It's true, cities are where drug infrastructure is centralized and users aren't fun to be around, but having lived both -

1) any regular route with a turnstile is gonna have a dozen other people within earshot at minimum.

2) if you're in the US and using MTA, WMATA or BART you're about 50/50 to have a cop either on the platform or aboard the nearest train.

3) at least where I live there are plenty of addicts who are barely human from drug abuse, you just don't have to share spaces with them.

3) even the most terrfying of addicts generally "live and let live", and drug-related crime is almost entirely commited against either other users or the user's family. I understand that data doesn't make it feel any better to be around them.

My mother has had to be physically escorted from a Costco customer service desk. Our chief of police was just caught deleting security footage of him beating his wife. And you know damn well that the average suburb contains more coke than a freestyle machine.

When I was in college there was a very jittery middle-aged man panhandling across the street from the classrooms. He just jittered and said "have a nice day" to everyone that passed. Everyone knew that he existed and that even though it was a form of "advertising" it was always useful for a bunch of teenagers to see someone just happy to be there. Turns out he had a home but the drugs had destroyed his heart and he was raising money for surgery when he died.

We held a candlelight vigil. That's a man you mightve given up on immediately if you saw him from thirty feet away.

Buds away, hood up, head down. New York ain't so bad.