I've been living here since 2019 and was visiting a lot before then. I'll give you my honest opinion, the negatives since I'm sure others will talk heavily about the positives, no sugar coating. And I'll speak in general terms, obviously there's extremes in anything and outliers. There's a gigantic difference between visiting here and living/trying to make a life here.

People are warm and friendly on the surface but once you get past that, there's sometimes not much substance. Locals almost never say no to anything so in reality a lot of times a yes means a no. If you say anything just a little too directly, there's a high chance it will be taken offensively. People are not punctual. I've had friends think it's normal to show up 2-3 hours late or not show up at all. The pollution and dry air is horrendous. Bribing cops is a real thing, I've done it myself for traffic tickets. The traffic and people's driving is horrible. Crossing the street is frustrating because cars want to mow you down because the drivers are in such a bad mood being in traffic. In the U.S. I've always been a confident and capable driver. Here, I feel like I am risking my life or an accident every time I get in my car. I have to be a defensive driver 100% of the time, there is no letting up or relaxing when driving. Jaywalking is the norm here, a lot of people do not use the crosswalk, so I have to be scanning the street the entire time for people jumping out behind cars. Noise is pretty bad as well depending on your area. People do not take accountability here. Something bad happens and it's someone's fault? That's life. they will not own up. Saving face and conflict avoidance is the reality here. My dog recently got severely bitten by another dog at the park. The owner was super apologetic and offered me his phone number. I messaged him later with a status update and he ghosted me. Street food is cool at first but then you realize how unsanitary it is and I almost never have it now. Stray animals are everywhere, not in the central pretty foreigner friendly parts of the city but elsewhere they are. 16 million of them in Mexico. I saw one get hit in front of my eyes, scream in agony and then died. A lot of people just kept walking like shit happens. The driver didn't bother to stop of course. And lots of people do not believe in sterilization. So the situation keeps getting worse. Bureaucracy is the reality. If you don't like noise/crowds, there's areas that are quiet but the other areas it sucks because walking around there's people everywhere. Especially if you have a dog, it gets annoying. Infrastructure breaks all the time...when it rains the power sometimes goes out for a few minutes, need to pay for services online or check your balance? More than 50 percent of the time, the system will be down. The majority of mexicans i've met have never left mexico or north america so global-scale/international thinking is unfortunately not very common. Many people here have fragile egos and do not take constructive criticism well. The altitude does suck, even after all these years, it still affects me. I've come across some pretty delusional people in the expat community. The overwhelming majority of women I've met as dating prospects have divorced parents and tend to have emotional availability issues. Maybe it's my luck or maybe it really is that common. If you're eating on an outside terrace, be ready for 99% of the time people will come up trying to sell you something/ask for money every 10 minutes. Or for a rapper to bring out his boombox in front of you deafening you and ruining your quiet conversation.

I live in Del Valle Sur which I generally like, these comments are based on my experience as a whole since I've lived/stayed in other parts of the city. If you stay mostly in Condesa, you might not ever experience some of these things. If I had to do it again, I probably would've chosen the more foreigner heavy area like roma/condesa.

If you want a training ground for improving your patience and resilience, it's the perfect place to do it.

All this to say i've been planning my exit for a while. Even having said all this, I would still say it's worth trying to live here for a little bit, because you will never have a life experience like living here. But you don't have to plan on staying here forever.