Most North “hood” in the northeast (Boston, Worcester: appointed, homes)

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Naw i agree with none of this. Is Buffalo not hood?? Lawrence not hood??? Springfield not hood?

Lawrence's entire culture is openly an unabashedly hood save for a small part of South Lawrence.

Nothing north of NJ? Bridgeport Hartford Central Falls? the Bronx? Grove Hall? Much of inner-city Worcester?

Thats all super hood. Im typing this from the Eastside of Baltimore. No its not Baltimore but...not that many places are.

You've got some hell of a pair of blinders on.

Speaking to the dominant identity of those within. I agree that Lawrence is closest thing MA has to a universally ‘hood’ city ... hardly any private investment and a deeply entrenched culture. Bridgeport probably isn’t too dissimilar in this regard. Middle class flight is seemingly permanent and there is very little overlap with neighboring communities.

Inner city Worcester? Two decades ago the gang unit was permanently installed on main south and now the same block is practically unidentifiable. Generational poverty and crime still exists, but it’s not the primary identity nor is it limiting private investment. What was solely an industrial wasteland and drug/criminal enclave is now apartment buildings and an Eastern Boarder ... and yeah, some ‘hood’ elements still exist but they’re bluntly getting squeezed out as Main St public/private investment and Clark push gentrification from both ends.

Same for the Bronx. Serious generational issues persisting? Sure, but now there’s also Spotify IPO ‘hipsters’ buying RE in f’ing Flatbush. I know this is old news now, but at the time I was like “what? You bought where?” Is ‘hood’ still the dominant identity? Not sure it is.

My NJ comment was really just about momentum. Those cities feel like they’re sliding and the issues and culture within are deeply entrenched. Not much different than Baltimore or Detroit. I suppose Lawrence and cities like Bridgeport or Buffalo aren’t that different in this regard, but they do feel different as an outsider within.

[BosYuppie]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

Berlin is equally off base. I’m sure it has its social issues, as one expects from any low opportunity rural area, but to suggest either are ‘hood’ is a rather odd stretch.

No one is confusing Berlin’s Jericho ATV ‘Block Party’ for SoBe’s ‘Urban Beach Week’.

So let's call it what it is, you guys are talking about black poverty not white trash poverty?

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

Speaking to the dominant identity of those within. I agree that Lawrence is closest thing MA has to a universally ‘hood’ city ... hardly any private investment and a deeply entrenched culture. Bridgeport probably isn’t too dissimilar in this regard. Middle class flight is seemingly permanent and there is very little overlap with neighboring communities.

Inner city Worcester? Two decades ago the gang unit was permanently installed on main south and now the same block is practically unidentifiable. Generational poverty and crime still exists, but it’s not the primary identity nor is it limiting private investment. What was solely an industrial wasteland and drug/criminal enclave is now apartment buildings and an Eastern Boarder ... and yeah, some ‘hood’ elements still exist but they’re bluntly getting squeezed out as Main St public/private investment and Clark push gentrification from both ends.

Same for the Bronx. Serious generational issues persisting? Sure, but now there’s also Spotify IPO ‘hipsters’ buying RE in f’ing Flatbush. I know this is old news now, but at the time I was like “what? You bought where?” Is ‘hood’ still the dominant identity? Not sure it is.

My NJ comment was really just about momentum. Those cities feel like they’re sliding and the issues and culture within are deeply entrenched. Not much different than Baltimore or Detroit. I suppose Lawrence and cities like Bridgeport or Buffalo aren’t that different in this regard, but they do feel different as an outsider within.

People on the block are not tracking the development. The social culture and fabric is still dysfunctional in any city Worcester and it just posted the most homicide total at least 20 years. The poverty rate hasn't budged. The way your viewing cities isn't how people view it IRL or on the ground. Inner-city Worcester is hood as ever. I wouldn't move there-full stop. It looks discombuaalted, dated, disjointed, worn and its a slight shock to my senses to see all the addicts and its a multiracial united nations of downtrodden folks near Kelley Sqaure. Lacks the cultural vibrance and urban amenities of my immigrant neighborhood in Bmore.

Worcester is still considered a hole by regular folks simply because they see the blight in the central areas. **** only not that to urban development nerds like us. Hartford is the hood and it has almost as much momentum as Worcester and a sterile functional downtown with many more jobs-still the hood.

Bronx-if you tell people the Bronx isn't hood they'll laugh. You have to be a hood to see signs of gentrification IMO. A lot of it is a cultural more than anything developers and home price don't change that.

Bronx is still considered a major major hood and that's its dominant identity.

Still hoods exist through NY and NE though they may not dominate the entire city. Typically all you have to do is look at school because it gives you a pretty accurate assessment of who settles the long term, how much they value education etc.

I mean do you actually feel like theres "momentum" in New Bedford Fall River Springfield Central Falls innercity Fitchburg?

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by BosYuppie

So let's call it what it is, you guys are talking about black poverty not white trash poverty?

