• sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    I don’t blame anyone for being scared of specifically american cities. They are genuinely a nightmare. That’s why I live in a town of about 15k people.

    • ChillPenguin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Lived in downtown Minneapolis the last few years. Still never felt unsafe walking around. Even with the uptick of crime. Safety is dependent on where you go within the city.
      As long as you don’t do anything stupid, you’re pretty good.

      But I constantly hear from the burbs and rural areas how it’s sO dAnGeRoUs.

    • Sunforged@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Such a nightmare, my wife is taking our kids to a concert at the zoo today. So horrible! They will be taking a bus (pUbLiC tRaNsPoRtAtIoN), horrifying!

          • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Nonexistent, but its easy to drive here even with everyone on the roads, the same doesn’t apply to a city. I definitely could have made my point more clear, so that’s my bad.

              • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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                1 year ago

                You should be scared of traffic btw. It’s made of barely conscious people driving heavy machinery that only works because… Well, it turns out consciousness isn’t actually that important.

                Regardless, car accidents are by far the leading cause of early death and permanent injury.

                Fun Fact: if you were to drive a mile to a convenience store to buy a lottery ticket, you would be more likely to die on the way than to win the jackpot.

          • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Interestingly, my old hometown of about 20,000 people just added frequent bus service. They have all day buses to drive from one end of the town to the other, every 10 minutes. It’s pretty amazing. And people are actually riding it!

    • Zammy95@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The scariest part of going to the city is driving if you don’t do it often. That’s… All I can think of. I guess getting lost? I can do that in the woods too though

      • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        The scary part is that driving is so chaotic in american cities. I drive a lot and its still awful to me. Even if you ignore how much less safe it is than a small town, it takes ages to get anywhere; and of course you can’t walk anywhere either because its all designed for cars. It is absolutely a nightmare compared to where I live.

      • jscummy@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think scared is the right word but everything about driving in a city sucks. Struggling to find parking or having to pay, taking 30 min to drive 4 miles, shitty beat up roads

      • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Not cities in general, just american ones because they are so car centric, yet they all still somehow suck at driving and nearly kill me at every turn.

          • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            I haven’t been to every city, but if it doesn’t have a good alternative to cars, its probably not a pleasant place to be. The reason I say american cities is because I’ve been to a lot of cities here so I have personal experience with them.

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          You’re suffering from a problem of perception, because the car accident fatality rate is almost universally higher in rural areas than in cities. In rural areas, people drive faster for longer distances, so when accidents happen they’re more likely to be immediately fatal. They also happen further away from other people who can assist and from competent medical care

          • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            I’m not talking about a rural area, I’m talking about a town. You don’t go high speeds inside a town regardless of the size of the town. Its not like every building is miles away from the next one. This isn’t the middle of nowhere, we have a hospital.

            • protist@mander.xyz
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              1 year ago

              Your town of 15K is the literal definition of rural. What do you think rural means it not a town of 15K, and where did you get that definition?

              Unfortunately, I bet the car accident fatality rate in your town is higher than most cities, but we won’t know that for sure unless you reveal where you live. Also your hospital is not able to handle traumas or other serious medical events, so you will be transported to the nearest city via ambulance or helicopter after they do their best to stabilize you, delaying your treatment by hours

              • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                You clearly have no frame of reference for the infrastructure in a town of this size. You can’t just tell me what’s in my town, I’m the one that lives here, I know what’s in it. My hospital is more than capable of handling serious injuries. It is exceedingly rare that anyone needs to travel to a city for medical care.

                I suppose we have different definitions of rural, but the way you worded it sounded like you think my town is mostly empty long stretches of road with the occasional gas station. Its unclear to me exactly what you think my town is, but the speed limits here are about the same as any city, and you never have to drive very far to get anywhere in town.

                I’ve been to places similar to what you think my town is, and I’m more than willing to admit their faults, but its not like that everywhere and you are clearly demonstrating your ignorance on the subject by acting like you know better than me what’s in my town.

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Yeah my city went from being the third safest in the US to over 1,400 shooting incidents last year and they don’t even know how many murders, they’re still finding bodies.

      Also Trump got a hard-on for our town and decided to make it centerpoint of his campaign for like 2 years and he called us terrorists. Fun stuff.

    • threadloose@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Meh. I live out in the country, and the only scary thing about cities to me is the traffic. Even NYC was fine outside of Times Square, and I took public transit. The only place I really hated was Orlando, but that was because of the exhausted Disney kids. It was overwhelming for everyone.

      • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        The traffic is the main problem to me. It is just so, so much worse than where I live. I was exagerrating which people didn’t seem to understand, but it makes it an unpleasant experience to visit most cities here.

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Like anywhere else, you get used to it. I’m from a smaller town, and there was a lot less traffic, but there was also a lot less to do. I live in a city now, and yes there’s some traffic, but there are also a ton of bars, restaurants, parks, theaters, museums, and interesting, diverse people. Where I came from was 90% white and conservative with a church on every corner, and our restaurant options were Taco Bell and Applebee’s. I can’t emphasize enough how happy I am to live in a city despite the traffic, which only takes up a small part of your day

          • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            I know it seems like less of a problem to people in cities, I used to live in one when I was younger and I never noticed it. But now whenever I visit, its extremely jarring to go back to that. I do miss having more stuff to do, but to me its a good trade off. It really just depends on what your priorities are, but my point was that I wouldn’t blame someone for hating cities, not that they are objectively horrible places to live.

            • protist@mander.xyz
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              1 year ago

              My point was that I wouldn’t blame someone for hating cities, not that they are objectively horrible places to live.

              They are genuinely a nightmare.

              I think there’s a communication issue here

        • threadloose@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, you should be aware of the way people talk about cities in frankly bigoted ways if you don’t want to be perceived as a bigot. Talking about cities being dangerous or scary is a coded way to denigrate Black people. Like, when people talk about Chicago being dangerous, they’re specifically referring to neighborhoods with Black majority populations and generalizing it to the entire city. That’s what this meme is about, not traffic.

          • sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Oh sorry, I didn’t realize that was much of a thing. Most people I know just complain about traffic but I don’t talk to racists very much so I guess that makes sense.

    • Gamey@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      As a european I would be scared of America in general, I mean is a heavily armed Redneck neighbor really that much saver than a heavily armed street gang?

      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The murder rate in the countryside is often higher than in the city.

        However, this does not mean either is safe. But cities have the density of violence. Here’s Chicago from January through June 1st of this year:

        The 641 shootings recorded in 2023 so far is also the lowest total for this time period since 2020, according to CPD data.