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Wow New Orleans sure is taking a beating in this thread.
I livd in New Orleans twice for several years, and never had a frightening or threatening experience. But a visitor could get the wrong impression, because the town is very unfriendly, downright rude, to outsiders.
Leesville, LA and Tillicum, WA, a couple of little towns near military bases. A lot of shady characters hung around making an industry off of relieving people of their Government pay.
Driving through an Indian Reservation in the southwest during the turbulent Seventies.
The most recent and unexpectedly frightening was having to meet local Police in an alley downtown after midnight in my hometown. Swarming with drunken college kids everywhere and these were not your Sixties college kids. It was a seething wave of irrational destructive chaos.
I livd in New Orleans twice for several years, and never had a frightening or threatening experience. But a visitor could get the wrong impression, because the town is very unfriendly, downright rude, to outsiders.
I've never had problems with rudeness or danger in New Orleans but of course anecdotes by me are equally worthless.
I think maybe it's how New Orleans has a lot of vagabundos just hanging around in same areas as tourists, so folks walk outside their hotel room and see those cuchos sleeping or begging or in groups nearby and they don't like it so declare it dangerous. Lots of other touristy cities make a lot more effort to roust 'em, some things common in Big Easy like homeless guys taking up bus stop benches and stuff isn't tolerated.
Also probably something to do with some rougher neighborhoods relatively close to tourist areas (or surrounding them like with some of the popular cemeteries), that makes people uncomfortable as well.
I livd in New Orleans twice for several years, and never had a frightening or threatening experience. But a visitor could get the wrong impression, because the town is very unfriendly, downright rude, to outsiders.
May as well pile on - maybe a decade or so ago, a group of co-workers were in downtown N'awleans for a Union meeting. One of them stayed later at the bar, and after drinking more than his share, decided to walk back to the hotel. He strayed off the tourist route, and a couple of big dudes walked up behind him, lifted him off the ground under the armpits, one on each side, while a third one went through his pockets, emptying them. I don't think he was roughed up too badly, but I don't believe he resisted them, either. Makes me want to run right down to New Orleans for a visit.
Somebody above was worried about the thread descending into negative stereotypes. But my guess is, stereotyping is most often borne of experience, either your own or someone else's. Most of the posts here don't regale stories of encounters of freak weather, animal attacks, natural disasters, or transportation breakdowns, they describe encounters with predators of the two-legged variety. I'm afraid that the greatest danger to people is always going to be other people - very sad.
I'm afraid that the greatest danger to people is always going to be other people - very sad.
Hah I remember the safari walk we did once. It came with a guide and another dude with an AK-47. Someone asked if he was there in case we get threatened by lions, guide said no he was there to protect us from people. Sad indeed.
We once took a night bus in Laos from Vientiane all the way out east near Vietnam border. We didn't know it at first since no uniform but they also had an AK-47 guy, every time we'd stop in the middle of nowhere so folks could pee in the bushes that dude would come out and stand guard. People danger.
HMM..lets see...I've travelled all accross most of the southeast and a decent amount of up north as well. I don't go around looking for trouble but I'm also kind of a cheap traveler so the only places that felt somewhat sketchy are the following:
Atlanta: I've only been here twice during the day time but there were a few people walking down trying to scare us lol...it was nothing but I imagine it'd be dangerous at night time(downtown ATL)
Chicago: got lost once in the south side. This is probably the only place that's felt dangerous WHILE DRIVING. This was driving alongside E 63rd and then going south on Vincennes after somehow missing the highway...also there was a mini riot that lasted all night in downtown Chicago after the taste of chicago on one of the nights(only a couple of people were stabbed)
Orlando: had to get on a bus from INTL drive to downtown a couple of times. the first 2 rides were almost empty and felt perfectly fine. Then I went on one the year later and it was packed and I had too much expensive stuff on. This bus route goes thru some of the worst parts of Orlando but nothing happened.
Tampa/daytona/: I stay(d) in cheap hotels but Florida is definitely one place you shouldn't do that...in both of these places I have had rooms next to people that were on who knows what partying all night. the type of place that once you have all your stuff in you don't want to exit the room til the morning. haven't really seen this anywhere else though....The tampa hotel has since been shut down within a year of me staying there
Tallahassee...random dude asking if u want drugs at hotel I stayed at.
