San Fran: Tourists Shocked By What They See, 'Am I In The Bad Part Of Town?'

[appalachiablue]

SFG, 'Am I In The Bad Part Of Town? Tourists Shocked By What They See On Streets of San Francisco,' June 15, 2018

It's something many San Franciscans see on a daily basis, outside their homes or offices and during their commutes.
For better or for worse, locals are used to walking by crime scenes, have seen open injection drug use, and have witnessed mental health episodes firsthand. But when a tourist lands at SFO, guidebook in hand, that reality can be shocking.

"Is this normal or am I in a 'bad part of town?' Just walked past numerous homeless off their faces, screaming and running all over the sidewalk near Twitter HQ and then a murder scene. Wife is scared to leave hotel now," wrote an Australian Reddit user Wednesday. That person isn't alone. On Sunday, another tourist from Canada asked the San Francisco Reddit community, "Why is this city so terrifying?"

"I'd been there for probably less than a day, just wandering around the center, and already seen more than enough poverty and suffering to cause me wanting to leave desperately," wrote another visitor from London in 2017. "I saw many people talking to themselves, or to things that weren't there. Even in a Macy's, and there weren't any police officers to help them or do anything about it."...

Read More SFG, https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/am-i-in-the-bad-part-of-town-tourists-shocked-by-what-they-see-on-san-francisco-streets/ar-AAyGAba?li=BBnbfcL

'Clean Up San Francisco's Streets, Tourist Industry Pleads,' April 17, '18, San Francisco Chronicle
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Clean-up-San-Francisco-s-streets-tourist-12839281.php

[Cartoonist]

1. I blame the ACLU

On every other issue, I back the ACLU, but they say people with mental health issues can't be forced to be treated.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. "Unless they are a danger to themselves or to others"

You can have someone committed for a 72 hour hold, to be evaluated and/or medicated. But after then, unless court ordered to a facility, they go back to where they were found.

and not one city that I know of funds Community Mental Health adequately. Usually it comes out of sate Medicaid funds.

See that bottom pic in the OP? 5 days a week, I walked down sidewalks like that, to work in the Mission, my job was doing Sub. Abuse and Mental Health evaluations on walk-ins.

[Ferrets are Cool]

12. Put the blame where it belongs. Right in Raygun's lap.

HE is the cause of all this shit!!!

[saidsimplesimon]

2. Not my experience,

or that of family and friends. Yes, there are many suffering on the streets of all cities, large and small. The humanity of both tourists and locals is what I reinforce, not the stereotyping that is newsworthy in today's upside down media.

[dlk]

3. There Aren't Enough Facilities or Beds

There is a serious shortage of available beds in hospitals and other mental health facilities, even for patients with fantastic insurance. We have a national, yet invisible, crisis.

[appalachiablue]

5. A huge lack of mental health services & facilities nationally. San Fran's 1.3 mill

median home price doesn't help. Gentrification is driving home costs & rents up to the sky in many US metro areas.

[still_one]

8. This problem started when reagan was governor, and started massively closely down many mental

health facilities.

We are still being impacted from that.

It should be noted however, that homelessness is a major problem in all major urban areas, and unfortunately with the outrageous price of rents and real estate, the less fortunate are being forced out.

[appalachiablue]

11. Reagan started it, now an enormous problem & homeless from the 2008

sub prime mortgage housing crisis added thousands more who lost their jobs and homes and became homeless.

Home & rental costs rising since c. 2000; housing costs are prohibitive in upscale gentrified, metro areas anymore.

*'Top three homeless cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle.

Bloomberg 2018: "Regionally, homelessness appears to be moving out West, to states like California, Washington and Colorado. Western cities, in particular, have experienced an epidemic — in Los Angeles, for example, homelessness is at an all-time high. San Francisco has the second-highest rate of homelessness in the nation, while Seattle ranks third. Since 2015, 10 or more cities on the West Coast have declared states of emergency with regard to homelessness.

Homelessness has two main sources. First, housing in big cities is expensive, and getting more so. By one count, 71 percent of homeless San Franciscans lost their homes while living in the city. Second, homeless people move to other locations — perhaps to take advantage of local services like shelters and addiction clinics, in the hope of getting a job or to be close to family."

More, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-05-21/ending-homelessness-is-a-job-for-the-federal-government

[appalachiablue]

20. ABC News, Cleaning up after San Francisco's homeless,

[Nictuku]

18. There are plans in place

Right next to where I work (Civic Center area) there are plans to build 2 big apartment buildings and a clinic for homeless and senior. But they won't be done until 2020.

I can't believe the poverty and drug use I see every day. I don't walk certain areas on my way to work, because it is too sketchy, and it is usually still dark when I'm getting into town. I take BART for 3 stops instead of walking it.

I've worked here for 18 years, and it is the worst I've ever seen it. They have cleaned up the "shooting gallery" inside the BART station at Civic Center, where you walk down this long hall section and there were people shooting up on both sides.

One morning I saw someone who had OD'd on the stairway down to the trains. I found a parking cop and reported it, hopefully the guy got some help.

