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Crews from Central Richmond are wearng the cinci reds baseball caps. (c)
Crews from pittsburg are wearing pirates hats. (p)
Crews from San Leandro in St. Louis cards hats. (sl)
I'm not sure about some of these old geezers talking about the 80's or what ever but im 28 and I try to keep my ears and eyes on the streets a bit, tho it is getting harder to keep up with the kids.
I'm 28 too. I still get carded for swishers because I look 17 to some people. And you do usually still see some Black kids around SF, obviously from Sunnydale, rocking SD hats in all different colorways to match their outfits and Nikes/Jordans. An out-of-towner might think that its a cool hat to wear because they've seen other dudes wear it around the city and because it's a West Coast team. If you're a young Black male, or even Hispanic or Asian/Pacific Islander, it might not be such a good idea to wear that hat on a regular basis in SF. People from my old neighborhood still wear UNLV apparel as well. Check some of the wild people in this video. One of the dudes, obviously from Lakeview, is rocking a UNLV basketball jersey at around the 40 second mark. However, UNLV is a very obscure team/college. I doubt a lot of people wear UNLV apparel and dress like that who aren't involve in gangs/turfs.
Look at these Sunnydale rappers rocking SD fitteds. Does this video look like it was shot in the 80's to you? No, it was less than a year ago.
I still think it would be very rare if you did get in some type of bad situation for wearing this type of apparel because an out-of-towner really has no business going to Lakeview or Sunnydale. Both neighborhoods are small and out of the way. Unless you want to live in the southern half of the city, these rules probably aren't as strict. Who would really want a wear an SD hat or a UNLV jersey anyway? Also, if you are a 35 year old White dude from San Diego wearing an old, dirty, faded SD hat with a lot of bend in the brim, I don't think goons from Sunnydale would check you even if they saw you wearing the hat lol. An old White lady who is an alumni of Univeristy Nevada Las Vegas could probably walk down the entirety of Randolph and Broad streets in Lakeview at night wearing a UNLV sweatshirt. The very few block huggers left in increasingly gentrified Lakeview would probably just laugh.
Last edited by goldenchild08; 08-18-2011 at 03:31 PM..
the black turfs in the southeast part of the city wear colors to signify where their from. sunnydale, oakdale, and westmob are one allegience and wear red bandana's. bnt/kirkwood, and big block are under another umbrella that wears purple and black, respectively.
You're lucky - down in L.A. in that same time period, we had a veritable phone book thrown at us in all districts re: colors and "provocative apparel" at school. Including no blue or red stuff.
Yes, I remember back in the day going to family functions in LA and my cousins down there would tell me what I could and could not wear.
Up here it was never like that. Dunno know about now tho.
The point that should be made is that gang problems in the Bay are nowhere near what the OP is used to in Chicago. In Chicago, you have nearly a hundred thousand gang members within the city limits. Chicago and L.A. are the two gang capitals of the country. In Bay cities like SF, the only real gangs you have that present an actual threat to an average citizen's safety are Nortenos and Surenos. But even then, historically most violence in SF stems from tiny but highly violent ghetto neighborhoods that have been warring for decades. The bad parts of SF are much poorer and violent than the bad parts of most cities. There are only about 1,000 residents in Sunnydale. But not all the people in the projects are thugs who will hurt you. However, know that actual gang activity is NOT the cause of most violence in a city like San Francisco. The rivalries between ghetto neighborhoods like Sunnydale vs. Lakeview have claimed the lives of literally hundreds of San Franciscans over the past twenty or so years. The battles fought between different ghetto neighborhoods, and the civil wars within them, in SF is what disproportionately accounts for the majority of SF's murder rate every year. Hunter's Point is only 5% of SF but has accounted for 50% of the murders in the whole city in certain years. A little known fact to outsiders is that San Francisco probably has the highest per capita murder rate for Blacks of any big city in the nation (even higher than Oakland, Baltimore and New Orleans) and San Francisco has NEVER had big organized Black gangs like Bloods and Crips or Vice Lords or whatever. Blacks only represent less than ten percent of SF but account for 50-60% of the homicides every year pretty consistently since the 90's. The best thing to do is not go to the projects in SF or Oakland if nobody knows your face if you are a young minority, they won't care what color you are wearing.
Last edited by goldenchild08; 08-19-2011 at 11:36 AM..
