How can I help improve my bad neighborhood? (Cleveland, Youngstown: 2014, houses)

[Clevelander216]

Originally Posted by greywar

Who steals half a bottle? Why didn't they just take it all? Thats weird.

yea I was baffled too.

[BruSan]

Originally Posted by greywar

Who steals half a bottle? Why didn't they just take it all? Thats weird.

Their little hands were full of other stolen stuff so half the bottle was all they could carry in their mouth.

My advice would be to not invest angst in attempting to improve your surroundings as that will result in nothing but frustration and additional unwanted attention.

Turn off and tune out while striving for the day you can move the hell out of that area.

Focus all your energy in an area it won't be wasted, to the total exclusion of everything around you, on improving your financial situation until you can finally load your stuff into a U-Haul and beat feet.

[Clevelander216]

Originally Posted by BruSan

Their little hands were full of other stolen stuff so half the bottle was all they could carry in their mouth.

My advice would be to not invest angst in attempting to improve your surroundings as that will result in nothing but frustration and additional unwanted attention.

Turn off and tune out while striving for the day you can move the hell out of that area.

Focus all your energy in an area it won't be wasted, to the total exclusion of everything around you, on improving your financial situation until you can finally load your stuff into a U-Haul and beat feet.

good advice. thank you

[PullMyFinger]

Pray for winter. I love when it's -20 degrees because the idiots are all inside in their cages. I love driving through the beautiful old neighborhoods in St Paul in the winter in these conditions. No idiots on porches, no idiots wandering down the middle of the street yacking on phones. No idiots yelling incoherent gibberish at each other. Just nice old neighborhoods, garbage covered with snow and empty, clean streets.

Like it used to be.

[Clevelander216]

Originally Posted by PullMyFinger

Pray for winter. I love when it's -20 degrees because the idiots are all inside in their cages. I love driving through the beautiful old neighborhoods in St Paul in the winter in these conditions. No idiots on porches, no idiots wandering down the middle of the street yacking on phones. No idiots yelling incoherent gibberish at each other. Just nice old neighborhoods, garbage covered with snow and empty, clean streets.

Like it used to be.

hahaha that is great! so true too...

[Artifice32]

I'm going to tie your question into a larger question I have always had about people who live in bad areas. So, this is isn't entirely directed at you but I will tie it into your situation. What always boggles my mind is why it is people who live in bad, typically urban areas, don't move somewhere cheaper in the Midwest? For example, the common scenario I see in the media is someone who is working a low wage, generally unskilled job, trying to survive the violence of a bad area in a small apartment and even raise a family. Were I in that position the most logical conclusion would be to move to a cheaper, safer area in the Midwest. The cost of living would be cheaper, the area safer and even if the wage maybe slightly lower it's not going to be that much lower. That's just something in general I've wondered about. The most extreme cases are places like Detroit, Chicago and New York. I would just pack up and leave.

Now, as for your situation, when I was a kid I grew up in a very poor area that was OK in terms of safety. So, with humility, I don't think you have good street smarts. Again, my impulse and my siblings impulse was to grow up and earn enough money to leave the place behind and take my parents with us, which we did. It was never my impulse to make the place a better or more livable place. So, from that perspective, if you have to live there don't do anything to draw attention to yourself like installing cameras, complaining about your neighbors and the like...all that will only bring you trouble. Again, unless you grew up there and grew up with the people there you will always be an outsider and hence to a certain extent a target. I honestly would suggest just going to work, coming home, staying indoors, going elsewhere on the weekend but keep any contact with you and the neighborhood at a minimum.

Now, that mind sound pretty intolerable. To me that would be an intolerable way to live. So, the best advice I have is to move. Make a budget and see if you can afford to live in a better area. something I learned when I was younger and renting is that you are paying for the area, your neighbors as much as you are paying for the space. So, even if it means living in a studio apartment with great, normal, middle class neighbors I would opt for the studio apartment. Or, if you can move to a cheaper state.

[cruxan]

I would harvest the weed they are growing on you're property, dry and smoke it


but leave them a few buds of weed, they were nice enough to leave you half a prescription..

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Artifice32

I'm going to tie your question into a larger question I have always had about people who live in bad areas. So, this is isn't entirely directed at you but I will tie it into your situation. What always boggles my mind is why it is people who live in bad, typically urban areas, don't move somewhere cheaper in the Midwest? For example, the common scenario I see in the media is someone who is working a low wage, generally unskilled job, trying to survive the violence of a bad area in a small apartment and even raise a family. Were I in that position the most logical conclusion would be to move to a cheaper, safer area in the Midwest. The cost of living would be cheaper, the area safer and even if the wage maybe slightly lower it's not going to be that much lower. That's just something in general I've wondered about. The most extreme cases are places like Detroit, Chicago and New York. I would just pack up and leave.

Now, as for your situation, when I was a kid I grew up in a very poor area that was OK in terms of safety. So, with humility, I don't think you have good street smarts. Again, my impulse and my siblings impulse was to grow up and earn enough money to leave the place behind and take my parents with us, which we did. It was never my impulse to make the place a better or more livable place. So, from that perspective, if you have to live there don't do anything to draw attention to yourself like installing cameras, complaining about your neighbors and the like...all that will only bring you trouble. Again, unless you grew up there and grew up with the people there you will always be an outsider and hence to a certain extent a target. I honestly would suggest just going to work, coming home, staying indoors, going elsewhere on the weekend but keep any contact with you and the neighborhood at a minimum.

Now, that mind sound pretty intolerable. To me that would be an intolerable way to live. So, the best advice I have is to move. Make a budget and see if you can afford to live in a better area. something I learned when I was younger and renting is that you are paying for the area, your neighbors as much as you are paying for the space. So, even if it means living in a studio apartment with great, normal, middle class neighbors I would opt for the studio apartment. Or, if you can move to a cheaper state.

The fear of the unknown. It's like that across most of the US. Small towns have invisible electric fences as do zip codes. In small towns people will divorce and marry the recycled leftovers from next door before taking a shot at something unknown. It's simply fear.

[Clevelander216]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

The fear of the unknown. It's like that across most of the US. Small towns have invisible electric fences as do zip codes. In small towns people will divorce and marry the recycled leftovers from next door before taking a shot at something unknown. It's simply fear.

for some people that is true, but for others it is very difficult just to pack up and move somewhere else. leaving friends, family, and your job behind can be tough. not to mention having sufficient funds to even do so. me personally, i've been moving all over the greater cleveland area and two different parts of california. i am so sick of moving and i want to finally settle into one spot.

[RustBeltOptimist]

To the OP:

1. Just by moving to that neighborhood you've already started to improve it. You might not realize it, but you've probably reduced the chance that some child in the area gets killed by violence, improved their chances of getting through school and graduating eventually. Take encouragement in that, in the most discouraging places I've lived it's kept me going.

2. Figure out who else is trying to help the community (not the cops, but among your neighbors) and get involved. Step 1 is true whenever somebody from a higher socio-economic background moves into a neighborhood like you've described, but those effects get accelerated if people like you are actually taking an active role in the community rather than just letting the status quo keep control. If it has a good housing stock, chances are there is somebody else there trying to preserve it.

3. There are people around you that are not necessarily trying to improve things, but are still neighborly. Spend time outside if you can and get to know them.

4. If you're there for another year, you'll have to learn to live with the fireworks. You're not going to change that around this time of year. Maybe next year set off a few of your own.

5. Despite the miss on the license plate, the crime you describe seems on the organized end rather than the random or merely opportunistic end. So be careful, but don't be afraid. If you act like a victim, you're a lot more likely to become a victim.