My wife and I are traveling to the US around Christmas, first staying a couple of nights at Sonder Gabriel Richard in Downtown Detroit before heading on to NYC. We were initially unbothered by what we considered overblown and outdated stereotypes about the area.
Now my wife is hearing from coworkers and family, including family who live in Detroit, about the grave danger she’s in if she stays in downtown.I’m irritated by the anxiety these people have spawned out of nothing. Maybe I’m naive but my gut still says that they’re blowing things out of proportion, and at worst it’s a little seedy around there.
Would any locals like to comment on how poor a choice we made staying in downtown Detroit as first time travellers to the US? We’re Australian if that matters somehow.
Detroit is not as bad as it used to be; not as good as you want it to be. I wouldn’t walk in residential or underpass areas at night, but around the business downtown area, especially the stadiums and theaters, it’s usually a pretty lively area during days, and especially during events.
If you ever need to go somewhere and there’s sketchy parks or whatever in between, we do have Uber/Lyft like any other major city, and that’s a very safe way to travel.
Oh and indeed we will be ubering, if only because our time there is so limited and I don’t wanna waste it travelling between places of interest. Gotta sit down and make a simplified chart of crime stats comparing Detroit and Sydney or something.