I also live in a major US city with encampments constructed by the unhoused. My experience does not mirror your anxieties at all, and usually I am at street level, on a bicycle, and not a measly gawker staring from inside a metal box or a cafe.
Do you have any evidence to back up the claims about safety? Every time I've encountered a sentiment like this, even people who live in this city, it's just mere supposition -- an expression of anxiety veiled as fact, like the justifications given for the Boudin recall campaign, or else an extremely subjective (if traumatic) experience that doesn't extend readily to the general public.
Remember, violent crime and property crime are different things, and neither anecdotes nor anxiety count as data.
Do you have any evidence to back up the claims about safety? Every time I've encountered a sentiment like this, even people who live in this city, it's just mere supposition -- an expression of anxiety veiled as fact, like the justifications given for the Boudin recall campaign, or else an extremely subjective (if traumatic) experience that doesn't extend readily to the general public.
Remember, violent crime and property crime are different things, and neither anecdotes nor anxiety count as data.