If that's his central message, he's wrong. Aside from some dips in 2013-2014, most crime rates in the city are lower than over the past ~15 years.
Anecdotally, I live here now and I also lived here in 2006-2007, and most of downtown feels much safer. I am not a mind reader, but I think the guy sees poverty and feels threatened, and lacks the empathy to understand that the poors are human beings getting fucked by surging costs they literally have no control over.
His comment that the city's wealthy people earned their spots implies that he thinks that the less wealthy who've lived here longer and simply can't afford current prices didn't. Like I said above, not a very nice attitude.
