Not just that, if this is in a city all that black stuff is concentrated soot from cars. Having that on your skin all day just increases your chance to get cancer or some other disease.
I’ve never heard anyone say that. There’s far more crime in cities, and pollution, and more traffic accidents due to more traffic, why would anyone feel safer in a city?
I've heard it said on lemmy. Basically, just stereotypes about rural people being violent hicks. They're ignorant of how much of their opinions are being shaped by media bias from urban people. Look up the "rural purge" that happened to 70's era US TV.
A walkable city like Savannah, GA is nice, but you wouldn't catch me living in one of the "big" cities.