France warns their citizens about Pittsburgh (McKeesport, Wilkinsburg: 2013, crimes, buy)

[Sealtite]

Reality Check time:

HILLTOP CRIPS PITTSBURGH PA - YouTube

The first "interviewee" "speaks" for a couple of minutes, then it gets even more disturbing.

[Sealtite]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

These warnings are actually good advice, especially for foreigners. Although most city-data posters think the whole city is Pleasantville safe, if they found themselves in a Mount Oliver-like neighborhood in a foreign country they would sh*t themselves.

No doubt, but they'd never admit it.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by Sealtite

Reality Check time:

HILLTOP CRIPS PITTSBURGH PA - YouTube

The first "interviewee" "speaks" for a couple of minutes, then it gets even more disturbing.

Well at least we're providing these upstanding gentleman free housing

[Devout Urbanist]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

I certainly was a ghetto years ago.

Not true. Harlem covers a fairly large section of Upper Manhattan. It includes some slum areas, but other parts of the neighborhood have always been fairly middle-class or wealthy. I guess it's kind of hard to know that when you simply "pass through there on the M60 coming from LGA" or just look at crime statistics.

[Sealtite]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Well at least we're providing these upstanding gentleman free housing

Yup, and the means to buy some pretty high-end artillery. AK's and AR-15's don't come cheap these days. Yes, what a wonderful, diverse city.

[Uptown kid]

If there was ever a most dangerous gang this group would be considered among the top front runners. These projects & Wheeler Street are one of a few places where "crippin" hasn't seriously changed since the early 90's and is modeled after South Central LA. The culture of violence in this places is immeasurably high & the only hood that's close to being as bad as the Homewood North Mohler Projects (aka "Mercctown") is the Chauncey Drive Projects on the Hill. I was on the 74 back in the day and me and my boyz almost had to fight some 581 HillTop Crips because boy one boy was wearing red shirt and red lined shoes & I had worn a 49ers jersey (Jerry Rice' 88- greatest of all time) which to them showed affiliation with the Bloods (Garfield, East Hills Projects, Hill Projects, parts of McKeesport, or at the time parts of Fairywood).

Yea for obvious reasons most of: the Hill, Homewood, Mt. Oliver Boro, Hazelwood, aren't the best places for tourist to visit. Though they should know: Allegheny Commons East Apts, Allegheny Dwellings Projects, Cal-bride Place, Hoodtown, Upper Manchester (on the lower Northside) are places to avoid as those are places that tourist could logically wonder. If I were them I'd also say Downtown, the Strip, Uptown, Oakland, and the South Side Flats are busy at night so use your street smarts.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Devout Urbanist

Not true.

Please! I WAS THERE! You haven't a clue what you are talking about! Not true? Um, there was almost NO windows in people's homes. They were all boards! Not true? Get a life buddy. I actually was there back then. Don't tell me what I saw!

[StuffedCabbage]

Hey! They left Michigan out of the list of tornado proned places.

My French isn't too good but maybe they are warning about depressing places in addition to dangerous places. (I agree with most of that list, though).

BTW stay out of Marseilles, and about 10 arrondisments around Paris if you know what's good for you.

[gg]

Wow, I watched some of the video. I had to fast forward it quite a bit for obvious reasons. It is a shame people live like that. Strange lives, but our tax money has to go somewhere I guess.

[Sealtite]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Wow, I watched some of the video. I had to fast forward it quite a bit for obvious reasons. It is a shame people live like that. Strange lives, but our tax money has to go somewhere I guess.

Both the building in the background and several of the people waiving weapons around would be easily identifiable. Where is the oversight in these places? These are essentially adult children of the state. They declare poverty and shamelessly depend on their government for their housing, food, and cash assistance. Receiving welfare and housing assistance is supposed to be a temporary disposition. These people turn it into a lifestyle.

I've known more than my fair share of white people who have been legitimately "down on their luck", and have been literally stonewalled by the same welfare system that coddles black criminal thugs like they're royalty: A single, pregnant white woman beaten half to death and left out in the street. An Iraq war vet who's wife left him for another man and looted him while he was away fighting for our country. These are just two cases of people I've personally known who have had an incredibly difficult time getting public assistance.

H_curtis, your statement troubles me. "Strange lives, but our tax money has to go somewhere I guess." May you never find yourself in the unfortunate predicament of actually having to engage with individuals like this. I can assure you that if you were to survive, you'd take a much less nonchalant tone. Good, upstanding, decent human beings from this area of ALL backgrounds should be utterly appalled by what's happening in many of these formerly glorious neighborhoods. Take Wilkinsburg for example. When I was a teenager back in the mid 1990's, I volunteered with my church group on a renovation project there. We helped to restore an old school building and turn it into a community center. There were a lot of black youth volunteers there as well, and these kids were genuinely into the project and helping the community. We busted our butts on that building all summer, attended church with them on Sunday (Covenant Church of Wilkinsburg), and those are wonderful memories that I shall never forget.

Wilkinsburg wasn't the greatest neighborhood back then, but it wasn't nearly as bad is it is now. A few years ago I drove past that old school that I helped to renovate just a little over a decade earlier. It was dilapidated, graffiti everywhere. Looked like we were never even there. It just gave me the sickest feeling in the pit of my stomach.