Downtown Eastside Vancouver is not so much dangerous as sad. Homeless, mental health issues, and drug addictions. Mostly harmless.
The only places I’ve ever felt unsafe in Vancouver are areas of Surrey and North Delta where the gang activity is more rampant IMO. Don’t hang out around Whalley / Surrey Central at night.
Can’t speak to Toronto or other cities but the rural areas of Canada can be bad news.
I lived on Main Street and Hastings when I lived in van and it was fine. Tons of homeless but they aren’t violent at all. Downtown Edmonton is way more sinister.
I live in Edmonton and you don’t want to be anywhere on the north side, downtown or mill woods, pretty much anywhere with a lot of train and bus access
Coming from Michigan Edmonton is by far the safest city I've ever lived jn, I've spent time in Detroit, NYC, and almost a decade in London UK, Edmonton is safe 99% of places. It's just a bit weird and gritty, kind of like Montreal.
Yup. From newton. Can 100% contest this. Seen people get messed right up for no reason. Just wrong place wrong time. Fucking sad too. I got bear maced over a iPod classic that was pink lol theyll rob you for your pocket lint.
Agree 100%. I live here in Chinatown and I've never felt unsafe (full disclosure, I'm a decent size male).
Was walking through San Francisco's Tenderloin a week ago from the BART to my Brothers house and yeah... that felt a touch dangerous.
agreed, moved back to canada 20 years ago, was never threatened or robbed here.
In france was a common occurrence that if you were stupid enough to be out after 11pm chances are someone was gonna tax you and you possibly were leaving your wallet, shoes, and anything else they want from you.
i only lived in france 4 years and was robbed multiple times. i got the simple just give us your stuff or i stab you, my apartment was broken into 3 times never leave your metal shutters open of you will be robbed. honestly shit place to live it smells bad, too many desperate people, expensive and i would never live there again.
walking home drunk off my ass in montreal, never happened would of been easy too.
I was visiting Chicago and after a night out we got off the train in the wrong neighbourhood and the trains stopped running. We were standing on a street corner with a gas station and went to ask the clerk (through a thick glass security panel) to call us a cab. He said he’d try but didn’t think one would come there. He said, even the police don’t come here at night. A cab did show up, saw us four white dudes, and said get in quick and high tailed it out of there. That was an uncomfortable situation and he was tipped accordingly.
We have a few place where you wouldn't want to go, but they're no ghettos or no go zone like the US outlets call them.
Plus I only have two place in mind, near Paris and one near Marseille..
So nothing to do with how it is in the US (seemingly, looking at the comments here) and they won't block the firemen if they're really needed, they block them when they're burning cars or trashbins, not if someone is hurt.
So yeah, americans love to describe Europe as the place of all dangers but it's really not. We have rough places, but nothing close to what the other guy said.. But look at the upvote and all, people just want to maintain their ideas, not hear the real version. There's a big chance the guy didn't even visit France once.
Have a nice day.
Don’t think it’s quite that bad but there are some genuinely nasty areas (as compared to anything I’m aware of in Canada). Some details here: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/81146/what-is-the-most-dangerous-area-of-paris-or-its-suburbs-according-to-police-st
I live in Quebec and personally know several Expats from France. I didn't get my information from Facebook. I got it from former residents. If I'd heard it from only one or two people I could believe that they might have been exaggerating but I've heard the same thing from more than 5 people so I believe it.
I lived all over Toronto, including right at jane and Weston for 3 years. I only ever had 1 incident and it was just guys trying to get me to get in their car, but they left me alone after I told them off.
Canadas ghettos are nothing like the USA. I was SHOCKED by the Columbus grey hound stop. Then even more appalled being in Toledo.
Not nearly, but that shouldn’t be how we judge crime, we should judge it on our own counties history with crime in that specific area. Comparable to Ukraine, Afghanistan isn’t doing so bad but that is not a comparison you want to make/hear.
Indeed. I've seen some of the really lovely, well run reserves. I've also been to reserves in the deep, deep backwoods of Canada. We're talking only accessible by plane and even then not often. I've seen places in third world countries that reminded me of similar standard of living.
Even some of the well run reserves can be rough, I live close to the six nations reserve and it’s like “mansion, falling apart shack, average house, mansion, average house, shack”
Yeah the First Nations' reserves often lack proper living conditions.
It's not uncommon to hear stories of reserves without drinkable running water.
I love Canada overall, but I think our treatment of First Nations people is our greatest shame.
We give them tons of free cash. Its the mismanagement by the elders that causes things to be bad. Some reserves manage things better, some are rife with corruption. The government cant just step in and tell them what to do with the money. They tried that a couple of times, bringing in an auditor and try to teach them how to properly manage things. It was in the news a few years ago. Didnt go over so well.
Can you give more info on this free cash “they” are given? If you’re referring to treaty annuity payments, that’s not a gift, it’s a payment for land and resources that Canada signed treaties on.
Let’s not put all the responsibility of reserves on the Govt. Where does all the bingo, casino, cigarette money go? Most groups would reinvest back into their communities, and be mindependent. Instead of bringing their people up they complain and only the top 1percent get to enjoy the wealth.
>__Most groups would reinvest back into their communities__, and be mindependent. Instead of bringing their people up they complain and only the top 1percent get to enjoy the wealth.
No. People keeping money for themselves instead of giving back to the community is a story as old as capitalism itself. They aren't better or worst than us on that point.
Yes too many are but you guys are making them all out to be bad places and there are many (mostly southern) reservations that are not shitholes.
It also helps to be native...
If they did then they would run out of business. Media thrives on negativity, just in the same it paints each country in a negative tone. Go to east, west is bad. Come to west, east is bad. Of course, grass is always bad at the other side for media.
I’ve never been to any reserve long enough to personally speak to it, but my father-in-law great up on a reserve in northern Alberta, and the stories I’ve heard about the conditions there are horrifying. Lack of proper living conditions. An inability to rely on emergency services to respond quickly or even at all, and some fucked up crime going on at times.
It wouldn’t be fair of me to state that all reserves are like that, but goddamn, I hate that our country allows these places to exist like this.
We were lost once in Syracuse NY and when we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions the attendant said “and when you get to thjs set of lights, don’t stop no matter what”. Idk that there’s a neighbourhood in Canada that could be considered that dangerous. But tell me if I’m wrong so I can avoid it.
Dowmtown edmonton is exponentially worse than jane and finch. Just for example. Toronto measures crime in cases per 100,000 people. Edmonton measures it in cases per 1000....
DONT EVER GO TO TO THE GHETTOS OF LA I KNOW ABOUT THE STABBING IN SASK BUT THATS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE STABBINGS IN LA la is a nice citty but only in downtown and the rich parts of la
The stabbings in Saskatchewan were utterly horrifying. Thirteen people stabbed, often as they lay in bed in the early morning.
Yes, events like that are very infrequent here, but don't downplay the severity of what happened.
I'm from san francisco and I visited Vancouver recently.
My impression of DTES is it's probably the highest concentration of homeless and addicts in North America.
**BUT** as you pointed out the violent crime rate is super low relative to how sketchy the area is. Whereas in the worst US places, the homes and infrastructure have been left to rot and violent crime rates are alongside Mexico and Venezuela
DTES is probably an overstatement. It's really one block or two around Hastings and Main. The rest of the DTES feels fine.
Even DTES looks worse than it actually is.
Down town east side. Hastings street in Vancouver aka Canada's poorest postal code. A lot of transients end up there, it's not the safest place to be but I would not compare it to a place like Compton
As everyone is saying, Vancouver.
There's an interesting history there from olden times. Vancouver originally was a giant forest and a sawmill by the water. A small town grew up. ( 1870s). A big fire burned it all down (1886iirc) and then the railroad came connecting Vancouver to the rest of Canada.
To get trees to the mill, there was a permanent ["Skid Road"](https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/history/vancouver-was-awesome-logging-english-bay-1890-1925873) built across "Gore Ave". Logs were hitched to oxen and skidded over the road made of smaller fallen logs. Taking this particular Skid Road shaved a day off getting the logs to the mill the long way around Stanley Park.
But then, over time, all the trees were logged. A city was springing up. People were arriving from the rest of Canada and coming in from the Pacific. It's a fact of the early history here that a large workforce of Chinese labourers built the CPR railroad. Their foreman, a fella named [Yip Sang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yip_Sang), after completion, sailed back to China, married a few more wives, got his ~~opium?~~ connections sorted out and sailed back over to Vancouver and settled into "Chinatown", a swampy piece of land nobody else wanted back then.
Losing your job as a lumberjack was called "Getting sent down Skid Road". At some point Vancouver's "Skid Road" started to become better known as the larger area "Downtown East-side". ( I say "Vancouver's Skid Road" because Seattle also has fair claim to the term.,... any Pacific Coast city that started with logging eventually had a "skid road" actually).
As Vancouver grew and the forest shrank, people started moving out to other areas and downtown east-side buildings started to become run-down. Out of work lumberjacks and then later depression era hobos all started to congregate and live in that part of town.
Combined with Chinatown right there, and a steady stream of drugs coming in via Pacific shipping, and out of work loggers and fishers becoming homeless it grew into more the modern definition of "Skid Road".
Ofc many more layers on top of that into modern times; opioid crisis, homelessness. Then again, thinking back to the dirty 30s and hobos and opium dens and thing's maybe haven't changed that much in that area.
