Originally written by Liliana Boladz-Nekipelov on January 17, 2009 8:50 PM ...who are very friendly, regardless of any stereotypes of big city dwellers, and very tolerant.

You mean, generally, the denizens of the Big Apple are not known to be friendly?

This is just a myth, created probably by the people who are jealous or by the scared of everything type.

But if I remember it correctly, Nana had personal experience of being bruised by people who jumped queue in the store.

Do they still have that partition in the taxis? Even Beijing had done away with them!

Being friendly does not mean that some would not jump a store once in a while. They could help you if you need help in the street, or whatever, which does not necessarily entail that the next day they would not rob a bank again. There are criminal acts almost everywhere in big cities, but the general feeling in New York is a very friendly atmosphere, respect and tolerance. I was mugged myself twice, but they let me go. It was a long time ago, maybe 15 years ago.

Yes, they still have this divide in taxis, to prevent robbers from attacking the driver with an intent to steal the money. They are bulletproof.

Would that be a fair reflection of the state of affairs as traditionally the bobbies of London and the the cops of Tokyo do not carry guns (at least generally prior to Sept 11).

I do not know how friendly they are. I never spoke to a bobby of London, and I have not been to Tokyo.

Originally written by Liliana Boladz-Nekipelov on January 17, 2009 10:20 PM Over almost half of my life that I spent in New York, I have never seen anybody jumping a queue. A few jumped stores, yes.  This does not mean, however, that it does not occasionally happen.

Half of your life must be reasonably long.

Would it be safe to assume that the remit of your words encompasses at least a moderate amount of the inner city areas instead of just the likes of 5th Avenue?

BTW, replacing New York taxis every 3 years must be quite unique in the world.

I am not sure what you mean by the inner city, I suppose the so called more dangerous, drug-infested areas of the five boroughs. There is no such a thing as one area in New York considered the inner city. Yes, definitely, my account encompasses all of the five boroughs, including Harlem and East New York, not to offend any of these areas. There are great things about Harlem, but there is still quite a lot of crime there, nothing to be compared to the situation a few years ago. The crime is also drug related, very often. You have to be careful in those area, but it is really not so bad, as it is portrayed. You may get hit by a stray bullet, but the shootings are mostly drug related. The people are still nice, although some of them may be dangerous at times. The situation is somehow worse as far as arm related crimes are concerned, because it is much easier to buy guns in America, than any other place, at least than in Europe. In New York you need a license to buy a gun, and you have to go through a thorough background check, but people buy guns in other states and bring them to New York.