I live in Berlin, and have been here over 20 years now. Before that, I lived in 5 other different countries, though the only other capital I lived in was Delhi.
Well, the fact that I still live here does tell you that I like it here. :-)
It has various aspects that are wonderful and definitely unique to Berlin. The difference between former East and West is still very apparent when you know what to look out for. War damage still apparent in older buildings in the former East, for example. Even in shops selling second-hand stuff their is a range of things that span former East and West.
The amount of really close-by forests and lakes is particularly something I love (and the forests are legally protected and will not give way to housing, because having them is what guarantees Berlin's water supply).
I also travel pretty much everywhere by bike, so I appreciate the flatness!
Addressing the specific things you raised:
- people traveling without tickets is actually a big issue. Ticket checkers dressed in plain clothes roam the public transport network. Usually two get on at the same time from different doors, and work towards each other, checking everyone's tickets. It is rare that they DON'T catch someone traveling without a ticket.
- department stores such as KaDeWe and Karstadt tend to sell high cost items such as whiskey without tags. However, shoplifting is an issue, and supermarkets usually have the more expensive items either tagged or in a locked glass section of shelving that you have to ask an employee to open. Other small and expensive items, like razor blades, are either kept near the cashier, are on the shelf in large plastic boxes that have to be opened by the cashier, or you have to take a cardboard tag to the cashier, and they'll fetch the item for you.
- homelessness is a problem. There are homeless shelters and charities near certain major railway stations, soup kitchens, and so on. A lot of the homeless are men from Poland (as one can hear them chatting in Polish when one goes past) and are clearly alcoholic. Many live in small one-man tents that are pitched in places a bit out of the public eye, such as alongside some of the railway lines and canals. In winter, certain U-Bahn stations are kept open all night long rather than being locked for a few hours, as they usually are, so that there is a warmer place for homeless people to spend the night.
There are also quite a lot of Roma families here, who beg, mostly from Romania but also from Spain. They tend to live in larger tents, pitched not that far from where they beg. Their life, particularly in winter, looks fairly brutal, and there is a lot of ongoing work (the process is quite slow, but usually ultimately successful) to get them housing and the kids into education.
- the little affordable, independent shops, artistic spaces etc. do exist. However, when you are here for longer, it becomes pretty apparent that they don't usually survive for all that long. The turn-over is huge.
- bike lanes have been massively improved over the last few years. There are far more of them, and they are safer than they were as well. There used to be some places with no bike path, and so narrow and dangerous to cycle that I would take a much longer route to avoid it. Pretty much all those places have been improved, which is great.
- racism: I live in a very ethnically mixed, very central area, where the vast majority are Turkish, Syrian, Palestinian and Ukrainian. German hostility/racism/structural issues are a concern. My son went to kindergarten close by, and the last two years before the kids were due to start primary school, many of the German families moved away to more 'white' suburbs to ensure that their kids would go to a 'better' school.
Immigrant kids tend to do worse at school because most schools STILL finish around midday. Then the kids are expected to go home and do a huge amount of homework - with parental input. Immigrant families are more likely to have both parents working, have parents who may even be illiterate, or have a poor command of German or poor understanding of what is wanted in the school work, or be unable to afford tuition for the kids (which a vast number of German parents pay for routinely for their kids starting from about fourth grade onwards).
- Attitude: Berliners pride themselves on something called 'Berliner Schnauze'. Basically - although I'm sure they would characterize it differently - it's a way of interacting that is brutally direct and often veering into downright rude. Although it can be funny at times, it can get you down when you face it all the time, sort of like when you have to interact with arrogant, rude teenagers, if you know what I mean. I find myself working hard to maintain relationships with people who I know are friendly to try to get a counter-balance.
- on living here all the time. Really, things are NOT efficient. Road work and repairs to infrastructure are started, then the workers all disappear and it drags on for YEARS. Bureaucracy and paper work is incredible, though when you FINALLY get an appointment with a bureaucrat, they tend to be capable and helpful.
Last year, for example, if one needed a visa renewal, there was essentially no way to get one. To renew, one needed an appointment. Appointments could only be made online, but the system was not working at all, and therefore no appointments were available. When you followed a link from their web page, they gave information about what your legal status was if you had overstayed your visa (legal to remain, but not to travel internationally), because so many people were forced into that position...