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I lived in Cleveland, Ohio for 2 years. While there were many cultural events, I could not afford them. It is not enough to have these opportunities, you have to earn enough money in order to take advantage of them.
https://www.city-data.com/forum/gene...r-country.html https://www.city-data.com/forum/city...-towns-24.html
These are older but there have been others in various state forums too, though I am not taking the time to search those.
Fear of 'others' goes both ways, rural and urban.
I won't argue this because I realize that that people who only have a one sided experience rarely change their opinions until they also experience it from the other side.
Thanks for finding those. There are some interesting discussions and responses, but I did notice that many of them opined that country people fear the city more than the other way around.
I agree about the "one sided experience" forming certain opinions. Here is mine.
I was born and raised in a city, and have lived in central cities, first ring, and exurban communities. We had family in different big cities along with rural areas and small towns when I was growing up, which we visited often, traveling through rural NY, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In my early career I travelled through Texas and the South performing oil field service work, usually partnered with a senior service hand who was Black (which was not typical of the industry at the time), and stayed in rural Louisiana for a number of months. In later years I travelled and worked with many who lived in small towns in Texas, Alabama, and Florida, who often shared their opinions and experience. Quite a few were Mexican-Americans.
In my decades of experience, I have personally known many many suburban and rural people who express a fear of traveling into cities. One was a former son-in-law who was a big Texan and a big chicken when in the city, seeing danger around every corner and nearly crying like a scared child when on the subway (although the passengers were mostly white suburban high school girls!). I can only identify a handful of people who have a fear of rural areas - Black co-workers who refused to work in certain towns in East Texas (this was before Jasper), a Mexican-American co-worker who avoided certain towns south of Houston (one I found out later WAS a KKK town), and my wife after being harassed by a pickup truck full of good ole boys when we were traveling through Slidell into Mississippi. But, it wasn't fear of ALL rural areas, it was fear of specific areas.
For some reason many people think that a City Limit line is like a gate to hell. Living in the burbs many neighbors and co-workers expressed pride that they never had to go into the city. There were office self-defense classes "just in case you have to go into the city." Most people believed NYC was still as pictured in Taxi Driver. On each of our moves back into the city we got pleading "Whyyyyy???" from family, friends, and neighbors, while others moving to BFE in the sticks would get congratulated for "escaping."
I believe you may be confusing 'fear of' with 'dislike' in some instances. I have lived in both city and rural locations. I do not fear cities, but I do dislike them and would not live in one again. IMO cities are great for visiting, to acquire some of that citified 'culture'.
I'd say yes in some ways. I grew up in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho (which has gained some bad notoriety as of late). Growing up in that area (and Idaho in general), there is next to no diversity. Everyone is white, most go to a large church on Sundays, and are of the guns/God/USA type. Notice I said most, not all. That being said, moving to the Seattle area was an eye opener. So many ethnicities, languages, and walks of life. You're forced to deal with people struggling on the streets. You may be in a restaurant where you're the only one that can speak one language (English). You have access to the sporting events, concerts, cultural events that would never make stop in ID. Quite a few of my friends that still live that that have ventured over here get nervous in the city around so many people that are 'different'. When you come from a place like Coeur d' Alene and seldom leave, you become comfortable in a bubble where everyone is like you. I feel that places like that aren't real life. Seeing all of humanity and trying to broaden your horizons IS real life. For many of us, moving to a larger city provided that.
I'd say yes in some ways. I grew up in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho (which has gained some bad notoriety as of late). Growing up in that area (and Idaho in general), there is next to no diversity. Everyone is white, most go to a large church on Sundays, and are of the guns/God/USA type. Notice I said most, not all. That being said, moving to the Seattle area was an eye opener. So many ethnicities, languages, and walks of life. You're forced to deal with people struggling on the streets. You may be in a restaurant where you're the only one that can speak one language (English). You have access to the sporting events, concerts, cultural events that would never make stop in ID. Quite a few of my friends that still live that that have ventured over here get nervous in the city around so many people that are 'different'. When you come from a place like Coeur d' Alene and seldom leave, you become comfortable in a bubble where everyone is like you. I feel that places like that aren't real life. Seeing all of humanity and trying to broaden your horizons IS real life. For many of us, moving to a larger city provided that.
Good for you, DJKirkland. While big cities are far from perfect, it is important we all recognize the mind-expanding experience they can provide, especially on a human level. If more people were as open-minded about learning of people who may not look like, think like or be from a similar place as you, we'd be a far better country and society.
I did a search looking for threads referencing Deliverance and rural areas, and at least as far back as 2018 every one mentioning Deliverance was written by a person living in the rural area, basically saying "we are not like Deliverance" but usually referring more to the lack of development in the movie rather than the violence. There was one, however, who lived mostly off the grid that said where they lived WAS like in Deliverance!
