Most of that area on their map, why are tourists going there unless it's for hookers or drugs? Drugs and crap in the Tenderloin - tell me something I don't know.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

No idea. When I was living up in the Bay Area -- a long time ago -- the place was nice all around the entire body of water (including most of Oakland). I don't remember much in the way of any "downer" areas in San Fran, either.

If I recall, just a few months ago, San Diego was having its own problems with feces and other assorted detritus in its own streets in and around the downtown and Balboa Park areas, which had led to a hepatitis A outbreak, I think. I don't know what's going on with these California cities, other than possibly a lot of drugs and homelessness, it seems to me.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I didn't realize you were that old! The Tenderloin has been the bad part of town since the 1920s ;) . Bogart lived there in the Maltese Falcon. Its where you went for gambling, pool halls, and topless dancers.
By the 60s, it was drugs and prostitution. And topless dancers.

Now 6 of the 10 most dangerous places in the city are there. 14 of the 98 homicides in 2007 happened there. The city is 47 sq miles. The Tenderloin is 0.35 sq miles.

I think the outbreak of hepatitis in major cities is from CA basically eliminating plastic bags via charging customers $0.10 for each one. Not enough bags to crap in!

The Tenderloin has been a dump even before you were a twinkle in your parent's eyes. Unfortunately, it hasn't got better and there's no solution in sight.

Heh. Not quite. Never went to the Tenderloin, though. But I think there are more areas than just that district involved here.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

It's not just the tenderloin though. I just moved out of the Sunset a couple weeks ago after 5 years there and everything described is happening all over the city. Doesn't matter where you are, there will be feces (but maaaaaybe not a needle) within one block of you.

The Tech Bros don't believe infrastructure. They subscribe to free-range pooping or using a poop sharing app to locate a street to drop a deuce.

Not just SF.

It is a curse of the west coast. Live 12 miles east of Seattle and I avoid downtown whenever possible.

Unless you are on the waterfront the city smells of urine and feces. Needles everywhere. Recently read a story where a restaurant placed needle disposal boxes in their bathrooms to help their employees not be exposed to used needles left in the trash cans.

From the linked article: ..."41 blocks dotted with needles and 96 blocks sullied with piles of feces."

Man, that's a lot of real estate. And from reading the article, it appears as if the city's efforts to clean the streets have been futile to this point. But they have a plan, which is to raise taxes on business to spend more money on homelessness. I eagerly await the results of that initiative.

Also from the article: "Based on the findings of the Investigative Unit survey, Riley believes parts of the city may be even dirtier than slums in some developing countries.

“The contamination is … much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India,” he said. He notes that in those countries, slum dwellings are often long-term homes for families and so there is an attempt to make the surroundings more livable. Homeless communities in San Francisco, however, are often kicked out from one part of town and forced to relocate to another. The result is extreme contamination, according to Riley.

So is the City by the Bay in danger of becoming one of Donny Two Scoops' famed 'sh*tholes'? There's this to consider:



Are these folks the new Joads, fleeing the urban feces bowl -- rather than dust bowl -- of the Bay Area? Only time will tell. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

LA has had this problem for many years too. People are pinching loaves all over the place, even in the most affluent of neighborhoods. No one is immune to any of these nonsense and raising taxes for the homeless is not working, especially since people are being paid to stay on the streets.

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_____________________________________
DISH is how we do it.

I dropped a duece in some shrubs during the 1985 SF Marathon.

If you gotta go, you gotta go. I bet some of the fecal coliform bacteria you let loose is still wafting around town even to this day. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I'm pretty sure I was visible but at that point I didn't care!

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_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

Heh. No worries. I saw a bit of loaf-pinching at Ironman Hawaii, on occasion. It was a long way between those porta-johns, apparently. And the a'a lava looked so inviting to those folks. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Take that literal and metaphorical shit to the tri forum.

North side of Chicago as well. The wife and I have jumped our fair share of deuces while heading up the stairs to numerous El Stations.

Needles not as prominent though..from our experience anyhow..grabted there are a fair share of methadone clinics in Uptown so that could have something to do with it.

Sorry for grammer/spelling..sitting on the tarmac waiting to leave Seattle coincidently.

How does Seattle smell? Feces-filled or not? ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."