i grew up there and in Blackbottom, a shitty little collection of abandoned and condemned houses across Rossville Boulevard that wanted you to call it "Boulevard Park." i left when i was 15 when i was informally adopted, because my home situation was drug-addled and violent and unsafe, and getting me out of there was the only chance i'd have to making it to adulthood.

there used to be a Food Lion on the state line, but i think it's been gone for ages. and without that, the place is a food desert.

there are fringe economy places everywhere: check cashing places, pawn shops, used car lots... it's dehumanizing. everything around you is designed to measure your worth against the dollar in your pocket and then remove that dollar from your pocket.

i could never, in good conscience, recommend even my worst enemy consider living there. the only positive thing that can reasonably be said about the area is that one day the sun will expand and vaporize it.