[ilaksh]

Check out Playas de Tijuana, Mexico. Occasionally it smells bad, but not usually, and in my neighborhood we have a strong police presence. Also living a block from the beach only costs $500. And on Mondays there is a market on the street right in front of the apartment. I rarely see any homeless people. The dogs and barbed wire are usually enough to prevent most robberies as long as you don't park a really nice car on the street for long. And it only costs $500 per month for rent.

Based on the descriptions in this thread, I actually think my neighborhood is safer and more pleasant than many places in San Francisco.

It's making me feel better about my own situation.

[officialchicken]

There are so many of these kinds of locations in Spain, it's hard to list. For $600/mo (2 BR apt/condo), sandwiched between Playa de Las Canteras and Playa de Alcavaneras. And several orders of magnitude safer than US/MX, in terms of crimes per capita.

[cammikebrown]

I'd love to move to Spain, and I'd learn Spanish, but as an American, how do I move there without getting deported?

[nextos]

Getting a visa is not that hard. Spain is also really relaxed about immigration.

If you are in the tech industry, many startups and big companies (e.g. Facebook, Google) have offices in Madrid and Barcelona.

If you wanna do remote work, the Canary Islands might be soon offering a special visa and a low tax regime.

You could also try a digital nomad lifestyle. If you return to the US every now and then, it should be fine.