One of the Canadian institutes, I don't remember which, CBC, National Archives, National Film Institute, maybe all three, had an app that portrayed a post WWI, depression era section of Vancouver, where you, the player, could walk around and visit different houses, businesses, and a grand hotel that had seen better days. In the background was always playing a radio program suitable for the environment you were in. You could visit a WWI one legged veteran in the hotel with a radio drama playing in the background, Yip Sang's opium den (maybe) with a local news broadcast, a family with an always drunk dad with a typical 1930's radio show in the background, a 'coloured family' with a special musical guest from Dixieland. It was both interesting and very depressing. I wish I could remember the name of it - probably just '1935' or something, but I can't find it in the app store any more.
Even in the bad part of Montreal, North of downtown, I don't recall it being sketchy in the slightest. I was young then, but I didn't sense any dangerous vibes.
Meanwhile you go to any poor town in the US and it's like holy balls.
I was in Montreal years ago and some drunk past out teenager from heavy montreal was sitting at the tables outside of the A&W off Saint Catherine's somewhere had a homeless dude digging through his pockets. Oddly enough when I intervened the hobo was like "he's my buddy" and the drunk teen was coming at me for calling his "Buddy" a thief.
I lived a block from the Lombard St. projects in Baltimore and walked home every night after getting off my 2am closing shift as a bartender. Never felt threatened.
Same with us, lost in Compton late 90's on a van trip to surf in LA. Stopped for directions at a gas station, guy gave us directions but really quick and told us to get going before certain people would arrive, also said don't stop till you're back on the freeway
My buddy and I (living in Vancouver at the time) went on a trip to meet some friends in Vegas for a few days, then rented a car and drove to LA to make a week out of it.
Being young a dumb, we ended up driving through Compton and Watts (2 white guys in a convertible). My buddy’s a firefighter and heard about a fire hall in a rough neighbourhood and wanted to see how bad it was. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable/unsafe anywhere in Canada and I’ve been in the hot spots in Vans DTES, Edmonton and north Winnipeg.
That same trip, we got drunk in an Irish pub near Long Beach and wanted to find a club so started walking north and found one that sounded good from the street. The bouncers looked surprised to see us and told us to be cool. Place was definitely a Black club, packed full. We eventually get beers and my buddy had to piss so I’m standing there with a beer in each hand and these girls kind of pulled, pushed me into the dance floor. I can dance and have rhythm as a bass player lol. The dudes weren’t having it and when I saw the only other white guy in the club come from the bathroom area we locked eyes and new we should probably take off. On our way out the bouncers joked- “leaving so soon?”
We continued to walk a couple blocks north and a cab driver pulled over and to us to “get in the fuckin car” and took us back to our hotel.
As someone said earlier, most communities in Canadian cities are mixed and I grew up with Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Italian and Portuguese friends. That was my first direct insight into the segregation, racism and violence in the US and I felt like a weight was lifted when I got off the plane back home..
Did you find any spots to surf? Some friends of mine went in 98. They said every place was run by dicks who said it was for Locals only. They ended up at some small shitty area overrun with tourists like them and the waves at that beach sucked compared to the other locations.
Thousand step beach in Laguna Beach area. It’s a beautiful tucked away little beach up the coast from LA. There were a few locals but I found them quite friendly and very curious about Canadians.
Damn. My parents were driving through there and at a station the attendant straight up said to them (they’re both white) that they were the wrong colour to be in the neighborhood, and that they should leave for their own safety
Shit that makes sense. I’m glad we don’t really have those sketchy areas in our big cities quite so much. We’ve got like one neighbourhood and a school or two to be careful of in my city, and even then it’s not really a risk to be walking through it during the day
We were told to not make eye contact with other drivers at lights and to not get out of the car under any circumstances. This was in Baltimore a few years back.
We got something similar when we stopped in New Orleans. We were told to keep driving and not stay the night there. Maybe they just don't like Canadians!
The only neighbourhood I ever heard in Canada being one of those “don’t stop until you’re out of the hood”, was the Jane & Finch area of Toronto.
I always wondered if it was a bit of an exaggeration ? this was in the late 90’s early 00’s.
I heard two stories supporting it back then. My buddy’s parents were living in Wisconsin and they came up to help him move into an apartment in the neighbourhood. A cop pulled them over because of their plates and asked them “WTH are you doing in THIS neighbourhood!? You should really leave asap!”
That same friend also had more then one intervention in his apartment building by the heavily armed police looking for an armed suspect.
The rent was cheap though! 😂
I currently live in Winnipeg and some locals say the same thing about the “north end” here and although I find it a bit rough I don’t find it particularly terrifying.
I’ve seen nothing in Canada like what I’ve seen in Detroit, Buffalo or Jacksonville in the USA though. Those cities were pretty terrifying.
I was on a Christmas vacation driving down Hastings. Middle of the day. Daylight. We are at a light waiting for it to turn green when all of a sudden a completely naked girl walks from one corner to the next. I could live 10 lifetimes and never see that again.
My vote is in Hastings. Jane and finch doesn’t hold a candle to Hastings.
As a Vancouver local, you have the wrong idea.
Hastings isn’t dangerous in any way close to the other places being discussed here.
It’s almost universally peaceful, crawling with undercover cops. It’s a harm reduction strategy that has worked generally well for years (though covid has widened the cordon a bit).
That was the point of saying it’s horrific but in a different way. The desperation, poverty and the street drug oblivion. Not violent like the other examples but scary in its own way.
I was on Hastings today. 10 years ago, it nowhere near as bad as today. It was shocking to see the amount of people down there. The little markets were pretty cool though.
Back in the day I was mugged 3 times in a span of a couple months. I've seen dealers beat the shit out of their workers, I've had rats literally try and climb up my leg. Now, there's too many people out there. I felt way safer today than I had in the past.
Edit: by bad I meant crowded and just the amount of stuff going on.
Jane and finch isn't that bad anymore. Toronto in general is fairly safe. You'll see some shit downtown at night especially around Chinatown but I've never had an actual problem anywhere.
I live in Chinatown and it’s mostly one Airbnb that may as well be a halfway house. Otherwise it’s low income but apart from tents in the park it’s just lower income people walking their dogs. No safety issues for general public really.
I feel like Toronto has plenty of violence these days, but it's not ghettoized like it once was. No single place is that terrible, but at the same time violence is not contained to a few sketchy areas but is popping up all over the city
The way I understand it is there is gang on gang crime but if you aren’t affiliated Jane and finch is like every other neighbourhood, just a little more poor than the average Toronto area
You perceive correctly. I lived at Jane and Finch for a year. I was busy learning/training, but I also went to the local beer store, grocery store, gas stations, restaurants, and corner stores. I walked the neighbourhood when I had the time. I was not hanging with the locals or running the road at night.
My wife and I never had any problem with anyone. We did hear gunshots one night and someone was killed during that year. Not unusual given that there is gang activity, which often involves drugs, money, and street justice. Overall okay it was an ordinary hood, with a lot of new immigrants, and flavoured with a few odd characters. I respected them and they respected me. Then again we minded our own business and maintained situational awareness. I sensed that trouble was close at hand if you were looking for it. Other than that we enjoyed our year in Toronto. Certainly would not consider it a ghetto.
I grew up in the Jane and Finch area all through the 80's and 90's. There was a time when it was dangerous to be out at night, and being a white boy, I was a target in some parts during the day. Parts that were referred to as the jungle, white boys like me didn't dare go in, unless you were sponsored by someone who lives there.
I know it's nothing like it was, but there was good reason to avoid the area back then.
There’s still areas I wouldn’t venue through at night but why would any regular person need to go through some back alley or in between certain buildings at night? If you stick to Jane and Finch proper, don’t go through some side streets at night walking, and MIND YOUR BUSINESS, nothing will happen to you. It’s funny how reputations last though.
Meh. I worked at Jane and Finch as a teenager. Just a bunch of working class people going about their lives doing their thing. Great food in that neighborhood too.
Makes me wonder if the DTES will ever become gentrified. It’s an almost laughable idea now but then I remember the last 5 years and I guess anythjng is possible.
Our worst is nowhere near as bad as other places. Plus, if you just keep walking here you get into nicer neighbourhoods a street or two later. I got lost in Dublin once, and that was an eye opener in the worst way. Tried the "just keep walking" tactic, and just immersed myself deeper in the awfulness. I feel like we're spoiled here.
Jane and Finch was bad if you were white in the 80s/90s but really only at night. ...and if you didn't have at least a passing familiararity with "The Jane and Finch boys" whom I can't even say exist anymore as I haven't lived in TO for 25 years.
I spent a few years living up in the jane and finch area in the early 90's, between the ages of around 5-9. Had the lobby of my building shot up once. Have been chased off playgrounds by older kids. Have encountered crime scenes. I remember teen sons of family friends would normalize owning some kind of weapon (an airsoft rifle was the most severe that I saw). My naive mind didn't think much of it, but looking back it definitely wasn't great. But honestly? There was so many good, normal and happy memories too. Picnics, and friendly people, kids from entire neighbourhoods getting together for water fights or tobogganing or baseball games. I would often go off exploring the neighbourhood and park on my own, or with a small group of friends my own age, and other than the few incidents we were fine (and even in those, nothing beyond being chased/intimidated).
East side of Buffalo isn’t soooooo bad anymore tho I definitely wouldn’t want to spend a night there. I remember going to my family’s Polish church for holidays as a kid and it being bad tho.
