Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All

[Excaliber]

A Washington D.C. news crew visited an area neighborhood identified as "sketchy" by SketchFactor, a new application that is designed to help people avoid troubled neighborhoods by accumulating crowdsourced data and data from public databases. Their goal was to prove it wasn't really a bad neighborhood at all.

That's not quite what they ended up proving. This article tells the tale.

The Huffington Post doesn't like the app at all (which may constitute a reverse recommendation of sorts) but the news crew's experience suggests that the app may be more credible than its wishful thinking critics would like folks to believe.

[RetNavy]

The Huffington Post doesn't like the app at all

maybe the app also points out "sketchy" websites also

[Jim Beaux]

In my travels Ive found a few "tells" that are common in sketchy neighborhoods - Malt liquor signs, burglar bars, graffiti, bail bond & "food stamp accepted here" signs.

[Excaliber]

In my travels Ive found a few "tells" that are common in sketchy neighborhoods - Malt liquor signs, burglar bars, graffiti, bail bond & "food stamp accepted here" signs.

Here are a few more:

Idle folks hanging in groups on the street
Homeless people dragging garbage bags and picking up cans
Scantily clad women standing in provocative poses on street corners
Bullet resistant cages around convenience store clerk stations
If the window is open during the day, it gets much sketchier at night
If it's closed all the time, it's sketchy all the time
Young men glaring at you for doing nothing but walking or driving by

[ELB]

I read the article linked in the OP last night, but was unable to reply until now because I was laughing too hard.

Maybe I am insensitive, but I am also amused.

[VMI77]

To the previous lists I'll add:

The sound of gun shots during the night.

My son's fine neighborhood in Chicago sometimes rings out with the sound of gun fire at night. And he's in university housing.

[Cedar Park Dad]

Circling helicopters with spotlights. When I lived in Cali, they were always flying above us.

[LAYGO]

The prevalence of pawn shops is typically an indicator to me.

[The Annoyed Man]

A Washington D.C. news crew visited an area neighborhood identified as "sketchy" by SketchFactor, a new application that is designed to help people avoid troubled neighborhoods by accumulating crowdsourced data and data from public databases. Their goal was to prove it wasn't really a bad neighborhood at all.

That's not quite what they ended up proving. This article tells the tale.

The Huffington Post doesn't like the app at all (which may constitute a reverse recommendation of sorts) but the news crew's experience suggests that the app may be more credible than its wishful thinking critics would like folks to believe.

My own reply in the HuffPo thread:

Denial = Enabling. I've lived in NYC, Los Angeles, and now the DFW metroplex. _______ happens, but it happens MORE in sketchy areas. People have some right to know if the area they are venturing into is less safe than the area they are leaving. Only an enabler would deny that fact. That said, I just looked at some of the "sketch reports" for my area (near DFW Airport), and they are hilarious:

"I killed someone."

"There was a ghost."

"Creepy older white man."

"A sketchy black van with spinners and dents all over it. A black man driving it as well as 3 other black men on the sofas in the back of it. They asked me if I wanted to [do something obscene]."

"I saw a black person."

"The black person saw me."

"The college students in this area are ungrateful and [...are...] [word meaning "crappy"] to anyone that doesn't get out of their way. Be sure to remind them that they haven't worked for anything they have. And that their parents will be dead soon."

I mean, c'mon people......you're so busy being worried about political correctness that it results in farcical contributions, negating what might otherwise be a useful app. It's not like white people have a lock on being worried about sketchiness. In fact, it's kind of racist to insist that such worries are the exclusive domain of whites. Sketchy is as sketchy does.

[CC Italian]

Young men glaring at you for doing nothing but walking or driving by

Idle folks hanging in groups on the street

These two! Young men in large groups on a weekday afternoon is usually a bad sign imo. They have no job and they are not in school. You know the saying "idle hands....."

[patterson]

cars parked in front yard

[karder]

According to the Progressive Left's logic:
The problem is not that the neighborhood is sketchy, the problem is that someone is NOTING that the neighborhood is sketchy. How is a sketchy neighborhood going to become unsketchy if it is common knowledge that said neighborhood is, in fact, sketchy? The solution is simple. We need to invest tens of millions of tax payer dollars creating parks and after school programs. At which point with all the fervor of an 1800's snake oil salesman/faith healer we enthusiastically declare the neighborhood healed. All the factors which originally led to that neighborhood becoming sketchy in the first place will somehow become irrelevant and a pox on anyone who purposely avoids the sketchy neighborhood prior to its transformation as they are full of hate.