Has It Always Been So Bad?

[mariano-BCN]

We've been looking into Spain, as well. A friend of ours (Argentine) recently moved from Ireland to Malaga and talks very well about it. Not as efficient as the Eastern Costa Brava, but still fits the bill you mentioned. We are considering the southern Spanish coast for the weather, the costs of living and the people. I have never been outside of Barcelona so I don't really know what to imagine, but as long as I am within reasonable distance from an airport, can live in a house with a garden and keep my windows open, I am fine.

Serafina: Since I left BsArs I've been doing city-breaks from Amsterdam to Spain, thanks to the cheap flights of Vueling, in order to find a place to stay. So far: Barcelona wins by far (excellent private and affordable health-system, excellent flight connections of low cost airlines -specially Easyjet, Vueling, etc, beaches, mountains, lots of cultural happenings. But BCN is more expensive than other cities and areas.
I visited also Malaga/Granada (indeed good dry climate) but very "mañana-atmosphere", Sevila is great too but too hot in the summer and far from the sea. Madrid: the madrileños are more open and friendly than catalanes but it;s more polluted and far from the sea. Excellent flight connections.
Alicante: very good flight connections, nice beaches, lots of Irish and British living there. But very boring.
In May I'll move from Amsterdam. I think it will be Barcelona again. Maybe in the outskirts to spend less money on the rent and more on travels.

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

You guys dont know how good you got it.
This is a post on facebook today from somebody I know who lives in a pretty nice residential neighborhood in Seattle- sort of Belgrano R kind of place.

"I am tired of the crack heads and junkies in my alley, smoking, shooting up, leaving garbage and yelling. I stepped on a syringe going down to the light Rail today. (At least clean up your dangerous garbage.) A child could have picked it up. Ugh. I don't know what to do. Calling the police doesn't help anyone, or stop anything. It probably just makes a bad situation worse in ways I don't even know about. There are two out there now smoking-- I did something truly out of character-- I threw an empty milk carton at them. It's true, I did. I yelled "Go Home," but I think the alley is their home. I don't know what to do or what to think or what to feel. There is no answer or solution available. And it is heartbreaking to think of wasting your one precious life shooting up in an alley."

the epidemic of homeless, drug addicts, alcoholics, untreated mentally ill, jobless veterans, and people who cant get a job because of minor drug arrests 20 years ago, in the USA, is unbelievable these days.
I was working in downtown Phoenix a few years ago, and needed to go to a business just a few blocks south of downtown, right next to a Mission that gave out food, and came upon 500 homeless people, all waiting, with their shopping carts and bags full of belongings, for lunch. It was like a medieval city, amputees, old people, children- there is simply no comparison to the occasional sleeper on the sidewalk in Bs As.

I live a stones throw from Belgrano R. We have drug addicts and ineffective police just like Seattle.

You want to know what else we have? That your friends nice area of Seattle doesn't. 7+ ft permimiter walls. Guard dogs. Electrified fences. Concertina wire. Security shutters and Iron Bars on the Windows. Reinforced steel doors with multiple locks.

It's not that bad here and people often over exaggerate the insecurity but your comparison to Seattle is just crazy.

 

[gpop]

The common denominator obvious isn't it? Big cities.
They will all share the same problems, with the symptoms being better or worse to some degree. Some may be able to deal with some aspects and bandage some issues but none are without this 'disease'.

 

[mmoon]

Sorry, but I really don't think you can compare BA to other big cities in the US. I've lived and traveled all over, and unless you live in a poor neighborhood, you can pretty easily move around cities in the US without being constantly worried about being robbed.
I love BA, have loved living there, but it is exhausting to be constantly on your guard. I was robbed once on the street, my dad was almost pick-pocketed, my friend's mom was assaulted in the street for her watch, our friends had their clothes robbed off our clothesline in the backyard of a house near Pinamar. That kind of stuff happens constantly. No, I never leave my laptop on the coffee table for a second unattended. I don't pull out my iPhone in lots of locations. I would never wear a nice watch, or carry a nice bag on the street. One of our friends in Olivos and another in Cordoba had robbers climb over their walls and lock them up in the bathroom, tie them up and stand over them with a gun while their compadre ransacked the house. I don't know one person who has had that kind of experience in the US. These events were in nice neighborhoods in BA with tons of security. The bars on the windows, the guys in booths on the corner (working for you or against you?), the admonitions to never leave your purse on the car seat next to you, on and on and on. That's what wears you down. Yes, in the US you have to be rightfully worried about gun violence, but that is still thankfully (relatively) rare and you don't hear that it has happened to nearly everyone you know within very recent memory. Robberies and security threats in BA to me feel like a constant.

