Is Concord a ghetto? (Oakland, Hayward: home, living in, dangerous)

[batransplant]

So we decided to get some Christmas shopping done last weekend, and since it was raining, we opted for Concord due to having an indoor shopping center. I have never been there before, and heard mixed things about the area, but figured it just had a few rough spots, probably not near the shopping area.

When we exited the freeway, there were 4 women soliciting themselves at the off ramp! Then as we were driving toward the mall, we passed several able bodied looking young guys begging for change at every intersection.

When we got inside the mall, I would say 1/2 of the people there looked like gang bangers or punks. I actually felt scared since we had our little one with us, and decided to leave due to seeing very little security on the premises.

Is this an area just best avoided?

[gogetta]

Concord is far from ghetto, a couple of not so nice patches here an there, but nothing too extreme from what I've been told. I am not too familiar with the area to be honest so I don't have more specifics.

[jrb724]

Were you going to Sun Valley Mall? There aren't that many intersections between the mall and freeway. I have seen 1 woman there before at the off-ramp or a beggar -but not a combination of both lol Sounds like you may have just hit it at a bad day and time.

1/2 the people looked like thugs? Well, that is kind of the dress code in the bay area. They are everywhere. The mall has certainly went downhill and has a lot more thugs than it use to, but I wouldn't say it's dangerous or a ghetto.

[E14]

no it is a white suburb you are either joking or a very sensitive sheltered person

[jman650]

Originally Posted by batransplant

So we decided to get some Christmas shopping done last weekend, and since it was raining, we opted for Concord due to having an indoor shopping center. I have never been there before, and heard mixed things about the area, but figured it just had a few rough spots, probably not near the shopping area.

When we exited the freeway, there were 4 women soliciting themselves at the off ramp! Then as we were driving toward the mall, we passed several able bodied looking young guys begging for change at every intersection.

When we got inside the mall, I would say 1/2 of the people there looked like gang bangers or punks. I actually felt scared since we had our little one with us, and decided to leave due to seeing very little security on the premises.

Is this an area just best avoided?

Oh my Lord, have you ever been outdoors before?? I mean you're obviously embellishing here with your description of 1/2 the mall population being thuggish (maybe if you had gone to Southland Mall in Hayward or Solano Mall in Fairfield, but Sun Valley Mall? BS). But did you just transport to the 2009 Bay Area from where Donna Reed lived in the 50s? If you're considering Concord to be ghetto I can't imagine what kind of sheltered existence you must have had before moving here - and subsequently peppering us all repeatedly with annoying questions about the Bay that always include unrealistic experiences by you. Why are you still here if the Bay Area frightens you so?

No, Concord is CLEARLY not some sort of ghetto. Its a normal, typical middle/working class Bay Area city of over 100,000. What Bay Area town are you going to be scared of next, Orinda? Danville? Burlingame maybe? I mean there are train tracks in Burlingame and all, so one side of them must be bad then, right??

How about your beloved home region? Is Beverly Hills a ghetto? Bel Aire maybe? How about Malibu? I saw that movie Malibus Most Wanted and that place looked straight up like the hood!

[E14]

Originally Posted by jman650

Oh my Lord, have you ever been outdoors before?? I mean you're obviously embellishing here with your description of 1/2 the mall population being thuggish (maybe if you had gone to Southland Mall in Hayward or Solano Mall in Fairfield, but Sun Valley Mall? BS). But did you just transport to the 2009 Bay Area from where Donna Reed lived in the 50s? If you're considering Concord to be ghetto I can't imagine what kind of sheltered existence you must have had before moving here - and subsequently peppering us all repeatedly with annoying questions about the Bay that always include unrealistic experiences by you. Why are you still here if the Bay Area frightens you so?

No, Concord is CLEARLY not some sort of ghetto. Its a normal, typical middle/working class Bay Area city of over 100,000. What Bay Area town are you going to be scared of next, Orinda? Danville? Burlingame maybe? I mean there are train tracks in Burlingame and all, so one side of them must be bad then, right??

How about your beloved home region? Is Beverly Hills a ghetto? Bel Aire maybe? How about Malibu? I saw that movie Malibus Most Wanted and that place looked straight up like the hood!

thank you.
i was too lazy to completely bash this idiot but you did it as well as i could have.

[baybook]

Yeah, most of the posts this person has are ..."odd" let's say. trollish, maybe

Yes, Concord is just one great big ghetto. Big Ghetto. Full of lots of East Bay type people. Like the type your husband works with. Stay far, far away. otherwise, you could be in danger!!!

Originally Posted by jman650

Oh my Lord, have you ever been outdoors before?? I mean you're obviously embellishing here with your description of 1/2 the mall population being thuggish (maybe if you had gone to Southland Mall in Hayward or Solano Mall in Fairfield, but Sun Valley Mall? BS). But did you just transport to the 2009 Bay Area from where Donna Reed lived in the 50s? If you're considering Concord to be ghetto I can't imagine what kind of sheltered existence you must have had before moving here - and subsequently peppering us all repeatedly with annoying questions about the Bay that always include unrealistic experiences by you. Why are you still here if the Bay Area frightens you so?

