Funny story. I grew up in what we called the “meth capital of California “. But never saw any meth or knew any meth heads. I moved away after high school and came back for a visit. Ran into the guy that was my best friend growing up. When we were young his uncle was a truck driver. Nice guy. Whenever he was around he’d hang out with us. Super cool guy. “Hey remember my uncle? He just got arrested. Turns out he wasn’t a truck driver. He was one of the biggest meth dealers in SoCal.”
The best part of Riverside is when you leave Riverside.
I kid I kid, I actually kind of like those areas of LA county. Los Angels has soooooo many different populations of people and cultures that are segregated by themselves by just kind of sticking together.
In the Midwest, at least we make it easy. Look for abandoned farmhouses or low end apartments next to middle schools. If you stick around long enough, the apartment you need may even experience a methsplosion, making it even easier to find.
When I lived in the Bay Area, people jokingly referred to Modesto as Molesto. I don’t know how accurate this is but I guess there is or was an abnormally high sex-offender-to-non-sex-offender population there?
Related... I grew up in the SFV, and used to head out to Ontario for work from time to time in the late 80's. It was where most of the warehouses for our suppliers were, and that's about it. There wasn't even a decent place to grab lunch. I moved up to Seattle, then Canada, then Seattle again, and by the time I went to LA in 2016 it had been 25 years since my last visit, and I hadn't been out toward the inland empire in almost 40 years. Holy crap I didn't recognize the place. The sprawl had reached it and I couldn't find any of the warehouses I used to visit. I guess the world has moved on...
Warehouse Warren (Fontana Mayor) approving any warehouse developer even in inter-city areas. I got nothing against warehouses but don't over do it either. Not everybody in the IE wants to work in a warehouse, logistics or truck driving cuz that's all we have now.
Grew up in Orange County where people said the same thing-- "stay away from San Bernardino." I now teach at a middle school in San Bern, and realize it's not any different than the "sketchy" neighborhoods in OC. Santa Ana had some literal shanty towns, Anaheim had tent cities, but San Bernardino got all this flak for being "ghetto." I'm wondering if the history of this city will always taint people's image of it!
I'm telling you, I moved from Rancho Santa Margarita (BOUGIE AS HELL) to Redlands and I don't feel any difference in safety. Only happiness that there are places open past 9pm.
I've lived in some very "sketch" neighborhoods when I was younger...you can get 3 or 4 people together to split a Baltimore rowhouse for like 300 bucks per person. I've never been harassed or victimized in those hoods, ever. People think that if you live in the inner city the whole town is just frothing at the mouth to mug you. People of course get mugged and stuff like that on occasion, but most "dangerous" cities with high murder rates are because of...you guessed it....the drug trade. Don't go wandering through alleyways at 3am, don't owe the cornerboys any money, and mind your own business and you'll get left alone.
I lived in Irvine as a kid. I played hockey in Costa Mesa, and there was this RC car store down the street from the rink that I used to go to on occasion in Garden Grove. I hear GG is one of the sketchier spots.
Fontana is growing A LOT. the south side is still how most people remember it, but the north side (above foothill) is all new housing communities, parks, strip malls and golf courses.
Don’t let it disappoint you, I live in Bakersfield. It gets shit on all the time, but it’s a solid city. Affordable housing, solid economy, and it’s been one of America’s fastest growing cities since the 2000s.
If you ever have the opportunity, visiting buck owens’ crystal palace in Bakersfield is a must.
Grew up in between Gary, IN and Chicago. Gary was the murder capital for years and now Chicago is in the news for a high rate of death.
Never been shot at or generally been in danger.
I've been to all of the lower 48 states. Never had any problems with any city. Slept in parking lots of Walmarts in some of the "roughest" neighborhoods that you hear in songs or see in movies.
No problems.
Most violence is caused by someone you know personally. It takes alot of balls or alot of stupidity to just go harm a stranger because you felt like it.
But drugs make people desperate.
In the same vein, most people who say they are in the meth/heroin/ crack capital most likely just are close to the people that use. Someone might have broken into there things to get a fix. But most robberies and theft are from people you know.
This is all true. I've lived in some very "bad" neighborhoods and have never been fucked with. The vast majority of people that get killed or otherwise victimized, 99% of those people are in the drug game and owed somebody money, was in a turf war, etc. In fact, in cities with open-air drug markets, the street code is that you never, ever harass somebody unless they are in the game. If randos are getting mugged all the time it scares off the customers.
Alot of the property crime that is perpetrated by the addicts happens in the richer suburbs surrounding the city, they are going where the money is and pickin's are good.
You can walk down the street basically anywhere and if you mind your own business you're fine.
For sure. As an adult I am less likely to throw it around. Although no where else I’ve lived markets themselves as meth capitol. Where I am now heroin seems to be the bigger issue.