 

[estebandepraga]

If you can deal with xenophobic people. an impossible and impracticle language, a land-locked country and lots of pork, cabbage and lack of smiles, The Czech Republic is your kind of place. Mind you, I love Prague but the coldness of many Czechs as well as of the climate doesn't make me want to spend all year there. It is, however, a culturally rich and beautiful country and Prague despite the hoards of tourists is Europe's most magical and beautiful city in my opinion and I have been alnost everywhere!

 

[Girino]

If you can deal with xenophobic people. an impossible and impracticle language, a land-locked country and lots of pork, cabbage and lack of smiles, The Czech Republic is your kind of place. Mind you, I love Prague but the coldness of many Czechs as well as of the climate doesn't make me want to spend all year there. It is, however, a culturally rich and beautiful country and Prague despite the hoards of tourists is Europe's most magical and beautiful city in my opinion and I have been alnost everywhere!

How would you compare Prague to Budapest? A lot of Italians love Prague (I think just for the hot and friendly girls and the cheap beer), but I was blown away by Budapest.

 

[Noesdeayer]

Ries:
Has your friend ever heard of L.E.A.D. Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program in Seattle ?
A program for the assistance of drug addiction and prostitution there?

 

[Ries]

I live a stones throw from Belgrano R. We have drug addicts and ineffective police just like Seattle.

You want to know what else we have? That your friends nice area of Seattle doesn't. 7+ ft permimiter walls. Guard dogs. Electrified fences. Concertina wire. Security shutters and Iron Bars on the Windows. Reinforced steel doors with multiple locks.

It's not that bad here and people often over exaggerate the insecurity but your comparison to Seattle is just crazy.

Its evidently been a while since you have been to Seattle.
I know people who have all of those things. Certainly not every house- but I have never been in a house in Buenos Aires (and I know a fair amount of people) with electric fences, or barbed wire.
Certainly there are some, just as there are some in Seattle.

I used to make some of my living installing iron (actually steel) bars on houses, and reinforced steel doors- In Los Angeles, in the 80s.

Bars on windows are common in many american cities. I put bars on the windows of my office, in downtown Seattle, in 1982, after a burglary.

You are making Buenos Aires seem worse than South Central LA- all I can say is, having lived in both, there is no comparison.
Today, in seattle, we have this one-
http://q13fox.com/2016/02/24/cops-man-punches-metro-bus-driver-then-pulls-knife-when-confronted-by-deputy/

How many collectivo drivers were punched this month in Buenos Aires?
Or ever?

I was in Belgrano R for a christmas party- didnt see a single abandoned needle on the ground- in fact, in all my years of walking the streets in BsAs, I have never seen one- but in any major american city, in the downtown area, you can find them every day.

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

Sorry, but I really don't think you can compare BA to other big cities in the US. I've lived and traveled all over, and unless you live in a poor neighborhood, you can pretty easily move around cities in the US without being constantly worried about being robbed.
I love BA, have loved living there, but it is exhausting to be constantly on your guard. I was robbed once on the street, my dad was almost pick-pocketed, my friend's mom was assaulted in the street for her watch, our friends had their clothes robbed off our clothesline in the backyard of a house near Pinamar. That kind of stuff happens constantly. No, I never leave my laptop on the coffee table for a second unattended. I don't pull out my iPhone in lots of locations. I would never wear a nice watch, or carry a nice bag on the street. One of our friends in Olivos and another in Cordoba had robbers climb over their walls and lock them up in the bathroom, tie them up and stand over them with a gun while their compadre ransacked the house. I don't know one person who has had that kind of experience in the US. These events were in nice neighborhoods in BA with tons of security. The bars on the windows, the guys in booths on the corner (working for you or against you?), the admonitions to never leave your purse on the car seat next to you, on and on and on. That's what wears you down. Yes, in the US you have to be rightfully worried about gun violence, but that is still thankfully (relatively) rare and you don't hear that it has happened to nearly everyone you know within very recent memory. Robberies and security threats in BA to me feel like a constant.

Don't forget the kidnapping. A good friend of mine and an ex girlfriend. Both kidnapped. Friend was released only after his parents paid the ransom.

Pretty much hear about adults being kidnapped and ransomed in the US.

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

Its evidently been a while since you have been to Seattle.
I know people who have all of those things. Certainly not every house- but I have never been in a house in Buenos Aires (and I know a fair amount of people) with electric fences, or barbed wire.
Certainly there are some, just as there are some in Seattle.

It is many many times more prevalent then in Seattle. I've never seen a house in a nice neighborhood in Seattle with concertina wire or electric fences. Where as here in Belgrano R it is very common. My friends and family who live there have told me that there has been a sharp rise in burglaries but the difference that mostly break into empty houses.

There are plenty of houses all over Seattle (and the rest of the country) that have windows without bars on them or doors which could easily be kicked in.

Here if you had an unprotected window at street level the probability of someone trying to break in would be damn close to 100%