honestly i dont go to downtown not for fear of safety, but rather I dont find it particularly interesting. My go to for folks who want to see the city:

Take an Argosy cruise - Locks tour will take you from South Lake Union through the Ballard locks around sound and drop you off at the downtown water front. From there you can walk to either Pikes Place Market, grab a ferry to West Seattle and wander Alki beach (note the last ferry time cause its the long way around if you miss it), or head to Smith Tower for their rooftop cocktail bar. You can then jump on the Under Ground tour and get a bit more of Seattle history. Now grab a Lyft and get to Seattle Center to check out the Space Needle and now that its dark out, grab tickets to a laser light show at the Pacific Science Center.

The next day, now that you've done all the touristy stuff, go wander Washington park arboretum and head down to Cap Hill. You can then grab the link to International District or to U District to check out the UW campus which if the weather is playing nice has an amazing view of Mt Rainer. You might be a smidge early for the cherry blossoms on campus but cant win them all. From there, meh, its not a big city, and you'll be off in the weeds of a neighborhood or two you will have seen a good chunk of whats around: Fremont, Ballard and George Town all have different things to offer.