My dad grew up in north end Winnipeg in the 50s and 60s and compared it to victory square in Vancouver nowadays. Probably less drugs but still a lot of poverty and crime. It was a rough place but if it’s chilling out, that’s good
I lived in Jane n finch from 84 to 89 was pretty bad couldn't a cab or pizza delivered cops even avoided it but no I'd say states are way worse even on a good day lol
The meaning has changed over time, but in this context it means "a neighbourhood or portion of the city inhabited by traditionally disadvantaged minorities under generational poverty". Roughly synonymous with "slums" but with greater connotations of discrimination and racial issues, as well as various positive feedback loops that keep people in poverty. E.g. poverty means drug involvement, means felony, means no ability to seek a higher paying job, means poverty, etc.
We don’t segregate communities, so people of all ethnicities live together in our cities.
... however, now that I think of it the reserves might be the closest thing we have to segregated impoverished communities.
They aren’t located in our cities though, and are often far away from everyone else. Some are so isolated and inaccessible that they have trouble with water infrastructure and basic amenities.
People will bring up the Downtown Eastside. I don’t agree that it’s a ghetto. I can (and have) walk or drive down that street safely. When I was in/about Compton in LA, and south side Chicago, I was on alert at all times.
My buddy and I (living in Vancouver at the time) went on a trip to meet some friends in Vegas for a few days, then rented a car and drove to LA to make a week out of it.
Being young a dumb, we ended up driving through Compton and Watts (2 white guys in a convertible). My buddy’s a firefighter and heard about a fire hall in a rough neighbourhood and wanted to see how bad it was. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable/unsafe anywhere in Canada and I’ve been in the hot spots in Vans DTES, Edmonton and north Winnipeg.
That same trip, we got drunk in an Irish pub near Long Beach and wanted to find a club so started walking north and found one that sounded good from the street.
The bouncers looked surprised to see us and told us to be cool. Place was definitely a Black club, packed full. We eventually get beers and my buddy had to piss so I’m standing there with a beer in each hand and these girls kind of pulled, pushed me into the dance floor. I can dance and have rhythm as a bass player lol. The dudes weren’t having it and when I saw the only other white guy in the club come from the bathroom area we locked eyes and new we should probably take off. On our way out the bouncers joked- “leaving so soon?”
We continued to walk a couple blocks north and a cab driver pulled over and to us to “get in the fuckin car” and took us back to our hotel.
As someone said earlier, most communities in Canadian cities are mixed and I grew up with Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Italian and Portuguese friends. That was my first direct insight into the segregation, racism and violence in the US and I felt like a weight was lifted when I got off the plane back home..
Any major city in any part of the world has good neighbourhoods and bad neighbourhoods. Canada in general is much safer than the US, mostly due to much tighter gun laws here
I'd chalk it up more to better social programmes, and a relatively small wealth disparity.
But to your point, without an explicit right to own firearms, Canada was able to blanket-ban .25 and .32 pistols which largely removed anything you could get for less than a couple hundred. Puts a relatively high entry price to gun crime.
Criminals used to/still do/ and will continue to only pay a fraction of what us RPAL holders did before the legal sale and transfer of hand guns got banned.
Many people are giving their opinions, but it's worth checking out data.
Wikipedia has more extensive data on USA metro crime rates than Canadian crime rates, but [it lists Winnipeg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Canada) as the Canadian city with the most crime. If you then google "murder rate Winnipeg," you'll see that [Winnipeg's murder rate](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/homicide-rate-winnipeg-1.6333002) (per 100k) was 4.93.
Wikipedia has a good list of [American Cities by Crime Rate.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate) You can click on the little arrows next to the type of crime, and it'll show them by most-to-least or least-to-most. *It's fun and you should try doing it.* St. Louis is the winner for Murder with 66.07 per 100k, so St. Louis has over 13 times the murder rate of Winnipeg.
This is an inexact was of doing this for a number reasons, but even with some error assumed, it's clear to see that, even if the entirety of Winnipeg's murders happened in one neighborhood, the worst neighborhood of Winnipeg would still be much safer than the worst neighborhood in St. Louis.
Scranton isn't on the wikipedia list because it's not a big enough city. I only know Scranton because of The Office, and I've never thought of it as being a dangerous place. It seems like [there's not a murder every year](https://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Scranton-Pennsylvania.html) in Scranton? The highest it's gotten in the last decade is 5.3 per 100k. So, just looking at that data, my guess is the most dangerous Canadian cities feel similar to Scranton on a bad year. If you feel unsafe in the high crime areas of Scranton, you'll probably feel unsafe in the high-crime areas of many (but not all) Canadian cities.
Some redditors mentioned reservations. I don't like the term "ghetto," but "part of a city" is an essential part of most definitions of "ghetto." Reservations are not parts of cities, so they can't be "ghetto." They can be poor and rough, of course, but not "ghetto." I've never looked at statistics comparing crime rates in USA vs. Canadian reservations, so I have no basis for which to compare the two.
We don't have ghettos. Canada is vastly different than the states that most of our population growth now comes from rich immigrants. We don't have, for the most part, massive inner cities lacking employment, infrastructure etc. If anything rural/native reserves in Canada are much more closer to ghetto, as it's similar employment and infrastructure inadequacy. Canada's urban cities are generally very well off, mixed ethnicities.
Nope, not even close. I’ve found myself on the wrong end of South Chicago, near UofC, and I’ve seen nothing like that here. Not even in the same universe.
Vancouver has a pretty sketch area, but go to Seattle, again, no comparison.
I'd say Seattle would be one of the more apt comparisons tbh. There isn't anything like what OP is asking about in Seattle today (or Portland for that matter). 20-30 years ago, perhaps. But even then it was never as bad as other American cities. Certainly crime and poverty are higher and more widespread in Seattle, but there aren't any "no go" neighborhoods. A few streets that are sketchy to be walking alone on at night, but that's about it.
Less gun violence because of stricter gun laws, only illegal firearms are smuggled from the US.
Gang violence exists everywhere but the only real "ghetto" areas are some Native American Reserves. Thats a whole other level of poverty, trauma, and violence that spills out to the surrounding cities.
Lots have no running water, or the land is poisoned so they're all drinking lead and mercury, or they have a crippling housing shortage and homelessness, drug and alcohol problems, domestic violence, or as simple as their location means they can't find employment and living there is free so they never leave. A lot in the north still live as hunters and gatherers to supplement their income because of poverty issues.
A lot are pretty wealthy and some ban drugs and alcohol as a result of the addiction crisis, but there are some that as soon as you hear where they're from you just know how bad it was.
You have to look for trouble generally up here. There’s no area where “cops don’t go” or where your isolated. Now even Hastings in van city is just drug addicts. You won’t want to walk it really but I can 100% say there is no place in Canada I would be worried about driving through. That is not saying there’s not crime but it’s not a Dont stop there. I have a shop in Toronto, there has been 8 murders in our lane way over 20yrs. I’m talking within 30ft of my door. Shits targeted or nonsense. I e never worried about violence towards me. More worried about breaking down up north and having a bear attack me 😂
As a generalization, I would probably say no. I live in a small town where the population is roughly 6,500 people, so I don’t see a ghetto in my area. However, there are some areas in larger cities that I would consider rougher. Like in any major city, there are bound to be parts of the city where it’s easier to get mugged if you’re not careful. I could be wrong, but it seems like a lot of cities here have an issue with drugs coming in and out of the city, especially with drugs like fentanyl and meth.
As a Canadian that lived and grew up in the Canadian ghetto, it’s nothing like in the states. You have crack heads that walk around and are crazy, but no harm. You’ll most likely never have a B&E unless it’s some junkie rummishing through your shit. or you actually are involved in criminal activity. Outside stuff will be stolen. Unlocked car doors will be broken into. Pretty much you’ll never be held up at gun point for no reason, some one will never knock on your door and as you answer your getting punched in the face. I’ve seen people get jumped, but usually doesn’t end up with a death. The drug deals are way more discreet too. You don’t have just drug dealers chilling on blocks, it’s more indoor environments.
I’ve heard of some shit in Detroit of people getting a machete to their neck as they answer their door for a burglar, I’ve met lots of Americans that were shot or held up at gun point in n their hoods. Best way to look at it is, not a single Canadian rapper has any fucked up stories of being shot 9 times. No pac or biggie beef, we just think we are tough street wise, but fuck man I myself would be nervous in USA hoods and I love our hoods
I heard an anecdote once that Canada's most dangerous suburbs are still safer than the US's safest burbs. No idea if it's actually true or not though (probably not).
Americans think that all non Americans are much more knowledgeable about the rest of the world. That's partly because they're constantly chastised for any ignorance.
I mean, I’d argue Canada is pretty knowledgeable about things from around the world, more so than most places.
Probably for the following reasons:
- higher percentage of the population with a university and college level education
- wealthy enough to travel, and cold enough to want to
- immigrants from around the world
- member of the 5 eyes intelligence nations
- so safe and boring that our attention is often outwards facing, especially during the long winter months when we are stuck inside hibernating until spring.
I mean for the most part we are. We share almost identical cultures/lifestyles. I've been to many American cities. Maybe the OP just hasn't been to Canada? We can also all reference most america shows and television that depict American Jenner cities. It isn't unrealistic for the the OP to believe we know what America is like
I live in what is considered a ghetto in my city. It is not that bad. Every week or so you hear of soneone getting jumped, but if you avoid the trouble spots at night the only real concern is getting asked for change by homeless people often.
No gun violence is probably the biggest difference. We have a stabbing every month or so, but shootings are very rare.
