<p>Hi- I have lived here for 2 years, right outside the campus, 5 min away by foot. Yes, it is indeed a ghetto compared to the rest of Los Angeles, make no mistake of it. Those who say otherwise are just dellusioning themselves. Raciallyand economically polarized- check, Infrastructure and services lacking-check, lack of safety or feeling of lack of personal safety walking around at any time of the day especially at night-check, high factual and actual occurences of crime - check (this is a fact and is well documented and made known to students via email), cleanliness of streets and public places-low or lacking-check. Thsi neighborhood is overall seedy, unsafe, dirty, unpleasant hands down. In addition, the apartments are just overrated ie. rents are not low to make up for it. The only one perk - convenience to rush to class and get all your school business done in a jiffy. Not the fault of the university necessarily. Root causes are more complex and no one organization is able to solve it single handedly. The university does a good job policing and making their rounds, it just happens to be in a real crappy part of Los Angeles. However, no it is by no means as bad as the gang ridden parts of LA, where you are targets of drive by shootings for no reason. The crime that goes on here are economic driven mostly- robbery, theft, aggravated assault etcetc , not murder. Good luck!</p>