Seattle had bad areas (much worse now), but Detroit was the worst city I have ever been in. I had a tech conference that was held in Detroit one year, and I was scared to even walk out of the hotel. (Side note, I am from south Louisiana and been to New Orleans many times....not even close to Detroit).
Yikes!
While I have never been to downtown Detoilet (though have flown in and out of DTW enough to know of the stoner tunnel between concourses), I am at least somewhat familiar with NOLA, and have a Stetson from Meyer the Hatter to prove it.