zehavasdad:
I have not lived in NY in a long time. Maybe the situation has changed. But I lived in the city and in the suburbs as a child. There were many places near us where one just did not go because it was not safe. Even in our “safe” suburb, a child could not safely go out alone at night. There was a certain level of caution (and sometimes a level of fear) about kidnapping, crime, etc. In NYC we had several locks on the doors. I was so well trained in door locking that it took me many many years in EY to become comfortable with the idea that an apartment’s front door could be left unlocked when people were home and awake. We just didn’t do things like that.
Here, kids go to the store alone at three or four years old to buy milk. They can go out after dark. I have many neighbors who leave their door unlocked (or open) whether they are home or not. (We lock ours when not home or when everyone is sleeping.) My children have much more freedom here than I had growing up in NY.
We didn’t talk to strangers. My kids asked strangers to “cross them the street” (safely take them across the street when they were too young to cross themselves).
Yes, there are terrorist attacks. I think more people are killed in car accidents. There is far less crime, and far more caring between strangers. There is also a closeness to Hashem, a special level of shmira. We feel (and are) safer. Not perfectly safe, but safer. More secure. More free.