As for Detroit, come on, we have thousands cites like that, actually, all except Moscow, Spb and Novosib.)
Obviously you know nothing about Russia if you say that...I can list you hundreds of cities where life is much better than many US cities and city areas...I am myself from a city called Pyatigorsk (Stavropol Region) and we have a much better roads, much less garbage on the streets and a lot less crime compared to NY (especially Brooklyn and parts of Queens and NYC which to me looks like a sewer)
Tokyo, Seoul, Paris, London, Hong Kong, and the like have much lower violent crime rates than New York.
New York does have less crime than Los Angeles, São Paulo, Chicago, and such.
Per 100,000 people (all data is recent, from wikipedia, the guardian and met police; it's understood these numbers swing annually)
NYC: homicide 6.4; robbery 235; aggravated assault 327; violent crime 581; burglary 215; larceny theft 1,336; vehicle theft 123; rape 14.6
London: homicide 1.1; robbery 440; knife enabled crimes 168; aggravated assault 950; burglary 529; vehicle theft 994; rape 20
And this:
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm
Claims even lower rates for most of those crimes stats for NYC. From what I can find, New York has vastly lower crime rates on most things except homicides.
I was following a common transnational methodology violent crime by focusing on homicide. It turns out that definitions and reporting of other violent crimes is wildly different in different jurisdictions. For example, if you were a young black male New Yorker who had just been mugged, you would be wise to keep it to yourself considering the policy of the authorities toward people who look like you. There isn't much you can do to avoid coming to the attention of authorities if you're murdered, though.
Vehicle theft is pretty reliable, but motorcars per person and storage technique can vary.
Comparing murders is like comparing the danger of drugs by comparing death rates (big report in the UK a couple of years ago); the long term effect on society of a heroin addict, stealing, disease, impact on family, etc., is so much different than a single healthy kid suddenly dying of a disco biscuit on a Saturday night.
It's really hard to think of anything positive, except for the unbelievable ability of (some) Russians to daily cope with this reality and stay sane and positive.
I suspect that reality is even worse. Exponentially worse.
As one poet said "Умом Россию не понять"