Aaah the narrative that streets in US cities are unsafe. I guess a lot of people believe it. I guess it's advantageous to create that narrative and then demonstrate that you've fixed it.
Sure, if you go into certain parts of the cities, it can be, but it has always been that way. Generally speaking I've found US cities to be fine - and in the last 3 years I've visited San Francisco,, Denver, Milwaukee and Boston once each and multiple visits to Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. Can't say I saw anything of particular concern. But I didn't, for example, stray into the southsides of Philly or Chicago.
Even San Francisco - the narrative is that it's a hellhole, with lots of homeless. Yes, seemed to be lots of homeless right in the centre - not all homeless are a threat to personal security though. Union Square is a trainwreck, seems dodgy as the proverbial and basically deserted - a pale shadow of what it was 10 years ago. But other neighbourhoods- Chinatown, Fishermans Wharf, the Mission, Castro, Haight & Ashbury, and several others, all seemed vibrant as they used to be .
In any event, people are talking a lot in this thread about tourism type traffic - probably more important is what happens to business confidence and whether or not you see curtailed spending and reductions in business traffic across the Pacific. Remains to be seen.
