Chloe: I know what you mean, some "dodgy" suburbs can be full of character/interesting... i used to live in Fitzroy her in inner Melbourne before it became yuppified. It was fun and the best 2 years of my life....but sadly I wouldn't feel safe there and it was kinda filthy with needles in the gutter etc but suburbs like that do have lots of character.... it depends on what stage of life you are at. There's no perfect suburb, you've just gotta match the right one to the stage of life you're at. Main priority ATM here is safety.