I spent the last four years up until about a month ago living in Mountain View, CA. A place so expensive that it was almost completely safe. Also intensely isolating, especially for a single person. I left for both personal and family reasons to come back to the place where I felt an actual sense of community.

I could have my own home in the country essentially for free, but I don't think I could keep my sanity. Maybe with a wife/dog/child some day but being among a sea of somewhat radical conservatives alone hundreds of miles of anywhere I'd like to go outside of my own home... let's just say I'm done being isolated for now.

What I think is that if the local government and police were actually doing a good job, the problems would be considerably reduced. I don't think the "abolish the police" party or the "law and order" party can either achieve this. But what it would take is leadership that is capable of understanding problems and enacting solutions and a population that is more interested in understanding their world than chanting slogans about it.