I decided to take a drive through the East Side last weekend, just for the heck of it.

I had heard it all "STAY OUT" of there, ect, ect.

But, being still fairly new to the 716, I had never seen it. How bad could it REALLY be?

All I have to say is HOLY S###!

Busted out windows, GARBAGE EVERYWHERE, vacant buildings, boarded up doors, groups of kids standing around LOOKING for trouble, the FEW stores actually OPEN had BARS over the windows....

In the span of an hour or two I spent there, I saw a group of kids throw rocks at an (apparantly) abandoned home, a group of 10-15 youths jawing away (looking ready to fight) in the parking lot of an abandoned gas station, and literally GANGS of roving teenagers/early 20 somethings EVERYWHERE

It was an eye opening experience. I grew up surrounded by corn in the middle of nowhere.

Seeing the reality of the people in these neighborhoods, I amdit, tugged at my TrollisH heartstrings a little

Sure, there are some VERY BAD folks there, who probably would have enjoyed bashing my trollish head off the hood of my car, just for the pure entertainment value....

But of course MOSt people there are trapped by economic (or other) cirsumstances (otherwise NOBODY would live there except gangsters and other troublemakers)

I guess EVERY city has areas like that. But WOW

BTW, I think this is wehre Buffalo gets its bad rap. Think about it, the East Side is the FIRST THING most people see of "Buffalo"

If you're a businessman, vistor, ect, and you land at the airport in Cheektowaga, you see on your map that you can just cruise down Walden to get right into Buffalo....

"let's check out the sights" becomes "WTF?!" really fast if you do that... They're driving right through the crappiest part of town and its the FIRSt impression they get of our fair city.....

and you never get a second chance to make a FIRST impression.... PErception is ALSO reality in this case....

THUS, people trash Buffalo for being a dump (which that PART of the city is)

Anyway, that's my report from my (final) East Side trip for quite a while....

I wish it wasn't true, but while nowhere NEAr everyone there is "bad" it also cANNOT be denied that there is a concentration of "bad" people there and thus a greater risk of being assulted

I saw in another thread somebody talking about people being to scared and not having the guts to "walk those streets"

I think that's common sense... You wouldn't let a rattlesnake loose in your house, either

Yeah, maybe the first pack of bored youths you walk past leave you alone....

but the NEXT?

chances are, you WILL be messed with

as a final (sad) note, why are MOSt of these troublemakers 14-22 years old?