As someone who very recently moved to NYC (and therefore isn't an expert), I have had zero issues with crime, garbage, or theft, but have been annoyed by car ex

As someone who very recently moved to NYC (and therefore isn't an expert), I have had zero issues with crime, garbage, or theft, but have been annoyed by car exhaust and other pollution more so than living in California. Wrt to wealth inequality, yes that's definitely a more important issue but also one that is completely orthogonal to car idling and cities can work on more than one thing at a time.