My regular pools were closed for the Juneteenth Holiday, which strikes me as somewhat ironic since these pools are located in the suburbs, frequented by mostly white upper middle class patrons and overwhelmingly staffed with white suburban kids.
Fortunately for me, the city opened two outdoor pools that day in “disadvantaged neighborhoods”. So on June 19th, which was also Father’s Day, I drove through the hood to visit a different pool. It’s been a few months since I ventured outside of my familiar home-pool-grocery store Bermuda Triangle.
It’s been even longer since I drove through the hood in the inner city.
I noticed some immediate differences between the suburbs and the hood:
- Garbage was strewn everywhere. Dumpsters and trash cans were overflowing. Litter was on the sidewalks, streets and front yards.
- I saw more homeless people milling around. In the suburbs, the homeless guys hangout at the major intersections to beg for money. In the hood, homeless men and women wandered the streets, sat on benches or pushed their shopping carts around.
- The shops I saw were run down mom and pops. Bodegas, gas stations, dive bars, check cashing places. There were no big box stores or grocery stores.
- The roads were in poor condition. There were potholes and cracks that needed to be patched. Driving was bumpy. In the suburbs, perfectly good roads are resurfaced every year and support what I suspect is less traffic.
- I saw a number of sketchy people hanging out.
I’m no stranger to the hood. I lived in poor neighborhoods that bordered the slums as a child. In middle school, we lived in the heart of the ghetto.
But I haven’t lived there in a long time and I rarely even pass through.
Other than a passing thought that my car might get broken into while I was swimming, I wasn’t worried about visiting the hood. I know how to keep myself safe. Plus, it’s not like there were any protests, riots or demonstrations happening. And, I’m afraid of literally nothing.
It was eye opening to visit the ghetto here in Raleigh. Sometimes I am so isolated in my own little world, that I forget about what else is out there – often just a few miles away.