The point that should be made is that gang problems in the Bay are nowhere near what the OP is used to in Chicago. In Chicago, you have nearly a hundred thousand gang members within the city limits. Chicago and L.A. are the two gang capitals of the country. In Bay cities like SF, the only real gangs you have that present an actual threat to an average citizen's safety are Nortenos and Surenos. But even then, historically most violence in SF stems from tiny but highly violent ghetto neighborhoods that have been warring for decades. The bad parts of SF are much poorer and violent than the bad parts of most cities. There are only about 1,000 residents in Sunnydale. But not all the people in the projects are thugs who will hurt you. However, know that actual gang activity is NOT the cause of most violence in a city like San Francisco. The rivalries between ghetto neighborhoods like Sunnydale and Lakeview have claimed the lives of literally hundreds of San Franciscans over the past twenty or so years. The battles fought between different ghetto neighborhoods in SF is what disproportionately accounts for the majority of SF's murder rate every year. Hunter's Point is only 5% of SF but has accounted for 50% of the murders in the whole city in certain years. A little known fact to outsiders is that San Francisco probably has the highest per capita murder rate for Blacks of any big city in the nation (even higher than Oakland, Baltimore and New Orleans) and San Francisco has NEVER had big organized Black gangs like Bloods and Crips or Vice Lords or whatever. Blacks only represent less than ten percent of SF but account for 50-60% of the homicides every year pretty consistently since the 90's. The best thing to do is not go the projects in SF or Oakland if nobody knows your face if you are a young minority, they won't care what color you are wearing.
Of course, if you LIVE in said projects, then it kind of screws you over... a lot of the people you associate with are probably going to be from your project and that only increases your chances of getting into trouble or being the victim of it. And I would extend that to the projects in the entire Bay... if you're looking at projects in the Bay Area, that means that you are in the absolute worst part of the city. Even in cities like Pittsburg that are not terrible for crime but not good either, the projects (El Pueblo) are worse than most of the ones in SF and Oakland. Most of the violence in every Bay Area city is centered around the projects, and disproportionately so. Marin City, Richmond, EPA, etc. all have some extremely crappy public housing. Even San Jose's projects tend to be more dangerous than not. Cities that are not well known for crime like Rodeo have terrible projects.
Of course, if you LIVE in said projects, then it kind of screws you over... a lot of the people you associate with are probably going to be from your project and that only increases your chances of getting into trouble or being the victim of it. And I would extend that to the projects in the entire Bay... if you're looking at projects in the Bay Area, that means that you are in the absolute worst part of the city. Even in cities like Pittsburg that are not terrible for crime but not good either, the projects (El Pueblo) are worse than most of the ones in SF and Oakland. Most of the violence in every Bay Area city is centered around the projects, and disproportionately so. Marin City, Richmond, EPA, etc. all have some extremely crappy public housing. Even San Jose's projects tend to be more dangerous than not. Cities that are not well known for crime like Rodeo have terrible projects.
True. It's not what you wear, but where you go in the Bay. A lot of out-of-state people make the mistake of thinking all California cities conform to the L.A. gang model that has been so heavily ingrained into the international consciousness via the media and tired pop-culture stereotypes. L.A. Bloods and Crips trying to establish themselves in the Bay got ran out of Oakland and San Francisco in the 80's because the predominantly Black neighborhoods/turfs in SF and Oakland, and the ways they made money, had already been deeply established by that time. You might have Bloods and Crips from Seattle to Sacramento to San Diego, but not in SF or Oakland to any real degree.
The Bay has never been about colors and banging other than Nortenos and Surenos and maybe some small factions of Asian or Pacific Islander Bloods and Crips who are much less visible on an everyday walking the street level. Where I live now on the East Coast is much more gang/color-centric than the Bay. In NYC, the Latin Kings, Bloods and Crips have taken over. They have Grape Street Crips in northern New Jersey evidently (why would people from the East Coast claim streets they have never even seen in L.A., really?). In Baltimore, bastardized home-grown Blood and Crip sets (millennium bangers who watch too much BET/MTV and listen to too much Lil Wayne or have watched Boyz 'N the Hood and Colors too many times) have effectively emulated L.A. Bloods and Crips and will check random people for wearing the wrong color in certain places. The second largest MS-13 stronghold outside of L.A. is right outside of DC in Langley Park, Maryland.
