I guess it help being a bigger dude on this.
This, i am 5 foot 8 and around 180 pounds but i notice that bigger men don't get bothered as much. Even then there is a 6 feet 280 pound guy at my job and he got treats by a beggar in the metro but he does not stand up for himself, people walk all over him, so i guess you need to be big and kind of look treatening so people won't want to fuck with you.
I live in Laval now, but work in Montreal, i can understand the cops, being discourage yesterday again a teenager got shot , teenager imagine, was it drug related or random shooting, in an open space were terrasse are.
Most of my co worker live in Montreal, we used to go to la cage place Versaille, one of my co worker invited me to the eletric avenue club on crescent, and a few other place, trois brasseur on St Denis. But honest I won't go. Seeing everything that is happening in Montreal.
One of my friend lives in St Jerome he got a nice condo after is divorce and its really calm as you said he can also hear crickets at night. I am looking into St Jerome and maybe St Adele as a retirement spot. Where i live in Laval its not that bad but still too crowded.
I was talking to another co worker who as a 18y old son he told me that kids today most of them are on anti depressant at that young age, this tells me there is a lot of mental issues. Each time you read something happen in Montreal now its Cote des neiges, Hochelaga Maisonneuve, either the person is known by the cops and mentally unstable.
Now there is the program BOLO who offers a good $$$ for the caputre of murders 50k for the death a rapper last year
Ahuntsic-Cartierville another hot spot i guess. Its good if they catch them but they have to keep them inside.