My friend grew up there and still lives there - she loves it. Great arts, dining and nightlife options, decent transportation if you are close to F on second avenue or L on 14th. They now have Trader Joe and Target, so the shopping basics are covered, and of course there are still enough quirky off-beat stores, if that’s your thing. Lots of things normally happen during the summer.
In terms of streets, it’s really block by block. I don’t think there are any really problematic buildings left, but there are homeless shelters scattered throughout and there is public housing in Alphabet city. Otherwise, try to visit and walk around at different times of the day, but if that’s not visible, google street view is your friend.