The point that should be made is that gang problems in the Bay are nowhere near what the OP is used to in Chicago. In Chicago, you have nearly a hundred thousand gang members within the city limits. Chicago and L.A. are the two gang capitals of the country. In Bay cities like SF, the only real gangs you have that present an actual threat to an average citizen's safety are Nortenos and Surenos. But even then, historically most violence in SF stems from tiny but highly violent ghetto neighborhoods that have been warring for decades. The bad parts of SF are much poorer and violent than the bad parts of most cities. There are only about 1,000 residents in Sunnydale. But not all the people in the projects are thugs who will hurt you. However, know that actual gang activity is NOT the cause of most violence in a city like San Francisco. The rivalries between ghetto neighborhoods like Sunnydale vs. Lakeview have claimed the lives of literally hundreds of San Franciscans over the past twenty or so years. The battles fought between different ghetto neighborhoods, and the civil wars within them, in SF is what disproportionately accounts for the majority of SF's murder rate every year. Hunter's Point is only 5% of SF but has accounted for 50% of the murders in the whole city in certain years. A little known fact to outsiders is that San Francisco probably has the highest per capita murder rate for Blacks of any big city in the nation (even higher than Oakland, Baltimore and New Orleans) and San Francisco has NEVER had big organized Black gangs like Bloods and Crips or Vice Lords or whatever. Blacks only represent less than ten percent of SF but account for 50-60% of the homicides every year pretty consistently since the 90's. The best thing to do is not go to the projects in SF or Oakland if nobody knows your face if you are a young minority, they won't care what color you are wearing.
What would you know about Chicagoland, have you ever lived there? The city of Chicago has 2.6 million people. That's more than 1/3 of the bay areas population. Bigger than SF, OAK and SJ combined. Gangs are concentrated in Chicago and the near poor burbs and then they pretty much evaporate, until you get to a few of the poorer exurbs. There is a vast swath of gang free cities there.
They bay area has thousands of gang members too, it is just different. It's turf, like DC, not organized like big cities such as LA, CHI, NYC. The bay area not only has gang problems in it's cities, but in suburbs as well. And not just downscale working-middle class suburbs, even six figure income family suburbs like Livermore have gang issues.
What would you know about Chicagoland, have you ever lived there? The city of Chicago has 2.6 million people. That's more than 1/3 of the bay areas population. Bigger than SF, OAK and SJ combined. Gangs are concentrated in Chicago and the near poor burbs and then they pretty much evaporate, until you get to a few of the poorer exurbs. There is a vast swath of gang free cities there.
They bay area has thousands of gang members too, it is just different. It's turf, like DC, not organized like big cities such as LA, CHI, NYC. The bay area not only has gang problems in it's cities, but in suburbs as well. And not just downscale working-middle class suburbs, even six figure income family suburbs like Livermore have gang issues.
I was about to say that there's plenty of gangs in Gary.
The difference between turfs and gangs though is that generally it's not in a turf's interest to care what you're doing in their turf unless you're talking business or you have a rep... I can basically walk through pretty much any turf in Oakland in the daytime barring a couple of the isolated ones (Sobrante Park, Brookfield, etc.) and have a reasonable expectation that I'm not going to be messed with. In the hoods in LA - city or suburb - you can get G checked any time... if your answer is anything other than "I'm (insert the gang of the G checker here)", you'll possibly be leaving LA in a box. Gang violence tends to be considerably more pointless than turf violence... turfs war with other competing turfs but if you're not messing with their money then they don't really have a reason to mess with you other than the occasional mistaken identity. If you LIVE in a turf then it's different, but passing through a turf in Oakland in my experience is a lot less dangerous than passing through a gang turf in LA or even a turf in SF... the turfs in SF are insulated and if you're black they'll (generally correctly) assume you're from another SF turf and know that you shouldn't be on theirs. Oakland in general is a lot more "live and let live" even in the hood, but that won't stop an unlucky stray bullet from killing you... you have to pick your demons sometimes.
Gangs are not as ingrained in Oakland or SF as they are in LA, as most in the know have already stated. Other than the red/blue of the Mexican gangs (or the BB's in deep East Oakland), there is no color-coding. "Gang life" in Oakland is mostly neighborhood crews making money with street-level dealing.
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