France warns their citizens about Pittsburgh (Homewood: high school, live in, friendly)

[Q-tip motha]

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.

The danger to non gang members/drug dealers is overstated.

Grossly overstated.

[Devout Urbanist]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

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!

Oh, please. You probably can't even find Harlem on a subway map. No windows? Not even on Riverside Drive, huh? Ok, buddy. Sure.

[Sealtite]

Originally Posted by Q-tip motha

The danger to non gang members/drug dealers is overstated.

Grossly overstated.

Nope sorry. That excuse doesn't fly with me. These are neighborhoods where very, very stupid individuals are roaming the streets with assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns. Their day-to-day lifestyle is also evidence enough that they lack impulse control.

I'm not a gang member nor am I a drug dealer, however a few years ago I was nearly robbed at gunpoint in one of the lovely "multicultural" neighborhoods of Pittsburgh while I was working outdoors. I say "only" thanks to my little snub-nose .38 special that I have a permit to carry lawfully. The black kid who was about to rob me couldn't have been more than 16 or 17 years old. He was "creeping" for lack of a better word alongside my vehicle while I was parked, ducked down with what looked to be a little .380 in his hand. Two adult black men were sitting in a car adjacent from my vehicle, watching. I saw him in my rear-view mirror, immediately produced my weapon, and exited the passenger side of the vehicle. As I was crawling across the seat, my weapon became visible to the two men in the car, and they flashed their lights. The kid immediately put the gun in his pocket, walked straight to the car, got in the backseat, and the car drove off. Nobody else was around in view except for the three of us, and two of my employees about 100 feet away in a residential driveway. One of the scariest moments of my life, and I still get goosebumps when I think about it. To this day I'm thankful that A: The "lookout" actually saw what was in my hand, because in the moment I wasn't really thinking about it (the whole thing didn't even register until afterward because it happened so fast). B: I didn't get shot and/or have to shoot someone, and C: I had the impulse control to both conceal my weapon and hold my fire once it was clear that they had aborted their plans.

So go ahead and say that there's "minimal danger" to non drug dealers and gang members all you want. Some people will buy that, but I certainly won't. There was a definite danger to me that day.

[Q-tip motha]

Originally Posted by Sealtite

Nope sorry. That excuse doesn't fly with me. These are neighborhoods where very, very stupid individuals are roaming the streets with assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns. Their day-to-day lifestyle is also evidence enough that they lack impulse control.

I'm not a gang member nor am I a drug dealer, however a few years ago I was nearly robbed at gunpoint in one of the lovely "multicultural" neighborhoods of Pittsburgh while I was working outdoors. I say "only" thanks to my little snub-nose .38 special that I have a permit to carry lawfully. The black kid who was about to rob me couldn't have been more than 16 or 17 years old. He was "creeping" for lack of a better word alongside my vehicle while I was parked, ducked down with what looked to be a little .380 in his hand. Two adult black men were sitting in a car adjacent from my vehicle, watching. I saw him in my rear-view mirror, immediately produced my weapon, and exited the passenger side of the vehicle. As I was crawling across the seat, my weapon became visible to the two men in the car, and they flashed their lights. The kid immediately put the gun in his pocket, walked straight to the car, got in the backseat, and the car drove off. Nobody else was around in view except for the three of us, and two of my employees about 100 feet away in a residential driveway. One of the scariest moments of my life, and I still get goosebumps when I think about it. To this day I'm thankful that A: The "lookout" actually saw what was in my hand, because in the moment I wasn't really thinking about it (the whole thing didn't even register until afterward because it happened so fast). B: I didn't get shot and/or have to shoot someone, and C: I had the impulse control to both conceal my weapon and hold my fire once it was clear that they had aborted their plans.

So go ahead and say that there's "minimal danger" to non drug dealers and gang members all you want. Some people will buy that, but I certainly won't. There was a definite danger to me that day.

I will.

To your one alleged incident I have several years of exposure to some of these neighborhoods in compromised positions where I could have easily been victimized, and yet nothing ever happened.

But I've heard some really fantastic stories from people who live in the burbs.

