I live in suburban Atlanta – the metro area is made of something like 20–23 counties, comprising roughly half the population of the state. Say, roughly 3 million people in the metro area.
Some areas are very dangerous – there any number of gangs. The most vicious ones are the Asian gangs (Vietnamese, Thai), and to a lesser degree some of the Latin American gangs (Mexican, Salvadoran). And of course, since Atlanta has a comparatively large percentage of blacks (when compared to other cities), there are a number of black gangs as well.
There are some places in the City proper that I don’t like to go, day or night. There are som parts of my own county that I won’t go to unless I have to.
My particular part of the county is mostly farmland, and very safe. No issues here. But I can drive 30 minutes, same county, different township, and be in a white-trash drug and meth dealing area.
I think that my experience is like anyone else’s that lives in a suburb of a big city. Some places are great. SOme are not.