I started using a water filter because my cities water reeked of chlorine. Funnily enough a few months later a job listing appeared for a new water facility person and the water has not since smelled nor tasted bad, and that was about 5 years ago now
Yeah I grew up trusting my local tap water which I drank regularly, and then I saw what happened in Flint and I became a little more wary. I always filter my water at home now.
You can typically look up your city's water test results and see what's in there or do your own testing. The vast majority of municipal water is plenty safe, and most issues with stuff like elevated lead come from the home/building itself, not the municipality.
I live in the Phoenix area. Our tap water won't kill you, but it tastes nasty. That's because aside from the hardness, it's so full of chlorine to kill the bacteria, amoebas, and fungus that might kill you otherwise, it's like drinking swimming pool water. Anyone who can afford it has a reverse osmosis filter for drinking water. Anyone who can't afford it buys bottled water, which is probably why they can't afford the filter...
Protip: if it's only chlorine and not chloramine you can gas it off. Fill a jug in the fridge and let it sit. Chloramine won't allow this to happen because ammonia has been bonded to the chloride to make it stable i.e last longer in transport to customers. If that still makes it taste bad, I guess a filter or Brita type device is all I can say. Bottled water is horrible for you.
You actually can use a Brita and similar filter system for that. Here's a pretty comprehensive video review of retail filters that one can buy. Had some fairly surprising results. And this guy is coming from your area as well.
Oh I have RO, one of the first things I put in when I bought the house, and already had to replace it once, the last one took really obscure filters that were hard to find, it ended up being simpler to replace the thing with one that took more common replacement filters. And I've tried more ordinary filters, it makes it better, but it still tastes funky, I prefer RO.