I would like to know if anyone has any helpful hints or resources for cultural research on major US cities like Chicago, Dallas, New York, etc. I'm looking for things like bad parts of town, shopping districts, wealthy areas of town just so I know what I'm talking about and don't end up sending someone who is not supposed to belong in the bad part of town to the bad part of town because I have never lived in those cities.
You would have to look up each city you want individually. The major cities will have their own websites for tourists.
If it's a city within driving distance, just go there. Otherwise, try to get in touch with someone who's familiar with that city and ask them. No place online is going to say "And now, while this is in the bad part of town where you're likely to be mugged, we still have some great attractions..."
You can get 'bad-ass' insider info by visiting online local forums...I had great success in picking brains and/or eavesdropping on numerous places. Getting the juicy kind of dirt the chamber of commerce would never reveal ....I did the same when I needed some information about violinst, after lurking on their forums I realized chit I would have not learned elsewhere like... what violinist use for birth control is their personality ...ya dig ?
