What do you fear most in the city where you live?

[CaliNative]

I now live in coastal southern California. I fear quakes the most. Unpredictable. Can be extremely destructive. I've lived through three: Sylmar, 1971 (shook me out of bed); Loma Prieta, 1989; Northridge, 1994 (shook me out of bed again). All were very violent and extremely scary, even though less than magnitude 7.

In your city, what scares you most? Tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, human problems like crime?

Are there any "perfect" cities that are worry free, where nothing can bother you? I will move there.

[SFBruin]

Seattle doesn't have many natural disasters, as far as I am aware, but the winters are long and wet.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Seattle doesn't have many natural disasters, as far as I am aware, but the winters are long and wet.

^^^
Every few hundred years or so the northwest can have a monster quake on the Cascadia subduction zone fault offshore, up to magnitude 9, similar in size to the Japanese Fukushima megaquake in 2011. The last one in the northwest has been dated at 1700, 321 years ago, so Portland and Seattle (and possibly Vancouver) may be due. The worst damage would probably be along the Pacific coast, where there would be large tsunamis. I'm not sure if the tsunamis would spread into Puget Sound. Seattle and Portland might be far enough from the offshore fault to avoid severe damage from shaking, not sure. Local onshore faults can also cause smaller quakes, probably under mag. 7. And there is Mt. Rainier, which if it erupted might cause big problems to nearby towns, but maybe is distant enough from Seattle to spare it damage. The winds would probably blow the ash cloud east, away from the city, just like Portland was spared from the huge ash cloud when St.Helens erupted.

In SoCal, I am worried about a quake on the southern branch of the San Andreas, from the Salton Sea area north to the Riverside area, which potentially could be an 8 and be destructive. The last one was about 300 years ago, so it might be due. Other faults like the San Jacinto, Elsinore and Newport Inglewood/Rose Canyon could also be due, perhaps for 6-7 sized quakes, that could be locally destructive. Timing on all of these is uncertain, so maybe it is foolish to worry, but be prepared.

Other areas that have had substantial quakes in the past are the New Madrid area in southern Missouri, the Charleston S.C. area (1870s?) and even Boston in colonial days. The New Madrid fault zone is curious. It is very far from any known tectonic plate boundary (maybe it is an incipient plate boundary?) yet generated two very large quakes in 1811 and 1812, possibly as large as mag 8. The timing on these quakes is unknown. A repeat could cause substantial damage to Memphis TN, and perhaps St. Louis and other cities. Seismic waves tend to travel farther in the Midwest and South, since the rock layers are less fractured than on the west coast, so they conduct the waves well. But the recurrence interval may be very long since it away from other known plate boundaries, so the stresses presumably build up very slowly. If anyone is familiar with the New Madrid fault zone, it would be interesting to read about it here. I know very little about the Charleston or Boston quakes. Does anyone?

[Marshal]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Seattle doesn't have many natural disasters, as far as I am aware, but the winters are long and wet.

Are you new to Seattle?

Seattle (not so much Portland), like Vancouver, is under threat of a massive earthquake. For tsunamis to be a significant threat the source would need to be 300 miles offshore where the subduction is occurring. The coast is at risk of tsunami concentration up narrow inlets (notably Alberni Inlet, but also Straight of Georgia/Salish Sea & Puget Sound). The danger to Seattle & Vancouver comes from a literal drop in the crust as the subduction releases allowing the whole plate to move laterally and vertically, releasing immense energy and forces in the 8-9 mag. range.

Earthquake is definitely my worst fear in Vancouver.

Everyone has an Earthquake kit (water, communications, generators, food, med kit . . . . . ) Our region has also been spending 100's of millions on earthquake proofing bridges and other structures. A special high volume firefighting system fed with pumped ocean water was installed to cover the downtown peninsula. Our building codes take seismic design very seriously. And people and the media talk about it (the big one) on an ongoing basis. It is very real to us, and I imagine Seattle is equally aware.

[Razor]

Politicians

[hauntedheadnc]

Tornadoes and the human element. Tornadoes simply weren't much of a threat in Asheville, in part because the climate there is cooler and there are fewer days when the weather is turbulent enough for them to form, and in part because the terrain wouldn't allow a tornado to really get going and stay going. Any tornado in Asheville can't go very far before it runs into a wall of mountain. On the occasions tornadoes did touch down, they did very localized, and usually very minor damage. In Greenville though, the weather is hotter, more humid, and more prone to generating scary storms and tornadoes. This spring a tornado formed and touched down not far from my house, and tore part of the roof off a strip mall. At my house, a big patch of siding came off the wall. It's quite an adjustment to know that at any moment for the majority of the year, if the weather gets in a mood it can just, any old time it wants, reach out and touch you with the finger of death.

