I just visited (my first time, hard to believe) and enjoyed it very much. I stayed in Sunset district with my cousin and I walked all over solo - to restaurants, beach, etc. Then visited a friend near Fillmore and we walked all over there and down the hill to Japantown and then we drove to the Fishermans Wharf area and walked around there. Drove to Marin headlands and walked there, and in Sausalito, both alone.
I was not approached by anyone for anything and felt totally safe.
The bums in SF are not aggressive. I have always felt safe. But they are not confined to the Tenderloin.
My husband’s company was doing a project in SF and it was cheaper to rent an apartment than to pay for hotel rooms when people went out there to work. H’s company had a high rise apartment (great views) right on the edge of the Financial District and near the Embarcadero. H and I stayed in the apartment off and on for the better part of six months. There were quite a few homeless people in the park area (Walton Sq) near the apartment–I’d walk through there every day. I was surprised because I hadn’t seen so many homeless people before. That being said, I wasn’t frightened and no one ever approached me. I would also walk up and down the Filbert Steps/Stairway for exercise a few times a week, always by myself.
“The bums in SF are not aggressive.”
Given that most of the pictures of the street people show them publicly and openly shooting up heroin, that sounds about right. IV drugs like that tend to make people spacey and mellow. Guess that’s the upside of the situation. Sure, you’ve got thousands of discarded biohazard laden needles and poop on the sidewalks, but hey, the bums are all super laid back…
A friend who lives in San Francisco recently posted that he hosed off the feces, urine, needles from the sidewalk in front of his condo entrance. A neighbor told him ‘Thanks’, but that since it’s clean now even more homeless will sleep here.
He also posted that he had to change his running route so he and his dog could avoid, running past drug dealers, thieves, addicts, homeless, mentally ill, overturned garbage cans, broken glass, screaming/shouting people on dirty crowded sidewalks during their 5 a.m. run (7th and Market).
DS and family live in SF. We were just there. No obvious issues in there part of town, but the cost of living is so ridiculous they really do need to address the # of homeless, even those with jobs and income, but not high enough for affordable housing.
We saw no defecation, urine, vomit, no needles, no heaps of trash, etc. We didn’t see this, nor police milling about to move people along, despite pictures or reports. . And we covered a lot of turf.
This thread isn’t sociology. It was about whether visitors can feel safe. We did. Sure, there was a guy sleeping near the cable car turnaround. And some in the park near Embarcadero. Or sitting in doorways or corners in Haight. Hanging. But in Chinatown, the hanging was groups of seniors friends playing after-dinner cards. City life.
In Starbucks, a guy chatted us up, recommended dinner spots, the sort of chat my friend and I slip into easily, with strangers. Yes, his $1140 VA check didn’t go far enough to afford a permanent home. He asked us for nothing except the moment of chat. I won’t stereotype him.
Homelessness has increased less than 7% over the past 10 years in SF. Their VISIBILITY has increased because of all the tech-boom construction, filling up “empty” or vacant parcels of land and forcing homeless people to live more in the open. This is according to Jeff Kositsky, Director of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
I find it offensive, insensitive, and unfair to call our (entire) homeless population “bums”.
^^The thread asks about how disgusting SF, not how safe. As a tourist there last year, I found SF (and San Diego) to be pretty disgusting, but not overtly unsafe. As a tourist, I would never wish to go back to SF, but I found NYC to be quite pleasant.
There needs to be some semantic distinction between those who are just homeless (that is, they lost their jobs, have no money and cannot afford rent) and those who are living on the streets due to drug use and/or mental illness. The former are homeless. The latter are what ‘transients’ or ‘drifters’ or what?
I shouldn’t have opened the thread while eating lunch.
Maybe because those pictures are more interesting and generate more outrage than the guy who just sits and quietly panhandles all day.
Now San Diego is “mostly a dump”? One of my favorite places to visit. Love it!
Sounds like “get off my lawn” speak to me.
SF is pouring more resources into frequent cleaning of streets and responding quickly to complaints. I work in the Civic Center area, and I think it is definitely getting better. Here’s a recent article: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/SF-s-filthy-streets-We-re-spending-far-more-13215702.php
AboutTheSame, I am glad your impression is that some of the “problem areas” have gotten better. That has been my thought as well. I think the potty pods placed near some of the BART stations is helping to alleviate some of the human waste issues in the stairwells. These “kiosks” are actually very attractive!
For those of you coming to the city in the foreseeable future or locals just looking for some affordable places to eat in the North Beach/Telegraph Hill ares (these are all near my DS’s flat):
Molinari Deli, on Columbus
Mo’s Grill, on Grant in Chinatown
Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, on Stockton
(Hope they are all still open. Things change rather suddenly in the restaurant biz.)