The huge Walmart in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is like that — very clean, very friendly, nice people, well-stocked (not much locked up). People want to keep it that way.
ONE guy was camping in a city park a month ago and everybody got up in arms and I assume the police routed him back to Washington state. We have low tolerance for this crap.
But, on our local “NextDoor” app, there are maybe 5% to 10% of people who just do not get it. They don’t understand how the homeless cancer spreads and grows (and can do that very quickly). The other 90% to 95% of people set the bleeding hearts right very quickly and point to the failed Portland, Seattle, San Fran and LA examples. But still they argue for compassion not knowing what would be just around the corner if it grows.
I enjoy threads like this when folks post anecdotes about their (mostly rural) areas where the urban insanity is something we only read about.
That’s not meant to sound smug, but hopefully our areas can maintain the status quo for at least the next few years of life I hopefully have left.
Thing is, there’s just way too many cows and corn and shotguns around here to be attractive to the gibsmedat crowd.
I had the Aberdeen WA nextdoor acct - just the opposite, youd get get chewed out for speaking ill of those poor homeless folks.
Also posts of thefts are an everyday thing, some people know the answer but the rational are outnumbered by the foolish.