Gainesville: guy shouting something random(I think it was "hey come here a second" or something like that) as I'm about to walk in Oaks mall at night....I just walked in
Raleigh: We were walking thru downtown the one and only time I've been in Raleigh and some guy was walking accross the street opposite direction of us with his hands down his pants....otherwise looked like a nice safe city...same thing happened when we were driving thru a bad area of Orlando.
Miami Beach: one night we were walking making 5 minutes from a club to our hotel on south beach and in those 5 minutes there were like 15 cop cars in between...we assumed something major happened but it didn't even make the local news
That's about it I guess...keep in mind most of these weren't to bad or were over in a few seconds with little worry. This is just from what I've experienced
I think it was Dec. 1971, and it was in the St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I was staying at a hotel on an island in the harbour. I took the launch in and wandered around the town - with no knowledge of the town, which was very foolish. A black woman in a small store where I stopped to buy cigarettes was extremely hostile and did not want to sell to me, and in the street twice black men in passing trucks shouted racial epithets. On the last day of my vacation I went to a club and ran into a black fellow who had been the head waiter at an informal restaurant where I ate twice. He was with his girlfriend and invited me to sit with them. They were from Antigua, and he said that Antiguans who came to St. Croix were often harassed and attacked.
Later that same year several tourists were killed in an attack on a golf course club in St. Croix.
The only other place was on my block of W. 80th St. in Manhattan in the early 70s. You never turned right when you left the building after dark and walked the length of the block, you always turned left and walked down the avenue to the next street. Having non-white skin was no pass either. My super was a dark African-American and when I moved in he gave me the above advice, and pointing to his black skin said, "Even I do not walk down the block after dark." He was killed in our building later on.
We were in Fredricksted (spelling) in St Croix in the late eighties and the gentleman at the hotel we were staying in told us not to wander around town at night. Sitting at the bar and was talking to a few divers a bit later and mentioned what the hotel owner had told me and they were a bit macho and kind of laughed my comments off. Met them at the hotel bar a bit later again after dusk and they said while walking in town they had been stopped by a police officer and advised not to be out in town after dark. They took his advice. One of the guys in our party didn’t and got jumped and robbed later that night.
Early eighties wandering around LA just before dusk and somehow started getting further into Compton. Panicked a bit and kept getting lost even more. Looked up and saw the planes and followed them luckily towards LAX.
In New Orleans after dark and got on the wrong bus. We started going away from Bourbon Street. Stayed on the bus until it finally looped around, of course not knowing if it would return us to were we got on.
Luckily we have never felt like we were in a life or death situation but have felt panicked several times over the years.
Most of our problems have been like the time we were on the Oregon Coast and while marveling at the beauty I had not realized the gas light had come on. We were in a long empty stretch and this was before GPS, Google Maps and cell phones.
The end of April 92 when the Rodney King verdict came back in LA. I didn't know what had happened but it got ugly and weird fast. Firefighters had shotguns and the buses quit running.
You can be on a street with ten million dollar homes and a half a block away gang wars are happening. I will not ride Metro Rail or Tri Rail after dark.
New Orleans. Not only is crime bad but the police force is so corrupt.
Twenty-five years of living in Miami -- I never felt safe. In the days of the Cocaine Cowboys, the average was a murder a day.
Ironically, other Miami residents expressed concern when I told them I was planning a trip to Israel. I've now been to Israel five times, and I've never felt safer anywhere else in the world than I do in Israel.
Same here concerning Israel. Everyone said we were crazy to go on vacation there. I was asked if we were taking bulletproof vests, etc. We had a great time, walked around Jerusalem on a Saturday night and never felt safer.
On the unsafe side, I just got out of the military years ago and we were moving to Los Angeles. I was alone in a rental car, got lost and ended up in Compton at night. A car of unsavory characters pulled up next to me and everyone in that car was glaring at me. I got out fast.
Another time I had business in downtown LA during (just days after) the Rodney King riots. Driving there was eerie seeing all the burned out buildings. I got done with my business and was walking to my car when someone came out and said to clear out. There was a mob headed our way. I quickly left and never saw anyone.
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