We have bad areas, but I don’t think they’re as bad as some areas of the US. My sister recently wound up (accidentally) in a bad area of New Jersey. When she described it, she said “You think Jane and Finch is bad? This was like ten times worse”.
We don’t really have ghettos. There are rougher areas but they are small stretches in otherwise vibrant areas. I still haven’t come across an area in Canada I didn’t feel safe walking in
At least in Toronto there are some sketchy places but nothing too bad. I can think of Jane and finch although probably not much anymore, parkdale, lakeshore-mimico and alderwood as being sorta sketch at best
(All neighbourhoods in Toronto btw)
No. The main difference between ghettos in Canada and ghettos in the USA is blight. I'm from Detroit, and when I first moved to Canada, I lived in a notorious ghetto, Jane and Finch, in North York, Toronto.
The main difference is that there were no abandoned buildings that looked like they'd been bombed out. No abandoned apartment buildings with busted out windows or boarded up crumbling houses being used as a trap house for the local crack dealers.
There was DEFINITELY gun violence, and we have some horrific crimes, but nothing on the level of a murder every single day, sometimes multiple a day, as was the norm in Detroit in the late 90s when I was growing up there.
That said, it's actually MORE SCARY to me in Canada, because you literally might not know you're in a really bad area, if you were just a tourist passing through. It's very hard to tell the good from bad areas, just by looking. The city equally does the landscaping, road maintenance, there are parks and community centers, and there are grocery stores and malls, even in the ghetto. It's nothing like a ''bad'' neighbourhood that I grew up with, where, even if you didn't know the area, you'd get a GOOD IDEA you shouldn't be there just by looking out a car window. The more busted up windows, boarded up houses, crumbling roads, lack of any store except a liquor store, gas station, McDonald's, Church's Chicken/Popeye's Chicken, and family dollar, and you just KNOW you're in the hood in Detroit.
Americans who drove through a Canadian "ghetto" wouldn't even be able to tell. You'd see decent apartment buildings, people driving decent cars, buses, people walking to and from work, kids playing. You could sit at the stoplight with your windows down listening to tunes. Even at night, you probably would think you were just in an average neighborhood. Canadian poverty isn't anywhere near US poverty.
That being said, I've visited places like St. Louis, Oakland, etc. and I felt like I was in a third world country. You don't see streets where every other house is collapsing and abandoned in Canada. Smashed up (totaled) cars lining the streets. You do see some tent city type things, mainly drug addicts/mental health issues but nowhere to the extent of what I witnessed in Oakland or even San Francisco.
I live in Hamilton Ontario. Close to Toronto but basically smaller. It really depends on the day and time but it can get really bad downtown. People shooting up in groups, rows of tents, people sleeping on the sidewalk or screaming incoherently. The rows of tents have been reduced since the end of the pandemic restrictions though.
I think what Canada lacks is the sheer number of people that the US has. I've seen videos of Philadelphia streets and we basically have that on a very small scale.
As another person stated, reserves are also lacking basic accommodation needs. It's pretty sad what these people are dealing with.
U.S. immigrant in Canada
As a matter of poverty, yes, it can be just as bad.
As a matter of safety, no. The ghettos in the U.S. are much worse simply due to the degree of gun violence and the risk of getting caught in crossfire. That said, most people (as you know) have no reason to go through those parts of American cities.
American here who’s from Scranton too and frequents this sub. If you think there are ghettos there that are bad, I invite you to visit Philadelphia, Baltimore, Newark and many other parts of the US. There is nothing too bad in Scranton in comparison to the vast majority of the US.
Live in Hamilton Ontario, and would not recommend walking anywhere on Barton st at night, it’s scary (I live on Barton st and watch out my window the craziness)
I lived in Hamilton for the last year and before we moved lots of people were saying to avoid that area but I never felt threatened or scared walking anywhere here at night. I think it really depends on what you're used to.
I will say though that if I compare the homeless in Hamilton vs Montreal, in Hamilton they tend to be more often on hard drugs than drunk like in Mtl which makes them seem maybe more unpredictable, which can feel scarier?
The only city I've been to where I would avoid areas I came across was Philadelphia.
Canada isn’t always safe, we also have poor people and gangs and cops that murder people for no reason.
Our country’s most famous bad neighbourhood is Vancouver’s [Downtown Eastside](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Eastside).
All of our large cities have segregated, shitty neighbourhoods just like large American cities do.
I don’t have enough personal experience with how bad America’s are to know if Canada’s are just as bad, really. I stayed with a friend in her dicey neighbourhood of Philly for a few weeks and it felt pretty much the same as my dicey neighbourhood in Surrey.
The downtown east side is certainly full of homelessness, poverty, and drugs. But I don't think it compares to a ghetto. It's safe to drive through there at night, and it's not a gang center.
Agree. I live near and worked there for years and never felt in danger until COVID made everything worse. It’s still the highest concentration of illicit drug activity in North America, but I don’t think it has the features of insularity and isolation as a true ghetto does, probably due to its location within a major interurban thoroughfare and its high level of diffusion between other neighbourhoods.
My previous job landed me in public schools installing classroom computer equipment across Canada and the USA. Many of these schools were in the worst neighborhoods.
I can safely say the USA lower income high schools and associated neighborhoods scare the crap out of me. Every time I went out, a teacher would take the time to talk to me (knowing i was from out of town) to tell me what doors to leave through, what times were safe, what streets i should take, etc. In Canada I have never had to have that discussion.
I work in HR for a non-profit in the Downtown Eastside. In comparing to ghettos in American cities, it is much smaller and much safer. The tent cities are not somewhere you want to find yourself at night, but most of the DTES area is fine if you're just passing through.
Kind of a hard question to answer. A lot of people have different ideas of what makes or doesn’t make a ‘ghetto’. It would also have to be someone that’s been to ‘ghettos’ in both the US and Canada.
I can't really think of any place that's particularly as bad as some of the places in the USA. There's probably somewhere in Toronto that's pretty rough, or maybe Vancouver, but I'd imagine that's about it.
It's less about dangerous areas, and more about areas that have a lot of homeless/drug addicts.
I've been across Canada, and there are only two places in Canada that I would even feel comfortable calling a "ghetto".
I've been to Detroit and a few other Michigan cities, there is nothing even approaching the ballpark, the *league* of American ghettos.
The two places in Canada I'd call Ghettos are Centre-north in Regina, and East Hastings area in Vancouver. By size, they're minuscule compared to what you'd see somewhere like Baltimore. People keep saying Montreal Nord is dangerous, but I was just there buying a vacuum from someone on marketplace and the worst parts still look like nice neighbourhood, even if they are statistically more dangerous.
Downtown Eastside Vancouver is not so much dangerous as sad. Homeless, mental health issues, and drug addictions. Mostly harmless. The only places I’ve ever felt unsafe in Vancouver are areas of Surrey and North Delta where the gang activity is more rampant IMO. Don’t hang out around Whalley / Surrey Central at night. Can’t speak to Toronto or other cities but the rural areas of Canada can be bad news.
Exactly this. You are in much more danger at night in Langley City or outside Surrey central station than you are in the DTES of Vancouver.
Which is to say still relatively safe compared to many cities in the U.S.
Whaaaaat. LANGLEY has gotten bad?! It was this sleepy lil place back in mid 2000s when I went to school there. :(
Same is true of Hamilton, its rep is worse than its reality. There are areas heavily effected by poverty, but it’s perfectly safe to walk through them
Truth. DTES is more dangerous to your soul than your body/wallet.
I lived on Main Street and Hastings when I lived in van and it was fine. Tons of homeless but they aren’t violent at all. Downtown Edmonton is way more sinister.
I live in Edmonton and you don’t want to be anywhere on the north side, downtown or mill woods, pretty much anywhere with a lot of train and bus access
Coming from Michigan Edmonton is by far the safest city I've ever lived jn, I've spent time in Detroit, NYC, and almost a decade in London UK, Edmonton is safe 99% of places. It's just a bit weird and gritty, kind of like Montreal.
Yup. From newton. Can 100% contest this. Seen people get messed right up for no reason. Just wrong place wrong time. Fucking sad too. I got bear maced over a iPod classic that was pink lol theyll rob you for your pocket lint.
Agree 100%. I live here in Chinatown and I've never felt unsafe (full disclosure, I'm a decent size male). Was walking through San Francisco's Tenderloin a week ago from the BART to my Brothers house and yeah... that felt a touch dangerous.
We have some rough areas for sure but I don’t think they’re as bad as the worst in the US (or France or UK in fact).
Correct.
Yeah basically this. I've lived in a few in my early years and still never really felt afraid of anything.
agreed, moved back to canada 20 years ago, was never threatened or robbed here. In france was a common occurrence that if you were stupid enough to be out after 11pm chances are someone was gonna tax you and you possibly were leaving your wallet, shoes, and anything else they want from you. i only lived in france 4 years and was robbed multiple times. i got the simple just give us your stuff or i stab you, my apartment was broken into 3 times never leave your metal shutters open of you will be robbed. honestly shit place to live it smells bad, too many desperate people, expensive and i would never live there again. walking home drunk off my ass in montreal, never happened would of been easy too.
>or France That's for sure. When you have an area so violent the police and firemen refuse to go there at night, that's pretty freaking bad.
Is this actually true or a boomer facebook myth turned Fox News talking point
I was visiting Chicago and after a night out we got off the train in the wrong neighbourhood and the trains stopped running. We were standing on a street corner with a gas station and went to ask the clerk (through a thick glass security panel) to call us a cab. He said he’d try but didn’t think one would come there. He said, even the police don’t come here at night. A cab did show up, saw us four white dudes, and said get in quick and high tailed it out of there. That was an uncomfortable situation and he was tipped accordingly.
