my old job used to take me to the worst parts of town on a regular basis. and the two times that i was actually frightened was at a stoplight right in front of westbury high school at about 6am when a "transaction" was taking place about 4 feet from my window. the other time was in the neighborhood off of the 59/collingsworth exit, near jensen.

I get to drive to a lot of interesting places for my job as well. The only time I was truly concerned for my safety was near Mesa and Tidwell. The only time I venture into the 5th ward is to go to Saint Arnolds and when I did the rodeo run two years ago...

i stand corrected. i was legitimately frightened three times. we were waiting at the light at mesa and tidwell and three cop cars busted through the intersection and slammed to a stop in front of the car across from us. jumped out of the car with guns drawn and drug the driver and passenger out of the vehicle. good times

yeah i work really close to acres homes (def see horseback riding quite often) and there are some shady mofos.

I had a guy sitting outside (I work at walgreens) and we were pretty sure he was making drug deals. I asked my big tall black male employee to escort me while I talked to him. I asked him to leave, and he said why. I told him he was loitering. He says to me I'll leave this time but next time I dont give a f*** who bring out with you.

The way he said it just scared the bejeebus out of me. I deal with so many vagrants and crackheads and thieves and welfare queens on a daily basis that it almost doesnt even phase me anymore.

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i was actually frightened was at a stoplight right in front of westbury high school at about 6am when a "transaction" was taking place about 4 feet from my window.

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Seeing a simple little transaction across from Westbury High School freaked you out? LOL. You people are soft.

A few years ago, I was getting my car washed at the Bubbles Car Wash on Westheimer (near Chimney Rock). The fella shoe shining there suggested a custom boot maker near Lyons, Quitman, Jensen (near the railroad tracks). He spoke very highly of this shop.

I like custom boots, but not enough to risk my life.

Hardy st?

2nd for North Katy.

I'd have to go with Acres Home

Summers in HS I worked on a surveying crew. We worked in some of the worst neighborhoods in Houston...but the worst was Acres Homes.

I do neighborhood development with management districts and have survived most streets of the places mentioned.

East Aldine is poverty and living conditions equal to a third world country.

The 44 is by far the scariest. People will kill you for a dare or just because they are bored.

The 44? Where is that?

The 44 refers to the bus route through Acres Homes. I don't think there is anything touching the bad parts of 5th Ward though. You have to drive a while deep in the neighborhood to find them. Acres Homes is pretty bad though, but I rolled up on a narrow dirt street lined with third world looking shanty houses in the nickel once and was amazed that people live in those conditions in the heart of the city. Felt like I was in Johannesburg or something.

77033 has lowest home prices - South Loop and MLK area

Sadly, that's pretty accurate.

I'd heard that a lot of Katrina refugees had settled in the myriad of apartment complexes in the Antoine/Desoto area of Northwest Houston. I know that area has a lot of crime, and an infamous police officer murder. I don't know what ward/neighborhood that is considered.

Is there anyone who has 'skills' who can overlay one of the old Ward maps on to an updated map, or if you know where they are and the actual boundaries of them, put in onto a current map with MS Paint or something? I am not familiar with the areas, and the old school maps are hard to read and many of the roads either weren't there yet, or have changed names and it makes it difficult to figure out. Sorry. I am fascinated by this. This reincarnation of this old thread has renewed my interest in the long rumored, but nary completed, H-Town Board bus tour through the Wards. I am tempted to venture out over the course of a few weeks on lunch breaks to check some of these areas out, but am not sure where to even start.

ideas for colley:
Liberty Rd by the RR switchyard. Huge expanse of RR tracks/cars/sounds.

E.Houston south of Ley - original site of Osteen's Lakewood Church

Salato's Po-Boy on Lockwood & I-10. Get the cajun roast beef.

Burt's Meat Mkt on Lyons - excellent lunch food to go. Famous boudin also.

Bridges over Buffalo Bayou on Hirsch and Lockwood. Nice views of downtown. Buffalo Bayou actually looks like a real body of water along here also.

Clinton between Wayside & 610. You'll see big ships docked up. Also a scary looking "spa" place along there.

Inversion house on Lyons. Used to be one on Montrose (turn a house inside-out). Now there's one on Lyons near Waco.

Cool looking record store on Canal east of 70th. Forget the name but they have great murals on the walls.

Mason Park. Pretty along the bayou, nicely landscaped with a nature trail.

Idylwood/N.MacGregor. Cool houses along Brays Bayou and lovely Spurlock Park.

South Parkwood Dr. There's an actual lake behind someone's house by Parkwood Park (had to have been an old meander from Brays bayou many years ago). The houses here are very nice.

Flower Man's house. 2305 Francis. Junk collector / artist with cool house.

all I can think of for now....

I used to work for a commercial construction company (infrastructure gc) and our offices were on Cherry Street, about a block west of Collingsworth & Jensen.

Never had any issues but definitely not a place where you'd be OK with working late at night.

ccolley - here's a very rough map I made from the 1920s ward map. Most of it should be somewhat accurate, but 1st/5th ward are probably not 100%.

Still gives you some idea of where each one is/was



[This message has been edited by metrag06 (edited 1/16/2012 5:09p).]

AWESOME!!!!!!

Anyone want to maybe put a few POI's on there for me to head to on my adventure. I have spent quite a bit of time in what that shows as the 1st Ward, and was never to concerned. Also spent quite a bit of time in the far west end of the 5th Ward, again, never felt too scared, but from some of the stuff I have read, there are much dicier parts of the 5th than the west side. Office in the 3rd, but as some have said, we are more similar to the 2nd (I guess) than the average 3rd Ward. If the 3rd is in the running for the most ghetto part of Houston, then I have only begun to scratch the surface of what is the diciness of this area.

Someone needs to put together a 3rd world or 3rd ward (or 5th ward) picture quiz for Houston!

Eh... not as much overlap as I expected, still similar looking.

I work in Adline. A man got shot to death at the strip center across the street 4 years ago. Last year, a police officer was shot serving a warrant a block away, next to a school. During the day, it's fairly ok. At night, it gets THOED, like third world thoed.

We've been on conference calls in our building and had people ask if we work next to a firestation or something because there are always cops driving by with their sirens on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RIxi2R1A-w

Just imagine if in GCRanger's pic above, his shaded area was all a big lake (and all people in that area vanished).
Downtown all on water front. All sports venues waterfront. Parks all along it. Everybody in town max 15 minutes from water front.
Metro of ~2 million people.

That would be neat.
Ok, done dreaming.

ScottDog- Texas 29th represented by D-Gene Green pretty well fills in the coverage gap there in the center of the crime map.



Per the last census figures that district is 65-70% Hispanic.

Waterfront and not smokestacks nearby

I did Habitat for Humanity yesterday in 5th Ward and I can honestly say that it's the roughest neighborhood I've ever been to in Houston. My day was capped off with SJL giving us all a thank you speech :/

Not in Houston but I went by Midway Meat Market in Katy yesterday to pick up my deer meat and I forgot how third world the road you exit out the back is. Roberts Rd I believe. It is not a place I would want to walk through at night for sure.

It is a short street and pales in comparison to parts of Houston for crime I'm sure but I haven't seen too many streets in Houston that feel that "third world"

http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2010/09/life-in-schrimpf-alley/

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Where did the Katrina refugees end up?

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They were not refugees, they were survivors.

thanks for posting the Schrimpf Alley. cool stuff.

quote:

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They were not refugees, they were survivors

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Survivors are the people that stayed in NOLA and rode out the storm.


HTH