What's the sketchiest place you've been to?

[EnjoiSanJose]

East Oakland, crackheads and Gangsters, great skate park tho

[Paco Supreme]

Came too on an empty train after a long night out, walked out onto the platform pitch black and ended up walking down the middle of a highway till i found a cab

[Matze]

visited a couple of schools and organizations for homeless people in north philly. being from europe (and having spend the last 10 days in manhattan) all I can say it was a shock. I grew up in a (german) ghetto, but this was nothing compared to this hood.

[eranka]

visited a couple of schools and organizations for homeless people in north philly. being from europe (and having spend the last 10 days in manhattan) all I can say it was a shock. I grew up in a (german) ghetto, but this was nothing compared to this hood.

And we all know how bad German ghettos are

 

[slutonparade]

I once, in bare feet, stepped on a hypodermic (not the pointy end) on the floor of a steam room at a bath house in San Jose. That seemed pretty sketchy. Sex clubs and bath houses definitely top my list for sketchy experiences. I still go to them though because I like to keep my immune system guessing.

waterworks?

[few123456789]

All within this year actually...

Hillbrow neighborhood of Johannesburg was fucking sketchy as hell and I had security with me.  We blew stop lights.  Car jackings are common in the day.

Yesterday I drove through Gary, Indiana.  Not on the highway, but through the town after my GPS got all effed up.  Not sure how sketchy it really is, but it looks worse that Detroit in terms of being run down.

As for south Chicago I just don't get off the highway until the South Loop.

I lived right by Cabrini Green before they started tearing it down, but so did a lot of people.

Brazil is supposed to be dangerous with kidnappings and whatnot, but I never felt unsafe.  Been to Sau Paulo and some neighboring places.

[StFlour]

west baltimore

[S.]

visited a couple of schools and organizations for homeless people in north philly. being from europe (and having spend the last 10 days in manhattan) all I can say it was a shock. I grew up in a (german) ghetto, but this was nothing compared to this hood.

There are no German ghettos! I live in what according to statistics is the most criminal city in Germany (Frankfurt am Main) and I have never seen a ghetto. You can go anywhere you want at any time of the day without having to fear for your life.

[Greg Road]

In a drug dealers apartment surrounded by dobermans - on weed.
On the train in the ghetto looking like a tourist while a black lady preached and everyone stared at me and my brother. It was very uncomfortable.

[JB]

Detroit , we actually taped some of it for home movies

detroit isnt sketchy.

[bentmode]

Oakland greyhound station is prolly top 5 on my list.

[ROCKxADIO420]

havent been in too many sketchy situations. the dude i used to buy weed from in north philly would always have a squad of goons in his living room, all holding shotguns or other weapons. they were cool with me cause i was just some college kid trying to buy an 8th, but i guess they had beef with other dealers, robbers, or whatever, so they were super paranoid looking out windows n shit. i always had to chill and smoke with them for like 45 minutes so it wouldnt look sketchy with people just coming and going real quick, that would get awkward sometimes when youre high as shit and theres a room full of shotguns staring you down.  one time they bugged out on me cause i was splitting a bag with a friend and brought him along without mentioning it. but they were rell chell dudes.

they also had the coolest pitbull ever but they were always yelling at it and the beating the shit out of it. i wanted to say something but you know...

[midwestmiddleman]

Large abandon buildings,under a bridge near the train tracks tracks in the hood.  The most Sketchy things can happen anywhere though.

[chockfullofthat]

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Detroit , we actually taped some of it for home movies

[close]

detroit isnt sketchy.

Are you joking?

[JB]

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Detroit , we actually taped some of it for home movies

[close]

detroit isnt sketchy.

[close]

Are you joking?

no. it has its areas, just like every other major city, but its certainly not a decrepit hell hole like the media tells you.

[Matze]

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visited a couple of schools and organizations for homeless people in north philly. being from europe (and having spend the last 10 days in manhattan) all I can say it was a shock. I grew up in a (german) ghetto, but this was nothing compared to this hood.

