"good" and "bad" side of town

[ctman987]

Hartford has the CT River bordering on the east which runs right along downtown so that roots out east end neighborhoods at all. The poorer and more dangerous neighborhoods lie in what is known as the "north end"- although there are also other bad areas of the city and there are areas north of downtown that are all commercial (home to car dealerships, meeting venue, concert hall) so there are no people there and thus not much crime. The west end of the city is the most affluent and still retains its charm- it may help that the west end is right before West Hartford

[ZachariahDaMan]

The bad parts of Canton are the far south part where all the trailer parks are.

[Choirboy622]

The bad parts of Canton are the far south part where all the trailer parks are.

Is Canton a city now, or is it still a township?

[ZachariahDaMan]

It's still a township.

[FromCityToRural]

It's not always east-west. In Chicagoland, for instance, the area north of the Chicago river is generally more affluent, where south of the "loop" (the heart of the commercial district) and the south branch of the river, it gets very ghetto, very fast. I remember riding the green line El train south out to near Jackson Park - not two or three stops south of the Loop, there were projects everywhere, burned out row houses, etc, as well as a smattering of old heavy industry mixed in every so often. Some of this spreads eastward, too, but then again, west of that area is a big lake.

Even where I live now, it's north-south. The po' folk live up north, and the city's growth and prosperity is centered on the south side of town. East and west are irrelevant.

[Choirboy622]

It's not always east-west. In Chicagoland, for instance, the area north of the Chicago river is generally more affluent, where south of the "loop" (the heart of the commercial district) and the south branch of the river, it gets very ghetto, very fast. I remember riding the green line El train south out to near Jackson Park - not two or three stops south of the Loop, there were projects everywhere, burned out row houses, etc, as well as a smattering of old heavy industry mixed in every so often. Some of this spreads eastward, too, but then again, west of that area is a big lake.

Even where I live now, it's north-south. The po' folk live up north, and the city's growth and prosperity is centered on the south side of town. East and west are irrelevant.

I have always thought that the afflutent areas are to the north of the city. You have said here that the area north of the chicago river is generally more affluent; but then you say that the city's growth and prosperity is centered on the south side. I have never seen much development on the south side.

[Spartan]

I have always thought that the afflutent areas are to the north of the city. You have said here that the area north of the chicago river is generally more affluent; but then you say that the city's growth and prosperity is centered on the south side. I have never seen much development on the south side.

In many cases this is true. Pollution is usually the determining factor... Rivers mostly flor from the north to the south in America, and air moves from mostly from east to west. In the past, when pollution was much worse than it is today, the watheir citizens tended to live in the north (or upstreatm) and industrial uses located south, or downstream (also closer to the port). People also tended to live on the west side rather than the eastside if rivers werent a major part. Thus, the south/southeast areas tend to be the worst sides of town, and the north/northwest sides tend to be the more affluent. You will find many exceptions and this is not a universal rule, but that is a general pattern of development for american cities that you will find repeated over and over.

[UptownNewOrleans]

In New Orleans, there's no northside and southside, there's only Uptown & Downtown. Uptown is generally an affluent area but it does have its rough spots, particularly in the wards where MLK Blvd runs through.

[colin]

In Houston, the west side has always been very well-off, with the exception of the southwest side outside of the 610 loop. Pretty much every other direction is best avoided until the suburbs start. There actually used to be a couple of small "wards" just to the west of Downtown, but gentrification has pushed all of the poorer people out (referring specifically to the Fourth and Sixth Ward).

Albuquerque is generally less developed on the west side, and that's one of the poorer areas. The only really well-off parts of town are the north and northeast areas.

In Tucson, the south side is generally more crime-ridden and poorer. People in town tend to exaggerate it, but statistically it is the more dangerous area. The near-north side of town also has a lot of crime. The areas where drugs and prostitution are most common are just to the north of Downtown, with some sketchier trailer park communities a little further down I-10. 8 or 10 miles out though, it turns into a fairly safe suburban area.

In Phoenix, the west side is generally the poorer area, but the south is the worst, and has had the least development over the years. There's no really no logic behind this that I see.

Per the San Diego comments, I agree that the "scary" neighborhoods aren't really that scary. Most of this is on the east side, south of El Cajon Blvd. I was told by a friend in Spring Valley that the La Presa area is known by locals as "De-Presa". National City, Chula Vista and San Ysidro are also supposedly best avoided, although Imperial Beach seemed decent when I was there.

