We had friends from Europe visiting recently, and after visiting NYC (a dozen miles east of us) they were shocked that we visited there less than once a year (more like once every five years, and not as tourists).
They have no idea what a dangerous sh!thole it is, but were starting to get a feel for it.
Actually, NYC, for now remains one of my very few exceptions, at least lower Manhattan and, and then only during the day.
Needless to say, where you are, if you really want to scare the crap out of your friends, drive them through some ‘interesting’ parts of New Jersey. I did something similar trying to take a short cut in ‘wrong’ part of Chicago, and I’m still haunted by it - even though we did make it through without incident (and that was during the day).