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Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 7:44 pm
by 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.
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 8:06 pm
by RetNavy
maybe the app also points out "sketchy" websites also
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:55 pm
by 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.
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 7:56 am
by Excaliber
Jim Beaux wrote: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
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:09 am
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.
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 1:39 pm
by 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.
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 2:46 pm
by Cedar Park Dad
Circling helicopters with spotlights. When I lived in Cali, they were always flying above us.
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 3:53 pm
by LAYGO
The prevalence of pawn shops is typically an indicator to me.
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 7:38 pm
by The Annoyed Man
Excaliber wrote: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.
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:01 am
by 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....."
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 4:53 pm
by patterson
cars parked in front yard
Re: Maybe It's a Sketchy Neighborhood After All
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:17 pm
by 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.