As for the human element, Greenville has always had higher crime than Asheville, with the news down here having always been full of shootings, stabbings, and people and things being set afire or run over on purpose. We knew that coming in. However, Greenville is considerably more conservative than Asheville, and many of the more ardent right-wingers seem to view themselves as antibodies of a sort, and are constantly on the lookout for pathogens that might infect the body of real 'Murka. To that end, when my husband and I go out together we often get the shit eye from some patriot with too large a belt buckle and too small a brain. No one's done or said anything yet, but they look, and it's hard not to worry when one's going to snap. Also, up in Asheville the Bible-thumpers were present, but they'd leave you alone if you ignored them and walked on past. Down here the Bible-thumpers don't so much thump it as beat it like a timpani drum, and they will chase you and will corner you to tell you about all the torments and indignities you'll suffer in hell. And in Asheville we never thought a thing of holding hands in public, whereas down here that's not a good idea.

So yeah. Down here I fear tornadoes and the right wing.

[Yuri]

That's a very good question... and for me it's hard to answer.

I live in São Paulo, it's safe, no natural disasters, so I guess it's more psychological fears, anxiety. I guess I fear change, that the city will change in a way I won't like or maybe I change and stop liking the city, something like that.

[10023]

Probably theft. You don’t really have to worry about guns, but London is notorious for “petty crime”, from break-ins (perhaps because of the lack of guns) to cutting locks on bikes. And muggings - beware mopeds coming up fast behind you.

[Nouvellecosse]

Nova Scotia doesn't have a whole lot to worry about in the short term other than the odd Atlantic storm which can either be winter storms of tail-end of hurricanes. We don't have earth quakes, high tornado risk, or much ground water flooding. But we do have long term sea level rise risk, particularly with storm surge events. There's also a risk of tsunamis if a large scale landslide were to occur in Canary Islands. But those are risks shared with the whole eastern coast.

[MonkeyRonin]

No longer being able to afford living here.

[Steely Dan]

Getting a piece of polish sausage lodged in the lining of my heart.

[the urban politician]

Ever rising taxes, debt, and financial collapse

[suburbanite]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

No longer being able to afford living here.

Toronto's crime rate is pretty low. I'd trade some petty crime and maybe the occasional mild natural disaster for being able to afford a house as a single person before I'm 40.

[niwell]

Housing prices and being hit by a car on the street that I live on due to complete lack of traffic enforcement.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by niwell

Housing prices and being hit by a car on the street that I live on due to complete lack of traffic enforcement.

Niwell, you're originally from Johannesburg, right? What are your fears about it?

[Chisouthside]

Unstable Lake Michigan levels/ rising home values in my preferred areas.

[10023]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Getting a piece of polish sausage lodged in the lining of my heart.

Or a whole egg?

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Chisouthside

Unstable Lake Michigan levels/ rising home values in my preferred areas.

Yeah unstable lake Michigan levels is my top fear too

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Niwell, you're originally from Johannesburg, right? What are your fears about it?

Nope, just lived there for a bit! From Western Canada originally.

But to answer your question it would probably be bad drivers (lots of vehicular deaths), violent crime which while partly avoidable is still common enough you can get caught in bad situations, utility shortages (load-shedding and water cut-offs still common regardless of area) which could be exacerbated by population growth and changing climate, and the overall anxiety surrounding the national economy and risk of collapse.

With respect to the last one, things like xenophobic riots, crackdowns on immigrants and finding other sops for economic anxiety definitely rise as the overall economic situation worsens in the country. There was some light at the end of the tunnel but COVID really messed things up and deepened a lot of inequalities. Thankfully the recent riots surrounding Zuma's conviction showed that Johannesburg and Gauteng in general seems to have a large enough middle class invested in maintaining a tenable lifestyle for the future - unlike Durban where the ultra-rich seemed to hole up and let everyone else fight it out.

In general there's probably a lot of the same psychological fears and anxiety you describe about Sao Paulo that too many people live with in their day to day lives.

[Acajack]

Crime and incivility in general.

Where I live isn't much to write home about in terms of looks, but it's almost unparallelled in North America (and increasingly in western democracies I'd say) in terms of the level of personal safety for a city of its size. Even if we're only 300,000 people. Most cities smaller than ours are noticeably more troubled.

We have a city of 1 million people right across the river that was once placid but is less and less so with each passing year.

Actually, the troubling trendline is pretty clear everywhere around us - both near and further afield.

The realist in me knows it's only a question of time before it hits us too.

And BTW we have diversity both ethno-racial and economic here. We definitely have crappy parts of town.

But we have almost no murders - and the rare ones we do have are generally family murder-suicides. Tragic but hardly a risk to the general public.

According to a radio report I heard a few months ago we average less than 700 break-ins a year.

I have social housing in my neighbourhood and also million-dollar houses. You see affluent soccer moms walking or jogging right by the social housing after dark without thinking twice.

None of this is really due to us being any smarter or better than anyone else. It's just a perfect storm of demographics, economic conditions, social programs to give the less fortunate a leg up, etc.

I try to remain hopeful but I don't see why we'll succeed where almost everyone else has failed.

EDIT: Also, things weren't always this way here.

https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life...ittle-chicago/