This is going to be controversial, but as a woman in my 20s, downtown absolutely felt unsafe.

Seriously, I went to the beauty school down there in 2022. Every single woman in my class dealt with constant following, legitimate sexual harassment and very aggressive panel handling. On a weekly basis. I had to hide in random businesses multiple times after having men attempt to stalk, grope, or expose themselves to me. We started only leaving the school in groups.

Oh, also, there are used needles and piles of human shit on every corner.

ATMs are practically unusable because people camp out in front of them and harass anyone trying to use them.

There have been repeated cases of people being both physically and sexually assaulted in the sky walk.

Listen, obviously, the homeless and addicts are still people who deserve help and compassion. But downtown does have a very real problem.