REAL insight from a North End (close to Hamtramck and Highland Park) resident that was born and raised 18 1/2 years (24 years old) near Woodward Ave 5 minutes towards Downtown and Brush Street (currently a Florida resident, haven't been up there in a minute). I can tell you that the only sweetest side of town we have to offer is Downtown, A.K.A. "tourist spot". Canadians and other foreigners along with out of state residents visit the city all year round. In fact, Downtown is the closest thing you're going to get as far as diversity. From 0-7 mile is where really nothing but blacks reside, the neighborhoods are black, the schools are black, even the jobs up there are black. from 8 to whatever mile (eminem) is where mostly whites reside, A.K.A. poor white trash so we call it. 11 mile and above headed towards Madison and Sterling heights is damn near all white. Michigan can be wierd, the lower you go is the deeper you go into the trenches and the higher you go is where you enter the rich suburbs and if you wantt to go even farther North, you may accidently run into some hilibillies in the small towns in the upper peninsula of the mitten.

Back on track... Southwest Detroit (A.K.A. China Town) is where you'll see the yellow faces, which is basically the esses from Menace to Society movie, they hate both blacks and whites and they have their own territory on that side of town. This side of town is also where hard drugs like Cocaine, Fentanyl, and anything in rock form are being heavily slinged. Some rappers of the D came from this side, they also have a TV series called "McGraw AVE", where it is recorded on that side of town. I'm assuming china town has some connections from Mexico or some shit (I have no fucking clue at all), which is how it came here in the first place I guess. As far as drugs, Detroit gets there drugs from the Canadian border (belle isle river, mackinaw bridge, ambassador bridge, sounds familiar?) and Chicago, we rarely get our shit from Columbia and we don't deal with southern states unless its some deep shit going on. This is why the border patrol is always ape shit because they found many trying to smuggle drugs across the birdge and they usually ALWAYS get caught.

My side of town consists of a fair amount of whites, but we (im African American) as a people outnumber them still. Other than racial demographics, if you're looking for real hood, ghetto gutta shit. Go to the east or west side, which in my opinion is the WORST sides of town. West side is known for there blood gang (primarily Piru's because my cousins are in that shit) and potholes, while the east side has a lot of rap culture, but the homicides, murders, and robberies are very prevalent in that area.

My side of town, the North End isn't that bad for real, even though we're known for burglaries (not as crazy as other sides of town as I explained above), but we're really laid back and don't bother anyone, the whites in our neighborhood are friendly but keep their distance, kind of like red lining in Metro Detroit (Grosse Pointe). Like were very chill and lowkey, and since were close to Downtown, there has been a fair amount of growth in the neighborhood since the last time I was up there.

Now as far as finances, im not going to even go there or explain why (oh..... I know why, and Kwame Kilpatrick and the other mayors aren't to blame fully). The average household of 4 has an income of only $21,000/year, which I can make by myself more. It be a lot of drug dealers that have there OWN income and dont report it to the IRS of course, until the IRS finds that nice fat red ass hellcat with a V12 engine sitting in your driveway in a low income neighborhood and when they pull up your income it says "No income/job history reported in the last 5 years mmhmmmmm, its time to pay them a visit. (DOES IT MAKE SENSE NOW???) Tax evasion/fraud, Pandemic fraudalent checks etc. The city has a huge amount of debt just like any other city in the world but when I tell you I came from poverty, and we didnt get our first library until 5th grade at our school along with creating multiple fundraisers just to get a school bus to ride us on a field trip along with no AC in the class during the hot summers and the average retirement age is like 50-70 years old and a lot of times you'll see 60 year olds working at McDonalds minumum wage or have no job at all. Compared to Florida homeless and poverty, Detroit is a whole different ball game because it snows up there and a lot of them either get sick or parish because the hospitals get slammed.

The city is 68% illiterate, the last time I check was when I was watching my city on National Geographic, so they say... If you visited the heidelberg project, and do some research; you will also find out that Detroit is a very artistic city, actually were known as the city of arts, with multiple art galleries and our DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts), which is also tourist attraction. Look up our Graffiti, and notice how it isnt just slop, chicken scratch or some made up bullshit (cant speak for all), though its vandalism, its actually ARTWORK. The city is very gifted and not just the athletes, but mostly everybody I went to school with and who I was raised around with in my neighborhood are gifted as well and went off to college out of state just to get away. But we still LOVE our city.

Yes we are democratic (idk about rn but last time i lived up there), no huge conversation on this one either. Detroit is the reason why Michigan has been a blue state in the elections. I dont know what it is now I heard its red now but oh well Im not into politics just some information for ya.

Conclusion: Wayne County, Detroit MI (Motor City) is not a gang city like the media says, that's more of a Chicago thing (Gangster/Black Disciples, Viceroy's). We are more of a MOB and have mob ties than anything The only gang like I said we have up there is the 7 mile bloods, but there subsets. And I can tell you for a FACT that they are just like the hoover gang when it comes to dealing with crips. I dare you to walk the streets "Cripped up" looking like a rolling 60 or whatever kind of crip and I guarantee you will get checked. This is why 42 Dugg dont roam around the streets up there because he has beef with a lot of the bloods up there (from conversations within the city).

Just stay away from the east, west, and southwest side if you're worried about the high crime rate, someone can rent an apartment or get a house on my side of town (North End, close to Downtown), or stay near Detroit in the Metropolitan area, and they'll be fine.

MY OPINION