New Haven had been a s@&$hole for decades. It was getting bad reputation on the 80s and was going down hill from there. The immediate blocks around Yale were not that bad but it has gotten terrible since. It’s a weird dichotomy that Yale is a bastion of protection and just across the street not so much so. I was reading Yale had been buying the area of the city around themselves to upscale the neighborhood but I don’t know how far they got. Pity, it was a good town once.
I was in New Haven last in early spring, when Yale was still in session. As i visited at late afternoon into the night it was seasonably cool so not as many people were out in the area of Yale. However, based on the closed or nearly empty business you could tell it was having issues.