I would love to live wherever you live so that I could even imagine that this was not obvious to anyone who goes out into public spaces.
The actual visible stuff (homeless people, trash, smell of public urination, people on drugs in public, people being mentally ill in public, shoplifting) is up. And both violent crime and rich people are more evenly distributed around the city so the “violent crime near a rich person” is up. And so people react to those.
That's like saying the economy is up from the 1930s.
Personally I think two things are true, crime ain't that bad and you're basically framing the problem to let you lie through your teeth a politican.
Life isn’t perfect, and we have serious problems like any other city, but I took my kids bike riding through downtown yesterday evening and felt safe.
I lived there for a few years, and while the river walks were very pleasant, I don’t have much to say about it particularly otherwise.
The job market was pretty bad, basically limiting you to State gov or one of the handful of insurance companies around and state government work is rough (easily the most fulfilling job I’ve had, but the salary was just way too low.
Seems hard to justify with GA and NC markets nearby unless you’re staying solely for CoL or existing ties.
But the Bull Street district is in a totally different place from when you were here, which creates a feeling of “coming liveliness.”
Also Scout Motors is dropping a multi billion dollar plant in Columbia which will help job market
Definitely not Greenville, but we are getting there.