I track the "critter quotient" with our overall wealth. Outside of the curse of crack cocaine (give me a time machine so I can assassinate the clown who figured out the process), the critters have always been there. Money masked them. It made them easy to cope with and invisible. Now that we're more broke, and there's less functional people to maintain the viability of these wonderful places ..they're decaying.
What happened to Rt. 66 when the federal highway network bypass most of it and made it obsolete? Same deal except in this case the money just shrank instead of being rerouted.
My wife took a work trip on a paddle boat up the Mississippi ..all the on shore excursions were like visiting a DMZ in the day time ..and even the cops said to not be around there after dark ..it turned into a live combat zone. This was a "tour".
That's why I say, "Get used to it". The pockets of money will converge in smaller and smaller (and more expensive) areas ..and more and more people will find that they can't find "quality" within their sensible affordability range.
We're a MUCH poorer nation. MUCH POORER.