No, Concord is CLEARLY not some sort of ghetto. Its a normal, typical middle/working class Bay Area city of over 100,000. What Bay Area town are you going to be scared of next, Orinda? Danville? Burlingame maybe? I mean there are train tracks in Burlingame and all, so one side of them must be bad then, right??

How about your beloved home region? Is Beverly Hills a ghetto? Bel Aire maybe? How about Malibu? I saw that movie Malibus Most Wanted and that place looked straight up like the hood!

[batransplant]

I guess prostitutes hanging out at freeway exits and gang bangers are acceptable here and not considered ghetto?

No...sorry I've never seen this type of thing in a suburb considered safe for families. Not sure how that is considered trollish. I've been living in city or coastal areas for the past 30 plus years so no I am not familiar with suburbs. I always assumed they were safe places to raise families.

I think it is pretty sad there are so many homeless, thugs, and prostitutes in a community people consider a nice, safe, place to raise a family.

[jman650]

Originally Posted by batransplant

I guess prostitutes hanging out at freeway exits and gang bangers are acceptable here and not considered ghetto?

No...sorry I've never seen this type of thing in a suburb considered safe for families. Not sure how that is considered trollish. I've been living in city or coastal areas for the past 30 plus years so no I am not familiar with suburbs. I always assumed they were safe places to raise families.

I think it is pretty sad there are so many homeless, thugs, and prostitutes in a community people consider a nice, safe, place to raise a family.

Okay, for starters, a nice, safe place to raise a family is not by the freeway.

Secondly, I have not only never once seen a prostitute hanging out by ANY freeway exit ANYWHERE, but I especially have not seen any in Concord of all places. How were these women supposedly soliciting their potential clients?? Did they have signage displayed so people could know what was going on as they decelerated from 65 mph to 20? Were they posted up on a freeway offramp or did they simply hang out in the shoulder right before the exit?

Your story is ridiculous and your ONE time in Concord doesn't even remotely resemble the 40 or 50 times I've gone there, so forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical, especially considering your tendency to have Twilight Zone-esque tales of life in the Bay Area. Notice how you're not attracting much of a following on here? There are plenty of Bay Area residents that will be quick to agree with accurate negative criticism of how things are here, but your tales just don't mesh with reality.

To help you out here, no, prostitutes and gangsters are not considered acceptable. But teenagers who listen to hip hop and dress in that style the same way kids all across the nation do is considered acceptable. And if you're afraid of what you saw in that mall then I don't know where in this entire nation you wouldn't end up frightened. I'm hesitant to even recommend Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton b/c you might flee with your children in tow from some 12 year old skater with baggy jeans. You sound extremely out of touch with the world, assuming you are actually being serious here and not just TROLLING.

And fyi, not all suburbs are safe. East Palo Alto is technically a suburb, as is Marin City, and both of those would be mentioned in the same breath as any ghetto in deep East Oakland or Hunters Point. Gang members do exist in just about every city in California w/ a population over 10,000 (both in NorCal and in SOCAL ), with the exception of a handful of extremely affluent municipalities (such as Hillborough).

But judging from the microscope you seem to be holding to the Bay coupled with your tendency to blow these things out of proportion, you counted every person who wasn't wearing a polo and tennis shorts with a sweater wrapped around their shoulders as a "gangbanger." If "half of the mall" was filled with actual gangmembers there would have been a riot and we would have heard about it all over the news. Unless of course you're under the impression that Concord has one gigantic, monstrous gang with 10,000 members like what the Discovery Channel wrongfully described Oakland as having (lol), and that every thug in attendance there was on the same side. Otherwise feel free to theorize as to why all these "gang bangers" you saw weren't in the midst of battle.

And no, there are not "so many homeless, thugs, and prostitutes in a community people consider a nice, safe, place to raise a family." This is your own warped perception of the place, just like all your other twisted observations of the East Bay. Its getting old really fast. Concord at worst has a handful of homeless and I have never heard of it being a haven for prostitutes nor have I ever seen any there. Its not even the type of place a hooker could prosper without getting shut down by the cops right away, let alone "so many" of them as you put it. If there are any there at all they are extremely scarce. Have you ever even seen a real prostitute or red light district before? Get a life.

[Oakland City]

Originally Posted by batransplant

I guess prostitutes hanging out at freeway exits and gang bangers are acceptable here and not considered ghetto?

No...sorry I've never seen this type of thing in a suburb considered safe for families. Not sure how that is considered trollish. I've been living in city or coastal areas for the past 30 plus years so no I am not familiar with suburbs. I always assumed they were safe places to raise families.

I think it is pretty sad there are so many homeless, thugs, and prostitutes in a community people consider a nice, safe, place to raise a family.

Translation, I'm scared of homeless people, Young Latinos and Young Blacks.