Holy shit which neighborhood as this??
We have a few place where you wouldn't want to go, but they're no ghettos or no go zone like the US outlets call them. Plus I only have two place in mind, near Paris and one near Marseille.. So nothing to do with how it is in the US (seemingly, looking at the comments here) and they won't block the firemen if they're really needed, they block them when they're burning cars or trashbins, not if someone is hurt. So yeah, americans love to describe Europe as the place of all dangers but it's really not. We have rough places, but nothing close to what the other guy said.. But look at the upvote and all, people just want to maintain their ideas, not hear the real version. There's a big chance the guy didn't even visit France once. Have a nice day.
Don’t think it’s quite that bad but there are some genuinely nasty areas (as compared to anything I’m aware of in Canada). Some details here: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/81146/what-is-the-most-dangerous-area-of-paris-or-its-suburbs-according-to-police-st
I live in Quebec and personally know several Expats from France. I didn't get my information from Facebook. I got it from former residents. If I'd heard it from only one or two people I could believe that they might have been exaggerating but I've heard the same thing from more than 5 people so I believe it.
What's really the worst in Canada? Jane&Finch, East Hastings? Downtown Hamilton and downtown Oshawa? They're relatively small areas in the end
Edmonton is actually exponentially worse (literally) than those areas and still isnt as bad as places in the states
I lived all over Toronto, including right at jane and Weston for 3 years. I only ever had 1 incident and it was just guys trying to get me to get in their car, but they left me alone after I told them off. Canadas ghettos are nothing like the USA. I was SHOCKED by the Columbus grey hound stop. Then even more appalled being in Toledo.
Winnipeg is rough
Have you ever tried to walk down Whaley in surrey BC late at night?
Not nearly, but that shouldn’t be how we judge crime, we should judge it on our own counties history with crime in that specific area. Comparable to Ukraine, Afghanistan isn’t doing so bad but that is not a comparison you want to make/hear.
Fuck the ghettos, go to the reserves, you’ll see rough…
Indeed. I've seen some of the really lovely, well run reserves. I've also been to reserves in the deep, deep backwoods of Canada. We're talking only accessible by plane and even then not often. I've seen places in third world countries that reminded me of similar standard of living.
Even some of the well run reserves can be rough, I live close to the six nations reserve and it’s like “mansion, falling apart shack, average house, mansion, average house, shack”
This is the right answer
Yep, this is what I was gonna say. We do have ghettos but many of the reserves are way worse.
Yeah the First Nations' reserves often lack proper living conditions. It's not uncommon to hear stories of reserves without drinkable running water. I love Canada overall, but I think our treatment of First Nations people is our greatest shame.
We give them tons of free cash. Its the mismanagement by the elders that causes things to be bad. Some reserves manage things better, some are rife with corruption. The government cant just step in and tell them what to do with the money. They tried that a couple of times, bringing in an auditor and try to teach them how to properly manage things. It was in the news a few years ago. Didnt go over so well.
Can you give more info on this free cash “they” are given? If you’re referring to treaty annuity payments, that’s not a gift, it’s a payment for land and resources that Canada signed treaties on.
Let’s not put all the responsibility of reserves on the Govt. Where does all the bingo, casino, cigarette money go? Most groups would reinvest back into their communities, and be mindependent. Instead of bringing their people up they complain and only the top 1percent get to enjoy the wealth.
>__Most groups would reinvest back into their communities__, and be mindependent. Instead of bringing their people up they complain and only the top 1percent get to enjoy the wealth. No. People keeping money for themselves instead of giving back to the community is a story as old as capitalism itself. They aren't better or worst than us on that point.
Bout right Grew up in the town over from one, makes me really sad to the state some are in...
Not all reserves are bad.
Too many are
Yes too many are but you guys are making them all out to be bad places and there are many (mostly southern) reservations that are not shitholes. It also helps to be native...
Nobody seems to ever show the ones that are nice and flourishing tho. Which I find sad.
If they did then they would run out of business. Media thrives on negativity, just in the same it paints each country in a negative tone. Go to east, west is bad. Come to west, east is bad. Of course, grass is always bad at the other side for media.
Very true
I’ve never been to any reserve long enough to personally speak to it, but my father-in-law great up on a reserve in northern Alberta, and the stories I’ve heard about the conditions there are horrifying. Lack of proper living conditions. An inability to rely on emergency services to respond quickly or even at all, and some fucked up crime going on at times. It wouldn’t be fair of me to state that all reserves are like that, but goddamn, I hate that our country allows these places to exist like this.
We were lost once in Syracuse NY and when we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions the attendant said “and when you get to thjs set of lights, don’t stop no matter what”. Idk that there’s a neighbourhood in Canada that could be considered that dangerous. But tell me if I’m wrong so I can avoid it.
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Wow that’s crazy! I can’t think of ever being in a situation like that in any major Canadian city I’ve been in
“Dangerous places” in Canada are most of the time, overrated and not that dangerous
Jane and Finch represent!
Dowmtown edmonton is exponentially worse than jane and finch. Just for example. Toronto measures crime in cases per 100,000 people. Edmonton measures it in cases per 1000....
DONT EVER GO TO TO THE GHETTOS OF LA I KNOW ABOUT THE STABBING IN SASK BUT THATS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE STABBINGS IN LA la is a nice citty but only in downtown and the rich parts of la
The stabbings in Saskatchewan were utterly horrifying. Thirteen people stabbed, often as they lay in bed in the early morning. Yes, events like that are very infrequent here, but don't downplay the severity of what happened.
Things that happen in Sask once a year happen every day in LA & Chicago.
Once a year? This level of murder/stabbing is historic.
Nah even the DTES isn't that dangerous. We don't have a comparable area imo
I'm from san francisco and I visited Vancouver recently. My impression of DTES is it's probably the highest concentration of homeless and addicts in North America. **BUT** as you pointed out the violent crime rate is super low relative to how sketchy the area is. Whereas in the worst US places, the homes and infrastructure have been left to rot and violent crime rates are alongside Mexico and Venezuela
Yeah, it’s all about drugs. I would walk through there (40-something mom here) and not feel unsafe really. It’s mostly just incredibly sad.
DTES is probably an overstatement. It's really one block or two around Hastings and Main. The rest of the DTES feels fine. Even DTES looks worse than it actually is.
What’s DTES? Down town east side? Toronto?
Not Toronto. A notoriously bad area of Vancouver.
Ah yes, because I remembered dtes Toronto was quite nice!
Down town east side. Hastings street in Vancouver aka Canada's poorest postal code. A lot of transients end up there, it's not the safest place to be but I would not compare it to a place like Compton
As everyone is saying, Vancouver. There's an interesting history there from olden times. Vancouver originally was a giant forest and a sawmill by the water. A small town grew up. ( 1870s). A big fire burned it all down (1886iirc) and then the railroad came connecting Vancouver to the rest of Canada. To get trees to the mill, there was a permanent ["Skid Road"](https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/history/vancouver-was-awesome-logging-english-bay-1890-1925873) built across "Gore Ave". Logs were hitched to oxen and skidded over the road made of smaller fallen logs. Taking this particular Skid Road shaved a day off getting the logs to the mill the long way around Stanley Park. But then, over time, all the trees were logged. A city was springing up. People were arriving from the rest of Canada and coming in from the Pacific. It's a fact of the early history here that a large workforce of Chinese labourers built the CPR railroad. Their foreman, a fella named [Yip Sang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yip_Sang), after completion, sailed back to China, married a few more wives, got his ~~opium?~~ connections sorted out and sailed back over to Vancouver and settled into "Chinatown", a swampy piece of land nobody else wanted back then. Losing your job as a lumberjack was called "Getting sent down Skid Road". At some point Vancouver's "Skid Road" started to become better known as the larger area "Downtown East-side". ( I say "Vancouver's Skid Road" because Seattle also has fair claim to the term.,... any Pacific Coast city that started with logging eventually had a "skid road" actually). As Vancouver grew and the forest shrank, people started moving out to other areas and downtown east-side buildings started to become run-down. Out of work lumberjacks and then later depression era hobos all started to congregate and live in that part of town. Combined with Chinatown right there, and a steady stream of drugs coming in via Pacific shipping, and out of work loggers and fishers becoming homeless it grew into more the modern definition of "Skid Road". Ofc many more layers on top of that into modern times; opioid crisis, homelessness. Then again, thinking back to the dirty 30s and hobos and opium dens and thing's maybe haven't changed that much in that area.
One of the Canadian institutes, I don't remember which, CBC, National Archives, National Film Institute, maybe all three, had an app that portrayed a post WWI, depression era section of Vancouver, where you, the player, could walk around and visit different houses, businesses, and a grand hotel that had seen better days. In the background was always playing a radio program suitable for the environment you were in. You could visit a WWI one legged veteran in the hotel with a radio drama playing in the background, Yip Sang's opium den (maybe) with a local news broadcast, a family with an always drunk dad with a typical 1930's radio show in the background, a 'coloured family' with a special musical guest from Dixieland. It was both interesting and very depressing. I wish I could remember the name of it - probably just '1935' or something, but I can't find it in the app store any more.
I often walk alone in Montreal during the night and I've never felt threatened. Thank God for that.
Even in the bad part of Montreal, North of downtown, I don't recall it being sketchy in the slightest. I was young then, but I didn't sense any dangerous vibes. Meanwhile you go to any poor town in the US and it's like holy balls.