[close]

There are no German ghettos! I live in what according to statistics is the most criminal city in Germany (Frankfurt am Main) and I have never seen a ghetto. You can go anywhere you want at any time of the day without having to fear for your life.

you're right, but still wrong. there are no ghettos here, because a ghetto is defined as place that has no exchange to the world outside. this means people have no contact to the rest of the society. this doesn't mean that some areas are sketchy or that there is a high amount of violence. you can't even tell that a city is very criminal by reading some statistics. they're mostly based on police reports, while people who have a "street" attitude don't even call the police in a conflict. a criminal act becomes a crime, when somebody is willing to report it. so it's not necessary that statistics can tell the everything about the real violence in an area. saying that, I have to admit that I used the term ghetto the wrong way.
I used to live in public housing where the only other kinds of buildings were stuffed with asylum seekers and it was sketchy. my classmates were not allowed to visit me at home because once in a while somebody had a knife stuck in his belly and people would argue with their fists.

[LifeHammered]

In a drug dealers apartment surrounded by dobermans - on weed.

[jorge]

ATL has cleaned up a lot, but as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s there were areas that looked like a war zone.  Unfortunately that's where a lot of good spots were, of course.  Been mugged a few times, got held up at gunpoint, etc.  The crack years sucked. 

[dolphinstyle.]

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visited a couple of schools and organizations for homeless people in north philly. being from europe (and having spend the last 10 days in manhattan) all I can say it was a shock. I grew up in a (german) ghetto, but this was nothing compared to this hood.

[close]

There are no German ghettos! I live in what according to statistics is the most criminal city in Germany (Frankfurt am Main) and I have never seen a ghetto. You can go anywhere you want at any time of the day without having to fear for your life.

[close]

you're right, but still wrong. there are no ghettos here, because a ghetto is defined as place that has no exchange to the world outside. this means people have no contact to the rest of the society. this doesn't mean that some areas are sketchy or that there is a high amount of violence. you can't even tell that a city is very criminal by reading some statistics. they're mostly based on police reports, while people who have a "street" attitude don't even call the police in a conflict. a criminal act becomes a crime, when somebody is willing to report it. so it's not necessary that statistics can tell the everything about the real violence in an area. saying that, I have to admit that I used the term ghetto the wrong way.
I used to live in public housing where the only other kinds of buildings were stuffed with asylum seekers and it was sketchy. my classmates were not allowed to visit me at home because once in a while somebody had a knife stuck in his belly and people would argue with their fists.

just a little addition to Frankfurt: a big reason why it's so high in the statistics is because of the airport. custom violations, wrong papers etc. are technically also offences

[chockfullofthat]

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visited a couple of schools and organizations for homeless people in north philly. being from europe (and having spend the last 10 days in manhattan) all I can say it was a shock. I grew up in a (german) ghetto, but this was nothing compared to this hood.

[close]

There are no German ghettos! I live in what according to statistics is the most criminal city in Germany (Frankfurt am Main) and I have never seen a ghetto. You can go anywhere you want at any time of the day without having to fear for your life.

[close]

you're right, but still wrong. there are no ghettos here, because a ghetto is defined as place that has no exchange to the world outside. this means people have no contact to the rest of the society. this doesn't mean that some areas are sketchy or that there is a high amount of violence. you can't even tell that a city is very criminal by reading some statistics. they're mostly based on police reports, while people who have a "street" attitude don't even call the police in a conflict. a criminal act becomes a crime, when somebody is willing to report it. so it's not necessary that statistics can tell the everything about the real violence in an area. saying that, I have to admit that I used the term ghetto the wrong way.
I used to live in public housing where the only other kinds of buildings were stuffed with asylum seekers and it was sketchy. my classmates were not allowed to visit me at home because once in a while somebody had a knife stuck in his belly and people would argue with their fists.

