I lived in DC during the work week for most of 5 years and went home to my family on weekends. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
I lived in downtown DC. I lived in a cheap apartment a good portion of the time.
To hear my white co-workers from the mostly white suburbs, DC was a crime-infested place. It was as if they expected to take the metro system to DC and get mugged, raped, and murdered within 100 feet of leaving the subway station.
Oddly enough, I would see pretty young women jogging (alone) at 10 to 11pm at night in my area. And I would see the same one more than once, so clearly they weren't being killed off at a rapid clip.
Much of the "bad neighborhood" concept is just Tiny Details Exageration Syndrome in action.
Frankly, the neighbors in working class areas are generally friendlier and more helpful than they are in posher ones.
I was fixing up a rental property in a working class neighborhood for several months on the weekends and evenings. I had spoken to the folks in the houses next to the property on occasion. Nice people.
One day I was going to return some items but I didn't have my trailer with me. I put them in the back of my wife's car but couldn't close the hatch on the back because of the size of the times. I really didn't have anything to property tie down the items but I did have a small amount of wire, so I gave it a try and figured I would just drive very slow (with my flashers on) the mile to Lowes. Didn't work, the stuff started to slide out the back. The across the street neighbor saw it, walked over, and handed me the keys to his pickup truck. That's not my idea of a bad neighborhood.