[kevinskii]

Well, I live in the Los Angeles area. My kids' school is a 300ft walk down a shady greenbelt, and there's a huge park next to it. Before the pandemic we regularly walked to nearby shops and dining. There are miles of hiking trails within close walking distance.

Everyone in the neighborhood knows everyone else, and we look out for each other. There are lots of kids in the neighborhood to play with. People come from all sorts of different nationalities. This isn't unique to us either. Lots of our friends around southern CA have similar situations, and it's a lifestyle that you could comfortably afford on a $150k-$200k/year household income if you wanted to. A house like mine in the Bay Area would be worth over $2 million dollars. Here it's less than half that.

You definitely have better weather, higher salaries, and more career opportunities though. If I lose my job there's a fair chance that we'd have to move somewhere else to make the commute reasonable. Your public transportation is also vastly superior to ours. SF also has a lot more character, but right now it's not a place I would take my kids to visit because of the problems you mentioned. I don't go there often, but I get harassed by the homeless every time I do.