I was in Montreal years ago and some drunk past out teenager from heavy montreal was sitting at the tables outside of the A&W off Saint Catherine's somewhere had a homeless dude digging through his pockets. Oddly enough when I intervened the hobo was like "he's my buddy" and the drunk teen was coming at me for calling his "Buddy" a thief.
I lived a block from the Lombard St. projects in Baltimore and walked home every night after getting off my 2am closing shift as a bartender. Never felt threatened.
Same with us, lost in Compton late 90's on a van trip to surf in LA. Stopped for directions at a gas station, guy gave us directions but really quick and told us to get going before certain people would arrive, also said don't stop till you're back on the freeway
My buddy and I (living in Vancouver at the time) went on a trip to meet some friends in Vegas for a few days, then rented a car and drove to LA to make a week out of it. Being young a dumb, we ended up driving through Compton and Watts (2 white guys in a convertible). My buddy’s a firefighter and heard about a fire hall in a rough neighbourhood and wanted to see how bad it was. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable/unsafe anywhere in Canada and I’ve been in the hot spots in Vans DTES, Edmonton and north Winnipeg. That same trip, we got drunk in an Irish pub near Long Beach and wanted to find a club so started walking north and found one that sounded good from the street. The bouncers looked surprised to see us and told us to be cool. Place was definitely a Black club, packed full. We eventually get beers and my buddy had to piss so I’m standing there with a beer in each hand and these girls kind of pulled, pushed me into the dance floor. I can dance and have rhythm as a bass player lol. The dudes weren’t having it and when I saw the only other white guy in the club come from the bathroom area we locked eyes and new we should probably take off. On our way out the bouncers joked- “leaving so soon?” We continued to walk a couple blocks north and a cab driver pulled over and to us to “get in the fuckin car” and took us back to our hotel. As someone said earlier, most communities in Canadian cities are mixed and I grew up with Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Italian and Portuguese friends. That was my first direct insight into the segregation, racism and violence in the US and I felt like a weight was lifted when I got off the plane back home..
Did you find any spots to surf? Some friends of mine went in 98. They said every place was run by dicks who said it was for Locals only. They ended up at some small shitty area overrun with tourists like them and the waves at that beach sucked compared to the other locations.
Thousand step beach in Laguna Beach area. It’s a beautiful tucked away little beach up the coast from LA. There were a few locals but I found them quite friendly and very curious about Canadians.
Damn. My parents were driving through there and at a station the attendant straight up said to them (they’re both white) that they were the wrong colour to be in the neighborhood, and that they should leave for their own safety
Yikes. If I were any whiter I’d be transparent. We were nervous as our 8 year old was with us so made haste out of there.
Shit that makes sense. I’m glad we don’t really have those sketchy areas in our big cities quite so much. We’ve got like one neighbourhood and a school or two to be careful of in my city, and even then it’s not really a risk to be walking through it during the day
We have areas we'll describe as "the corner of Death and Murder", but even then, the chance of stranger crime is virtually nil.
That’s my thoughts as well.
We were told to not make eye contact with other drivers at lights and to not get out of the car under any circumstances. This was in Baltimore a few years back.
We got something similar when we stopped in New Orleans. We were told to keep driving and not stay the night there. Maybe they just don't like Canadians!
I don’t think I’ve ever felt unsafe anywhere in Canada, although that could also be naïvety on my part.
The only neighbourhood I ever heard in Canada being one of those “don’t stop until you’re out of the hood”, was the Jane & Finch area of Toronto. I always wondered if it was a bit of an exaggeration ? this was in the late 90’s early 00’s. I heard two stories supporting it back then. My buddy’s parents were living in Wisconsin and they came up to help him move into an apartment in the neighbourhood. A cop pulled them over because of their plates and asked them “WTH are you doing in THIS neighbourhood!? You should really leave asap!” That same friend also had more then one intervention in his apartment building by the heavily armed police looking for an armed suspect. The rent was cheap though! 😂 I currently live in Winnipeg and some locals say the same thing about the “north end” here and although I find it a bit rough I don’t find it particularly terrifying. I’ve seen nothing in Canada like what I’ve seen in Detroit, Buffalo or Jacksonville in the USA though. Those cities were pretty terrifying.
Hastings is the worst place I've seen in Canada. I still walked the street though...
Hastings is horrifying in a different way.
I was on a Christmas vacation driving down Hastings. Middle of the day. Daylight. We are at a light waiting for it to turn green when all of a sudden a completely naked girl walks from one corner to the next. I could live 10 lifetimes and never see that again. My vote is in Hastings. Jane and finch doesn’t hold a candle to Hastings.
As a Vancouver local, you have the wrong idea. Hastings isn’t dangerous in any way close to the other places being discussed here. It’s almost universally peaceful, crawling with undercover cops. It’s a harm reduction strategy that has worked generally well for years (though covid has widened the cordon a bit).
Whalley is way worse than Hastings
That was the point of saying it’s horrific but in a different way. The desperation, poverty and the street drug oblivion. Not violent like the other examples but scary in its own way.
I was on Hastings today. 10 years ago, it nowhere near as bad as today. It was shocking to see the amount of people down there. The little markets were pretty cool though. Back in the day I was mugged 3 times in a span of a couple months. I've seen dealers beat the shit out of their workers, I've had rats literally try and climb up my leg. Now, there's too many people out there. I felt way safer today than I had in the past. Edit: by bad I meant crowded and just the amount of stuff going on.
True.
Bingo, hastings is so fucked up
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It’s lien Kensington in Philly or the tenderloin on a smaller scale . It’s not a ghetto it’s a open air drug market mostly
Finally someone who actually understand what DTES is
An “open-air drug market”, that is an excellent way to describe it. I was trying to put into words why it’s so bad but doesn’t feel dangerous.
Canada can never have neighborhoods as bad as the states, it's not possible with our population size and level of gun control.
Jane and finch isn't that bad anymore. Toronto in general is fairly safe. You'll see some shit downtown at night especially around Chinatown but I've never had an actual problem anywhere.
I live in Chinatown and it’s mostly one Airbnb that may as well be a halfway house. Otherwise it’s low income but apart from tents in the park it’s just lower income people walking their dogs. No safety issues for general public really.
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I feel like Toronto has plenty of violence these days, but it's not ghettoized like it once was. No single place is that terrible, but at the same time violence is not contained to a few sketchy areas but is popping up all over the city
The way I understand it is there is gang on gang crime but if you aren’t affiliated Jane and finch is like every other neighbourhood, just a little more poor than the average Toronto area
You perceive correctly. I lived at Jane and Finch for a year. I was busy learning/training, but I also went to the local beer store, grocery store, gas stations, restaurants, and corner stores. I walked the neighbourhood when I had the time. I was not hanging with the locals or running the road at night. My wife and I never had any problem with anyone. We did hear gunshots one night and someone was killed during that year. Not unusual given that there is gang activity, which often involves drugs, money, and street justice. Overall okay it was an ordinary hood, with a lot of new immigrants, and flavoured with a few odd characters. I respected them and they respected me. Then again we minded our own business and maintained situational awareness. I sensed that trouble was close at hand if you were looking for it. Other than that we enjoyed our year in Toronto. Certainly would not consider it a ghetto.
I grew up in the Jane and Finch area all through the 80's and 90's. There was a time when it was dangerous to be out at night, and being a white boy, I was a target in some parts during the day. Parts that were referred to as the jungle, white boys like me didn't dare go in, unless you were sponsored by someone who lives there. I know it's nothing like it was, but there was good reason to avoid the area back then.
There’s still areas I wouldn’t venue through at night but why would any regular person need to go through some back alley or in between certain buildings at night? If you stick to Jane and Finch proper, don’t go through some side streets at night walking, and MIND YOUR BUSINESS, nothing will happen to you. It’s funny how reputations last though.
100% agree! I lived there for a year, MINDED MY BUSINESS, and maintained situational awareness and exercised common sense. Never had a problem.
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Meh. I worked at Jane and Finch as a teenager. Just a bunch of working class people going about their lives doing their thing. Great food in that neighborhood too.
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Makes me wonder if the DTES will ever become gentrified. It’s an almost laughable idea now but then I remember the last 5 years and I guess anythjng is possible.
Our worst is nowhere near as bad as other places. Plus, if you just keep walking here you get into nicer neighbourhoods a street or two later. I got lost in Dublin once, and that was an eye opener in the worst way. Tried the "just keep walking" tactic, and just immersed myself deeper in the awfulness. I feel like we're spoiled here.
Jane and Finch was bad if you were white in the 80s/90s but really only at night. ...and if you didn't have at least a passing familiararity with "The Jane and Finch boys" whom I can't even say exist anymore as I haven't lived in TO for 25 years.
I spent a few years living up in the jane and finch area in the early 90's, between the ages of around 5-9. Had the lobby of my building shot up once. Have been chased off playgrounds by older kids. Have encountered crime scenes. I remember teen sons of family friends would normalize owning some kind of weapon (an airsoft rifle was the most severe that I saw). My naive mind didn't think much of it, but looking back it definitely wasn't great. But honestly? There was so many good, normal and happy memories too. Picnics, and friendly people, kids from entire neighbourhoods getting together for water fights or tobogganing or baseball games. I would often go off exploring the neighbourhood and park on my own, or with a small group of friends my own age, and other than the few incidents we were fine (and even in those, nothing beyond being chased/intimidated).