It is bad. Really bad. I'm not so much scared by the druggies, they are too out of it to really be a threat to me. And in 18 years, the worst thing that has ever happened to me is that once, someone tried to get me right as I was entering the building, (thank goodness that the key card worked that day), he didn't follow me inside (where we do have security).

I wouldn't want to be in that part of town at night. A woman, alone. I would feel like a walking target.

The worst part of all of this for me is how it has desensitized me to seeing such demoralized people, the poverty, the desperation.

The other day I came out at lunch time and saw in the middle of the road (7th street) an elderly lady in a electronic wheelchair. She seemed dazed. I watched for a minute and decided I just had to help her get out of the busy traffic. It took a while to convince her, she was trying to get some money to eat. And one person driving by did give her a dollar. I finally was able to get her to get out of the street, I was afraid she was going to get hit. I asked her if I could help her get some food and she said she couldn't get much with a dollar. I said she had to be careful, that it was not a very good part of town, she said "I know, I just got my check and they stole it from me." My heart was breaking for her. I tried to see if she wanted to go get tacos where I usually get lunch, but she said her chair didn't have enough juice to get that far. She had to get to the methadone clinic that was nearby (one reason there are so many druggies in this part of town I think.) In the end, she took her $7.00 and went into the CVS that was on the corner to get something to eat. She said she didn't need any more help. I only had a half hour for lunch, so I went on my way. But I had tears, and they return as I type this.

What is our society coming to? Why don't we have public bathrooms? (the reek of the city streets is intense) Why don't we take care of our elderly? (sigh)

Will I end up that way when I get too old to work? Our world is so sad. So wrong.

These new buildings that going up will help some. But it won't be soon enough, and it probably won't be enough.

In the mean time, San Francisco is experiencing a HUGE construction boom. So much money is in this city, huge new buildings, lots and lots of constructions workers I see every day on my commute. But the disparaging difference between the haves and have nots is growing.

[appalachiablue]

24. Thank you for the informative & moving post on your experiences

in SF where many poor and desperate people exist on the margins of great wealth, prosperity and new building expansion. The same type of phenomenon, minus the level of homelessness in SF has been occurring in other large US cities undergoing strong growth and gentrification in the last 20+ years- Seattle, Chicago, DC, NY, and others. And with no end in sight, so far.

Upscale urban growth doesn't have to cause such negative impacts on poor people and average workers and communities, especially in terms of the lack of affordable housing, adequate local services and other necessities, but has. More and more the inequality in America, the haves and have nots, is becoming visibly worse; it has to be confronted somehow. Btw, your story of aiding the lady in the wheelchair was great, you helped all that you could. I would have done the same..

So SF is erecting two new apt. buildings and a clinic for homeless and seniors, but will it be soon enough as you say. Seattle just voted down a (controversial) proposal, a 'head tax' on businesses to help fund more housing for residents in need. Sooner than later we must deal with the growing problem of poverty before the US descends further into Third World type conditions in both rural and urban areas as recent studies like the major new UN report stressed. https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016207605

[appalachiablue]

4. Homelessness Issue- "San Francisco Mayoral Election," May 20, '18, NYT

SAN FRANCISCO — In the bluest of blue cities, it can be hard to tell political candidates apart. The four front-runners in the June 5 San Francisco mayoral election, all Democrats, talk about the importance of protecting immigrants and the pernicious effects of income inequality. It goes without saying that they support gay rights, legalized marijuana and more funding for public transportation. Ron Turner, a book publisher and longtime San Francisco resident, compares the election to “trying to pick a leader at a family picnic.”

>And yet on one issue — the roughly 7,000 homeless people and the tent encampments that many of them live in — there are shades of discord. Two of the candidates, London Breed, the current president of the board of supervisors, and Angela Alioto, a past president of the board, speak about using a harder edge when it comes to restoring order to the streets.
“This is an iconic city that is being totally devastated by poverty, filth and crime,” Ms. Alioto said in her law offices across the street from Transamerica Pyramid, the building that defined the San Francisco of a generation ago, when the city still occasionally elected Republicans.

..San Francisco has long represented a certain liberal ideal — an activist city government that led the country on a host of progressive causes, including gay marriage and parental leave. But for the past several years the city has also become a symbol of the failure of America’s wealthiest communities to care for their poorest residents.

>San Francisco, fueled by money from the technology industry, has become unaffordable to all but the very rich, with a median home price of $1.3 million. The contrast with this wealth is sprawled on the sidewalks across the city in tent encampments and cardboard boxes. Sidewalks double as public bathrooms, and a rash of car break-ins has given San Francisco one of the highest property crimes rates of any major American metropolis.
In a city that is only 47 square miles, there are roughly 7,000 homeless people, many of them suffering from mental illness and drug addiction..More, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/us/san-francisco-mayoral-election-homeless.html

[demosincebirth]

6. Thats just the tip of the iceburg. You ought to see the Bart stations below ground.

[appalachiablue]

13. From reading & seeing, I'm sure it's horrible & widespread there.

[BigmanPigman]

7. The cost of living is enormous! There is no affordable housing.

I am not surprised a bit. San Diego isn't quite as expensive but it is pretty close. Entire families live in their cars while the parents work since two incomes is not enough to survive on. I heard on the local news that a couple getting married has a wedding bill of about $30,000 which is equal to a year's rent in the city. Having a child and raising it until 17 years old costs over $240,000. And forget about getting sick... geez!