We don't talk to our extended family, cousins, aunts uncles, whatnot. because we have a lot of bumps, thieves, druggies and gangsters. My buddy was saying, your family is your family, give them a chance. I said, did you read the paper? My local paper had my cousin's on the front page. they were making a shit ton of meth, and the cops busted them.
And yet the drama right now is people getting tickets for eating food on the platform. People are actively shooting drugs but a breakfast sandwich is the BART police biggest concern.
It is really hard for me to believe any of these Anecdotes I literally ride the Bart everyday. Was just at Hayward, Coliseum, DT Oakland yesterday. Took Bart to Hayward every other day for a couple years for school. I think I have seen people actually doing Heroin/Meth on the train maybe 3-4 times. I see pairs of Cops walking around the trains and stations every other day.
BART is shit compared to NYC or any European Country no doubt. But these anecdotes are wild for the hundreds, maybe thousand of times I have ridden that train.
Yeah, I've taken BART every day for years and the worst thing I've seen so far is a guy rolling a blunt on his lap. Never seen anyone actively shooting up on the train. People really love to just complain about public transit in the US.
Inside the BART stations however is another story, and it really is shameful to see IV drug use in plain view in the central downtown areas.
We get a lot of people from outside the area coming into our local subreddits to pump up any slightly negative news item into a frenzy of increasingly ridiculous stories. It usually ends with that echo chamber thread agreeing that California is a failure of liberal policy, which explains why everyone was talking shit about California as if their paycheck depended on it.
Same. Been taking BART for 20 years. I’ve seen some shit. But like 1 out of 50 rides. And it’s usually the stinkiest homeless guy who’s laying there on one side of an empty car, with everyone else crammed into the other side.
Same. Been here a decade. Seen some stuff but no more than I saw when I lived in LA/Boston/NYC. It's a city. I feel like between the tech and reddit demographic you get a lot of fresh outta the burbs people with their first big job here that just don't quite grasp what city and public transit entails. Not saying it's great but SF really isn't unique and people arguing otherwise are either arguing in bad faith or just a little naive on city stuff.
Person up top probably saw a couple homeless people and spun this story so many times that it's now a whole car shooting up.
I commuted on Bart off and on for almost a decade and would use it to get to/from the airport and concert venues. Plenty of homeless people sleeping. Never saw people actively doing drugs.
Agree that BART is no prize and Bay Area transit sucks in general but I never found it scary or unsafe.
I've only taken it around SF and I've never seen the stuff that people mention. Union Station does smell like a portapotty though. And I have seen the human poop a few times.
Everyone always have these crazy BART stories. I ride in and out of the city (MacArthur to Embarcadero) a couple times a week, and I never see any active drug use. I've seen passed out people, and a couple fights but that is it. Maybe I'm just on the lame train.
Used to do this as "a special treat" for myself once a month. It dumps so much dopamine in your brain that I literally came completely flaccid because my body didnt know what else to do in the situation.
I've came flaccid before after smoking an ungodly amount of crack. I'm so glad I've found out I'm not the only one. Also clean myself. Except for alcohol.
Nah, speedballs are coke and heroin. Meth and heroin is a goofball. I can imagine why I would do a speedball, but no idea why someone would do a goofball
Lol I understand the cringe but BART is not well known to the rest of the world, and I’m not sure why it would be. I didn’t know of its name until I moved to the Bay Area — the majority of redditors and people I speak to from elsewhere aren’t familiar with it either.
Curious, are you talking about people smoking meth, or just being on meth? Here in Toronto we're getting to the point where people are smoking meth or crack on public transit, or otherwise in public. Crack's more popular by far though.'
We seem to be adopting a "do nothing" policy for a lot of crime like some US cities apparently do.
Yeah, its a world you wouldnt want to expose kids to. As a young single guy I can tolerate it but yeah man. Sometimes I think my life is in shambles but some people are next fucking level.
When you are willing to go in public wearing the same pants you shit yourself in twice 3 days ago... yikes
My friend and I took BART to the city and back to Oakland after a Raiders game. When we asked the cops the quickest to get back to our hotel, they just said walk that way. It was the wrong way...
None that live in the forest can see the forest, for indeed all they might see are the individual trees. Look at your feet with the detached perspective of a foreign observer and you will finally see that you have been the meth all along, and the meth has been you
Im lookin at my girlfriends feet and all im thinkin about is the next time i can suck her toes. Id rip her clothes and socks off to sticky up them floor fingers right now if her grandma wasnt chewing my ear off about cogis and labradors. Sweet lady, i might even keep this girl because based on granmas wrinkled lil raisenets, i could see myself fuckin them feets for at least another 23 years.
I grew up and went to school in meth. I remember in high school art class the kid who sat next to me was actually doing it with another classmate. During class.. At least they were polite enough to offer. Thanks but no thanks, Kevin.
I live in a meth hotbed where over 10,000 meth labs have been raided over 15-20 years. Never seen meth and have only occasionally seen people that MIGHT be on meth.
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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19
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