Damn.

I live right above a bus stop, within two blocks of a fire station, the Hell's Angels HQ and a house that has been owned by an interstate smuggling operation for 25 years and is the site of occasional gun fights (I used to live across the street but I moved a couple blocks away last summer). MY rent is about 2/3 market for the neighborhood and it's still higher than what people I know were paying for multi-bedroom apartments in Brooklyn and Green Point and Boston during the Bush years. Sucks, but at least I'm still in a city for now so I don't have to deal with the violent crime in the suburbs, I actually consider myself really priileged to be able to live here at all. My friend's sister lives out near Cape Cod and she has to carry an open knife up her sleeve on her way to and from the bus in case someone tries to assault her. Last I saw her, her daughter had just turned 6 and she was debating whether that was old enough to start learning about armed self defense. Her rent is almost double mine. Her husband has been out ofwork for a year because he had an injury on the job, which cost him his insurance and they can't afford ACA copays for the treatment he needs to be able to go back to work to get the money and insurance he needs to get the treatment he needs to go back to work etc. etc. etc.

Things are shitty all over, I'm glad your rent is low at least.