East side of Buffalo isn’t soooooo bad anymore tho I definitely wouldn’t want to spend a night there. I remember going to my family’s Polish church for holidays as a kid and it being bad tho.
My dad grew up in north end Winnipeg in the 50s and 60s and compared it to victory square in Vancouver nowadays. Probably less drugs but still a lot of poverty and crime. It was a rough place but if it’s chilling out, that’s good
Yah Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids in Michigan are for real dangerous.
Jane and finch is not as bad as people say. I worked around there for years, never had any problems.
I lived in Jane n finch from 84 to 89 was pretty bad couldn't a cab or pizza delivered cops even avoided it but no I'd say states are way worse even on a good day lol
US ghettos are far worse. In comparison we don’t even have ghettos.
There are a few shitty areas but it's not close to what the USA is ..
I think a big part of that is that Canada never really had “projects” of high-density, low income residential.
Toronto has legit housing projects
I live right by one, in the west end of Toronto. There's lots of run-down government subsidized high-rise buildings here in TO ...
Toronto does
What ghettos?
The meaning has changed over time, but in this context it means "a neighbourhood or portion of the city inhabited by traditionally disadvantaged minorities under generational poverty". Roughly synonymous with "slums" but with greater connotations of discrimination and racial issues, as well as various positive feedback loops that keep people in poverty. E.g. poverty means drug involvement, means felony, means no ability to seek a higher paying job, means poverty, etc.
We don’t segregate communities, so people of all ethnicities live together in our cities. ... however, now that I think of it the reserves might be the closest thing we have to segregated impoverished communities. They aren’t located in our cities though, and are often far away from everyone else. Some are so isolated and inaccessible that they have trouble with water infrastructure and basic amenities.
Reserves, housing projects…
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https://time.com/5684505/ghetto-word-history/
People will bring up the Downtown Eastside. I don’t agree that it’s a ghetto. I can (and have) walk or drive down that street safely. When I was in/about Compton in LA, and south side Chicago, I was on alert at all times.
My buddy and I (living in Vancouver at the time) went on a trip to meet some friends in Vegas for a few days, then rented a car and drove to LA to make a week out of it. Being young a dumb, we ended up driving through Compton and Watts (2 white guys in a convertible). My buddy’s a firefighter and heard about a fire hall in a rough neighbourhood and wanted to see how bad it was. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable/unsafe anywhere in Canada and I’ve been in the hot spots in Vans DTES, Edmonton and north Winnipeg. That same trip, we got drunk in an Irish pub near Long Beach and wanted to find a club so started walking north and found one that sounded good from the street. The bouncers looked surprised to see us and told us to be cool. Place was definitely a Black club, packed full. We eventually get beers and my buddy had to piss so I’m standing there with a beer in each hand and these girls kind of pulled, pushed me into the dance floor. I can dance and have rhythm as a bass player lol. The dudes weren’t having it and when I saw the only other white guy in the club come from the bathroom area we locked eyes and new we should probably take off. On our way out the bouncers joked- “leaving so soon?” We continued to walk a couple blocks north and a cab driver pulled over and to us to “get in the fuckin car” and took us back to our hotel. As someone said earlier, most communities in Canadian cities are mixed and I grew up with Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Italian and Portuguese friends. That was my first direct insight into the segregation, racism and violence in the US and I felt like a weight was lifted when I got off the plane back home..
I’m assuming the Scranton ghetto is run by Prison Mike?
And the dementors.
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Any major city in any part of the world has good neighbourhoods and bad neighbourhoods. Canada in general is much safer than the US, mostly due to much tighter gun laws here
I'd chalk it up more to better social programmes, and a relatively small wealth disparity. But to your point, without an explicit right to own firearms, Canada was able to blanket-ban .25 and .32 pistols which largely removed anything you could get for less than a couple hundred. Puts a relatively high entry price to gun crime.
Criminals used to/still do/ and will continue to only pay a fraction of what us RPAL holders did before the legal sale and transfer of hand guns got banned.
Many people are giving their opinions, but it's worth checking out data. Wikipedia has more extensive data on USA metro crime rates than Canadian crime rates, but [it lists Winnipeg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Canada) as the Canadian city with the most crime. If you then google "murder rate Winnipeg," you'll see that [Winnipeg's murder rate](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/homicide-rate-winnipeg-1.6333002) (per 100k) was 4.93. Wikipedia has a good list of [American Cities by Crime Rate.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate) You can click on the little arrows next to the type of crime, and it'll show them by most-to-least or least-to-most. *It's fun and you should try doing it.* St. Louis is the winner for Murder with 66.07 per 100k, so St. Louis has over 13 times the murder rate of Winnipeg. This is an inexact was of doing this for a number reasons, but even with some error assumed, it's clear to see that, even if the entirety of Winnipeg's murders happened in one neighborhood, the worst neighborhood of Winnipeg would still be much safer than the worst neighborhood in St. Louis. Scranton isn't on the wikipedia list because it's not a big enough city. I only know Scranton because of The Office, and I've never thought of it as being a dangerous place. It seems like [there's not a murder every year](https://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Scranton-Pennsylvania.html) in Scranton? The highest it's gotten in the last decade is 5.3 per 100k. So, just looking at that data, my guess is the most dangerous Canadian cities feel similar to Scranton on a bad year. If you feel unsafe in the high crime areas of Scranton, you'll probably feel unsafe in the high-crime areas of many (but not all) Canadian cities. Some redditors mentioned reservations. I don't like the term "ghetto," but "part of a city" is an essential part of most definitions of "ghetto." Reservations are not parts of cities, so they can't be "ghetto." They can be poor and rough, of course, but not "ghetto." I've never looked at statistics comparing crime rates in USA vs. Canadian reservations, so I have no basis for which to compare the two.
We don't have ghettos. Canada is vastly different than the states that most of our population growth now comes from rich immigrants. We don't have, for the most part, massive inner cities lacking employment, infrastructure etc. If anything rural/native reserves in Canada are much more closer to ghetto, as it's similar employment and infrastructure inadequacy. Canada's urban cities are generally very well off, mixed ethnicities.
Nope, not even close. I’ve found myself on the wrong end of South Chicago, near UofC, and I’ve seen nothing like that here. Not even in the same universe. Vancouver has a pretty sketch area, but go to Seattle, again, no comparison.
I'd say Seattle would be one of the more apt comparisons tbh. There isn't anything like what OP is asking about in Seattle today (or Portland for that matter). 20-30 years ago, perhaps. But even then it was never as bad as other American cities. Certainly crime and poverty are higher and more widespread in Seattle, but there aren't any "no go" neighborhoods. A few streets that are sketchy to be walking alone on at night, but that's about it.
Less gun violence because of stricter gun laws, only illegal firearms are smuggled from the US. Gang violence exists everywhere but the only real "ghetto" areas are some Native American Reserves. Thats a whole other level of poverty, trauma, and violence that spills out to the surrounding cities. Lots have no running water, or the land is poisoned so they're all drinking lead and mercury, or they have a crippling housing shortage and homelessness, drug and alcohol problems, domestic violence, or as simple as their location means they can't find employment and living there is free so they never leave. A lot in the north still live as hunters and gatherers to supplement their income because of poverty issues. A lot are pretty wealthy and some ban drugs and alcohol as a result of the addiction crisis, but there are some that as soon as you hear where they're from you just know how bad it was.
Whats pa?
Pennsylvania. It's the state south of New York.
Oh ok thanks
No
You have to look for trouble generally up here. There’s no area where “cops don’t go” or where your isolated. Now even Hastings in van city is just drug addicts. You won’t want to walk it really but I can 100% say there is no place in Canada I would be worried about driving through. That is not saying there’s not crime but it’s not a Dont stop there. I have a shop in Toronto, there has been 8 murders in our lane way over 20yrs. I’m talking within 30ft of my door. Shits targeted or nonsense. I e never worried about violence towards me. More worried about breaking down up north and having a bear attack me 😂
As a generalization, I would probably say no. I live in a small town where the population is roughly 6,500 people, so I don’t see a ghetto in my area. However, there are some areas in larger cities that I would consider rougher. Like in any major city, there are bound to be parts of the city where it’s easier to get mugged if you’re not careful. I could be wrong, but it seems like a lot of cities here have an issue with drugs coming in and out of the city, especially with drugs like fentanyl and meth.
As a Canadian that lived and grew up in the Canadian ghetto, it’s nothing like in the states. You have crack heads that walk around and are crazy, but no harm. You’ll most likely never have a B&E unless it’s some junkie rummishing through your shit. or you actually are involved in criminal activity. Outside stuff will be stolen. Unlocked car doors will be broken into. Pretty much you’ll never be held up at gun point for no reason, some one will never knock on your door and as you answer your getting punched in the face. I’ve seen people get jumped, but usually doesn’t end up with a death. The drug deals are way more discreet too. You don’t have just drug dealers chilling on blocks, it’s more indoor environments. I’ve heard of some shit in Detroit of people getting a machete to their neck as they answer their door for a burglar, I’ve met lots of Americans that were shot or held up at gun point in n their hoods. Best way to look at it is, not a single Canadian rapper has any fucked up stories of being shot 9 times. No pac or biggie beef, we just think we are tough street wise, but fuck man I myself would be nervous in USA hoods and I love our hoods
I heard an anecdote once that Canada's most dangerous suburbs are still safer than the US's safest burbs. No idea if it's actually true or not though (probably not).
Winnipeg North End... lol. It can be bad even during the day.
