Have you ever stumbled into the wrong neighbourhood?

Limerick Dude

Jamaica, Queens, NYC.

Was living in New York on a J1 a few years back.

There is a neighbourhood known as 'Jamaica' in Queens, I had to go out there to get my social security card/number.

Its a good twenty minute walk to the social security office from the subway stop.

It was early afternoon and all the teenagers were getting out of school.

I was the only white person in that neighborhood, was getting seriously dodgy looks off all the teenagers hanging around in groups and street corners and shít.

Thankfully I didnt get any hassle but it was quite intimidating!

jester77

ArtyM wrote: »

I remember once in the early 80s I had a stopover in Hamburg that gave me a few hours to tour the city.
A local guide said St Pauli was a weird and unusual place so I headed there. Holy S**t that place was scary.

There were junkies everywhere (got offered everything), guys fighting, Hookers, sexshops, people being arrested.
A couple of very dodgy guys approached me and kinda surrounded me as they were talking ****e - they started edging me toward an alley/laneway.
I was dressed as a tourist and had 'easy pickings' written all over me (was also carrying quite a bit of money).
Thankfully a cop car pulls up and the guys back off and leave. Cops politely suggested I get the **** out of there for my own good. I concurred!
The wait for the subway felt like hours - there was a guy on the opposite platform sitting on a bench with a bottle of Vodka and what looked like a fresh stab wound in his abdomen - his sirt was literally turning red.
I was the only white guy.

---

Have you ever wandered into a bad neighbourhood or the wrong part of a town?

dj jarvis wrote: »

could be wrong but st pauli are one of the football teams based in hamburg ( they fly the skull and cross bones and the irish tri color for some reason )
the place you are describing is a place called the reeperbahnn ,
its the red light / drugs / irish bar area of hamburg
used to frequent this area a bit in my clubbing days - not a place for the faint of heart - it has one street that is about the size of henry st and is closed with doors at each end , only men can go down this street ,
on it is windows full of hookers a la amsterdam

also at the end of the reeperbhann is a ww2 bunker that they can not get rid of because it was so well built , they tried to blow it up but no joy now looks like a haunted castle in the middle of a drug and drink filled play ground

that is all from the hamburg tourist board ..... carry on

Ah now, St Pauli is harmless. That street that is closed off is called Herbertstr. and is closed off to stop U18's and women going through.

St. Pauli club don't fly the tri colour. Celtic and St. Pauli fan clubs are closely connected, maybe that is where the tri colour comes in.

As for the bunker, it's a large building full of media companies with an excellent club/gig venue at the top called Uebel & Gefährlich.

I've been hanging out in St. Pauli for over 6 years and you would have a bigger chance of getting the crap beaten out of you in most towns around Ireland on a Saturday night! You'll have drunk homeless guys coming up asking for money, cigarettes or beer but they are harmless. It's far from dodgy, if you want to see dodgy head to Frankfurt and hang out near the streets across from the train station.

padma

walked in to D4 once, gosh the stares received by guys wearing rugby shirts with collars turned up and the mothers rolling up the windows in their cars was harrowing.

cournioni

Yeah, after a night out in Belfast, I had to take a piss in a pretty bad way. It was 3am and no jacks open anywhere so I went to a boarded up door of a house in a housing estate just off one of the main streets. Finished my business and walked around the corner only to see a rather large UFF mural on the wall.

I'm still here thankfully!

pappyodaniel

Surprised no-one has mentioned Glasgow here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shFDtLnsKps

Bruthal

cournioni wrote: »

I had to take a piss in a pretty bad way

Against a strong wind was it?

oppenheimer1

padma wrote: »

walked in to D4 once, gosh the stares received by guys wearing rugby shirts with collars turned up and the mothers rolling up the windows in their cars was harrowing.

Are you sure it was D4?!:D

padma

that was a typo, i remember now them windows just flew up..

questionmark?

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Getting car jacked at gunpoint in Bristol was not fun I can tell you.
If I had access to nukes, it would be the first place I would remove from the face of the earth.

Which area? How long ago.

I love spending time here its brilliant I just know to stay out of the dodger areas like anywhere. Just thought it was an unfair to tar a whole city(not to take away from what happened you sounds terrible).

Our man in Havana

8 years ago now. I don't know exactly where but I was terrified. The police were wonderful though. The scumbags were caught within 2 hours.