Another factor in this whole thing is military bases, which I guess would fall under pollution. In Tucson and Albuquerque, the areas around the respective air force bases are some of the worst in town. Airports are similar.

If anyone ever played Sim City 2000 back in the day (I still play it), the game actually emulated this trait. If you let a military base into your town, the area right around it became crime-ridden. The same went for the airport, industrial areas, dense commercial areas and ports.

[FromCityToRural]

I have always thought that the afflutent areas are to the north of the city. You have said here that the area north of the chicago river is generally more affluent; but then you say that the city's growth and prosperity is centered on the south side. I have never seen much development on the south side.

Quite right. But I don't live in Chicago. I live in Texas.

[PghUSA]

Pittsburgh it is the Eastend (Homewood, Wilkinsburg) and "the Hill" or Hill District which are generally the bad sides of town, the Hill is to the immediate east of downtown while Homewood and Wilkinsburg are about 5-8 miles east of downtown. The Northside has some very very bad neighborhoods in it as well.

The whole "Steel Valley" from about Aliquippa then jumping down to McKees Rocks and then over to Hazelwood, Homestead, Munhall, Braddock, Duquesne and McKeesport and then on to Monessen and Donora are all very blue collar hard working class areas, that aren't really violent but are not great areas to be in. The boxer Paul Spadafora who is currently in contention for another world title is from McKees Rocks and his troubled life of addiction, domestic violence and street violence lets you have a peek into how some of the rough and tumble "Steel Towns" are in the valley.

[USA11B]

Some areas I have lived or spent enought time in to know:

Lansing, MI: Pretty much North and East side. That's where it's most prevelant, but the South side has pockets and areas that are pretty rough. Although it's different because it literally changes from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Saginaw, MI: The Tittabawassee River splits the city down the middle. Literally anything East of the River is pretty bad, while West it's not too bad. Also Buena Vista is pretty bad. It's funny because most people have never heard of Saginaw, yet I would say the bad areas are on par w/any major city in the U.S., Detroit, L.A., New York, Atlanta, etc. The East side is VERY BAD. Many areas even during broad daylight on a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of winter you are taking your life into your hands walking around.

Flint, MI: Pretty much central and northern areas are pretty bad. Although you could pretty much make the argument that most areas of the city are pretty bad.

Detroit: The north side leading up to 8 Mile is pretty bad. Hamtramck (mostly white, very diversied) is pretty bad, very blue collar, lots of drinking. The Southwest side is a bad area also, this is also one of the most diversified areas of Detroit. Most of Detroit is 100% black, but the Southwest side and Hamtramck is where most of the whites, mexicans, etc. live, and they are probably the worst areas.

Killeen, TX: The East side around the military base is a bad area. You go walking around at night about 3 out of 5 times something crazy is going to happen.

Atlanta: I would say College Park, East Point, but these areas have seem to have been gentrified over the last 10yrs. If the avg cost of a house is around 300k I have a hard time seeing how it's a 'bad area' of town, but many rappers continue to rap about these places as ghettos. Northwest, particularly around Bankhead Highway are pretty bad. I would say Clayton County, just South of ATL, are getting pretty bad. The gentrification of ATL has driven a lot of the people living in housing projects to here. There has been a big spike in crime there the last few years.

Savannah, GA: Most areas of the city outside the historic downtown district are bad.

[JFER1980]

In St. Louis the East side is the worst. It's absolutely horrible, and even when you cross over the bridge into Illinois it's still really bad. I was out of gas, and trying to find a place to get some on I-70 near downtown is a big no no. I pulled up to one place, and 3 guys started sprinting toward my car. I got in and got the hell out.

[tamias6]

In the Grand Rapids, MI, the downtown area is currently getting an influx of hip style condos for young middle class. But mostly collage students live in apartments here.

To the east of Downtown in Heritage Hill, their are a mixture of upper middle class living in many of the historic homes while the remainder of the Heritage Hill homes are divided up into apartments for the collage students attending Davenport University, GRCC, and Kendall Collage of Art and Design. However, things get a bit questionable as one continues east. But go further east, one enters East Grand Rapids "Home of Gerald R. Ford." (spoken in a snooty rich elitist voice.) In EGR, you'll find the big houses with BMW's and Lexus SUV's parked in their well groomed drivways, soccer moms, and the lead varcity football quarter back named Bif sweet talking his girl friend Babs, the captian of the cheerleader squad. Oh let's not forget with that mid-life-crisis guy driving around in that cherry red Corvette convertable. Continue East into Foresthills and Cascade we find yuppy middle class sprawl neighborhoods with more soccer Moms and that old bitty complainting to the neighborhood assosiation about your grass being a nonometer too high. Unlike the Soccer Moms in EGR who drive Escalades and Lexus SUV's the Forest Hills and Casade Soccer Moms drive Dodge and KIA minivans. That extra commute time sure eats up the gas.

