Are These The Worst Neighborhoods In GR? [Video]

A Detroit video blogger paid a visit to Grand Rapids and rolled his dash cam through what he calls the 'Worst Hoods'.

First, a little back story. I grew up in Saginaw, and one night, when I was 19, after working a late shift at the horse racing track, I asked a co-worker for a ride home. When he asked where I lived, I told him, and then he said no, he couldn't drive in to that neighborhood late at night.

This was the first time I realized the neighborhood I grew up was looked down upon by some, which was a weird feeling, because I had grown up there, and my best friends lived there, and while, sure, our neighborhood had problems, good people lived and worked there. And I felt it didn't deserve to be dismissed so curtly.

That's why this video, posted Monday by CharlieBo313, annoys me a little. He titles it "Worst Hoods", and he drives through some of our more blighted areas. And while I get that these areas suffer from high crime, I also know that the criminal element is a small percentage of the whole, and that good, decent people live there as well.

I also know that Charlie doesn't come to this meaning to demean people. He is documenting the places in our cities that have been ignored in booming economies, and where help is needed. I know it pains him when he drives through his own neighborhood in Detroit to show the blight.

So here is a drive through of the "worst" of GR, according to Charlie, at least.