Your observations strike me as pretty realistic. Not too high, not too low. I do think things are slowly getting better. We had 15,000 volunteers come out fora spring clean-up. Those Victorians are gradually getting rehabbed. SEPTA....well it's SEPTA, let's be realistic here
and WAWAs are slowly leaving the city. So there you have it, some good, some not so good....but an interesting place overall.