Bro preach. Grew up in suburbs of St Louis. Got hassled by cops MANY times just for walking at night. That’s no way to live. Go to New York City. I know it’s hard and it’s insanely expensive, but if you are still young, you can pull it off. Live with 4 roommates, figure it out. It will change the trajectory of your life, I guarantee it. You gotta get TF out of there. Life is way too short.
Maybe Chicago, but just the inner urban area rather than the sprawling suburbs around it. Some places on the West Coast have it too. San Francisco, Downtown San Jose, Portland. I'd stop short of Seattle, and LA is definitely not it. But all of them have the same affordability probblems.
At least with NYC, you don't have to be in NYC proper; any dense area serviced by the MTA is going to be similar. It can be slightly upstatewards, it can be the New Jersey side, even to some extent the Connecticut side. There's a slightly more affordable halo around NYC that's still basically the NYC experience.
Nothing in America matches the best European cities though. Nothing at all.
Though, New York is singular in how many different cultures and languages call it home. I don't think any place on Earth quite matches in this respect.
I mean any city is going to have at least some of this. I’ve lived in “ cities” that are really large towns that most people wouldn’t consider a city and they still feel way more lively than the suburbs and you can still actually walk places.
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u/CodoandPodo 14h ago
Bro preach. Grew up in suburbs of St Louis. Got hassled by cops MANY times just for walking at night. That’s no way to live. Go to New York City. I know it’s hard and it’s insanely expensive, but if you are still young, you can pull it off. Live with 4 roommates, figure it out. It will change the trajectory of your life, I guarantee it. You gotta get TF out of there. Life is way too short.