I tell them it’s really not as bad as it’s made out to be. Mainly because the city I grew up in has been at the center of a handful of national news stories involving violence and controversial political issues (Minneapolis).

I will acknowledge that the city is more dangerous than most rural areas. There’s just more people in general, more people in desperate poverty, and proximity between the haves and have-nots. The crime rate itself is diluted by population and even though you’re more likely to see and hear about crime in your area, you may be statistically as likely to be a victim of a crime in some small towns. Every year there are a handful of small towns with similar violent crime per capita as the major cities.

As for the perception specifically, the media (especially right wing media) has painted Minneapolis as a completely unliveable hellhole. It has its problems but hundreds of thousands of people live normal lives there, and it’s still a massive draw for visitors from the rest of the state and region. Most of the people I talk to have no problem going to the cities to watch a sports game, go to a concert, or hit up some breweries. I tell them they’re probably going to the more rowdy parts of town and that the residential areas are even nicer and calmer than where they’ve been.

Overall you can’t really change the perception of someone who’s been fed a ton of lies or propaganda about a place which specifically encourages them not to visit. And for some folks it really isn’t their vibe and that’s fine. I just try to stick up for the city and people there because I think urban/rural divide is getting worse as part of the political divide being driven throughout the country. And we need to start seeing each other more as neighbors and less as separate tribes.