It’s not only your hometown. Other people also lived there and perhaps their experiences were different from yours. It’s not unusual for people to desire “a better” environment for their children. After all, you also left the borough to seek “something better” even though you ended up living next to a drug dealer. If you thought that the borough was good enough and were fully content with it, then you should have stayed there…or looked for another home within the same area. But the point is that you wanted to look for “better.” There’s nothing wrong with someone else wanting to do the same…and that too for their family. Don’t take it too personally. The disser’s opinion will not become some fundamental truth that it should upset you so much. It’s not like her criticism soils or shuns you for living in that borough. An “answer” doesn’t have to be given for everything. You too will have children like your cousin to worry about…wish them well.