Northwest Berkeley around Berkeley Way: Is this a safe area?

I used to live right by there when I was in college at UCB. Safe is always a relative term in Berkeley, but even by that criteria I would not call it safe. Although I never got mugged, I did have radios stolen from my car and I had friends who lived in the area who had people try to break into their houses.

So you do have to be sort of street smart to live there.