[TheYO]

Originally Posted by SorryIMovedBack

I think I heard on Kent State radio this morning the Cleveland also was dismayed to find several Cleveland areas on that list, but they have petitioned to have them removed. Or something like that. I was only half-listening. For the record, there was absolutely no chortling over Pittsburgh locales being listed. All they talked about was Cleveland.

The difference is the Cleveland areas they listed (Cleveland Heights, Lakewood & Euclid) were comically inaccurate. They failed to mention East Cleveland, which is one of the worst places in the country.

Pittsburgh's recommendations are pretty accurate.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by Sealtite

C: I had the impulse control to both conceal my weapon and hold my fire once it was clear that they had aborted their plans.

You're basically Gandhi, except your judgement isn't clouded by anything liberal.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by Uptown kid

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

Is this really still a thing? I definitely got a dirty look for wearing all black in Manchester earlier this year and I'm a (mostly) white guy. I know about the reason why but jeez.

[Uptown kid]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Is this really still a thing? I definitely got a dirty look for wearing all black in Manchester earlier this year and I'm a (mostly) white guy. I know about the reason why but jeez.

Short answer: No colors mostly cease to exist with the exceptions of (1) "flags" (bandanas)- Crips wear blue on the left side, Bloods wear red on the right side, OGz/Hoods/Gz wear black, etc & (2) during intense periods of beef- my guess is to avoid friendly fire. Gang tattoos are the the new gang colors.
btw: This incident was back in the mid 2000's when Homewood's Crips had notably worse relations with the East Hills/Garfield/Hill Districk Bloods. Also colors were still immenent back then but to a lesser degree than the early-mid 90's... I'd say 2009-10 is when that era for the most part ended with the two exceptions.

Yet these are not rules set in stone, there more of a pirate's code series of guidelines. If you walk in a gang neighborhood at the wrong time and encounter one or more pissy individuals who are looking for a fight, you could get beat up/jumped for flying the wrong colors or rocking the wrong hoodie (acronyms represent certain hoods; for example, ESPN means East Side of Pittsburh Nig**z & NFL stands for either Northside For Lyfe or Nig**z From Lincoln). Though this is very rare, it still goes on today. I've both seen Crips/black bandana gang members & neighborhood residents wear red and Bloods/black bandana gang members & neighborhood residents wear blue... The whole thing is complex and sometimes circumstantial. I usually where black & gold or white/gray so I have nothing to worry about. Wearing all black is something all gangs do so there's nothing to worry about there especially in Upper Manchester

[Uptown kid]

Originally Posted by Q-tip motha

The danger to non gang members/drug dealers is overstated.

Grossly overstated.

Agreed!
-There is a large section of Mt. Oliver Boro that like Mt. Oliver city proper is gritty but livable & safe.
-Mt. Oliver's hood section (along with Hazelwood's) is notably safer than most of Middle Hill/Bedford Avenue and Homewood excluding the Blaccadore-Brushton Corridor/Brushton-Hilltop section
-in this hood section most shootings are not gang-related & are between drug addicts and thugs who don't get along (interestingly shootings between Beltzhoover's Crips/Upper Knoxville's Hot Boyz & Mt. Oliver Boro/Knoxville's Darccide seem to occur more often in Knoxville than Mt. Oliver Boro).
-in this hood section the police are never too far away.

Sure like in other city neighborhoods besides Squrriel Hill occasionally innocent people have to deal with horrendous crimes such as simply assault, robbery, theft, and home invasions, but at a low frequency (and at a lower level than most of Homewood, Larimer, most of Lincoln, Central Wilkinsburg, Duquesne- south of the tracks, Central McKeesport, Beltzhoover, Upper Knoxville, etc).
Crime in Mt. Oliver Boro is bad, but not to the point that innocent people are getting shot & task force and extra patrol units rover during the evenings (ie. 2013 Homewood, 2012 Wilkinsburg, 2011 Hill District or 2004 Hazelwood/Glen Hazel).

[Sealtite]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

You're basically Gandhi, except your judgement isn't clouded by anything liberal.

Haha.