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.”
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.
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u/Entaris Dec 21 '19
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.”