The other Friday night at the (Thai) restaurant where I work now, I began my spiel with a (mid-30s) (white) (professional) couple, and the woman volunteered that not only had they never eaten there before, but it was actually their first time really in town, and they were moving there.
And, I asked where they were moving from, and it turns out that they were moving from the city that I used to live in since she got a professorial job in STEM at the local university, so since it was slow when we began talking, I asked more, and I also briefed them on what they should know about different areas and real estate and crime etc.
Basically, the woman said she couldn't wait to move, and it was like everyone up there "forgot how to behave" and so the city feels like "the Wild West" and it just puts you "on edge" (her words).
She said she used to do tutoring all over the city and take the train home and it was like ten-thirty at night and she always felt safe and really never felt worried, but she just stopped doing that, and really going out at night.
She also said that in their neighborhood where they live now, there have always been some homeless people, but you kind of knew who they were and they had their places and their behaviors, but suddenly there were a lot more, and a lot of new faces, and behavior was more aggressive.
"Like when did this begin?", I was like.
"Twenty twenty-one," she was like, and I told her that it was that spring that I began noticing the same thing and I knew that I had to move, and I was out by the end of the year.
Our conversation felt so affirming, to know it just wasn't all in my head.
She also said that she agreed that she didn't think the situation up there would turn around anytime soon, and she was just looking forward to a more chill life.
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