In 2002 or so, an English friend was in DC for a conference and she actually was frightened to leave her hotel room, thinking that she had done very well by not being murdered between the baggage carousel and her taxi, and probably shouldn't push her luck. The portrayal of American cities at that time, especially to foreigners not exactly used to all the gun crime (fictionalized or real) at home, did genuinely frighten people.
But in the year of our gritty 2020, urban hellholes are both where RICH ELITES live and, apparently, still where you can't walk down the street without getting mugged and murdered and then mugged again. Whatever the reality of urban life in the now- top tier (by real estate prices) cities in the 90s, I do wonder why they think people buy $2 million modest homes in a murder zone.