IMO, ‘hood’ is an inherently urban/inner city reference, which is why I think it’s ridiculous to call a small rural town ‘hood’. It might be ‘hick’, but it sure ain’t ‘hood’.

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

Same for the Bronx. Serious generational issues persisting? Sure, but now there’s also Spotify IPO ‘hipsters’ buying RE in f’ing Flatbush. I know this is old news now, but at the time I was like “what? You bought where?” Is ‘hood’ still the dominant identity? Not sure it is.

Flatbush is Brooklyn, not the Bronx. But speaking of Brooklyn...Brownsville and East New York are worse than any of the places mentioned in this thread.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by BosYuppie

So let's call it what it is, you guys are talking about black poverty not white trash poverty?

Ehh IMO you need some level of dirtbikes, corner boys, bodegas, hip hop culture, urban fashion stores, minority/immigrant populations to be a hood. Like a certain threshold that NNE doesn't really get aside form 1 or two municipalities in a few blocks. That ethnic flare makes it "hood" and not just a poor area. Theres a culture behind that word.

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by redplum33

Flatbush is Brooklyn, not the Bronx. But speaking of Brooklyn...Brownsville and East New York are worse than any of the places mentioned in this thread.

Maybe not Camden.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

People on the block are not tracking the development. The social culture and fabric is still dysfunctional in any city Worcester and it just posted the most homicide total at least 20 years. The poverty rate hasn't budged. The way your viewing cities isn't how people view it IRL or on the ground. Inner-city Worcester is hood as ever. I wouldn't move there-full stop. It looks discombuaalted, dated, disjointed, worn and its a slight shock to my senses to see all the addicts and its a multiracial united nations of downtrodden folks near Kelley Sqaure. Lacks the cultural vibrance and urban amenities of my immigrant neighborhood in Bmore.

Worcester is still considered a hole by regular folks simply because they see the blight in the central areas. **** only not that to urban development nerds like us. Hartford is the hood and it has almost as much momentum as Worcester and a sterile functional downtown with many more jobs-still the hood.

Bronx-if you tell people the Bronx isn't hood they'll laugh. You have to be a hood to see signs of gentrification IMO. A lot of it is a cultural more than anything developers and home price don't change that.

Bronx is still considered a major major hood and that's its dominant identity.

Still hoods exist through NY and NE though they may not dominate the entire city. Typically all you have to do is look at school because it gives you a pretty accurate assessment of who settles the long term, how much they value education etc.

I mean do you actually feel like theres "momentum" in New Bedford Fall River Springfield Central Falls innercity Fitchburg?

Fair enough. I'm taking a very 'orthodox' view on this as someone who has only ever lived next to this culture, not within.

We both know there are sections of Baltimore in which the streets still have plywood'd windows effectively dating to '68. If I were to walk through it's clear I'm not from that neighborhood and never will be be ... and the guys standing on the corner will let me know this fact. To me this is what 'hood' is and feels like ... it's they're neighborhood.

To your point you can get this vibe in some NNE neighborhoods, but it's typically pretty confined. Particularly once you're north of CT.

[msRB311]

I think of a hood or a ghetto as being a poor section of a city or town. A poor part in a more rural area would be a trailer park type area.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

Fair enough. I'm taking a very 'orthodox' view on this as someone who has only ever lived next to this culture, not within.

We both know there are sections of Baltimore in which the streets still have plywood'd windows effectively dating to '68. If I were to walk through it's clear I'm not from that neighborhood and never will be be ... and the guys standing on the corner will let me know this fact. To me this is what 'hood' is and feels like ... it's they're neighborhood.

To your point you can get this vibe in some NNE neighborhoods, but it's typically pretty confined. Particularly once you're north of CT.

Yeah I actually think neighborhood ownership has decreased dramatically simply because a lot of the hoods you’re mentioning and Baltimore are really only home to the most derelict of people and there is no real sense of any community whatsoever. The Internet and the ongoing social disintegration and a lot of hoods in America has changed them fundamentally from how they were in the 1990s When they simply had more people and there were more people on the street engaged in crime.

Nowadays some places in Baltinore are more apocalyptic zombie land or just a pit rather than the hood. Because there’s no community, virtually no commerce, nothing.that being said more of it is hood.

I think it’s natural that Baltimore would feel more alien given that it’s more uniformly black than anywhere in the Northeast and it’s physical form is very different than what were used to north of New Jersey. Also keep in mind Baltimore is the urban hood for the entire state of Maryland. There are no urbanized hood in the state outside of Baltimore whatsoever. So it deals with a huge brunt of the load.

I’ve been to hoods in the South that were third world but I’ve also been to hoods in the south that appeared middle class suburban looking.

Until a place actually turns around and has increasing number of middle class families settling there and they take an active role in the community and aren’t just holed trying to not be assaulted or burglarized hoping things change for the better? To me-it’s the hood.

Places in various northern that were heard but aren’t any more-Mission Hill, most of Northern Brooklyn, Fishtown, Southie, the South End, Adams Morgan, H street.