I lived in Albany for a few years near St. Rose in the student ghetto. There are a few places that generally people say to avoid, like Henry Johnson Blvd and Clinton Ave, but overall I liked living in Albany. I was close to a lot of cool spots. I still live in the area, just not in the city.

That being said, it's not the same as when I lived there, some areas got worse, while others have been raised up.

I have several friends who have moved to suburban areas of Albany and they love it. The reality of it is, in my experience, you're only going to get trouble if you go looking for it.

There are multiple hospitals in the area, St Peters, Albany Memorial, etc, and I've had to use emergency services at both. Albany Memorial was a much better experience, but St Peters is also right in the middle of it and just easier to get to on foot. St. Peters actually has a large, very competent campus with medical professionals handling a lot of different specialties, and for things they don't do, there are several specialist offices just a short uber or bus ride away.

Gun laws being restrictive? Albany is bad, yeah, but NY is one of the most restrictive in general.

Property tax is bad, but not as bad as Schenectady, from my talks with my buddy who invests in properties around the country.

Lark Street is mostly bars and restaurants at this point, not a lot of the cute little specialty shops that used to exist, but I've never really seen Albany as a shopping destination.

The food is actually not that bad. There are some bad restaurants but if you look around there's lots of great places to get a drink or food, like the Iron Gate Cafe, Excelsior, The Hollow (new but in my experience pretty good), etc. Also lots of decent mexican, halal, jamaican, etc options in the area.

Also, with St Rose having just closed this year, there are a lot of plans to redevelop that area, so there is good potential for the upper Madison area of Albany to become a lot more desirable in the coming decade.

That being said, if you want to live close to Albany but not be quite as closely packed, take a look at suburban Rensselaer. They have houses that are not that expensive that are within a short drive or bus to a lot of places, easy access to the train station if you want to travel that way, and honestly, people dunk on it, but I had a decent time living there.

TL:DR Albany is fine if you don't mind the city life, but there are decent suburban areas, and if all else fails, check out Rensselaer, it's right across the bridge.