Locals trend conservative, always giving the advice "don't do that, you'll definitely die" because they remember one bad incident 10 or 20 years ago and never clock how circumstances have changed. My favorite is the time I was warned over and over by several different people about not going somewhere because I would surely be killed by foreigners or wolves. Dude, what? If there was a major problem with one, it would scare off the other. Are they working together?? lol

Definitely agree in some cases. eg where I live ( Auckland, New Zealand ) plenty of people read stories in the local paper or facebook that highlight every single incident in the Central city. So they are scared to go there.

Reality is thousands of white-collar workers (including me), normal locals and many tourists of all ages. Small number of homeless. But no more dangerous than any other city (and a lot safer during the day and early evening )

well that's not always the case - I live in place where you can jog with earphones at 2AM and only worry about drunk drivers (very rare)

as a local, there was a lot of places that are "visible to foreigners but invisible to locals" -- cafes/view spots/hipster-places that only advertises to foreigners (they didn't even have signboards) I learnt about those places when some foreign friends took me there

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