I visited LA in the early '00s. I was driving somewhere and when my friend gave me directions there was an exit where he basically said 'don't get off there, even just to turn around - that's how bad it is'.

To be fair though, I've lived in areas that were next door to top 5 murder/capita rates throughout the 90s-00s and they were all heavy drug and gang areas you knew to avoid. Most of those have also been cleaned up as property values have sky rocketed triggering development.