I lived on the north side many years. It definitely can be pretty rough.

Bureau of Prisons loves vets…FedMed might be a good opportunity.

Probably can only find one that requires showing up everyday and working You looking for one that you just get paid for not doing anything? You can try giving Plasma!

I was at Walmart today with my sister and one of those “secret shopper” AP guys was very obviously following us for a good while for no reason, it was so uncomfortable. I definitely always feel like I’m being watched when I shop at Walmart

I worked at Walmart previously so when you know what to look for these guys are so obvious 🙄 think they’re slick lolll

I've lived in Springfield for over 20 years, on both sides of town, and I totally agree. Every time I hear about crime and statistics I always wanna know if it's crimes against strangers or not. That's the most important thing to me, and in my experience it's actually worse on the south side.

I haven’t encountered that yet, no. In what way?

As someone whose neighbor had their bike stolen and sawed off at the middle of the night, I can confirm this. I've had a lot of homeless people come up to me and ask for food, water, money, etc. Usually at the gas stations in northern Springfield.

I would recommend walking somewhere else for a change of space.

I love Lucky Nails on Republic and Campbell

Have you looked at usajobs.gov to leverage your veteran status for exclusively posted positions with preferential hiring?

Imho I think it’s because on the north side people generally leave you alone unless you mess with them first. I don’t have much experience living on the south side, but people seem to be much more concerned with what their neighbor is doing.

The crime is usually either stuff like theft which is nonviolent and driven by poverty, or it’s directed at a specific individual/group. Unless you’re involved in that “circle” of people, it’s unlikely you’ll become a victim yourself

MODOT is hiring.

Have you tried selling meth? Lots of people in the area make great money doing that.

This right here. A lot of us either stuck around or came back north after growing up here because although this half of town is undeniably poorer, it's also been my experience that it's a significantly more diverse and tolerant area.

The same liberals that are trying to gentrify downtown are the ones who are going to pretend like North Springfield is not a bad area. Some people just don't like to hear that other areas are not as safe.

I'm in that group and am regularly astounded that so many people seem incapable of using Google.

I actually saw a video on YouTube by someone who was a realtor in this area and the way he he downplayed the homeless problem was really horrifying and really shows you what the core of the problem is just at the absolute denial and lack of acceptance that this is a problem that there are a ton of poor people but instead they get all defensive and say no it's not that bad there is a few patches of good areas over the north side which I think these people may live

I definitely worked on the Northside in a hands on role with the public and I think poverty is really not the biggest problem I've dealt with I think about the majority of the people I've had these experiences with or under the influence of drugs and alcohol and the fact that majority of the pedestrians are in fact homeless people and their day to day life consist of where to get their drug fixed and how to get it and I can tell you that walking alone at night is not a good idea and that's why the homeless travel in groups. And that fair amount of the homeless are from outside of here from what my interactions have been with them. The people that live on the North side are quite honestly scared shitless of what the north side has become and cannot comprehend leaving their house without caring a firearm and that's just a fact I don't know how North North you live but if you consider the MSU area the north side then you're absolutely wrong.

And quite frankly and I think it really undermines the concerns that the people who actually live on the North side have to poo poo this as some sort of communal environment when it's really the closest thing to human connection a lot of the drug addicts have or are people using each other to use each other. And the fact is there's a lot of broken homes and there's a lot of broken people over on the North side and yes you see the facts of it through crime and drugs.

Nope

Does it matter in the void?

I'm curious. Do you actually travel or live along division and see a lot of people walking around high on merh or are you just trying to use a metaphor you think will please this crowd? I ask because I grew up just off division and have lived between division and chestnut for 20 years as an adult and in nearly 40 years of traversing it on foot, bicycle, car, and flying over in airplanes I have never seen any of the drug fueled drama you kids seem to encounter. Maybe it's just that you guys run in a different crowd but I have to ask, where are you guys finding all the meth? Seriously, are you genuinely regularly running into meandering meth addicts in my neighborhood?

Interesting. I got a notice of 5 up votes but at this moment I only have 4. Did I offend someone in the cult? Please don't pray for me. The blood of jesus is difficult to wash off when it's soiled with greed and misguided piety.

The posts that get downvoted to oblivion are the ones that exaggerate the problems, making it sound like there are roving bands of marauders constantly mixing it up with hordes of methadone zombies on every corner, in between nothing but trap houses and gutted buildings, when in reality, basically everybody keeps mostly to themselves. If you do have a run in with a crazy, it's usually so far out of the ordinary, which is why it sticks out and gets talked about.

The reality is that yes, there is more poverty on the north side, and yes, crime tends to follow poverty (shocking, I know), but acting like the North side is some Wild West lawless zone is absurdity. Part of the reason there is more poverty on the north side is the fact that it's older, the other part is the people up here generally have a bit more compassion and don't run people off or call the cops just for being poor and trying to get by. Plus, it's where most of the homeless resources are located.

Personally, I'd rather live up here where people tend to help each other out where they can than down on the south side where non-conformity gets you excluded.

I don't know about "the", but definitely "one of".

You realize this site is no different, right?

I took it over the summer with Alan Papen at OTC. Its been 12 years and I still remember his name because of how great of a teacher he was. Great guy, very interesting, excellent instructor. And I hate math and am not good at algebra. He made the class enjoyable.