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.
I think it was the summer of ‘74 when we took a family vacation to Eureka and San Francisco. Two things really stand out about SF. Dad wanted to drive through the red light district, probably inspired by the scene in “Dirty Harry,” and the acid/speed burnouts panhandling. The aftermath of the Haight/Ashbury scene.