I suppose it is unfair to say what I said but I am still afraid to go back.

Poutbutton

One of my first jobs was in a Jewelry repair shop when I was 19. I walked around town about 3 times a week carrying envelopes full of Diamonds to different clients, I took a few wrong turns one of the days & ended up in a really dodgy area. When I got back to base my boss nearly swallowed his cigarette when I described where I had wandered to. They sent the apprentice boy after that & put me on engraving

admiralofthefleet

biko wrote: »

First time in Dublin and turned onto Marlboro Street? Was told by some older odd-looking locals that it wasn't safe there so turned around and left.
Drove through Moyross after having went to Limerick to buy a car.

marlborough street is graaaand, bud

pragmatic1

Gyalist wrote: »

Probably, but I'd been in the Queensbridge Projects in New York, visited relatives who lived in Brixton and friends who lived on "The Farm" in Tottenham at the time of the riots so it wasn't a particularly big deal to me until I was told afterwards where I'd been. In fact, the night that the riots broke out at the Farm we were at the other side of the estate training at the Haringey cricket school. Came out to loads of police rushing into the estate so we didn't hang around to see what was going on. It was only the next morning when the news broke that I realised the seriousness of what took place.

Brixton has a hard rep but never found it bad. Mates lived there for a year and never had a bit of bother. They didnt live in the trendy parts either. Dont find London that bad of a city at all. Probably due to its size.

charlemont

grenache wrote: »

Nearly everyone i speak to has told me scary stories about New Jersey and its cities/towns. It cant be that bad can it?

My best friend, Rest in Peace to him, He was working at tarmacadam in East N.J. and got friendly with some lads in an awful ghetto, They loved him because they thought he was worse than any of them, He was walking into the ghetto and some African American told him "No white boys here, Man" My friend replied with "Im black", Im surprised he didnt get a slap.
Another time he was there and was so wrecked from crack he couldnt move and the lads around him were discussing stealing his runners, clothes etc.
But they really took to him, They would pull up at places where he worked and bring him to the ghetto for the weekend.

Another friend of mine works and now has a business in N.J. Very peaceful place he lives in. Lovely scenery, Stoke State Forest is a lovely spot too.

Atlantic City is class, I cant wait to visit again, Iv 3rd or 4th cousins there iv never and never will meet as they are supposedly mexican gang members, The result of my Dads aunt marrying a Mexican many moons ago.

Elisabeth Blanctorche

Oakland California

Enough said!

Sir Gallagher

I was in Frankfurt a couple of years back for a weekend, myself and my pal had been to cocoon that night and then got a taxi back to the red light district where our hotel was. We decided to pop into a strip club for a drink and perhaps get some tits put in our faces so we sauntered up to the door of this seedy looking place where there was a big burly aul one outside asking us to come in. We went in expecting to see some lovely treats inside but no, it turns out the big burly aul one on the door was the treat.

We got out of there fairly sharpish and decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel, on the way back these two Turkish chaps started talking to us and walking along side us, being pissed we started having a good ol' chinwag with them. Then the two lads asked us to hand over all our money, operative word being "asked" as these two lads were not convincing in the slightest. Myself and my friend pissed ourselves laughing and told the to fcuk off, the two wannabe muggers looked kind of confused and embarrased and sheepishly went on their way. The next morning we realised it could have been a pretty serious situation but these two lads were the worst two muggers of all time, they should have been really dissapointed with their performance.

So yeah, downtown Frankfurt, pretty dodgy but the hookers and muggers need to get their act together.

Voodoomelon

I went to Thailand in 2008 but had to stop over in Sri Lanka for 12 hours on the way. The airline put us up in a hotel (resort in the middle of nowhere more like), organised taxis to and from the airport, the whole lot.

Anyways, three weeks later on the way back, same thing happened, except some people we met up with were going the same way so they came with us. But this time, out of the four of us, there was only room for three in one hotel, and room for one in the other, somwhere outside Columbo. I drew the short straw and ended up heading off in a taxi by myself in the depths of the night to some abandoned resort in the arse end of no where. We had no phones that worked in Sri Lanka so we had no way of contacting each other, I had no idea where the others had gone and they hadn't a clue where I was. The taximan hadn't a word of english, nor did the airline escort lad other than words like "you go" "hotel" "now".

