Town is fine. What normally changes is us. People who say it's not like it was may be right or they may be looking at it as an older person and comparing it to when they were younger.
I love a night out in town. It could be better. It does lack a really good respected club and there is a lack of diversity in terms of pubs..but it's a good laugh.
The issue is more some daytime's. The council and WG's policies on home working, coupled with changes to the roads make getting into Cardiff harder and some day times are pretty quiet and it is sad to see.
But I would only encourage people to come into the city centre and enjoy it. I very rarely see any trouble at all.
There is an issue with drugs, beggars and the homeless, that cannot be denied, but I think there always has been and it's the case in loads of places. It's certainly nothing like I saw in Paris last year and people still go there.