Hi flashingnose. I'm American, but don't live anywhere near Detroit. However, I've been there once for a week, and absolutely hated it. It was the only place I've ever been to where the airport was covered in graffiti and had holes in the wall from vandalism. It's not that I don't like big cities, either, I love New York, for instance.
My husband actually did some research on this because he was offered a promotion in his company that pretty much guaranteed that we would be moving there. He found that the public school system was so bad that they dumped the school board in the late '90's and replaced it with a consortium of politicians, but most things he read said that nobody anywhere thinks they are doing a better job and those who can are taking their children out of the public schools. If you Google Detroit's crime rate, you'll find it is one of the highest in the nation. He decided not to accept his promotion (and higher salary)because there was no way he wanted to move there. And if you refuse a promotion, it is a loooooong time before they offer you one again. Oh yeah, and he found out that Detroit is one of the few places in the nation the company hires security guards for in the stores. (He works for a drugstore, FFS)
Grosse Pointe is a really posh suburb of Detroit, it is a totally different world away. There's a lot of animosity between the 2 places because of the huge economic, social, racial, etc differences.
Sorry if it isn't what you wanted to hear. I've been to most states and large cities in the US, and Detroit is by far my least favorite. Although I guess thats just my humble opinion.