I arrived in reception with my bags, taximan sped off and there wasn't a sinner anywhere. This was like 2am and everything was open plan, there was no doors as such so you could just wander from place to place. Some chap eventually showed up at reception and gave me a key to a room and said he'd call me when the taxi showed up to pick me up later. I ended up wandering through the hotel and its grounds looking for my room, it wasdeadly silent, no bar open, no people sitting out, no music, nothing. The feeling of disconnection was nuts, I had no clue where I was and no control over how I would get out.

Got a call a few hours later anyways to come down to reception. Thank the lord, there was a few other heads waiting for the shuttle to the airport. Lo and behold, up pulls the minibus, everyone loads on and of course it was full when I go to step on. Away it speeds leaving me with me lad in me hand once more. Up pulls another taxi 15 minutes later and in I hop by myself. Guy at reception just nods to the driver and away we go; again he hasn't a lick of english. It was still pitch black in the depths of the night.

In 2008, Sri Lanka was still in Civil War, so we were constantly stopping at checkpoints on the dirt roads. We'd stop at one and there would be army everywhere but they looked more like militia, with just AKs, casual looking camo and berets. Torches would be shone into the back of the taxi into my face and several questions directed at the driver. Then we came across another checkpoint where the driver had to get out of the car with his hands on the roof and they started padding him down! I was absolutely brickin it, hadn't the faintest clue where the hell I was, if I was even going to the airport, in the pitch black with the car surrounded by armed men. They let him return to the taxi and on we went. I was never so happy to see an airport in my life...

chimpo85

Walking home from the local after a few pints about 2 weeks ago and was paying attention to my path home (texting and what not) and ended up walking through Byker (Newcastle)... Scared the living s*** out of me but when I think about it, no one seemed to give a damn!

ArtyM

Voodoomelon wrote: »

I went to Thailand in 2008 but had to stop over in Sri Lanka for 12 hours on the way. The airline put us up in a hotel (resort in the middle of nowhere more like), organised taxis to and from the airport, the whole lot.

Anyways, three weeks later on the way back, same thing happened, except some people we met up with were going the same way so they came with us. But this time, out of the four of us, there was only room for three in one hotel, and room for one in the other, somwhere outside Columbo. I drew the short straw and ended up heading off in a taxi by myself in the depths of the night to some abandoned resort in the arse end of no where. We had no phones that worked in Sri Lanka so we had no way of contacting each other, I had no idea where the others had gone and they hadn't a clue where I was. The taximan hadn't a word of english, nor did the airline escort lad other than words like "you go" "hotel" "now".

I arrived in reception with my bags, taximan sped off and there wasn't a sinner anywhere. This was like 2am and everything was open plan, there was no doors as such so you could just wander from place to place. Some chap eventually showed up at reception and gave me a key to a room and said he'd call me when the taxi showed up to pick me up later. I ended up wandering through the hotel and its grounds looking for my room, it wasdeadly silent, no bar open, no people sitting out, no music, nothing. The feeling of disconnection was nuts, I had no clue where I was and no control over how I would get out.

Got a call a few hours later anyways to come down to reception. Thank the lord, there was a few other heads waiting for the shuttle to the airport. Lo and behold, up pulls the minibus, everyone loads on and of course it was full when I go to step on. Away it speeds leaving me with me lad in me hand once more. Up pulls another taxi 15 minutes later and in I hop by myself. Guy at reception just nods to the driver and away we go; again he hasn't a lick of english. It was still pitch black in the depths of the night.

In 2008, Sri Lanka was still in Civil War, so we were constantly stopping at checkpoints on the dirt roads. We'd stop at one and there would be army everywhere but they looked more like militia, with just AKs, casual looking camo and berets. Torches would be shone into the back of the taxi into my face and several questions directed at the driver. Then we came across another checkpoint where the driver had to get out of the car with his hands on the roof and they started padding him down! I was absolutely brickin it, hadn't the faintest clue where the hell I was, if I was even going to the airport, in the pitch black with the car surrounded by armed men. They let him return to the taxi and on we went. I was never so happy to see an airport in my life...

Thats horrendous!:eek:

mikemac

Moved to Belfast to do a postgrad
Didn't know a soul so I rented a room with a landlord, I became a lodger.

Strolling down Cregagh Road in East Belfast and whatever side street I took, ended up looking at some Rangers supporters pub and UVF murals all around.

And me in a GAA jersey, what a fool I was. I moved to East Belfast without knowing anything about the area, only rent was cheap and I didn't want anything to do with Holylands.

