I did the Engineering and programming for the California State Supreme Court, 9th Circuit Court and another 10 rooms at the San Francisco Civic Center in 1998. Stayed on the East Bay side and took the subway (BART) to SF every day.
There were a ton of homeless on the streets even back then, used hypodermic needles all over the streets and poop and urine everywhere.
It's obviously gotten a lot worse since then.
The good news was that the knife laws were pretty good so I carried a Spyderco Police model every day. It kept me from getting mugged on the sidewalk outside the Civic Center around noon one day.