An employee of General Dynamics picked up his rental car in Detroit. He was never seen again. The car vanished. He never touched his bank account or credit cards. The theory is he got off the interstate in a bad neighborhood. It was dark. He was almost certainly carjacked and murdered.
I made a similar mistake. But it was still daylight. Within a block of the interstate, it looked like I’d entered a science fiction world after a nuclear war. There was an awesome Catholic church boarded up and with all the stained-glass windows broken. I spun a U-turn in the middle of an intersection and got back on the interstate.
Coming out of the Long Beach Arena late one night, trying to get back on the 405 to head back to my hotel in Torrance, I somehow made the wrong turn and wound up on downtown(?) Long Beach.
Stopped at a light - IN A RENTAL CAR - Red light?
I stopped. Looked both ways, took my foot of the brake, back on the gas and the kept right on going.
Now WHY didn’t I stop at In and Out back then for my first try? Oops.
There was an early GPS app that would avoid high crime areas. They got shut out of the app stores because, well, they would avoid black neighborhoods, and that was RACISS!
Dealing in reality is not part of the process any more.
You could tell the area was nice at one time. But that was long ago.
Barbed wire was across all the building tops to keep thieves from stealing the copper from the AC units...and to stop them breaking in. Graffiti everywhere. The further south the worse it got.
There are parts of Atlanta no white wants to be in even during the day.
“I made a similar mistake. But it was still daylight. Within a block of the interstate, it looked like I’d entered a science fiction world after a nuclear war. There was an awesome Catholic church boarded up and with all the stained-glass windows broken. I spun a U-turn in the middle of an intersection and got back on the interstate.”
We have made those type errors when traveling in our RV.
We learned very quickly that Google maps will send you right into those neighborhoods. And many times there are not clear directions on how to return to the interstate. Don’t trust google maps to direct you when traveling near unfamiliar large cities.
It’s amazing, surrealistic, how things can change in one block.
I went looking for a McDonald’s in the downtown area of Denver back about 1980. I crossed over a single block and was instantly in a different world.
I remember just how shocked I was. Got my order and got out of there. It wasn’t dangerous; at least not obviously. But a substantial change, all in one block.
It’s why I always take a taxi
“I made a similar mistake. But it was still daylight. Within a block of the interstate, it looked like I’d entered a science fiction world after a nuclear war. There was an awesome Catholic church boarded up and with all the stained-glass windows broken. I spun a U-turn in the middle of an intersection and got back on the interstate.”
similar thing happened to me in Chicago, only it was at night ...
flew into Chicago for a conference, got rental car, but a co-worker was driving ... we got got off at the wrong freeway exit, quickly got lost (pre GPS), and wound up in a bombed out neighborhood ... gang members hanging out on every corner ... buildings all boarded up ... i told my co-worker: “Roll up the windows, lock the doors, drive straight until you get to a major freeway, and whatever you do, do NOT stop for any stoplights ... if a cop stops us for that, count your blessings”
I’ve been lucky twice. My first trip to Chicago I got of the Dan Ryan just south of Cabrini Green to ask directions at a gas station. The older black guys just looked at me. One came up and asked what I was doing there. I told them the place I was looking for. They said you have a long way to go it’s north of downtown. Now get your ass out of here. When I related the experience to some coworkers the next day, they informed me that a white couple had stopped there to get gas the previous weekend and were both shot and killed.
My second experience was in Miami. K left the airport heading for Opalaka. I turned the wrong way. Drove a few miles and started to notice the street signs were all in Spanish. I turned down one street and saw it blocked by a number of young Hispanic Men having a ‘meeting’. I quickly backed up and headed back to the airport area and got headed the right direction.
I’m guessing I’ve used up my two mulligans.