Cities You Been to That Felt "Weird"

[Sankofa Alwayz]

What cities you been to that felt weird, odd, or strange to you. Not for any direct reason, but just the atmosphere of the city or it's people.

If you see your city feel free to comment!


Washington DC
Went with my wifey for a short stay while on a road trip to a friend's baby shower in Charlotte, NC. I'm drivin up to a perfect view of Capitol Hill at night thinkin, good ole Chocolate City! This is gonna be the bomb!

Saw all the tourist sites during the day. Loved it. But the night before the wifey and I lit up a thick one and went out to check out what was nearby.

To begin with, people in DC--or at least this area, we stayed at the W hotel--seem..."reserved." I felt like I was surrounded by robots. Like people just walk or sit about keep completely to themselves, ignoring their surrounding. Also it was around midnight or so, in a hotel/bar district, and the streets were dark and almost empty. Strange.

We hear some Hip Hop playing outside this one spot and decide to go check it out. The music is all old school Hip Hop and club-R&B...not bad...but they all sound like cheesy knock offs. Maybe it was really obscure old school stuff. It could have been royalty free Soundcloud tracks for all I know. but we didn't hear anything we knew. Just some random late 90s/early 2000s sounding Hip Hop.

Everyone was wearing suits and ties. Maybe it was an after work spot. So we felt kinda weird walking up in there with shirts, jeans and kicks thinking we found black folks spot. Mostly young white, Indians and Asians.

But the most bizarre shyt was their dancing. Instead of some two steppin, rockin, bumpin and grinding going on the motherfukkers are bouncing around like ball room dancers to what sounds like a bad Ginuwine knock off. This is strange even by white college bar standards. Again, like we were surrounded by robots.

Overall, even by day, going to restaurants or shopping around and stuff, DC people just seem really "off" and reserved.

We got the hell on with our road trip the next night. Arrived in Charolette, enjoyed the day life and went to this packed strip joint/party wit all black folks and a DJ/MC. The jams was on deck from Nas to Future. Felt right at home


Dallas, Texas
This one actually had kind of a bad back story. One of my more simp moments of the past. Skipped class to drive from NYC all the way to this city (20 fukking hours) for this older lady I was fukkin at the time. She claimed she desperately needed to see her family for a personal reason but had no car, couldnt afford a flight, none of her broke friends had a car, and I was the only one who could come to the rescue before it was too late. p*ssy was good tho.

To start, I did not see big downtown Dallas while I was there. It felt weird being in a city where people don't....you know....go outside. Everyone drives from place to place, and if you're walking you look like a psycho. Just weird to me, as a East Coast dude. No corner stores, no bodegas, No noise. Drive-in everything. Every place you need to get to is in a mall or plaza. Just a weird city to me. I can see myself retiring away here, but man, not for me at this point in my life.

With that said, as a foodie, the restaurant game in Dallas was glorious! Maaaan, the food, atmosphere, service, vibe. Dallas knows how to eat. I'd go back just for food (and see downtown) alone.


DC and Dallas fam, where did I go wrong?

Main thing wrong here is you and your lady seemed to have stuck to Capitol Hill for night out on the town with the dry ass Cac and whitewashed Asian/Indian crowds. Most of the non-Black transplants in DC aren’t exactly the most fun to be around. I can tolerate them in small doses if they’re at clubs or night venues heavily frequented by Black folks but if it’s huge clusters of them, they can be an insufferable bunch. I prefer Capitol Hill’s daylife to its nightlife tbh, that neighborhood can be kinda wack when it comes to nightly activities. If you wanna hit up some spots in DC that aren’t as buttoned-up, head over to Georgia Ave, U Street, Adams Morgan, 14th Street, Shaw, H Street NE, Columbia Heights, Takoma, and even Chinatown/Gallery Place. And if you’re planning any future trips to DC, check out any Moechella events. Don’t be afraid to check out a few of the suburbs for some fun too such as National Harbor (there’s also an MGM and a Tanger Outlets there), Downtown Silver Spring, Takoma Park, and Old Town Alexandria.

 

[Alvin]

Decatur ill

but it wasn't weird enough for you to drop it off raw in some hoes right

 

[intruder]

It's Eastern Europe not Detroit, why would you think there would be a large group of blacks anywhere.

Keep reading until you get to my other posts on the subject. I've already addressed that as others had the same question

Edit: BTW are there really that many black people in detroit? I've never been but would love to check it out. Whats the percentage like? Is it like Atlanta?

 

[BezO]

Havana. Every non-government buildin' needed a paint job. And citizens "love" their president/government more than anywhere I've been.

 

[Eastside Get The Money]

Seattle
People spending $2000+ and you got baseheads smoking crack right outside in the doorway. Strangest thing I’ve ever witnessed.

STL
Not either weird but it felt like there was nothing but hopelessness there when I went

 

[Rell Lauren]

Newark. Felt like I had to have my guard up at all times once I left the Business District.

 

[Musty]

Cincinnati. The Black population was dustier than I thought they’d be. I guess it IS RightNextTo Kentucky.....

 

[murksiderock]

Rochester and Syracuse NY. All those cities between buffalo and Albany on the Thruway are just

indiana is trash too

Indiana is garbage and one if the worst states in the Union...

I lived in Upstate NY for almost two years and hated it when I first went but grew to love it. I will say black people seen a little disconnected from any pride---->there's alot of in your face racism and when you bring it up to the native blacks they tend to look the other way...