Go south of Downtown GR, wear a bullet proof vest! Here, you will find your drive-by shootings, gangster cars with Booming Bass as loud as cannon fire, the Blood and Crib type of street gangs, topped off with your domestic violence cases. If you survive the inersection Murder St. and Homocide Ave. A.K.A. Wealthy St. and Division Ave. hurry south to 28th st. before you get car-jacked. South of 28th st. you get into a working class 50's inner-ring 'burb known as Wyoming. It's a little rough around the edges cosmetically with an industrial grittyness about it, but the people here are good hard working blue collar families making for a good place to buy a starter home. Continue south of M-6 the land scape goes into fast growing housing tracks with mid rang middle class families going to Target, Coscos, and other Big Box stores popping up everywhere down there.

Going to the north of Downtown GR there's a small bit of shadyness and industrial grit but quickly turns to working to middle class on the out-skirts of the city.

Go west of Downtown across the Grand River, you'll enter the Westside. Despite being good hardworking blue collars similar in profile as those in Wyoming, West Siders are often made the butt end of jokes around here because of there class. Continue further west you find a mix bag of working class, middle class, and small pockets of Leave-it-to-Beaver type of upper middle class until things quickly turn rural. But as of late sprawl style housing tracks has been doing a lot of infill in this area especially to the north along M-37 and west along M-45 into the Ottowa county.

That pretty much makes up the good and bad of Grand Rapids, MI. atleast in from my prospective.

[damus]

It seems that in most N. American cities, the northern and western sections are more prosperous and the southern and eastern sections are poorer and more working class.

I lived in a small "city" growing up, went to college in Providence, then moved back to my hometown's area, in a small town less than a mile from the border with the "city" of 40,000, Norwich, CT.

Norwich's best areas are located in the North and West, mostly. There are pockets of crapty areas in old mill villages here and there, though. The North-central area is probably the best part of town; it's bordered on the east by a 300+ acre city park, to the north by the more rural area of town, to the west by Yantic (a middle class mill village), and downtown to the south. There are pockets of solid middle class in this area, but many of the historic (colonial era to victorian) houses are well kept and cost a lot of money to buy.

The west side houses solid middle class, giving way to the nices neighborhood in town (cherry hill) then it reverts back to solid middle class. The south parts of town vary from "poo' folk", to all levels of the middle class, up to luxury condos. The absolute worst areas of town are directly to the northeast of downtown (almost straddles the nice area sans a small middle class area) and an old mill village on the east side called "the Greenville Section of Norwich". For some reason a lot of people use that long version to describe it, but other mill villages are just what they're called. The area nearest to downtown is worse, but both parts of town are hotbeds for crack, prostitution, and gangs. One odd things is the liquor stores... in terms of square footage I'd say the poor areas have just as much as the rest of town, but the poor areas simply have more liquor stores...

Recent development of outlying farming communities within the 25 sq mile "city limits", along with urban renewal that tore down the mostly black and poor area directly south of downtown to make way for a highway that never was built (we now have trees where a real urban neighborhood was), but the north and west being richer and east and south being poorer kinda held true around here before the sprawl of the 1960s and on... Sadly, with all this sprawl, our population has actually dropped from its peak as the population density in the center of the city dwindled....

[PghUSA]

In St. Louis the East side is the worst. It's absolutely horrible, and even when you cross over the bridge into Illinois it's still really bad. I was out of gas, and trying to find a place to get some on I-70 near downtown is a big no no. I pulled up to one place, and 3 guys started sprinting toward my car. I got in and got the hell out.

I have heard some absolute horror stories about St. Louis city, East St. Louis is even worse. A few years back wasn't St. Louis the most crime ridden city in the U.S.? It is a shame, it is a beautiful river city but so lawless, at least that is the impression I get from some from there.

[FromCityToRural]

Last I heard, Camden, NJ was the most crime-ridden place in the US...

[KC_to_London_2007]

Kansas City's east side is pretty rough as well, and along Troost and Prospect is a bad area