How is the area around Near Northside / Hardy Yards now?

I'm looking for a starter home close to town and currently looking at Near Southside area around Hardy Yards. I would like to know if the area is fairly safe to live. I don't care about ethnicity or income level of the residents there, I just don't want to live next to crackheads or gangs. I'm more interested in the community growing as a whole in the next 5 to 10 years.

I wonder if the new Hardy zToll Road Connector project would be better or worse for the community when it's done.

I did some searching in this subreddit but most posts about the area are older posts. I would like to know how the community has changed over the years.