Knives?  Fists?  You guys got it made in Germanland.  Not to mention the legal prostitution and the sausage trains.

[AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice]

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visited a couple of schools and organizations for homeless people in north philly. being from europe (and having spend the last 10 days in manhattan) all I can say it was a shock. I grew up in a (german) ghetto, but this was nothing compared to this hood.

[close]

There are no German ghettos! I live in what according to statistics is the most criminal city in Germany (Frankfurt am Main) and I have never seen a ghetto. You can go anywhere you want at any time of the day without having to fear for your life.

[close]

you're right, but still wrong. there are no ghettos here, because a ghetto is defined as place that has no exchange to the world outside. this means people have no contact to the rest of the society. this doesn't mean that some areas are sketchy or that there is a high amount of violence. you can't even tell that a city is very criminal by reading some statistics. they're mostly based on police reports, while people who have a "street" attitude don't even call the police in a conflict. a criminal act becomes a crime, when somebody is willing to report it. so it's not necessary that statistics can tell the everything about the real violence in an area. saying that, I have to admit that I used the term ghetto the wrong way.
I used to live in public housing where the only other kinds of buildings were stuffed with asylum seekers and it was sketchy. my classmates were not allowed to visit me at home because once in a while somebody had a knife stuck in his belly and people would argue with their fists.

[close]

just a little addition to Frankfurt: a big reason why it's so high in the statistics is because of the airport. custom violations, wrong papers etc. are technically also offences

Right. Plus, since most German banks are based in Frankfurt, offences such as credit card fraud are accounted for in Frankfurt. However, if one subtracts airport-related offences and financial frauds from the total number of crimes committed per capita, Frankfurt is still up there together with Duesseldorf (!), Berlin, and Hamburg.

Still, there are almost no really sketchy areas anywhere in Germany. At least not if you compare it to what "sketchy" means elsewhere.

Sketchiest places I've been to are all located in Southern Africa. Johannesburg is one big hood. Having our car break down in the middle of some township near this city called Pietermaritzburg was the sketchiest situation I've ever been in. For some reason, the border between Swaziland and Mozambique felt really unsafe, too.

[Prison Wallet]

Zhong San Hospital in Guangzhou China.

First time I was skating some tile ledges with a local who fell and gashed his hand open on a broken tile. I went with him to the ER to get stitches and scene was pandemonium. Chaos, people moaning, horrible smells etc. I'm getting nauseated when two dudes carry in another dude who had his arm chopped off and a gash across the front of his face going through where his eye used to be. Then a dude came in running behind him with the guys arm in a plastic bag. I woke up on the floor with nurses breaking smelling salts under my nose. My Chinese friend was helping up telling me "Don't think about that guy, he's dead now." I guess he got attacked with a machete.

Second time my girlfriend (now wife) was visiting and picked up cholera. 104 temp, semi-conscisous, non stop vomiting and diarrhea. I was freaked out so I took her to the ER and they admitted her to a bed in a hallway with beds up and down the hallway. All the hospital services were a la cart, so when she shit the bed and vomited the bed no one cleaned it up or gave her new sheets. I stayed there with her for three days taking on those duties next to people who where there for tuberculosis. I tried taking her to the squat toilets to poo but she'd pass out while trying to squat and poo would go everywhere. When she could drink water without vomiting I waited for the doctors to leave, picked her up ran downstairs and threw her in a cab and nursed her back to health at my apartment.

When I came back from China I had a large calcium deposit in one of my lungs which happens from TB exposure. I know it came from that hospital.

[lamfordie]

One time when I was in Guadalajara Mexico, my cousin said he was taking me to a "skate spot" that he heard about. Im reality, we went to some ghetto ass project to see some dudes. While we were there, a group of 15  started to hang all around us and talking shit to my cousin. For a moment i thought we were gonna get into a fight, luckily I had my board and prolly could have taken a couple of them. We were there for at least an hour, some sketchy dealing was going around and we left. I told him why the hell we were there and he says that he had some business he had to clear up. A couple years later I found out that that area is a notorious gang/drug dealing area and people get killed there all the time.

