I think I first noticed the homeless problem in San Diego in 1989 or 90. I was probably late in noticing this, so maybe mid 80s? I first noticed that LA downtown looked like a dirty Mexican downtown in 1991. Once again, I was probably a few years late on this. Tagging became especially popular in the early 90s, but it was around before that. I didn’t see gang writing growing up here in the 60s and 70s. The roads started declining greatly in the 90s, I believe. The agricultural center of our state dried up and died during the drought in the Obama years, when all the river water was diverted to help the Delta Smelt. You could go by miles of dead fruit and nut trees along Interstate 5.
I hope that sort of helps?
Also, I hate to say it in a conservative forum, but things changed after prop 13 passed. There was no longer a presumption that public school was supposed to be complete and of good quality. You could skimp on drivers ed and vocational or extracurricular stuff. People stopped assuming that comprehensive, good quality education was going to be paid for and provided. Then, also, the baby boom ended and now far fewer people have “skin in the game”. Not enough people have young children that they are willing to provide the basic things a State needs for there to be a successful next generation of taxpayers. They really don’t care or don’t see that without planning and sacrificing for the next generation, it all slides into Calizuela (or is it Venifornia?).
Anyway, it’s a shame, because California, the geographical location, is amazing. It’s California, the state government, that is on the wrong road.
Downtown San Francisco already was starting to have a problem with phony “homeless veterans” in the Eighties and early Nineties, hanging out around Union Square and the cable car terminus and hassling tourists for money. It’s a thousand times worse now, the cancer spread out across the city.