Point taken...agreed - although I believe the Detroit population is more like ~630,000. Downtown is vastly improved safety wise.
the city and the census bureau have been constantly at war for the last 15-20 years about the count. A study found thats its the hardest city to get accurate counts because of over 40,000 vacant homes and buildings over a large area...they even went to Federal court over it. The Census claims their most accurate count was 614,000 in 2020 whle the city claims its “well over 750,000. Independant groups claim BOTH are wildly off...and that the actual count is about 500,000. Many “vacant” homes are “mistaken” as occupied and are simply counted as “2 person” dwellings. Much Federal money, aid, and grants are tied to the totals, so you know theres gonna be “manipulation” of these numbers. The city is much cleaner than it used to be...but the actual river front/downtown is just dead...just nothing there anymore. The north central part of the city is a small pocket where the stadiums, casinos, and theaters are..other than that, really not much there anymore.