[pugmaster]

Holy shit, sounds like some PALS have some experiences. I can only speak on my own experiences.  Certain places in Los Angeles are sketchy but my personal worst experience is in TJ (Tijuana, Mexico).  Once you cross the border its like Las Vegas, but without any feeling of safety or legality whatsoever.

[pica]

tangier in morocco. you get of the ferry and 90% of the people you meet on the first day try to rip you off in any possible way if not steal your stuff, money, phone anything. by far the worst place i've ever been too.
one taxi driver tried to drive away with our luggage in his trunk, a girl we've met on the ferry that stayed with us for some time got betrayed while changing money, 5 minutes later she got betrayed again while paying for a cab. people going for your pockets all the time, people asking you to come with them to see their appartement/restaurant/cousin whatever all the time, people trying to steal your camara gear, fake cops, real cops making you pay weird tickets, busdrivers charging you triple prices, weird dudes trying to sell you any kind of drugs (but have deals with the cops and you'll end up in jail or in front of an ATM to "bail out" 10 minutes later).
the rest of the country is really chilled, but that city is hell.

also a certain parts of barcelona at late at night.

spending the night sleeping at a beach in portugal i woke up while some gipsys tried to steal our stuff, they left with my friends vans halfcabs and an independent hat.
the place wasn't nearly as sketchy as waking up while someone searches your pockets.
 
i remember paris suburbs beeing sketchy as well.

[childhood]

Probably Camden, new jersey or somewhere in north Philly
We were in Camden literally ten minutes, and saw two people fucking in a lot, around a bunch of other people not even trying to hide it

[happenstance]

Oakland greyhound station is prolly top 5 on my list.

You mean the one in downtown? I live like 3 blocks from there and it is not that bad.

The person that mentioned East Oakland - The mile radius surrounding the skatepark, sure. Lots of other parts of East Oakland are blown out of proportion.

Edit: Alright, nevermind... Oakland is sketchy as all hell. I just want to stick up for my city.

Sketchiest places for me:

Getting lost driving around in Tepito, which is like the East Oakland of Mexico City. People will attempt to rob you at gunpoint in a moving car. It is so sketchy that they turn off the traffic lights at night (into blinking reds) so people don't get stuck at red lights.

East Timor - It was actually safer on a day to day basis than where I live, but I got there a year and a half after a light civil war. Tensions were high at the time and the threat of conflict breaking out was very real. At that point gangs would start forming road blocks and they rob all mother-fuckers blind with machetes.

I got sketchy stories for Oakland, skating in South LA a lot growing up, and in Mexico City. Rather than tell a bunch of drawn out stories let's just say the highlight would be an attempted robbery by a horde of crackheads in Mexico City.

[Fake Tits]

When me and my friend were trying to buy tickets for the BART back to SF these 3 Mexicans on BMX's start circling around us like sharks.

They all looked to be well into there 30's if not 40's. socks pulled up mad high with hair nets.

Oakland had me shook.

[vegan*shawn]

Cabrini Green in Chicago in the early 90's, got lost there going to see a friend, took the wrong exit, paid a hooker 10 bucks for directions out of there.

Parts of Oakland in the early 90's, walking from BART to punk rock shows in West Oakland, never got fucked with but if looks could kill!

Tried to skate the Dish in Hunters Point (S.F.) and had rocks thrown at us by kids and people running from the projects, got out of there quick!

North Philly

At a hardcore show in Southern Ohio surrounded by Nazi's, my friend's two bands and two carloads of friends ended up fighting the rest of the crowd, and somehow won for the most part.

[dillanharp]

I used to install cable in east Oakland. My dispatch territory was the San Leandro border to Seminary.