What makes a neighborhood “sketchy”?

Almost nothing makes me more angry than when a guest publicly reviews my diverse downtown neighborhood as “sketchy.”

What makes a place “sketchy”?

I guess I think of gunshots, drug paraphernalia, bars on doors and windows, dark alleys covered in graffiti.

I can assure you that none of those things were present in my neighborhood during our guests’ stays. (Or ever…?)

But here’s what IS present in my neighborhood that might have made them uncomfortable…

Poverty.

Unemployment.

People who don’t own vehicles.

Historic homes in need of restoration.

And black and brown bodies, including one that lives in my own home.

Daniel’s Hill in Lynchburg, VA

This is my family’s home. Arguably one of the best neighborhoods in LYH. Historically Daniel’s Hill was always racially and economically diverse- it was designed that way and has remained so. It is majority black, and that’s one of the reasons our family decided to move here.

My neighborhood is a tight knit community where people have lived all their lives. They sit on the front porch and watch out for you. They’re by your side the minute anything happens. Honestly, my neighbors have been more caring of our family than the white evangelical church ever was.

My kids have their best friends here. There’s a whole gaggle of them that play at the community center and the park and come home after dark. We’ve never feared for their safety in this community. I would fear more for my son’s safety in an affluent, white neighborhood, especially the bigger his body grows.

Maybe other neighborhoods have better kept lawns and houses, maintaining the appearance of “safe.” But behind closed doors, studies have shown similar rates of drug use, addictions, and abuse in both predominantly white and black neighborhoods.

So what makes a place feel “safe?” Is it whatever feels familiar? Is it a SENSE we get in certain environments that appear more outwardly put together? I’d be curious to know how closely that correlates with actual safety & crime statistics.

To visit my neighborhood as an outsider over one weekend and declare my family’s ‘hood “sketchy” actually says:

·       I feel uncomfortable when I see people who are of a lower class or different race than myself.

·       I feel safest in spaces that are gentrified.

·       I don’t have a developed understanding of race and poverty in this country to understand some of the nuances that exist within this neighborhood.

·       This is not an all white neighborhood and that makes me on alert because I’m used to being in majority spaces.

 Most of us have been conditioned to see the brokenness of the ‘hood, but how often do we stop to see the beauty there, too?  Let’s think long and hard, how and why we call certain neighborhoods “safe” and others “sketchy.”