Is living downtown as chaotic as the news makes it out to be?

I left Vancouver and bought a place in the 'burbs at the beginning of the pandemic. Even after moving away, I still used to go with my GF to celebrate our birthdays downtown at Hy's, Black & Blue, Gotham, etc.

Last time we went was a couple years ago, and as I sat in my car on Hornby in the evening, it looked like everybody who went by was strung out. Many were checking cars and trying to get into parking garages. And when I drove back home, the streets looked way worse than I remembered them when I lived in Vancouver.

I stopped going downtown because I have found restaurants I like closer to me, and I don't have any business downtown.

I go downtown maybe once a year now. So curious, is downtown as bad as the media makes it sound, or is it generally safe and things are blown out of proportion? And yes I know downtown has a lot of neighbourhoods, but it seems like the chaos has spread throughout the whole downtown area.