Is it an industrial/ghetto/strip club section of town.
Our State has one of those areas in NE Portland and in the Middle of it sits about 60 acres of trails at the Catholic Grotto.
Beautiful/peacefilled grounds and soon as you make a left/right outta the place its seedy looking strip bars everywhere. Kinda ironic.
Rather than ironic, I'd characterize that as a pretty forceful example of "the narrow path."