I live where a couple barrios intertwine downtown, one of them being Constitucion and it's fine. My only complaint is the cartoneros don't put the trash back when they're done digging through the dumpsters, and some buildings need their facades/front sidewalks to be better taken care of/repaired, but it's a very middle class/quiet neighborhood (minus protests which can spill over).
I've lived in Vicente Lopez, Palermo/Chacarita/Villa Crespo, San Nicolas, and here, and it's all the same: don't flash the cash, get to know your neighbors to look our for each other, don't let random people you don't know in to the building, and if you go out late at night to a kiosko leave your phone/watch/wallet inside.
I was in Texas last year and it had more "shithole" vibes than many places people get told to avoid here. I'm not going to go live in Villa 31 or Dock Sud, but most of CABA is safe most of the time; our homicide rate is 4.7/100K which is comparable to NYC and Toronto, and well behind cities like London, Philadelphia, and Rio. If you're looking for trouble you can find it, but personally I get delayed more by protests than I've been robbed or burgled, not that it doesn't happen, but you're more likely to be killed in many US cities than you are here, yet nobody talks about the threat to tourists in New Orleans which has a murder rate of 70.56/100K.
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