Pay a visit to Settegast, and you'll reevaluate. Actually, take the South loop and turn south on Cullen. That neighborhood has one of the top 10 murder rates in the country. I actually enjoy the ghettoness of Thd Greater East End. That is the oldest part of the city, when it was Harrisburg, before Houston. It has a shabby/elegant thing going on. I really hate the SW side. It is a kitchy 1970's strip mall ghetto. Gunspoint is where the regional ATF office is. I guess they want to be near their customers.
I believe OP means the area around the intersection of 610 and I-45 South near Gulfgate and Harrisburg. If so, then yes I agree with his opinion.
It's only ghetto if you're white. For the rest of us gangstas, it's home. We didn't choose the thug life, the thug life chose us.
Any part of Houston , chances of something happening on any one specific single visit are negligible. These neighborhoods are dangerous, but no where remotely as dangerous as WASPs from Memorial imagine. BTW: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_End,_Houston