I'm currently in Muhlenberg. I would say most of it is, every major city has some areas you do not want to take your family into.
I've live around Reading for 35/36 years of my life. I can say I have never felt unsafe in certain areas, I've delivered food to every single block in all of Reading. Sometimes with almost 2k in my pocket (Room Service Express think UberEats\GrubHub before it existed).

I am a middle age white male, somewhat built. This can help sometimes too.