Where are the ugliest, dirtiest, scariest parts of Florida? (Miami: crime rate, hotel)
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Northwest Florida. This includes, but not limited to: Pensacola, Milton, Pace, Crestview, and Cantonment.
You're either very sheltered, or never got out much. I can't report on Cantonement, but suspect it's nowhere nearly as bad as Century is. Pensacola has some really bad parts. The Brownsville/Alphabet streets area has all the charm of East St. Louis with palm trees. But the North Hill and East Hill historic areas are lovely, and the middle class is fighting the good fight there over by the Cordova Mall/Scenic Heights area.
Milton and Pace these days are effectively middle class bedroom communities for people who feel like Santa Rosa schools are better than what's on the Pensacola side of the bay.
Crestview is soulless and the poster child for middle class urban sprawl hell, but there's nothing particularly dirty or scary about it. I used to have a job that was effectively a tour of low income areas of Okaloosa County, and there's nothing in Crestview that's as bad as the Sylvania Heights part of Ft. Walton Beach (you know you're hit Florida ghetto when one of your social services clients is a senior citizen running a brothel out of his singlewide, and he'll have one of his 'girls' answer the door for the Meals on Wheels delivery driver) And even Sylvania Heights isn't particularly bad by Orlando or Miami standards. I used to have to go to community meetings out there after dark, and as long as you weren't actively looking for blow or an escort, no one really bugged you out there.
If you want bad parts of the Panhandle, you need to go to places like Ponce de Leon, which is rural poverty with a bonus 'Hills Have Eyes' vibe to it or Campbelton, or Laurell Hill. I'll add Panama City Beach to the list of places where you can go from $500K oceanfront condo to Bicentennial era singlewide meth lab trailer court in less than a city block. Or Port St. Joe in the mid to late 90s when the 2/3rds of the industry had moved out of town, the one remaining plant made the entire place stink, and most of the people hanging on there were doing do by working minimum wage jobs in Panama City.
In defense of the post on Palm Beach and the disparity of wealth making things a complecated line drawing issue. I guess to an extent the comment was well directed but precieved wrong. Yes that area is one that has big bucks looking out the east side at the Atlantic and 2 blocks west you have big time poverty and crime. It is not a model for assumptions of the whole county but for the beach front or higher end, yes there is a lot to be said about the close line of the have and have nots in certain areas of "PALM BEACH"?
Palm Beach County does have some dang ugly parts. Very run down areas as well. Northend West Palm is ugly (and the "bad" part of the city), as is Riviera Beach. Parts of Lake Worth, Palm Springs, Boynton, Delray, and the unincorporated part of the County can be run down as well.
South Florida (and PBC's) problem is that the railroad runs along the Coast. Except for some exceptions, the railroad is where poorer people clustered. "Wealth disparity" is not a problem in places like Boca, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Tequesta, Loxahatchee, etc. Some are generally affluent, others are solid middle class. In places like Riviera Beach, it's basically all poor (except Singer Island). In West Palm Beach, the Southend goes from wealthy to well to do to middle class to working class in a matter of blocks, but is generally a good area to live. It's interesting to live in an area with such diversity.
I never understood the big deal though.... in New York City for example, the most desirable parts of the city are a couple miles (or blocks) from the least desireable. Same with a lot of S. Florida.
.But the absolute dirtiest,scariest place I've seen was outside of Florida in Cincinnati,Ohio somewhere in downtown just a couple of blocks from the baseball stadium.I don't know if it was that it was Memorial day and everyone was out or if there had been a street party or what but everyone was outside,the streets looked like they hadn't been cleaned in a month,there were kids jumping on old mattresses thrown on the street,it was pretty wild and worse than anything I had seen in Florida.[/quote]
You were in a section of Cincinnati called Over the Rhine. It is considered one of the most dangerous areas in the country. You have a one in four chance of being assaulted on the streets there. See article if you want more info on it. Report: OTR Nation's Most Dangerous Neighborhood - Cincinnati News Story - WLWT Cincinnati (http://www.wlwt.com/news/19826766/detail.html - broken link). Not quite the midwest people think of.
Palm Beach County does have some dang ugly parts. Very run down areas as well. Northend West Palm is ugly (and the "bad" part of the city), as is Riviera Beach. Parts of Lake Worth, Palm Springs, Boynton, Delray, and the unincorporated part of the County can be run down as well.
South Florida (and PBC's) problem is that the railroad runs along the Coast. Except for some exceptions, the railroad is where poorer people clustered. "Wealth disparity" is not a problem in places like Boca, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Tequesta, Loxahatchee, etc. Some are generally affluent, others are solid middle class. In places like Riviera Beach, it's basically all poor (except Singer Island). In West Palm Beach, the Southend goes from wealthy to well to do to middle class to working class in a matter of blocks, but is generally a good area to live. It's interesting to live in an area with such diversity.
I never understood the big deal though.... in New York City for example, the most desirable parts of the city are a couple miles (or blocks) from the least desireable. Same with a lot of S. Florida.
I don't think you can blame the railroad. Most American towns and cities of every side have railroads. Yes, many less attractive n'hoods are sometimes clustered along the tracks, but unattractive neighborhoods are pretty well spread around, and some nice ones are located close to the rail lines. For example, the Riviera Country Club area of Coral Gables is bounded by the tracks along S. Dixie Highway. I spent part of my childhood in a very nice n'hood in S. Miami, close to those very same tracks.
I don't think you can blame the railroad. Most American towns and cities of every side have railroads. Yes, many less attractive n'hoods are sometimes clustered along the tracks, but unattractive neighborhoods are pretty well spread around, and some nice ones are located close to the rail lines. For example, the Riviera Country Club area of Coral Gables is bounded by the tracks along S. Dixie Highway. I spent part of my childhood in a very nice n'hood in S. Miami, close to those very same tracks.
LOOOOOOOVE Coral Gables! And even Coconut Grove - well, parts of it.
I guess I have a hard time understanding the post that included, "Redknecks, Hicks and Poor trash blacks". They are all differant and do not really coexsist with each other. A Redkneck is not tolerant of a "Trash Black " and a "Hick" is a vast majority of country people????? Regarding areas, I have a little country in me and do not spook easily but I ended up in "Belle Glades" at 2:am one time and was a little uneasy.
I loved this post ! I had the same experience you had in Belle Glade somewhere in inner city Miami @ 12:00 a.m. looking for a gas station. We got lost, heading to Key West. WOW !
Some of the most depressing areas of Florida are, to me, down around the 'glades areas, south of Okeechobee.
I am a native Floridian and like my state but it does have drawbacks. But, I have traveled all over and seen worse places. Tampa does sort of depress me.
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Preceptions are somethimes in the eye of the beholder