Other than that, it's pretty cool. I love Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse. Albany is okay. Binghamton is dope, Auburn surprisingly has alota fine black chicks for such a small white bread town, Ithaca has alota fine chicks and has alot to do for such a small town, Geneva....

I could live in Roc or Buff if everything lined up right...

My sister went to the University of Vermont, cool little town.

I'm born and raised in NH, big fan, live on the seacoast. Ocean, Lakes, Mountains, close to I 95 corridor etc. No Income Tax, No Sales Tax, No Seatbelt law for adults, no Helmet law for motorcycles, No insurance law for cars, drive to NYC or Montreal in the same amount of time, Halifax is the same drive as DC etc.

Are you white?

I did like Manchester, surprisingly it's a good looking city and kinda fun. It's got the most diversity anywhere in Upper New England and that was surprising (7% black, 7% Asian, 11% Latino)...

Burlington is charming but in the middle of nowhere and I'd never live there...

nah u talking bout more white people than black people u talking bout west Hartford not the city of hartford

Yeah I barely saw any white people outside of Downtown Hartford, and I actually thought Hartford was pretty cool...

Petersburg, VA. Got them abandoned Soviet town vibes.

Ha! I went to high school in Petersburg. It's just really run down, it's an old Rust Belt town trapped in the South. Downtown has actually grown since I was a kid and there's some dope spots to hang, but the rest of the city is old and falling apart and nothing to do...

 

[Blackout]

Mississippi. Always had a tension in the air between the races.

Any place that has a lot of black people yet we aren’t in control like we control Atlanta just feels off to me.

I hate even driving through the state.

 

[Musty]

Hartford CT

From the time I landed in the airport I felt weird. All these different varieties of white people and very few blacks. It's a bit creepy. Then you drive around the town and it's more and more Anglo whites so over with a few black neighborhoods here and there. And they say it's The South that's segregated...

the black ppl are mostly Caribbean in this city.

this is an embarrassingly lame city tho.

 

[Alvin]

Keep reading until you get to my other posts on the subject. I've already addressed that as others had the same question

Edit: BTW are there really that many black people in detroit? I've never been but would love to check it out. Whats the percentage like? Is it like Atlanta?

detroit has a large african american population but my response was geared towards hyperbole.

 

[intruder]

nah u talking bout more white people than black people u talking bout west Hartford not the city of hartford

Going back to this real quick: It can be said about many cities when you think about it, breh.

Depending on what part of most cities you're in you can get a different vibe. Perhaps i was in West Hartford and not real Hartford. Either way I was in the general area and that's the vibe i got. Like my Ugandan ex girlfriend who once went to Miami and told me she was somewhere were there were absolutely ZERO black people to the point where she walked around and felt she was being looked at. To this day i refused to believe her because having lived in Miami 11 years i cant think of a single place where she could have been at a hotel and not SEEN a single black person, period.

And many people have a perception of Miami that's mostly based on what they see on TV. Like women be saying "aww man i'd feel insecure being in Miami because all the women there are so beautiful blah blah blah and they're all like bikini models and you go to the beach everyday blah blah blah" and i be like Atlanta has far more beautiful women than Miami in my opinion. What happens in Miami Beach is Miami Beach. Miami Beach doesnt represent all of Miami.

So based n the thread title i shared what i felt when i was in what i believed was Hartford and i still stand by it because that's MY experience in Hartford CT

 

[intruder]

detroit has a large african american population but my response was geared towards hyperbole.

Have you ever been to Atlanta? How's Detroit's black population compared to ATL?

 

[Sankofa Alwayz]

Princess Anne, MD

Why the hell they decided to build UMES in this middle of nowhere country ass railroad town instead of 15 mins up the road in Salisbury I’ll never know.

You’d think this town is mostly Black but Cacs got a slightly larger presence here. It’s bamma as shyt here. Some of the locals are decently friendly but don’t expect Southern Hospitality or sum shyt. Both the Cacs and Black folks be looking kinda dusty, most especially the Cacs...You can tell some of the Cacs here get their high off meth and opium. Some of the nikkas here dress like it’s still 2007 and some of them (Salisbury nikkas too) be on some wanna-be Baltimore shyt heavy I cannot get a real feel for a distinct local Black culture here on the Shore to save my life. The Shore’s culture basically a country version of Baltimore’s at this point. Speaking of Salisbury, it’s a surprisingly decent number of ex-New Yorkers living in that city.

Another thing tho, most places close too early in Princess Anne even the only liquor store around for damn near 20-sumn minutes.

The McDonald's here claims to be 24/7 but always closes at midnight weekdays and closes up at 2 am on weekends and not reopen til 5 am.

With a few exceptions, there’s really no good places to eat here. If you’re on a plant-based diet or finna go Vegetarian or Vegan, it would be very hard to do so here and most of the fruit at the local Food Lion is trash. You’re better off going to the Acme up in Salisbury for fresh quality fruits and vegetables.

Some of the establishments here either look a lil dirty and/or smell funny inside. Plus, it always smells of chicken shyt in the air on some nights

Only redeeming qualities of this place is UMES, Price Cutters, Grillin’s (Black-owned and family run bomb ass seafood/soul food shack), nice architecture on some of the houses in the downtown/Main Street area, Leo’s Pizza, unsung Black history, and some decent fishing spots.

Other than those qualities tho, Princess Anne ain’t it moe. Even Waldorf is ten times better than this place. If ever I were interested in raising a family in the Shore, it definitely wouldn’t be here.

TBH, I find the whole Eastern Shore part of this state to be weird as hell. Only places that I fux with out here are Salisbury and Ocean City.

 

[Kami]

dubai..a city with no soul lol.