While the forces of the remaining nobility, corporate security, and the presence of the Royal Guard generally stops widespread fighting in the streets before it gets too out of hand, violence on a smaller scale is still common, and people who cannot protect themselves (or hire others to protect them) are often beaten, killed or kidnapped to be used in experiments or sold into slavery for those with lower standards.
In general, visitors and residents of Skyside learn to stay on their toes pretty quickly. Even the safest and most affluent areas of Skyside are vulnerable to some amateur mad scientist's latest giant robot or genetic abomination running loose and causing havoc, or a temporal anomaly rolling through and causing a street full of people to suddenly age several weeks in the space of a few seconds. The city can be chaotic, and often times dangerous, but there is potential for great wealth here, if someone has a talent for spotting opportunity and grabbing it. Whether with their own hands or the remotely controlled mecha hands that they designed in their attic is highly dependent on the person, of course.
The historic city nearest to Skyside's Sky Palace Tower, what's come to be known as the "Raindrop District" by newer generations of Skysiders is a place of incredible change.
The older estates, temples and monuments, abandoned by all but the most stubborn of Skyside's old order, are being demolished, replaced by new residential growth of various types, from the absolutely dismal to the actually-pretty-nice. Some of the more novel developments in housing include ad-sponsored houses, and other low-cost developments for moderate quality housing. In between the housing developments come all the small businesses you'd expect from Skyside's fastest-growing residential sector, including corner stores, fast food, laundromats, and all the other handy spots that let people get everything they need without having to travel far.
The Raindrop District is relatively safe by day, especially in the parts of the town still held on to by the old Skyside elites, nearer to the Palace Tower, but generally is more dangerous at night. Especially in the more ramshackle parts of the Raindrop District, the back alleys tend to be frequented by muggers and the like, and break-ins are very common during the day when the occupants are likely out working. The wise Raindrop District inhabitant keeps good locks and a trusty firearm close at hand, at the very least, and some shell out for more, opting to rely on protection from mercenary and security firms that provide added safety... for a price.
The wealthiest and most glamorous section of Skyside, the Cloudtops form the new fortress of Skyside's new elites: an incredibly tall, shiny fortress, dominated by tall skyscrapers of glass and steel, covered in bright lights and connected by paved roads and elevated walkways galore.
The Cloudtops is home to Skyside's richest residents, and Skyside's biggest businesses and corporations. The Cloudtops is also Skyside's safest district, kept such by the forces of countless taskforces of well-equipped private security teams.
Depending on who you ask, Tempest Row is either a vibrant, colorful area full of exotic wares and noisy taverns where ale flows freely, and the barmaids are very accommodating; or a raging, screaming drunk who will drag you into a back alley, beat you over the head with a stick, and run off with your valuables. Or both at once.
Housing the main airship docks and largest spaceport zone, Tempest Row is the nickname for the bustling market and entertainment district of Skyside. With the constant traffic in and out of the city, Tempest Row is home to countless taverns, bars, clubs, and brothels of various sorts, providing boisterous and often debauched entertainment for Skyside's visitors.
With its large crowds and large numbers of shop guards, Tempest Row is relatively safe from violence, though the odd scientific anomaly or experiment-got-loose may amble through occasionally. Visitors in Tempest Row should instead keep a closer watch on their valuables rather than their safety, keeping a close eye out for the pickpockets, scam-artists, and cutpurses of various sorts walking through the crowds, looking for easy money; or the gangs of street toughs roaming the back alleys, waiting for someone too drunk to put up a good fight to stumble along.
The constant black smoke belching from the sprawling jumble of towering smokestacks and open smelting furnaces gives this area its name among the locals. Thunderhead is the main industrial area of Skyside, filled with factories, smelteries, warehouseries, and a whole array of other varied monuments to urban squalor. Everything from airship construction to weapons manufacture takes place here, and accidents can sometimes happen, especially with the more unscrupulous employers who care little about what happens to their factory workers, whether they be paid workers, slaves, robots or the mutated fishmen your mad scientist donor kindly granted you.
Thunderhead is among the most dangerous of the districts, with vicious gangs and supervillains hiding out in the mysteriously abandoned warehouses (seriously, Skyside is short on space, why are all there all these abandoned warehouses?), and gangs frequently forming among the poorest of Skyside's communities: the underpaid factory workers and industrial chattel that fill row upon row of unmaintained tenement housing and ruined apartments. Most good factories have guards to protect their workers (or keep them from escaping), but among the houses of the working poor, the streets can turn into a danger zone at any point, with very few people willing to stick around and bear witness.
For those who couldn't get onto Skyside proper, one can always live in its shadow. While Skyside once was a mobile city, moving place to place for safety and resources, since its collapse it has remained stationary, allowing secondary development under and around the city. Located directly under and around the floating city, Groundtown is a small, but growing settlement of improvised buildings and pre-fab housing blocks, populated largely by Skyside's poorest and most unfortunate workers, poorer even than Thunderhead's inhabitants, commuting morning and evening to the city above by way of hanging hover-lifts and small flying skiffs.
Located outside even Skyside's limited bubble of security and order, and utterly ignored by the Royal Guard, Groundtown can be truly hellish at times. Fighting on the streets between warring gangs is an all too common sight, and even the heaviest of personal weaponry cannot always guarantee personal safety. Residents of Groundtown lock their valuables up tight and keep their gun under their pillow, and visitors should always keep their eyes peeled for thieves and muggers. What little safety can be had in Groundtown comes from the powerful gangs who do their best to control the disorder within their own territory, and the superpowered and/or costumed vigilantes who can be found patrolling nightly, unwilling to let Groundtown fall apart and be consumed by darkness.