I'm a native Californian and everyone in my family badly wants to move for all of those reasons.

Crime has ticked up slightly compared to the lows, but it has comparable rates to the 60s right now. Before the explosion of crime in the 70s and 80s

Many people aren’t bothering to report crimes now. The police won’t do anything about it. You can pretty much get away will minor property crimes/theft now without any repercussions.

If we're making assertions contrary to data and treading on unfalsifiable positions, then I suppose the source is anecdotes, and I suppose mine are as good as any:

I lived in Los Angeles in the early 90s for two years, and visited frequently through the rest of the decade. Experienced petty crime on at least 3 occasions, had a few close calls with violent crime, saw the Rodney King riots unfold, and heard some pretty crazy stories.

I've spent the last 8 years in LA... I've experienced zero instances of petty crime. I know it's not gone from some conversations I've had and everyone here has their take on LA's various problems, but across demographics nearly everyone I know agrees that this city is definitely a safer, more chill, higher quality of life place than it was 20-30 years ago. Except in one regard: housing is less affordable -- how much less depends on which boom/bust cycle you're looking at and who you're looking at, but definitely less affordable. So, not coincidentally, homelessness has become a much more serious issue.

The weirdest thing is that this is apparently happening with a net outflow from the state. Rents up over 60% with a stable/decreasing demand pool for housing is an odd dynamic and likely means this is no ordinary supply problem.

I can't speak to the Bay Area or the rest of California, but that's what things look like in LA.

>The weirdest thing is that this is apparently happening with a net outflow from the state. Rents up over 60% with a stable/decreasing demand pool for housing is an odd dynamic and likely means this is no ordinary supply problem.

Only a net migration of domestic residents. After factoring in natural population growth and foreign immigration you still have a growing population.

Depends on where you live. Hancock park? Sure, no petty crime other than burglaries. Pretty much anywhere else but the most bougie neighborhoods are rife with petty crime.

When I flew for the holidays my bike was stolen out of a gated garage. LAPD isn't going to jump on a grenade for my bike. Cars parked along the street are regularly targeted for smash and grabs. The nearby encampment maintains a cache of torn apart electric scooters and bike parts (maybe mine is in there too). I've been on a bus that was 'ambushed' for a bike mounted in the rack out front. Last week on the train two unstable men made eye contact and started posturing and raising their voices, one pulled a shiv out of his pocket and luckily the other one fled the car, but that could have been bad. Life on the west side, but I still wouldn't trade it for anything.

Huh. My recent time's been on the west side too, my neighborhoods have been decidedly middle-of-the-road (def not most bougie), transport stops close, homeless people camping nearby fairly common, sometimes in alcoves of my current building. Still haven't drawn the property crime lottery. The biggest thing for me, though, has been visiting places like Carson, Gardena, and Inglewood realizing they seem safer (though safer than the early 90s might not be a really high bar).

Sorry about the bike, though, maybe that's a signal for me to be a little less casual with stuff in the garage, and I definitely feel you about encounters with people on public transport.

California has a net outflow of domestic migration, but once you include total immigration from the rest of the world, California has a net inflow and population growth above the fertility rate.

My neighborhood is plagued with crime. Cars getting broken into repeatedly, stuff getting stolen from houses. Businesses getting broken into. This is around Long Beach.

Or the police will over-react. I wouldn't call LAPD on someone in anything but a life-or-death situation because they are so likely to escalate the situation rather than resolve it.

This is simply not true, not for the entire state. Don't forget CA is a huge state, it's not just SF and LA.

I did see this pattern in SF though, minor crimes go largely ignored.

CA Proposition 47 made petty theft to be a misdemeanor and not a felony anymore. And in result police will spend fewer resources on something that can end up as just a citation.