One of my favorite authors is W.E.B. Griffin. One of his series concerns the Philadelphia police department and his protagonist Matthew Payne.
The Badge Of Honor series was an advertisement for the greatness of the city of Philadelphia. The most recent that I read was a complete reversal of viewpoint. I was so glad to see him coming around to portraying the truth, the change that has taken place
This will not endure him to African Americans!!!
One of the things about Philly that I found unusual was the demarcation between relatively safe, mostly white neighborhoods and the dangerous ‘hood was extremely sharp.... it happened in a block or two.
I was visiting one of my sons who lived there at the time, and we went to a beer/burger emporium on the edge of Center City. My boy said, “Check this out.” We went into the restaurant from one entrance, in what appeared to be a fairly decent neighborhood. We then went out on the other side (the place was large enough to span a block in one direction), and it was fairly serious (although not “deep”) ‘hood. Quite amazing. Usually the transition happens over a number of blocks.
And, of course, if you read the news, you notice that even the so-called nice, safe parts of the city get over-run quite often by roving, aggressive ferals.