re: Whats it like living in a real bad ghetto?

I lived on Starboard Fall 1984. Some dude was harassing the wife of a resident of the building next to mine and the wife's brother took the guy out. Rifle was on the ground by my mailbox.

Never lived in one myself, but my friend who did has told me stories...does not sound fun at all. Could not imagine being worried to go outside at night.

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Other than the violence & safety of it all, I think the thing that would mess me up the most is the noise. Your body constantly on edge. Not having a respite from the outside world would be too much for me

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I came here to say it’s probably not as different as you might expect, except there’s A LOT more noise

Read Simon’s book Homicide, it’s basically the same but the detectives perspective. Obviously influential to making the wire series as well

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Been re watching The Wire

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One of the goats.

Free phones

My mom and really good friend of mine both grew up in a really rough neighborhood in Braddock, PA. It's just outside of Pittsburgh, and was known as the most depressed town in the country a few years back. It was the town where they filmed the movie Out of the Furnace. Basically it's a real shite hole.

What I take away from my time there and what my family and friends say, is that every decision the people make there is about immediate gratification with no concept of any time beyond what they are doing right now.

They do things to make fast money, to spend or gamble it away fast and be broke again immediately. They skip out on work because something came up right in front of them that seems more appealing without thinking about the consequences. Low impulse control mapped to immediate gratification basically is the cornerstone of every behavior that you see in the hood. Drugs, gambling, debt, poor work ethic, there are 1000 factors that got them there. But imagine living around people doing whatever suits them in the moment without any sense of morality or long-term thinking.

What's it like living there? You live among a sea of constant poor decisions and violence all based on short term gratification without any sort of morality attached to the behaviors. Imagine trying to navigate that as an individual trying to do it the right way when almost every interaction you have is with someone who isn't. It's tough sledding and most get lost because it's easier.

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I would imagine you would have to be on guard 24/7 365 and your fight or flight would be going nuts. Seems exhausting.

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You'd be surprised what people get used to. Most of the time people don't realize how bad it is until they're out of it.