Bedford Stuyvesant

I had an apartment there for three years. Why because at the time everywhere else was so expensive. Young people are forced to live in very bad neighborhoods especially people new to the city. These people like myself would have no idea how bad these hoods can be.

I'll try to be brief. I got mugged at gunpoint by a kid maybe 15 or 16 right in front my apt. The projects are there and they are infestations of crime and drugs. It's a heavy heavy scene now matter how you look at it. Every month I'd hear a semi automatic gun go off with like 5 or 6 rounds somewhere nearby. I'd always duck in the bathroom. Very very scary. There is no place to hang out. You go from the subway to your door. I'd do laundry though and that was it. I'd bring a backpack and shop in Manhattan for food.

Overall I lived there to get a foot in the door in New York. I hated living there. I hated the A/C line. I hated that I always felt this foreboding feeling, this feeling of always kind of being scared. It's a place where you walk and always always have your radar on. I think I'm traumatized especially from the mugging. There are no taxis. Uber thank God is here now.

My advice. No matter how desperate you are, do not live here. They says it's coming up, gentrification. It will never ever be a safe nice place with the projects there. Don't kid yourself. The projects are there where Big E Smalls and Jay Z grew up. It's a situation that could at any moment get really really bad. When the cops came to interview me they were actually the kindest and really most serious and concerned cops I've ever met. I moved out within 7 days of getting mugged and live in Nolita now and will never ever go back. In fact I never even take the A/C in that direction. The trains have a heavy, heavy scene and unpredictable. Personally I'd never live in Brooklyn again and part of that is the subway into/out of Manhattan. Manhattan is New York and I'm so happy being here.

Bed-Stuy has a reputation for being a bad place. There are a lot of people living in poverty and in housing projects in this neighborhood, but there are also a lot of working class citizens and Pratt kids in the area. It's a rough place, and there has been plenty of gang activity here in the past.

However, gentrification is happening here - if a little slowly. This area will never be the next Williamsburg, though, and potential residents should be very careful about moving onto certain blocks (some are known gang spots). The worst areas are closer to Bushwick, or in the north side of the neighborhood.

Cute little groceries and cafes keep popping up here, especially in the area closer to Atlantic Avenue and Clinton Hill. Of course, this is the area that has been gentrified the most. Havana Outpost is in this area and attracts a huge crowd when it is open in the summertime, and the newly opened Hot Bird is just as popular with its huge outdoor (and indoor) space.