Crime is not an urban phenomenon, and when we describe it as one, we're flaming stereotypes. I don't think it was intentional and my point was not to denigrate the parent comment, but to encourage us to avoid accidental constructs like this.
At least in west coast cities, visible crime is just a fact of life. It borders on gaslighting to suggest that its not.
https://www.city-journal.org/violent-crime-in-cities-on-the-...
More children die from non-violent crime. The person who drives 10 over the speed limit down a suburban street is a child-endangering criminal, but so many people think the crimes they commit aren't "real" crimes.
If you want to look at data, overall rural child mortality exceeds urban child mortality in the United States; some of these causes are criminal, others are not. Motor vehicle death are the leading cause of child mortality, and for children under 18 exceed deaths from murder 2:1. Within vehicle deaths, for example, seatbelt usage is one of the predominant differentiators between rural and urban outcomes, and guess which areas have the lowest seat belt usage, and a disproportionately high number of deaths as a result? Yep, those "low crime" rural areas. Those parents who don't buckle up their kids are all criminals, too. I'm tired of seeing the label "crime" only applied to people committing certain crimes, in certain areas. It's applied in the most racist possible way in this country.
Ask the suburban kids to describe the inner city? Dangerous. Crime-ridden.
Ask the inner city kids to describe inner city? Community. Know their neighbors.
Mind you, I'm not necessarily with the GP. It seems like a question of only marginal relevance. But the parent reads like a low-effort dismissal that doesn't actually address the point.
As someone who grew up in the suburbs, and has since lived in a rough part of the city, it also resonated with my personal experience.
In the suburbs, nobody generally knows each other. In the city, due to density, you just have more neighborhood interactions.
Sometimes inner city interactions are uncomfortable or with crazy people, but they're generally non-violent.
If I had to peg percentages, I'd say:
Inner city: 30% awesome/interesting/helpful strangers, 55% ambivalent strangers, 10% unpleasant strangers, 4.5% crazy strangers, 0.5% potentially violent strangers
Suburbs: 15% awesome/interesting strangers, 70% ambivalent strangers, 15% unpleasant strangers, 0% crazy/potentially violent strangers