oldag941 said:
And I went to the Notre Dame game and stayed in Chicago. It was awesome. Clean, no homeless, no cops on corners. Went from downtown to Wrigleyville and bar hopped in between. I understand South Chicago is a different area, much like parts of Dallas in San Antonio and other major cities. But downtown Chicago was very impressive.
Midwest liberal cities are still working on the social contract of '"Don't go harass the nicest areas and generally you can do whatever you want in your crappy neighborhood'. Any lapse in that contract is just related to police getting soft on crime in their nice areas. Doesn't take long for that to correct itself though.
Chicago in the warm sunny months is very nice and the impending blanket of winter puts pressure on everyone A) to go out and enjoy the summer and B) not put up with over the top BS from parts of society that make it miserable to drink in public.
Its too cold for massive amounts of homeless to stick around midwest cities so open drug use and pestering homeless is easy to manage compared to the west coast. After every winter you get to start over with enforcement.
One of the safest areas public areas I've experienced was in a St. Louis suburb that was deep in the middle of the safe zone. Everyone was nice. The parks and trails were nice. No pitbulls. Lots of kids running around. No melting pot of cultures. Everyone operating under the same social contract. I can't remember the last time I experienced that in Houston without it being a paid experience.
Was very shire-like looking back on it. And mordor was just a 20 minute drive eastward.