The author Matthew Goodman flags a Times travel article from Richmond. The Times reports:
For decades, the 18th-century Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond, Va., has been a don't-go-after-dark spot. One of the city's oldest residential enclaves, its historic townhouses, gas lamps and St. John's Church — where Patrick Henry proclaimed "Give me liberty" — have long been tended to by a small band of passionate preservationists in an area of encroaching crime and poverty. But undervalued real estate and unparalleled views of downtown and the James River have increasingly drawn a fiercely loyal, self-starter set of residents. These days, Church Hill has some of the city's most appealing shops and dining spots.
One wonders how it can be a "residential enclave" if it is also a "don't-go-after-dark spot." Mr. Goodman wonders who was being warned not to go there after dark. Times readers? People who don't live there or who aren't "passionate preservationists"? Is there an unspoken racial or class dimension to it? It's one thing to say that a neighborhood is poor or high-crime, another thing to say it's "a don't-go-after-dark-spot" when there are actual human beings — maybe not in the Times target demographic, but still — who live there.