Although I partially agree, I also disagree. Downtown is becoming more of place to go to with the new restaurants, businesses, condos/apartments, and soon to be new sports arena. As a matter of fact, I'm headed there tomorrow to hang out and try some new places for food/drink. In the past few years, it has become more of a place to go if you are into that sort of thing. I know not everyone will agree, but as someone around the age of 30, my group frequents downtown for various events throughout the year, such as 5k races, bars, bus tours, concerts, food/drink festivals, etc.
I will say I wouldn't be caught wandering alone and don't even like driving down there alone. But I still feel she wouldn't have skipped out on her friend from what we've heard about her, unless she was picked up or driven there herself. If she drove/someone drove her car, there are surely many places to leave her car besides driving it back to her place. But I would be interested in hearing more about what they ended up finding out about that tip...