Born and raised here. It is different (of course no city stays exactly the same over three decades). It feels like it is more concentrated now. Back then, there were a lot more areas in the city (and in the Bay) where one would be a little on guard. A lot of those places have gentrified to the point where they are much nicer than they used to be. But the hotspots have gotten a lot worse. On balance, I think more of the bay area population is safer and has a higher quality of life than in the 90s. But if you are near those hotspots, it seems like things are a lot worse than they use to be. This is probably why this topic is so muddy. It is pretty easy to generate a click bait headline about how bad things are by focusing on those few hotspots, but it is a lot harder to convey the more broad QOL improvements that the average resident is likely experiencing. This also explains why there hasn't been some sort of massive exodus, because most residents are not impacted by these issues.