So, send a link to those threads about scared city people - I would be interested to understand the context.
That said, it seems as if rural people themselves recognize there are risks and dangers of living and traveling in rural areas. Gun culture is strong in rural areas likely because the isolation of living in the country, far apart from other who could hear or respond to calls for help. I knew some very rural people who always kept loaded weapons by their front doors - I thought they and their neighbors were all a little crazy, but I wouldn't want to be walking onto their property at night if I had a car breakdown, thats for sure. I know many many more that would no more leave their home without a gun than without their pants on.
That is the complete opposite of the city - where the presence of people and "eyes on the street" brings a level of protection as there is no anonymity, and immediate response in the event of any issues. Crimes, when they occur, are usually among people who know each other, or places with an absence of people. I have more concern being alone on an empty street, an empty park, etc than on any city street in a moderately busy city.
Plenty of streets in the city can be 'empty' and devoid of caring eyes. Note that I grew up and spent most of my life living in big cities, and I can tell you that you grow up with a culture of 'minding your own business' in the city. I might see you getting jumped, but I'm very likely not going to interfere or necessarily even call the police. That's for physical violence. Property crimes don't even register.
Here's another perspective. I lived in the Chicago suburbs almost my whole life until I was in my late 40s. I now have lived in the city of Chicago for the last 3 years.
I've learned a lot in these 3 years. I'm not sure it makes me more cultured. But I've certainly become more educated on the realities facing various people, the immense NEED there is out there, and points of view that I never understood before. I'm not all the way there by any means, but MAN, I've learned a ton about how people unlike me feel, how they think, and what they are going through.
This would not have happened if I had stayed in my suburb. I would have "thought" I knew stuff but really didn't.
That said, I don't feel more connected to ballet, or sports, or comedy, or live theater now than I did before. I had access then, and I have access now, and I may partake slightly more now but it's not a big cultural difference.
But my mindset has definitely changed. My knowledge of certain harder realities has grown exponentially.
Plenty of streets in the city can be 'empty' and devoid of caring eyes. Note that I grew up and spent most of my life living in big cities, and I can tell you that you grow up with a culture of 'minding your own business' in the city. I might see you getting jumped, but I'm very likely not going to interfere or necessarily even call the police. That's for physical violence. Property crimes don't even register.
I agree about avoiding empty city streets, but my experiences are much less cynical about the degree of minding your own business when it comes to crime. If its on my own street or in my own neighborhood, it IS my business. I think that is true for most places. At the same time we can still respect the privacy and property of our neighbors, and we watch out for each other. And if we do have a problem with a neighbor, we take it up directly with the neighbor and don't involve the authorities.
Bottom line is we all learn to find ways to get along.
I think with the advent of the internet the difference has been lessened. Before the internet someone in rural America or a small city would never come into contact with a lot of niche cultures - they wouldn't even know they existed. Now, someone in a small town can be exposed to the same sets of ideas as someone in a big city. The main difference now is whether they want to.
I agree about avoiding empty city streets, but my experiences are much less cynical about the degree of minding your own business when it comes to crime. If its on my own street or in my own neighborhood, it IS my business. I think that is true for most places. At the same time we can still respect the privacy and property of our neighbors, and we watch out for each other. And if we do have a problem with a neighbor, we take it up directly with the neighbor and don't involve the authorities.
Bottom line is we all learn to find ways to get along.
In an ideal scenario, sure, people watch out for each other and in the case of neighbors that know and like each other, that might be relatively likely, but in a real big city your street, your neighborhood may have several hundred or maybe even thousands of folks who live and/or work there, most of whom you don't know at all.
In fact, I once lived in a building and the guy in the apartment below us was found dead..a week after it happened. Basically the smell got bad enough someone called the cops. I didn't know who the guy was, what his deal was, etc. I to this day don't know what the cause of death was, so maybe he got murdered, maybe it was suicide, maybe a lonely guy having a heart attack or slipping in the shower. All I know is that the building smelled like death and decay for months and that there's no smell worse than that.
It's different if there's little kids because the little kids will know each other and by extension the parents as well, but every building will have a number of tenants who no-one knows, no-one would notice go missing. That's just the reality of it. The anonymity of the city vs the intricate web of relationships in small towns and villages all has pros and cons. There's a reason the city tends to draw in people who're made uncomfortable by the prying eyes of their extended families and neighbors. Of course cities have some neighborhoods where the relationships mimick those of small towns and villages...because most of the residents are immigrants who came from such places and brought those relationships with them. But that's a dying thing especially if you're not of an ethnicity with tons of recent immigrants.
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