Downtown is a shit-hole

"Downtown where?" you might ask.

Does it matter where? Invariably, the downtown district of any city of considerable size is a traffic-congested, crime-infested nightmare. The inspiration for this entry comes from reading of a college kid who was leaving a party in a particularly seedy part of town and got the shit beat out of him when he encountered a gang of 10 or so hoodlums without provocation, probably just because he was a tall, skinny white kid and they were 10 violent black kids. What shook me was that I once attended an event at that same location and would have been walking those streets at the same time of night. The incident received little media coverage because the city doesn't want bad publicity to put a dent in downtown business revenue.

I've harbored negative sentiments toward downtown since at least my teenage years, reluctantly agreeing to attend social activities in such places on infrequent occasions. After this incident, I will be much more likely to refuse to attend further gatherings in downtown areas. Fortunately, this coincides with a consensus view among my circle of friends in Raleigh to begin frequenting the Village Draft House, rather than a certain pub downtown. The Draft House is in the middle of Cameron Village, Raleigh's first suburban shopping center, a shining example of an upmarket commercial area offering plentiful parking and very little of the criminal element. The only area to avoid is the area surrounding the public library, where bums are known to congregate on their way to and from the free public restroom, and the bus stops, where creepy people wait for the rolling bad neighborhood known as the CAT bus (City Kitty). When I visit the Draft House, I know I will be able to park in the lot right in front of the restaurant and stand very little chance of being offended by the presence of thugs and homeless people.

The last time I visited the downtown pub, I had to drive around in circles until finding a parking spot on a dimly lit street in Raleigh's City Market. Walking back to the car at 12:30AM was a very unnerving experience, for the street was completely vacant. I could have been assaulted by hoodlums or accosted by street people. A gentleman such as myself, raised in a quiet suburban neighborhood, should never be subjected to walking more than 100 feet to my vehicle.

As time goes by, I lose more and more of what shred of faith I ever had in the possibility of "revitalizing" downtown. Downtown will never be what it used to be. Let's take a look at the general history of your average downtown area: it was once the center of all commercial and governmental activity in the city. Department stores, hardware stores, pharmacies, restaurants, hotels, medical offices, legal practices, grocers, even farm supply stores were all downtown. Downtown was alive with activity and drew folk from all walks of life. The affordability of the private automobile made it possible for middle class folk to move from apartments to neighborhoods full of houses with big, useless lawns on the outskirts of the city. As these neighborhoods grew in size, residents tired of having to drive downtown for their shopping needs. The suburban shopping center filled the need for conveniently located shopping, and provided vast parking lots to accommodate all those cars. The suburbs were clean, green, and full of well-to-do middle class folk and had none of downtown's seedier elements and residents, drawing more people away from downtown. Downtown businesses shuttered and moved to the suburbs. All that was left behind were poor people and government offices; the area essentially shut down at 5PM.

Nowadays there is a continuing effort to "revitalize" downtown areas. Wistful white people full of dreams and liberal guilt try with all their might to restore the old way of life to downtown. They think they can accomplish this by opening businesses that stay open late into the night, but the major problem with their approach is the kind of businesses they establish: hoity-toity venues that offer $12 martinis, expensive, undersized meals, and overpriced frou-frou accessories & home decor. Don't forget the little coffee shops that strive to achieve that damned "funky" look with worn-out furniture and beat-up books, attracting college students who pour their energy into constructing a wardrobe that exudes poverty and disregard for personal grooming while shelling out $4 for a god-damned cup of burnt, stale coffee and then lingering on the sagging couch for 2 hours. The idea is to attract people with money to burn, which "revitalizers" think will somehow curb crime, but such people do not and will not live in the area. They drive in from their quiet little suburbs full of other rich people to be seen spending their money on a $15 plate of tapas, and clog the streets and parking spaces with their expensive cars. The same people have too much to drink and endanger everyone on the roads as they swerve back to the suburbs.

Worse still is the trend of resurrecting or re-purposing disused commercial spaces. These buildings are always on the most derelict and crime-ridden streets (cheap rent!) and offer no parking whatsoever save the precious few spots along the curb, which quickly get snapped up, forcing patrons to take their lives into their own hands as they walk the 2 or 3 blocks through the scariest streets, hoping they don't get mugged, raped, or assaulted. And once you arrive at your chosen eating spot, you have to wait an eternity for service. I once went to a pizza place that opened up downtown. After parking in a dark lot 2 blocks away, I waited an hour to be seated, 20 minutes for a fucking waitress to ask me what I wanted to drink, and another 40 minutes for my fucking pizza, all in an extremely noisy room with no sound-dampening materials—just concrete floors and bare brick walls (but think how "funky" that was! So urban and hip!). When I walked out the door, a scary street person was begging for spare change. The walk back to the lot at 9:30PM had me on edge, constantly looking out for thugs in the shadows. I have not returned to that restaurant, nor will I ever.

My other major point of contention for patronizing downtown venues is the driving situation. Traffic congestion is maddening in any downtown area at night. People are circle around hoping to luck out on a curbside spot, or back up traffic for several blocks waiting for another car to vacate a spot. After a fruitless search, many are forced to park in a parking deck where rapists can come and go freely, and often have to pay several dollars for the privilege. The alternative is to get a valet at one of the swanky places to park your car, but once it's out of your sight, who the fuck knows where he's gone with it. Speed limits are an agonizing 20 or 25 MPH, many streets are one-way, and every other traffic light is always red. Then, as the wee hours approach, vulturous policemen begin looking for the slightest signs of intoxication as an excuse to stop and harass motorists. God help you if your wheels are out of alignment. DUI checkpoints are periodically set up at downtown intersections, where cops "randomly" stop motorists and hassle them if they're under 30 or don't resemble white, upstanding republicans.

From now on, for me, it's suburban strip malls all the way, not just for nightlife, but for everything. If the destination doesn't adjoin a dedicated parking lot, I'm not interested. Thankfully, my wife is getting more and more on board with the anti-downtown sentiment. We both agreed that we had no interest in attending a series of music performances in a park downtown to which our friends invited us. A public park? Where any hobo can wander in and offend our delicate senses with his foul odors and tattered rags? Um, no thanks. The bar my wife and I frequent the most is in the middle of a 1960s shopping center barely 2 miles from our house, a straight shot down a road that sees infrequent police patrols late at night. Late in the evening, after the other shops have closed up, parking is very plentiful, convenient, and well-lit, and the bouncers, cabbies, smokers forced outside, and hot dog vendors are all there to keep an eye on things. It's too far from downtown for scary street people, and gangbangers don't hang around because the nightspots in the surrounding area attract either pretentious douchebags or regular neighborhood folks. I do long for a situation like in the neighborhood where I grew up, where there was a little family restaurant that became a lively watering hole at night. It was in a perfect location—it was on a fairly well-used street, but the route to get there from my house was entirely comprised of little residential streets where the cops never go.

Downtown can dry up and blow away, for all I care. It is of no use to me.