Not forgetting the day I parked my TN reg car in Sandy Row, it was the closest parking I could find by Great Victoria St. Even then I left it unlocked :eek:

Still there when I got back, never touched

I copped myself on and loved Belfast and the people, felt safer there then many other city centres around Ireland

teddy_303

Stumbled on an orange order apprentice boys march in Derry city a few years back. Had to cross the feckin thing too to get to my mates house who I was going to see. My friend who I was visiting has a funny sense of humor is all I can say... He got a good laugh out of it..

watna

Johannesburg - quite a few places there I felt intimidated and I was there with locals who knew what they were doing. Being the only white person anywhere is not a feeling I'm used to. My OH and his family aren't white either, so it really was just me!

We went to this lake place at night to go for a walk because we had been told it had been nice. It used to be in a nice part of town but not anymore - lets just say that. My OH's elderly uncle can really drive a car when it's needed though, I'll say that. We sped out of there.

I went home from Johannesburg a week ahead of my OH who was staying on for a family wedding. His grandmother wanted to know how I was going to get home from the airport if he wasn't there to drive me. She almost had a heart attack when I said I'd get a taxi by myself. She couldn't understand how that could possibly be safe. That made me sad, to spend you're whole life living in a country where it's not safe to get yourself home from the airport at all without someone collecting you. I had to explain to her how safe we were here and how getting a taxi by yourself wasn't dangerous - really made me appreciate how our thinking of "dodgy areas" is really pretty innocent. Living in a city where you can't stop anywhere at red lights at night - that's dodgy. There's even roads signs that say "risk of hijacking"!

Mike 1972

During my first year in NI I had a Southern Reg car and lived just down the street from a UVF pub. During the Summer the was a paramilitary band parade outside my front door on average every other week. And there was a couple of kneecapings in the street during my time there. But nobody said boo to me and my car was never touched*.

It kinda had the effect of inoculating me against my hitherto somewhat paranoid disposition with the result that I will walk/drive or live just about anywhere now and tend to chuckle at the Southerners on this thread crapping themselves at parking in Sandy Row and suchlike (although wearing a GAA jersey in East Belfast is pushing your luck a bit).

The only place in NI Ive been in recent years where I would be a bit wary about is Dunclug in Ballymena.


*Wish I could say the same when I was living down South

partyndbs

ye have told the story on here before some mite remember

martineatworld

Camden.

Was at a concert in the Susquehanna Bank Center, lovely venue, except between the bus station and the centre is the closest thing to a slum I've ever seen in a 1st world country. Wrecked houses, properties with bars, no one walking the roads. An obviously being in a group of 20yo irish lads going to a concert we needed some booze. Dodgiest looking offy I've ever been in... Massive black drunks lads hanging round outside with us while the one lad who had id went in to procure the alcohol. Would do it again though :pac:

ElaElaElano

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

I did work experience in Cauldron Studious. Stayed too long on the bus (forget which bus) and somehow ended up in the middle of Summerhill, near Croker.

The place was almost deserted but I remembered absolute horror stories about it, and a previous experience there when we walked through it on the way back from a transition year tour of croke park and got harassed and threatened at every single street corner. To say I was scared sh!tless is an understatement. I looked around to get my bearings, saw the sign saying "Summerhill" and actually felt the colour drain from my face. Don't think I've ever wanted to get the hell out of a place faster.

Ironically enough, this second encounter there wasn't so bad, there was hardly anyone around

I lived in Summerhill, as did and do thousands of normal, harmless people. Don't be so consumed by what you read in the newspapers. As for being harassed and threatened at every street corner- in all the time we lived there not once did that happen to me. Even walking home at 3am, nothing. Maybe it was just a bad day? I've seen punch ups in so-called wealthy areas- scumbags are scumbags whether they wear nylon tracksuits or expensive cotton ones and rugby jerseys.

Mike 1972

WTF with the "OMG I was the only white person in the area" stuff ?

By that logic Black/Asian/etc people living in Ireland (until fairly recently at any rate) must have been constantly bricking it FFS

pragmatic1

Mike 1972 wrote: »

During my first year in NI I had a Southern Reg car and lived just down the street from a UVF pub. During the Summer the was a paramilitary band parade outside my front door on average every other week. And there was a couple of kneecapings in the street during my time there. But nobody said boo to me and my car was never touched*.

