Perhaps it’s not. Perhaps the people in my building are just particularly pro-social. But that seems self-aggrandizing.
While I was able to find nice things to do and my neighbors have done nice things for me in the Excelsior, the Mission, Glen Park, and the Sunset none of those places had the frequency and scale of this civil interaction.
And certainly my life in the TL was characterized by gladness for lack of negative interaction than by constant positive interactions.
My experience in SF is that some neighborhoods experience greater pro-social behavior than others.
That's my experience in cities, but I don't see it tied to affluence.
I do see a tie to perceived threat - people who feel they are in danger don't want to risk interactions. First, a rule of the street is, 'don't get involved'. Second, you don't know if the person next to you is crazy.
But few places are that dangerous; if you do get to interact, the only varient seems to be the seemingly arbitrary subculture of that particular neighborhood.
While I was able to find nice things to do and my neighbors have done nice things for me in the Excelsior, the Mission, Glen Park, and the Sunset none of those places had the frequency and scale of this civil interaction.
And certainly my life in the TL was characterized by gladness for lack of negative interaction than by constant positive interactions.
My experience in SF is that some neighborhoods experience greater pro-social behavior than others.