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Comment by pengaru | Hacker News Reader

> And this is in L.A., home to probably the least-challenging weather in the country. We have entire generations of junior-high and high-school kids who are apparently too feeble to ride their bikes, walk, or take the bus to school. Pathetic.

Weather is a minor factor vs. the population-size/density/quality of a place like LA.

Just watch some of the George Floyd protest videos from LA to get a sense of what likely really concerns LA parents. No amount of snow, sleet, wind, and sub-zero temps can hold a candle to those apocalyptic scenes.

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L.A. is a giant county masquerading as a city, spread out with many areas' density being that which is generally called "suburban."

Nobody is advocating sending kids out into a riot. So that leaves... I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say probably 364.8 riot-free days a year suitable for playing or moving about outside.

Except the highly visible destruction and violence by its residents leave a lasting impression of what the community is actually composed and capable of at any given moment. The riots just put it on display front and center.

You can just stay indoors when the weather forecast is bad. There's no way to keep all the riff-raff locked inside while your kid walks home from school. In a place like LA, there's a lot of riff-raff. Just because there's no active riot doesn't mean the riff-raff is gone, they're just not all in a frenzy showing their true colors simultaneously. They continue to exist, and continue to be a potential risk, at all times.

What "destruction and violence" are you talking about? No neighborhood I visit or have lived in is rife with "riff-raff," and kids are still mollycoddled door-to-door.

> What "destruction and violence" are you talking about? No neighborhood I visit or have lived in is rife with "riff-raff," and kids are still mollycoddled door-to-door.

Are you wilfully ignoring the actual thread of context we're discussing? I was replying to your reply to the following:

> Just watch some of the George Floyd protest videos from LA to get a sense of what likely really concerns LA parents. No amount of snow, sleet, wind, and sub-zero temps can hold a candle to those apocalyptic scenes.

Good night.

That's ONE incident that was known to be incipient, and into which you would never send children. As I said, there are typically 364+ days a year of riot-free peace prevailing. The "riff-raff" in my neighborhood consists of girls' softball players, people walking their dogs, and bicyclists. Cowering at home in fear because they might explode into violence at any moment would be a pathetic way to live, but hey... that's your choice.

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