Really?
> When I first moved to NYC, it was a wet, slushy winter. My wife left her shoes outside our apartment door to dry off overnight, in a locked building with about 12 other units.
I kinda feel sorry for your wife shoes, but personally I wouldn't even list that in theft: unless you live in Japan, yes, things left outside your house DO tend to vanish, especially if left overnight!
> The next four years in NYC weren’t all that different; lots of petty theft and crime, all the time, everywhere. Unreported and unresolved.
Can you please share more? Because our definitions of theft seem so different that I seriously wonder what you call crime.
Personally, I've always felt safe in NYC and NJ. Oh god I miss the good food from Palisades Park...
> These days, I live in the mountains outside of Boulder
I have visited Boulder and noticed quite a few things besides the obvious like how it's not welcoming to smokers (smoking is banned everywhere). Among the disturbing ones, the police force seems to enjoy harassing the homeless. I was told about that and didn't believe it until I witnessed it with my own eyes. That's far more concerning to me to have shoes stolen outside my home.
Also, people felt kinda fake? As in, lots of virtue signaling, but I felt uneasy in a very creepy way.
It's very hard to describe. It suffices to say there's no amount of money you could pay me to live in Boulder, while NYC stills feels like home even if I don't live there anymore.
Maybe my few days of visit was just a fluke, but it's rare I've felt so bad about a city to say something as harsh.