highland park is garbage as far as living goes, but if you're tryin to paint... there's gold in them there hills...
Hamtramck is awesome as far as living goes, good people, good bars, good food, good weed... but if you're trying to paint, it's garbage, a dumpster tag had my boy held up for a couple few weeks... and it's the only place in detroit with a decent police response time.
American jewelry and loan is westside... not the gnarly west side though, i feel like they stage 100% of the bullshit they have on that show. I did see Les leaving that spot once, i pointed and thumbs up'ed him, he smiled and waved.
As an eastsider myself, i've come to notice that the east side, despite looking much much more gully is less populated than the west side. Just like any other city, the more populated the area the more crime, but with the east side, the crime to population ratio is all screwy, less people with the same amount of buck shit going on.
hope that clears things up for ya.