I was there in 1997. Wasn’t too bad then. Went through there on a port stop for a cruise in 2020. It was a complete dump. Even the “nice” places had needles, feces, and bums all over the place.
Other than an overabundance of gay men, what I remember most was all the street performers.....all had “tip” cans and many doing next to nothing and expecting free money.
For instance, one black male was in a park down by SF bay flying a kite with his tip jar sitting right in front of him.
Really?......that totally summarized the lib mentality for me.