Areas to Stay Out Of...

[JAB]

As a service to your fellow man, what are the areas in your town/city that you would advise folks to stay out of?  AM, PM or anytime... 

 

 

Knoxville would be Cherry and Magnolia area definitely after the sun sets. 

 

 

Need to add the East Town Mall area and Mechanicsville to Knoxville. 

 

Heh, when I was going to U.T. and for some time afterward I lived at my grandmother's house at 2314 East Fifth.  For those unfamiliar, East Fifth runs parallel to Magnolia and that location is roughly two or three blocks from Cherry Street.  Further, because I also worked while attending U.T., I would often come home after dark. 

 

As a bonus, guess where I worked for much of the time I was in college, during the school year - as in the job I would regularly be leaving after dark?  If you said East Towne Mall you got it right.

 

And all this was before I carried a gun.  Throw in the fact that I am pretty close to being about as white as Wonderbread and I guess I am lucky to be alive!

 

Seriously, though, the Magnolia area was rough even then - I am convinced there was a crack house on the corner of East Fifth and Olive back then and we had more than one drive by shooting on our block, including drive-by shootings on the same house on two, separate occasions - the house across the street and one down from us.  I was at home when one happened and heard the shots (but didn't see anything.)

 

In all that time, the only time I was out and about, got really nervous and still to this day believe that my life was in danger happened in a remote location in Blaine at a small, public boat ramp/gravel parking lot where I went to fish.  Some guys parked their car across the lot but pointed so they were looking right at me.  I could see that they didn't have fishing gear and my situational awareness started yelling to get the heck out of there.  I tossed my stuff in the back of my pickup, got in the truck and headed out - and those guys fired up their car and tried to block the exit before I could get to it.  If not for the fact that I had learned to drive on gravel roads - meaning I knew how to maintain control and outmaneuver them - they would probably have cut me off before I could get out.  That incident stuck in my mind and got me started thinking about getting a carry permit.  I didn't actually act on that thinking (although I should have) until the Christian/Newsom murders happened some years later (after I had already moved out of Knoxville.)

 

There are two points to this: 

 

One is that it would have been terribly ironic to have come to a bad end in a 'safe' area like Blaine while living in the 'hood, often coming in late at night and walking down the street to the corner store on a regular basis.

 

Two is that there are no 'safe' places, only places where the threat level is likely higher or lower than others.

 

I will say this:  Even back then I would not let female friends or girlfriends come to that neighborhood to see me alone after dark.  Also, I think the area has possibly gotten worse since then.  My grandmother is deceased and the house is no longer in the family so there is little reason for me to go to that area, now.  That said, there are a few restaurants around there that I like to visit from time to time (Philippine Connection on Magnolia, close to Chilhowee Park is one.)  That area and the downtown area of Chattanooga are the only places I go with any frequency where I make an effort to carry a high cap semiauto because I worry that the revolver I most often carry may not hold enough rounds to deal with a possible threat.

 

On the flip side, I guess that is why it always seems silly to me when folks start talking about the capacity of a revolver not being 'enough' unless they live or regularly frequent such locations - because I lived in the 'hood for just over a decade, never carried a gun at all and lived to tell the tale.  I did have to use a gun to 'deter' three guys who were trying to break down our front door in the middle of the night, once - but the gun I used was a revolver and it was plenty to send them running without having to fire a single shot. 

 

Of course I was also younger and less cautious at the time - not to mention I worked out a lot in the student weight room at U.T. (got measured for a tux for a friend's wedding back then and learned that I had a 63 inch chest, 13 inch biceps, 21 inch neck and a 38 inch waist - I am in nothing like that kind of shape, now) and kept my head shaved so I probably didn't look like the best target.

Edited September 4, 2013 by JAB

[bersaguy]

Nashville = Jefferson St, Lafayette, Dickerson rd. all no-white-man's land.

You forgot 8th ave-12th's. north projects to I-65. Area has been nicknamed Dodge City, Gun fights and shootings every night and University Court on Lafayette street for sure. It is called Tombstone now.......... :ph34r: :ph34r:

[tnguy]

When I worked pizza delivery, there was an area on the map behind the counter which was marked "Do not take orders from here". As the pizza place started struggling, that was quietly dropped. Personally, I never felt any more uncomfortable there than anywhere else.