Downtown is the nicest/safest area but the traffic driving to and from Christ and Hoboken via local roads would turn me off. Also, It still puts you further away from two hospitals to be barely any closer to Bayonne. The heights is also incredibly safe. A lot of it just isn't shiny and new because it's been a well established neighborhood for a long time.

I have lived downtown for a decade and have watched the traffic slowly get worse and worse and I just cannot deal with it. Luckily I only drive on weekends if I'm leaving town. I avoid it otherwise. It's not AS bad as I'm making it sound, at most it will take a half hour to drive to Hoboken. It just gets tiring after a while since it's so damn close and you can practically walk there in the same amount of time.

Since you're coming from Texas I really cannot stress how bad the traffic is around here. In the past decade jersey city has added 10,000 new apartments and it is no where near as big as the other cities on this list.

https://jerseydigs.com/downtown-jersey-city-growth-study/