It kinda had the effect of inoculating me against my hitherto somewhat paranoid disposition with the result that I will walk/drive or live just about anywhere now and tend to chuckle at the Southerners on this thread crapping themselves at parking in Sandy Row and suchlike (although wearing a GAA jersey in East Belfast is pushing your luck a bit).

The only place in NI Ive been in recent years where I would be a bit wary about is Dunclug in Ballymena.


*Wish I could say the same when I was living down South

Was that long ago mike. I'd agree that driving a southern reg car through certain areas isnt a death sentence, but there were a lot of grade A psychopaths given free reign for far too long in that city.

AckwelFoley

Yea, a few years ago i was just driving around dublin trying kill a few hours and i ended up in a place called portmarnock.

Such a ****ing place, ive never wanted to stop the car and punch everybody i seen on the path for being pretentious ****


*none of the above is true

ArtyM

Mike 1972 wrote: »

WTF with the "OMG I was the only white person in the area" stuff ?

By that logic Black/Asian/etc people living in Ireland (until fairly recently at any rate) must have been constantly bricking it FFS

Thats a good point.
I mentioned it myself in my op and actually had to think about whether I should or not. However, for me it was something that made me really stand out and made me more conscipious than I otherwise would have been and when you are in a scary/intimidating situation that is the very last thing that you want.
From my recollection of the posts that mentioned it, most described their reasons for feeling they were in the wrong place i.e. junkies, run-down neighbourhoods, gangs, shouting, fires, etc before adding the skin colour reference.
I would like to think that any Black/Asian/etc people living in Ireland would have no reason to be constantly bricking it, but I think that if they were to find themselves alone in the wrong place at the wrong time it would be something that they would be overly aware of - because it would make them stand out, and draws unwanted attention.

Wheelie King

Wondered into a bank once and it was full of shady looking gangsters

watna

ArtyM wrote: »

Thats a good point.
I mentioned it myself in my op and actually had to think about whether I should or not. However, for me it was something that made me really stand out and made me more conscipious than I otherwise would have been and when you are in a scary/intimidating situation that is the very last thing that you want.
From my recollection of the posts that mentioned it, most described their reasons for feeling they were in the wrong place i.e. junkies, run-down neighbourhoods, gangs, shouting, fires, etc before adding the skin colour reference.
I would like to think that any Black/Asian/etc people living in Ireland would have no reason to be constantly bricking it, but I think that if they were to find themselves alone in the wrong place at the wrong time it would be something that they would be overly aware of - because it would make them stand out, and draws unwanted attention.

Agreed - I mentioned it because in Johannesburg apartheid is still going strong and there are some areas you don't go to if you are a certain colour etc.

Also, it is pretty disconcerting to stand out that much, especially if it's an area you believe to be dodgy. Nobody wants to be different and draw attention to themselves in that situation. I'm sure it was the same for people who aren't white in Ireland back in the day - that they felt like they stood out.

ArtyM

I was just browsing through the different sections of Boards.ie as AH is pretty quiet today.
I stumbled into a forum called The Thunderdome.
Now that is a wrong f***ing neighbourhood.
Wrong wrong wrong

PARKHEAD67

Brownsville, Brooklyn NY. Once not twice:D. Stood out for my whiteness:).Tyson was from there.

jahalpin

I've been to LA once, it was a very scary experience

We were on the subway and we got off at the wrong stop. It turns out that we got off at McArthur Park and we decided to walk back to the hotel. We were the only white people in the area and there was a police car following us

I'd never go back to LA after my experience there. I've been to San Francisco several times and have never had a bad experience there

RussellTuring

Mike 1972 wrote: »

WTF with the "OMG I was the only white person in the area" stuff ?

By that logic Black/Asian/etc people living in Ireland (until fairly recently at any rate) must have been constantly bricking it FFS

I was going to say the same thing myself until I realised that being the only person of your colour in a certain area is just another thing that can make you stand out, and since most of these stories are about people being in places they don't know, often where crime is rampant and whose inhabitants might not all speak the same language as the visitor, yes it can be quite scary. Don't just assume that people are being racist; it's natural to feel nervous when you stand out so much and whereas race my not be an issue for you, me or other people, that doesn't mean that it isn't an issue for anyone. Also, don't think that it was only like this in Ireland in the past. Ireland may have progressed a lot in the past couple of decades but it's not as if racism has just disappeared.