I think you're correct that Detroit suffers somewhat from not having more of a university presence, and specifically more of a resident [[i.e. non-commuter) student presence. Obviously if U of M were in Detroit it would be huge.

My sense is that Baltimore is in pretty bad shape, and really only very slightly healthier than Detroit, but it's true that Johns Hopkins plays a huge role in the city's health.

I have visited Baltimore and noticed that the Johns Hopkins medical center area is pretty awful. So even the presence of a super-elite educational-medical campus can't always save an area.

The undergrad campus, however, is in a very nice part of Baltimore, though it is somewhat suburban in nature [[kinda an equivalent to U of D and surrounding neighborhood, just imagine much more successful and interconnected).