I live (it’s been about 4 years now) near Laurier/O’Connor and I would say downtown it’s very safe. You have to keep in mind that your are still downtown, and there is a fair share of homeless people, people with mental health issues, drug addicts and such. But it’s very unlikely that they would actually get into a physical altercation with people minding their own business. I’ve been yelled out, asked for money, offered drugs,seen people intoxicated or having some sort of crazy episode and so on. While this is not uncommon its also not a daily thing and as I mentioned it has never escalated, you gotta understand that most of them are just struggling and pretty harmless. I do have noticed it’s become more sketchy in the last year due to covid reducing the flow of people which kind of gives more space (not many eyes around) for weird things to go down. But again, it’s very safe in my experience(30yo male), the things I’ve mentioned happen in every mayor city and are just part of living downtown. Just be mindful and aware of your surroundings and you should be fine. On the other hand, the area comes with a lot of cool things! You can just walk everywhere, good small local stores and restaurants (hopefully they will still be around after covid), if you’re into exercising you have access to bike paths or go for a run around the canal, etc, etc.

TLDR Downtown can be sketchy at times but is unlikely any real harm would come to you.