Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is something I've noticed a lot. People will say and think that since a neighborhood or a few neighborhoods in a city is a certain way than the whole city is like that, or that since a city is a certain way in general than every neighborhood in the city is like that.
Just because one neighborhood in a city is a certain way, doesn't mean the entire city is like that, and just because a city is in general a certain way doesn't mean that every neighborhood in the city is like that. Sure you can say that a city is bad (in general) if a large portion or the majority of that city is considered bad, but some people fail to acknowledge that there are nice neighborhoods in that city. Same thing with the opposite with a city that in general is nice, some people fail to acknowledge that there are bad neighborhoods there.
For example, let's say a shooting occurs in a city on the worst side of town and leaves one dead and a bullet just misses a small child that was in the middle of the shooting. As soon as this happens you will see an outpouring of comments on the internet and real life of people saying things like "the city is going to hell" or "the city is a ghetto". How? How does one incident in the worst neighborhood in the city make the entire city a ghetto? Especially if that city in general is nice or average for the most part. Believe it or not there is people who actually think that and people have actually moved out of the city from safe, nice areas on the opposite sides of town because a few bad incidents across town.
It can get bigger than that too. Some people will think that since this place is like that than the entire neighborhood, city, metro, region, state, etc is like that. It can be for anything or any type of demographics, environment, etc. Farmland doesn't represent all of Indiana just like the ghettos in Gary and Indianapolis don't. Places are far too diverse to make such a broad, general, ignorant statement like that. Do you agree?
Last edited by BelieveInCleve; 06-26-2009 at 01:01 AM..
Location: Concrete jungle where dreams are made of.
8,900 posts, read 15,926,305 times
Reputation: 1819
Kind of like how people are afraid to go to Yankee games because they hear the Bronx is unsafe Sure, the area by Yankee stadium isn't the greatest, but there are more unsafe areas in the Bronx, and much nicer ones. It makes me laugh when people say they want to go to Yankee stadium, but are afraid to because of the neighborhood, lol.
I also hate when people judge cities based on one negative experience. Like if they saw a mugging on a subway here...they'd say something like "NY is so dangerous, i'm never going there again!!!"
Thinking like this (that an entire city is bad) usually occurs if the city is in decline or white flight is currently in progress. Those who are still in the city become tense and a bit paranoid if something happens close to their area because they think that it's only a matter of time until their neighborhood goes to crap.
In more stable cities, there is usually more of a consensus that a certain area of the city is bad and will always be bad so there is no reason to worry about things that go on in that part of town.
The opposite may be true (that an entire city is safe) if the people in a certain area of the city consider their city to be the safest in the world. These are likely the same people who never venture outside of that area of the city. This area of the city is likely one of the wealthiest (if not the wealthiest) areas of the city, so there is no worry about decline.
For being only a few square miles, Harrisburg has DRASTICALLY different neighborhoods.
Allison Hill has sections that are run-down and almost like third-world countries (resembles a lot of West Baltimore, but just a few blocks away you have a wooded, luxurious turn of the century neighborhood filled with narrow one lane roads and gorgeous mansions. It's crazy.
I think part of this mentality is due to the fact that most Americans live in relatively homogenous, relatively small suburbs. They have a hard time making the conceptual leap to understand that central cities tend to be much larger in geographic area (again relative to its suburbs) and with much greater variation in neighborhoods.
I think part of this mentality is due to the fact that most Americans live in relatively homogenous, relatively small suburbs. They have a hard time making the conceptual leap to understand that central cities tend to be much larger in geographic area (again relative to its suburbs) and with much greater variation in neighborhoods.
The media can add to this. Statistically, most of the reports of violence will occur within the central city. If a person doesn't open up a map and find that most of the reports occur within certain parts of the city, then that person will likely deem the entire area to be violent.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sure, the area by Yankee stadium isn't the greatest, but there are more unsafe areas in the Bronx, and much nicer ones. It makes me laugh when people say they want to go to Yankee stadium, but are afraid to because of the neighborhood, lol.
