this sounds more like “i grew up in a horrible neighborhood”, which can happen easily in the suburbs too! Sometimes drug use is even more common amongst youngsters in suburbs - because there’s “nothing to do”.
I grew up in midtown manhattan and went to private school. I grew up in the best neighborhood. The point was the free roaming and access to mass transit gave me access to all of the "bad neighborhoods".
My opinion is that parenting is supposed to play a major role here. Educating your child on the dangers of _why_ we avoid certain neighborhoods, _why_ we don’t do drugs, and surrounding them with good role models early is so so important.
I guess what i’m saying is, if you parents locked you up in a safe cage (like I grew up - in a “safe” suburb without access to much), you might have grown up to be a naive 18 year old. And then you’d maybe go off to college and end up with the wrong crowd doing drugs and other stuff anyway. Completely isolating a teenager from the world doesn’t teach them how to navigate it.
The pedo’s following you home is creepy as hell though. No comment on that. Damn.
Again, just my opinion. We can agree to disagree. Have a great day. :)
I was deep into NY's drug and party scene from about the time I turned 12. Pedos used to follow me walking home from the public library.
Lotta my friends growing up did not make it and I no longer live in NYC.