In the Tenderloin
stories.californiasunday.com
In the Tenderloin
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Re: In the Tenderloin
#2>You’ve read 2 of 3 free articles this month.
Is this a joke?
Re: In the Tenderloin
#3I remember driving through the Tenderloin with my friend. We'd just drive through and observe the city life, since we were from the wine country up north a bit. Every time we went there was something new to see.
The Tenderloin was particularly dangerous and we'd usually visit there once in a blue moon. My friend and I would turn onto O'Farrell heading eastbound then take a left onto Larkin where we witnessed some of the worst things. One time we decided to park my car on Cedar, get out, and walk around. It wasn't a very smart idea. My friend got egged while we were walking south on Larkin, somewhere between Post and Geary. We also got offered some crystal meth in front of that liquor store on Geary and Larkin while casually talking to some prostitutes. There were also always a small group of prostitutes on the corner of Larkin and Sutter.
I'm not sure what it's like out there now, if it's any better or worse. Has anyone been around Larkin lately?
Re: In the Tenderloin
#4Reading this reminded me of an article in San Francisco Magazine from a couple of years ago:
http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/arise-tender...
Quoting:
[...]
But the event that truly created the Tenderloin of today took place in 1980, when developers proposed three luxury high-rise hotels in the neighborhood. Residents and nonprofit advocacy groups organized to keep the big hotels out. The high rises were built, but in the aftermath of the fight, the city passed two crucial laws. First, the city made it illegal for owners to convert SROs into tourist hotels unless they also replaced the low-income units or paid into a fund for affordable housing. Second, it passed a zoning law lowering the height maximum in the Tenderloin from 30 stories to between 8 and 13.
These laws made it virtually impossible for developers to “Manhattanize” the Tenderloin. Meanwhile, the nonprofits, which had lobbied for the laws and led the fight to keep out the big hotels, themselves began to buy or lease buildings. These nonprofits, which include the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC), the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC), and Mercy Housing, now own or lease more than 5,000 housing units in the Tenderloin. The city plays a critical role too: It has loaned the nonprofits money to acquire or rehab about 50 properties with 4,000 affordable units, and it holds or finances master leases on dozens of other such buildings. “The Tenderloin is the only place where the nonprofits own the housing,” says Field. “This protects the poor people in the neighborhood from changes in demographics.” It also gives the nonprofits a vested interest in keeping their clients from being dispersed.
[...]
Combine that with rent control, resistance to new, higher density development and an influx of high paying tech jobs, and San Francisco's current situation makes a lot of sense...*
* To be fair, policies from the '80s that closed asylums and dumped mentally ill people onto the street contributed, but SF certainly seems to have worked to maximize the effect.
Re: In the Tenderloin
#5I remember driving through the Tenderloin with my friend. We'd just drive through and observe the city life, since we were from the wine country up north a bit. Every time we went there was something new to see. The Tenderloin was particularly dangerous and we'd usually visit there once in a blue moon. My friend and I would turn onto O'Farrell heading eastbound then take a left onto Larkin where we witnessed some of…
> There were also always a small group of prostitutes on the corner of Larkin and Sutter.
Please! They're transvestite prostitutes. They're a step up from regular prostitutes.
Re: In the Tenderloin
#6Reading this reminded me of an article in San Francisco Magazine from a couple of years ago: http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/arise-tender... Quoting: [...] But the event that truly created the Tenderloin of today took place in 1980, when developers proposed three luxury high-rise hotels in the neighborhood. Residents and nonprofit advocacy groups organized to keep the big hotels out. The high rises we…
The homeless industrial complex. See also the weeping and gnashing of teeth when anti loitering laws are enforced in BART stations.
Re: In the Tenderloin
#7Reading this reminded me of an article in San Francisco Magazine from a couple of years ago: http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/arise-tender... Quoting: [...] But the event that truly created the Tenderloin of today took place in 1980, when developers proposed three luxury high-rise hotels in the neighborhood. Residents and nonprofit advocacy groups organized to keep the big hotels out. The high rises we…
The homeless industrial complex. See also the weeping and gnashing of teeth when anti loitering laws are enforced in BART stations.
The homeless industrial complex.
Re: In the Tenderloin
#8I remember driving through the Tenderloin with my friend. We'd just drive through and observe the city life, since we were from the wine country up north a bit. Every time we went there was something new to see. The Tenderloin was particularly dangerous and we'd usually visit there once in a blue moon. My friend and I would turn onto O'Farrell heading eastbound then take a left onto Larkin where we witnessed some of…
I've lived in that area for a few years now. There's still drug dealing and prostitutes along Larkin between O'Farrell and Geary, but a block north where your friend got egged there's now a stylish cafe and an art gallery. The line of gentrification is so sharp sometimes it's almost surreal, and it's been moving south at a brisk pace the past five years or so.
Re: In the Tenderloin
#9>You’ve read 2 of 3 free articles this month. Is this a joke?
At least I didn't get a full-screen come-on to buy a subscription to some site I've never heard of, before.
Re: In the Tenderloin
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
The homeless industrial complex. See also the weeping and gnashing of teeth when anti loitering laws are enforced in BART stations.
The homeless industrial complex. Not sure I really like the phrase (or, rather I do, but it feels unsavory), but agreed. Seems as though every 6 months or so I hear a rehashing of the situation on KQED's Forum; invariably, the discussion swirls around San Francisco's situation is so complicated and needs so much more money to fix. Then I read these articles and the situation doesn't seem so complicated. As you allude…
San Francisco desperately needs to be a city where you don't need to be a software engineer, Stanford law grad, or VC to live in. At the same time, the Tenderloin and the issue of the homeless is somewhat orthogonal to that, I think. I think a lot about it stinks (hence my pithy phrase I coined, and pardon the pun) but there's still serious housing issues in SF.