I mean, it's Baltimore, and occasionally bad things happen in good areas. If you adjust your crime reference frame to Baltimore standards, Bolton Hill is a safe area. I'm not saying you'll never be mugged in broad daylight just walking around, but I don't think of Bolton Hill as the sort of place where that's more likely to happen than any other part of Baltimore. In terms of how crime impacts you on a daily basis, package theft will dwarf the rest.

The MARC commute to DC is long but doable if you minimize the distance you have to travel on each end of the train. Bolton Hill is a five to ten minute walk from the train station. If your work is near Union Station, the DC commute would be plenty doable. I know plenty of folks who live here who commute to DC on the MARC train. Lastly, as part of the infrastructure bill that got passed last year, there are plans to rebuild the tunnel under West Baltimore to allow trains to go faster into Penn Station - the idea is that when it's done (in ten years) a BAL->DC express train would take just half an hour.

Edit: About the other commenter's real estate agent recommendations - I swear Jessica Dailey sells half the houses in this neighborhood. I'd agree with them solely based on the volume of business she does here - she's obviously doing something right.