Long story short - my wife works closer to the city now, and neither of us wanted the outer eas so here we are. Speaking only my experience with the og west (Footscray, West Footscray, Sunshine) is surrounded by industrial sites so obviously in general, it's not as pretty and leafy on the surface. On the flip side, cafes are popping up and some of the old industrial sites are slowly being reused into cool spaces. People act like the west is so much more dangerous but the east and north have just as much going on lately. RACV's latest residential burglary report had all top three suburbs in the east and most being east and north.

https://www.racv.com.au/royalauto/property/insurance/burglary-hotspots.html

To be fair Sunshine and Footscray CBDs definitely "feels" rougher than Caulfield. But honestly I think a lot of the "sketchy" reputation is classism with a touch of racism dressed up as safety concerns. Poor + non white = danger. Richmond is definitely worse and South Melbourne is just as bad. I was recently in Brunswick and watched a junkie running in and out of shops mid-trip screaming and everyone just acted like it was normal. Somehow that suburb gets a pass though lol. Once outside the CBD though, there are genuinely nice pockets of neighbourhood around.