IDK, I think it's because SF was heavily influenced by freak culture in the 60s and while that mode of thinking died out in the rest of the world it found refuge in NorCal. NorCal has, since the 60s, been a bastion of drugs and freakiness. The culture behind that tolerated a crime society because of the disdain for law and order, with its authoritarian, conservative, anti-drug values. They were more naive than, say, New York liberals who knew you couldn't just let people do whatever they wanted.