I grew up in "safe suburbs" and moved here 5 years ago. Saw a lot of sad changes with COVID... but in terms of safety, I'm 100% with you. On rare occasion, I'll cross a street if an individual is behaving particularly weirdly but I've never witnessed/experienced a "random act of violence". Broadly speaking, SF is safe from violent crime unless you're looking for trouble.

I'm sure parents with young children or elderly have a different experience but that's not different for any other larger US city.

With this said, the topic of the city turning a blind eye to property crime and "extreme", visible destitution is a whole different story.