I've lived in an area while saving for a house that's probably majority black in and around the block I live in (it seems that way but I'm not sure), but the surrounding area has a large asian sprawl, a latino neighborhood, and then some mostly white suburbs dotted all about. This is close to what could be considered "the South" so the black areas are longstanding. Thanks to a long-standing military presence much of the population is diverse like this and transient. So we get people from all over, sometimes briefly.

I haven't noticed this behavior in my many black neighbors. I have a feeling it's regional. I leave things out on my porch all of the time. We're friendly in passing. For the most part they're courteous, though since apartment living is kind of new to me there are things they all do that seems rude to me, but maybe that's just apartment life. Sometimes one comes through who is painfully trying to project "the thug life", but I grew up an actual poor, rough area, and their tough facades and glares have no effect. The worst thing I saw was at 4 AM someone from another neighborhood was drunk and walking down the street openly with a gun. I think was some altercation and he was returning - I only got fuzzy details later.

Anyways, there are a few negative things I've noticed:

• Upkeep is poor. Yards, homes, townhomes, all of them, in the black areas are so poorly kept it's a real shame. It's not an income thing, because even my parents once we climbed out the ghetto, and of the other working class families in the neighborhood, maintained their surroundings just fine with very little money. This extends to the stores as well. The parking lots are all abysmal with the black residents openly littering like crazy. They deface things for no apparent reason. It doesn't make sense to me. This is not the case in the areas that are majority any other race
• The blacks are excessively poor and dangerous drivers. They do not seem to understand the right of way in any circumstance. They hardly ever use turn signals. They drive 35 mph in a 20, and 35 mph in a 45. They double park or park all sideways frequently, just whipping their vehicles into spots. I've seen them quickly stop from upwards of 45 mph, almost causing wrecks and backing up traffic just to let a group of pedestrians cross the street. Every time I am being tailgated it's while driving through the black area. The stereotype is that asians are poor drivers, but let me tell you, in my area that is certainly untrue
• Many seem to own far more cars than people in their residence. It's bizarre. I'll see a house in which I know the two people who live there, but for some reason they always have three to four cars - often times two or all of them late model. In my apartment complex there is exactly enough spots for everyone who lives there to park two cars, then some spillover of five spots. Even so it is difficult to find a spot because they own so many cars. Why? They're not investments, they cost money to maintain and insure, and we have annual personal property taxes on them. Baffles me. All that said, I've noticed the same trend among my latino friends and family - though typically on a lesser scale

I hope all of this doesn't make me seem racist. Just observations having lived in this area for a few years.