Hey, he's paid to keep his eyes and ears open, after all - and with his penchant for gossip he sees little to no reason to stop listening when he's off the clock.

"'swhat I'd do, yo." Give 'em a proper map of the city, make everything seem nice and normal to better hide the fact that everything wasn't all nice an' pretty on the inside.

"Could be a facade, yo. Show of non-existent wealth maybe?" Or just an attempt to make things look 'right' not that it had really succeeded as it had been planned to if that were the case. But whatever the situation, he'd figure it out eventually - it was his job to, among other things.