago
This is a horrible article, BP. MOST of these have nothing to do with "bad" neighborhoods. It has to do with neighborhoods that are catering to the people that live there. Many of these "bars on windows" stores happen in good neighborhoods too, because theives are ALL OVER THE PLACE, regardless of who lives there.
ॐBoyGanesh 1 year ago
Why would a thief rob his own neighborhood when there’s greater plundering in wealthy ones?
Load More Replies... Mojo Flizash 1 year ago
This is not good posting. Might as well said "Hey Pandas!, What are the best ways you like to thinly veil your racism and classism? Let's not do this to people less fortunate. I like it better when we hate on the rich. Fùck those guys.
Mark Karol-Chik 1 year ago
This is a sad reflection on how we as a society has failed those in a tough spot.
digitalin 1 year ago
Some of these are poverty-related, others are crime-related. There may be some overlap, but it's not the same thing. I live in a lower-income area and a lot of these describe my town. But I feel safe here, there are a lot of families. We've never had our cars broken into, or our house robbed, or been mugged. It's a pretty good place. Oh, except for that one time earlier this year where a Wendy's employee got shot in the drive-thru a few blocks from my house because he got the order wrong. But that doesn't happen very often.
J Adams 1 year ago
Obviously it will be different place to place but I’ve often found living in a poorer area to be a lot more safe than living in an affluent one, yes burglars and other criminals might live in poorer areas but they are less likely to rob a house near where they live because A, they know there’s not going to be much worth stealing and B, they tend not to commit crimes on their own doorsteps. If you live in an affluent area that neighbours a sketchy one that’s when you encounter problems
Will Cable 1 year ago
Snails have grown kevlar shells, hedgehog spines are now becoming steel.
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