Sometimes you roll up to a new place and you’ve got a gut feeling that something is just… off. The people there are looking at you all weird, there’s strange smells assaulting you from every direction, and you just want to get out of there ASAP.
But it’s always good to know what to look out for in places like this, right? Broken glass, suspicious people, unknown businesses… Some signs are not as obvious, though, but I’m certain you’ll find something to expand your street smarts by checking out these bad neighborhood red flags in today’s list.
More info: Reddit
#1
If you have to play the “Was that fireworks or gunshots?” game in any month of the year besides July.
Edit: Specifically in the city, you’ll find this sort of thing all over rural areas.
Image source: partofbreakfast, Denys Gromov
#2
An adult man on a child’s bmx bike slowly riding in the middle of the street.
Image source: Amduscias7, cottonbro studio
#3
In my neighborhood someone posted on nextdoor that they woke up to someone standing over their bed then 2 days later someone else posted that a dude was walking around the street naked asking strangers if they wanted to touch his weewee oh and car theft is so common that I no longer lock my car because it’s financially smarter for me to let them have a look around than to pay for any more broken windows I might be in a bad neighborhood
Image source: ttothesecond, Cristian Manieri
#4
Lots of dollar stores, payday loan and title loan places. No or few actual grocery stores.
Image source: anon, Mark Hillary
#5
Ghetto Diamonds
See broken shards of glass in the parking lot? Those are from thieves crow-barring your car windows, not bad driving.
Image source: laterdude, Lars H Knudsen
#6
When you ask a cop for directions cause your lost and he tells you the way but to drive very fast and to not stop at red lights.
(We were lost in Camden NJ after a concert)
Image source: gabeybaby13, Kaique Rocha
#7
Pairs of tennis shoes thrown over the electrical lines
Image source: AldermanMcCheese, Ben Schumin
#8
when the restrooms in businesses have black/blue lights to make it difficult to find your vein.
#9
Random shopping carts on the side of the road.
Image source: bekahboo1989, Daniel R. Blume
#10
There’s a baby hanging out on a street corner at 3AM.
Image source: Wiknetti, Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas
#11
pizza places won’t deliver to your house/apartment/neighborhood
Image source: reesejenks520, Pixabay
#12
boost mobile next to a check cashing place
Image source: oiooioio, Mike Mozart
#13
It’s the middle of the afternoon on a weekday and people are just hanging out on porches and yards, just walking around. It’s a neighborhood with a lot of unemployment. If you are looking to rent or buy, visit in the middle of the work day and at night to see what it’s like.
Image source: MonkeyCatDog, Caio
#14
The businesses just outside the residential area are pay day loan operations, rent-to-own furniture, rent-to-own wheels
Image source: anon, David McBee
#15
When the 1 decent human being there flat out tells you its a bad area and you should leave.
#16
The cats are afraid of you, and run away when you get closer.
In a good neighborhood, the cats stay put, and give you superior looks.
Image source: florinandrei, Ivan Radic
#17
Bars/bulletproof glass on gas station windows, and they don’t let anyone in the store past a certain time, you can only walk up to the window.
Image source: Mojo_so_dopey, Antonio Lorenzana Bermejo
#18
If you’re getting more of a confused look rather than a smile from strangers
Image source: biggerthanbread, Pixabay
#19
Indoor furniture outside
Image source: Jamarch, saintjeux
#20
The weight of the bathroom key. My family stopped for a bathroom break in The Wire era baltimore. My dad had to carry the car rim keychain over to the bathroom for my sister.
Image source: ortusdux, cottonbro studio
#21
The Chore Boy, tube socks and roses in glass tubes are in a locked cabinet at the local Quickie-Mart.
Image source: RobertTheRoseHorse, wallpaperflare
#22
Corner stores and random businesses with cages on the doors and windows. Advertising is usually painted on the wall or something, and you see ads for really cheap foods and drinks that usually aren’t big product names. Also there are potholes everywhere and random fences tend to be driven into and not fixed. Also where I live in the lower the street number the worse the neighborhood. Also random groups of guys gathered outside of random corner stores. Oh and if there are fast food places with nowhere to sit that’s also how you know.
Image source: anon
#23
Grocery carts on the sidewalk and streets, trashy looking corner stores, trashy looking beauty supply shops, Boost mobile, cars parked in lawns, bars on the windows.
Image source: PM_ME_USED_TAMPONS, Taiwankengo
#24
Bail bonds offices, hair braiding salons, payday loans on the same street.
Convenience stores with “WE TAKE EBT” signs in hand written letters.
Weekly-rate “budget” motels.
Gas station locks its doors at 10 PM. If you want cigarettes, drinks, or snacks late at night, you have to tell the cashier what you want and she’ll deliver it to you through a hole in a bulletproof glass window.
#25
In New Zealand a sure sign is someone walking the street playing music from their mobile phone speaker
Image source: anon
#26
The stores are named quite literally for what they are.
In my best friend’s hometown, the bowling alley simply has a sign that says “Bowling Alley”. Same with the nail salon, the laundromat, etc. It is a sketchy a*s place.
Image source: presciiient, Photocapy
#27
I the Uk , its has to be a broken bus stops (Glass smashed) with frosty jacks bottles lying around or a burnt out car or possibly a car on bricks as the wheels have been robbed
Image source: pm-your-cavos
#28
This is a scottish thing but if there is an old church its fine, if its a new building that says christian centre or a newly built church its probably a s**t hole and this is for towns and parts of cities not neighborhoods
Image source: anon
#29
This is specific to Toronto, but I always felt that if there was a Coffee Time instead of a Tim Horton’s, you weren’t in the right place.
Bonus points if there’s one of the extremely few Dollar Trees.
Image source: lemonylol
#30
Lots of kids with a surprising lack of adults anywhere in the area
Image source: theImplication69, Quang Nguyen Vinh
Follow Us