[appalachiablue]

16. PBS Newshour has done a couple features & I've seen a FEW articles

on the 'vehicle neighborhoods,' but not the full extent of homelessness and misery featured in this article on SF.

The few 'light' stories I've seen covered former middle class couples mainly in their 50s, 60s, and others who live in their cars particularly since the 2008 financial crisis caused millions to lose jobs and homes. AND due to the rising cost of housing and essentials as you say. The locale was San Diego or Seattle I'm sure. A lot of these folks never recovered, esp. ones 50+, largely unemployable at that age.
One report focused on local cab drivers who pick up nicely dressed couples at decent grocery stores waiting with their food bags, and then drive them 'back home' to their vehicle neighborhood.

In the southwest US older, retired folks live in RV communities for various reasons and to be mobile. If lucky, some get jobs to work 'seasonally' at summer festivals and fairs from employers eager to hire seniors to work for less.

This lack of affordable housing, a lot driven by very wealthy investors including foreign, buying property and real estate, and families working & living in CARS is unbelievable! So much for the 'American Dream.' I visited Sea, LA, San Fran and San Diego where F & F settled and did pretty well, and it was before the big Silicon Valley tech boom, and rapidly rising costs since c. 2000.

>Bloomberg 2018, 'Homelessness Tragedy'..*TOP Three Homelessness Cities- Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle*
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-05-21/ending-homelessness-is-a-job-for-the-federal-government

[BigmanPigman]

19. Good article. Thanks.

I guess the homeless are out of luck as long as the moron is in office since the real fix needs to come from the federal govt and not local ones.

[appalachiablue]

21. Homeless in *SEATTLE* 2 days ago:

Last edited Sun Jun 17, 2018, 03:15 PM - Edit history (1)

6/14/18 Seattle Businesses Rejected Head Tax As 'Wrong Approach' to Homeless Crisis. Now What Will They Do? https://www.geekwire.com/2018/seattle-businesses-rejected-head-tax-wrong-approach-homeless-crisis-now-going/

[Kilgore]

10. What other city offers a human poo map to help avoid the piles?

Some SF streets filthier than world’s poorest slums, says UC Berkeley professor
https://sf.curbed.com/2018/2/19/17029308/trash-needles-feces-san-francisco-streets-dirty-hazard

NBC Bay Area published an analysis of the filthy conditions of 153 downtown San Francisco blocks on Sunday and discovered conditions that compare unfavorably to some of the poorest slums in the world.

Reporters from the network took to the streets and observed significant amounts of waste on nearly every block, noting that “vast majority of trash found included large heaps of garbage, food, and discarded junk.”

Worse, there were discarded needles on 41 blocks and feces on 96. There’s an interactive map to check which blocks yielded which types of waste, should anyone want to go down that rabbit hole.

UC Berkeley professor Lee Riley, who specializes in infectious diseases, told NBC Bay Area that the level of insanitary conditions on the worst SF blocks is “much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India.”

[appalachiablue]

14. Some report! no wonder officials & tourists are concerned. What a waste (no pun).

'the level of unsanitary conditions on the worst SF blocks is “much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India.”

[Kilgore]

15. We visited my brother in Sacramento over Christmas

And while there I asked about going into SF for the day. His response was "You can't pay me enough to go to that shit hole"

[appalachiablue]

17. No kidding, this long festering social problem & public health issue needs serious work.

Mercury News, may 2018: "The exact number of homeless people in San Francisco is uncertain, but about 7,500 were found during a one-night count in 2017.
The city’s logged more than 24,300 requests last year for human waste cleanup and 9,500 for needle pick-up. This year, there already have been more than 8,300 requests to pick up waste and 3,700 for needles.

San Francisco has budgeted $65 million out of a $10 billion citywide budget for street cleaning this year. The $13 million the mayor announced this month will go toward hiring dozens more cleaners and expanding staffed pit stop toilets.
Homeless advocacy groups are critical of Farrell’s plan to dismantle camps, saying the move only pushes people into other neighborhoods. The problem, they say, is a lack of long-term housing."

More, https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/01/tolerant-san-francisco-fed-up-with-dirty-smelly-streets/

[Duppers]

22. Map.

Software engineer Jenn Wong decided to start a project she calls Human Wasteland, which maps the city’s poop problem based on 311 calls from 2008-2015. Every call is listed as a poop emoji.




A friend sent this to me 3 days ago.

Only site I can now find publishing it. Sorry.

[appalachiablue]

23. Thanks for the map graphic, seeing is believing. What a dreadful mess, sidewalks

used as bathrooms...