How to quit cars

>>amathe+(OP)
If people want to live in cities and want to have a car-free lifestyle, then more power to you.

Cities are becoming increasingly unaffordable and increasingly violent. I think that we are past “peak metro” and that the absolute refusal of many people to return to office work is going to result in an acceleration of out-migration from cities. This in turn will exacerbate other urban problems as the revenue base dries up and low wage employees become ever more difficult to find in urban areas.

>>efitz+Hv1
Do you have any data to support the claim that cities are becoming more violent? That’s a common trope that is generally debunked by police statistics.

>>bertil+Jw1
San Fransisco crime increased 5% last year. [1]

NYC crime increased 22% last year. [2]

Chicago crime increased 41% last year. [3]

[1] https://missionlocal.org/2023/01/explore-how-crime-changed-i...

[2] https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p00071/nypd-citywide-crim...

[3] https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-crime-spikes-in-2022-...

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That said, the OP said "violent" and technically the increase was almost entirely non-violent crimes (e.g. theft).

>>pauldd+zy1
Also important to note that "last year" includes the tail end of the pandemic where crime as a whole fell due to lockdowns. SF and NYC fall far below other, less dense, cities in the US such as Cleveland Ohio, Lansing Michigan, Rockford Illinois, and Anchorage Alaska in violent crime rates. Granted, Chicago is in the top 20 in violent crime, though, if I had to guess those statistics are driven by crime that occurs outside the "urban core".

Perception certainly matters -- perceptions of SF BART and MUNI probably are not helping ridership -- but the narrative that San Francisco has become an urban hellscape is not borne out by the data nor by my personal anecdotal experience.

>>jjxw+yB1
Chicago isn't even the top 50 worldwide for homicide, let alone the top 20. Several US cities are, though, including places like Cleveland. Chicago puts up big numbers because the city is deceptively big.

zlacker