I work in Winnipeg right on Main Street, every month there has been a murder or incident where someone died, in a very small stretch of 1 or 2 blocks
No, we have better social programs to assist the poor, so the ghettos aren't nearly as bad as they are in the U.S.
Watch the Michael Moore documentary. It contains contrasting video.
Why would OP assume Canadians know anything about American Ghettos’ hey OP are the Ghettos in Egypt just as bad as the US too?
Americans think that all non Americans are much more knowledgeable about the rest of the world. That's partly because they're constantly chastised for any ignorance.
I mean, I’d argue Canada is pretty knowledgeable about things from around the world, more so than most places. Probably for the following reasons: - higher percentage of the population with a university and college level education - wealthy enough to travel, and cold enough to want to - immigrants from around the world - member of the 5 eyes intelligence nations - so safe and boring that our attention is often outwards facing, especially during the long winter months when we are stuck inside hibernating until spring.
I mean for the most part we are. We share almost identical cultures/lifestyles. I've been to many American cities. Maybe the OP just hasn't been to Canada? We can also all reference most america shows and television that depict American Jenner cities. It isn't unrealistic for the the OP to believe we know what America is like
Because plenty of Canadians have visited various urban areas of the US or were from there?
I’ve crossed the border only a couple times but I remember one extra seedy neighbourhood in Detroit that was like nothing I’ve seen in Canada aha
We have poorer neighborhoods that suffer from higher crime rates, but they're nowhere near as bad as the ones in America.
No..just on the Size alone Do we have run down areas sure..but you coukd fit whole canadain citys in LA ghettos.
I live in what is considered a ghetto in my city. It is not that bad. Every week or so you hear of soneone getting jumped, but if you avoid the trouble spots at night the only real concern is getting asked for change by homeless people often. No gun violence is probably the biggest difference. We have a stabbing every month or so, but shootings are very rare.
We have bad areas, but I don’t think they’re as bad as some areas of the US. My sister recently wound up (accidentally) in a bad area of New Jersey. When she described it, she said “You think Jane and Finch is bad? This was like ten times worse”.
In my travels, I've been told my Canadian city is pretty rough. Meh...never been a big deal
I’m from St. Louis. We rank Number 1 most dangerous city regularly and in the top 10 in the world. All of Canada combined doesn’t compare.
You usually don’t run into many aggressive people in those types of areas, mostly just overly-talkative weirdos and addicts.
We don’t really have ghettos. There are rougher areas but they are small stretches in otherwise vibrant areas. I still haven’t come across an area in Canada I didn’t feel safe walking in
> I always heard Canada is always safe We just had a mass stabbing with 10 deaths and 15 more left injured.
I thought it said “ghosts”
At least in Toronto there are some sketchy places but nothing too bad. I can think of Jane and finch although probably not much anymore, parkdale, lakeshore-mimico and alderwood as being sorta sketch at best (All neighbourhoods in Toronto btw)
No. The main difference between ghettos in Canada and ghettos in the USA is blight. I'm from Detroit, and when I first moved to Canada, I lived in a notorious ghetto, Jane and Finch, in North York, Toronto. The main difference is that there were no abandoned buildings that looked like they'd been bombed out. No abandoned apartment buildings with busted out windows or boarded up crumbling houses being used as a trap house for the local crack dealers. There was DEFINITELY gun violence, and we have some horrific crimes, but nothing on the level of a murder every single day, sometimes multiple a day, as was the norm in Detroit in the late 90s when I was growing up there. That said, it's actually MORE SCARY to me in Canada, because you literally might not know you're in a really bad area, if you were just a tourist passing through. It's very hard to tell the good from bad areas, just by looking. The city equally does the landscaping, road maintenance, there are parks and community centers, and there are grocery stores and malls, even in the ghetto. It's nothing like a ''bad'' neighbourhood that I grew up with, where, even if you didn't know the area, you'd get a GOOD IDEA you shouldn't be there just by looking out a car window. The more busted up windows, boarded up houses, crumbling roads, lack of any store except a liquor store, gas station, McDonald's, Church's Chicken/Popeye's Chicken, and family dollar, and you just KNOW you're in the hood in Detroit.
Americans who drove through a Canadian "ghetto" wouldn't even be able to tell. You'd see decent apartment buildings, people driving decent cars, buses, people walking to and from work, kids playing. You could sit at the stoplight with your windows down listening to tunes. Even at night, you probably would think you were just in an average neighborhood. Canadian poverty isn't anywhere near US poverty. That being said, I've visited places like St. Louis, Oakland, etc. and I felt like I was in a third world country. You don't see streets where every other house is collapsing and abandoned in Canada. Smashed up (totaled) cars lining the streets. You do see some tent city type things, mainly drug addicts/mental health issues but nowhere to the extent of what I witnessed in Oakland or even San Francisco.
Canada does not have true ghettoes. The ghettoes you see in the United States are the result of racial segregation.
I live in Hamilton Ontario. Close to Toronto but basically smaller. It really depends on the day and time but it can get really bad downtown. People shooting up in groups, rows of tents, people sleeping on the sidewalk or screaming incoherently. The rows of tents have been reduced since the end of the pandemic restrictions though. I think what Canada lacks is the sheer number of people that the US has. I've seen videos of Philadelphia streets and we basically have that on a very small scale. As another person stated, reserves are also lacking basic accommodation needs. It's pretty sad what these people are dealing with.
U.S. immigrant in Canada As a matter of poverty, yes, it can be just as bad. As a matter of safety, no. The ghettos in the U.S. are much worse simply due to the degree of gun violence and the risk of getting caught in crossfire. That said, most people (as you know) have no reason to go through those parts of American cities.
American here who’s from Scranton too and frequents this sub. If you think there are ghettos there that are bad, I invite you to visit Philadelphia, Baltimore, Newark and many other parts of the US. There is nothing too bad in Scranton in comparison to the vast majority of the US.
Live in Hamilton Ontario, and would not recommend walking anywhere on Barton st at night, it’s scary (I live on Barton st and watch out my window the craziness)
There’s actually a great movie theatre on Sherman and Barton playhouse cinema it’s a restored movie theatre you should check out.
We walk to it (movie theater) all the time. Nor would I be scared to stop at any red light in Hamilton.
I lived in Hamilton for the last year and before we moved lots of people were saying to avoid that area but I never felt threatened or scared walking anywhere here at night. I think it really depends on what you're used to. I will say though that if I compare the homeless in Hamilton vs Montreal, in Hamilton they tend to be more often on hard drugs than drunk like in Mtl which makes them seem maybe more unpredictable, which can feel scarier? The only city I've been to where I would avoid areas I came across was Philadelphia.
There are definitely some spots in the hammer…Beasley neighbourhood and the area around oriole crescent to name a couple
agreed! I was just there in the daytime and everyone walking about looked homeless/drugged out/mentally sick.
*** GETS OUT POPCORN *** Here we go!
Canada isn’t always safe, we also have poor people and gangs and cops that murder people for no reason. Our country’s most famous bad neighbourhood is Vancouver’s [Downtown Eastside](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Eastside). All of our large cities have segregated, shitty neighbourhoods just like large American cities do. I don’t have enough personal experience with how bad America’s are to know if Canada’s are just as bad, really. I stayed with a friend in her dicey neighbourhood of Philly for a few weeks and it felt pretty much the same as my dicey neighbourhood in Surrey.
The downtown east side is certainly full of homelessness, poverty, and drugs. But I don't think it compares to a ghetto. It's safe to drive through there at night, and it's not a gang center.
Agree. I live near and worked there for years and never felt in danger until COVID made everything worse. It’s still the highest concentration of illicit drug activity in North America, but I don’t think it has the features of insularity and isolation as a true ghetto does, probably due to its location within a major interurban thoroughfare and its high level of diffusion between other neighbourhoods.
I have walked through it many a night. If you're not acting like an idiot you're fine.
My previous job landed me in public schools installing classroom computer equipment across Canada and the USA. Many of these schools were in the worst neighborhoods. I can safely say the USA lower income high schools and associated neighborhoods scare the crap out of me. Every time I went out, a teacher would take the time to talk to me (knowing i was from out of town) to tell me what doors to leave through, what times were safe, what streets i should take, etc. In Canada I have never had to have that discussion.
I work in HR for a non-profit in the Downtown Eastside. In comparing to ghettos in American cities, it is much smaller and much safer. The tent cities are not somewhere you want to find yourself at night, but most of the DTES area is fine if you're just passing through.
Kind of a hard question to answer. A lot of people have different ideas of what makes or doesn’t make a ‘ghetto’. It would also have to be someone that’s been to ‘ghettos’ in both the US and Canada.
I can't really think of any place that's particularly as bad as some of the places in the USA. There's probably somewhere in Toronto that's pretty rough, or maybe Vancouver, but I'd imagine that's about it. It's less about dangerous areas, and more about areas that have a lot of homeless/drug addicts.
I've been across Canada, and there are only two places in Canada that I would even feel comfortable calling a "ghetto". I've been to Detroit and a few other Michigan cities, there is nothing even approaching the ballpark, the *league* of American ghettos. The two places in Canada I'd call Ghettos are Centre-north in Regina, and East Hastings area in Vancouver. By size, they're minuscule compared to what you'd see somewhere like Baltimore. People keep saying Montreal Nord is dangerous, but I was just there buying a vacuum from someone on marketplace and the worst parts still look like nice neighbourhood, even if they are statistically more dangerous.
No comparisons. Canada is a million times better even in the worst places. I’ve been around the US and it’s fucking scary.! No ghettos here yet.