You can read stories in The New York Times and Detroit Free Press and The News about Detroit's surging comeback -- coverage of new restaurants and condos in Midtown and downtown and the QLine and Little Caesars Arena.
Juana Torres hopes she never has to use her gun. (Screenshot from Detroit News video)
But in some neighborhoods, talk of a comeback is just that. In those areas, stick-ups, carjackings, home invasions and murders are common.
Detroit Police say crime is down. But the city still averages about six killings and 20 shootings per week. In the past 10 years, there have been more than 3,500 homicides and 12,000 nonfatal shootings in Detroit, according to police statistics, George Hunter of The Detroit News reports.
East-sider Juana Torres bristles at talk of a comeback. She packs a pistol when she isn’t teaching preschool.
"I don't take it to school around the kids, but otherwise if I’m going somewhere, you won’t catch me without it," said Torres, who has a concealed carry permit. “Lord, I hope I never have to use it — but if I have to, I will."
Torres, 51, had a son killed in 2013. She lives on Detroit’s east side in one of the nation’s most dangerous communities and is among the thousands of Detroiters struggling to survive in the culture of crime that grips many neighborhoods, Hunter reports.
The disparity between those who are feeling the comeback and those who are not has been an issue in the mayoral campaign.
While Mayor Mike Duggan has touted the comeback and pointed to improvements in neighborhoods beyond downtown and Midtown, his opponent, state Sen. Coleman A. Young II, has insisted too many folks in the neighborhoods have been left behind.
