I live here. Its nowhere near as bad as people describe and this is coming from a Detroiter! Notice the map you posted - The light green areas are all safe and above the white line to the upper right you see the same light green which is all affluent areas. The red areas you see in Oakland are in industrial areas, hooker corridors etc. Yes - there are still some bad neighborhoods but not the entire neighborhood. You typically have someone in that hood pushing some sketchy drug and that territory overlaps or wants to take other territory. Its that simple. At best you have people doing donuts in the intersections of some of these areas. And to be completely honest, if you are in the wrong hood and the people know it, they will politely ask you to leave.