I've lived in a big city for years now. Never seen anybody get mugged, or shot, or carjacked, despite doing activist work that often has me visiting poor minority neighborhoods.
The only time I ever really felt uneasy was when I had to walk alone at night through a neighborhood where all the businesses had bars on the windows. Worst thing that happened was a couple of people asking me for money, and they didn't give me any shit when I said I didn't carry cash.
But any time I visit the small town where I grew up there's always someone or another acting like I came back from a fucking warzone lmao
It's really just a personal preference. I don't like living in crowded places. It's not anti-social or misanthropic. I like other people. But I get agitated in crowded areas. It makes me unhappy to be constantly surrounded by people.
I don't need a personal fief. I don't care if I lived in a collectived area where I was close to my neighbors. That sounds fine. But it's important to me that I have nature available to me. So if I could walk out of my collective into some trees I don't own, that would be great. Public parks are okay, but they aren't the same, and they're always packed with people, too.
I'm sorry, but there's no way to reimagine cities in a way that they won't be crowded and noisy. People make a lot of noise just bustling about without cars. Some people like that feeling, and that's cool. But I don't.
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Okay, thanks comrade.
I guess I should have been clearer and not attached my opinion to someone else's. For the record, I agree with you that these places need to be reimagined.
This is the second time that I've had a similar conversation on Hexbear. From my perspective, I'm just saying I don't enjoy cities, and I get a bunch of people telling me that, actually, I do like cities.
I understand why that's happening now.