I live in San Francisco in a neighborhood called the Tenderloin. When guide books refer to this area they often say it's “vibrant”. It's often referred to as vibrant because this is the neighborhood where all the crazies and bums congregate. The Tenderloin is loud and dirty and has mass amounts of pooh on the ground, but these are things that contribute to its unique charm. Because of the amount of feces on the ground, my boyfriend has taken to making a game out of it. He will point at the pile of poopy, and if I look at it, I lose. He wins if I see poop, and I lose. It’s that simple. I try my best not to look in the direction of the pointing finger, because now I know what’s in store for me. I usually lose this game. There’s another game I invented. The idea is as simple as the first, basically, it’s imperative that I make sure to step over the trickle of water flowing from the corner of the wall out toward the street. It might be pee or it might not, but most likely it is, especially when some guy has his crotch tucked into a corner of a building I’m walking by and a long stream is racing my way. Best to avoid these in any case, just in case! Despite these games, driven by avoidance of public bowel movements, I like living here. I’m centrally located and I have all kinds of transportation options all around. Plus, it’s entertaining. Only, my time here may be coming to an end.
The TenderNob, is a quaint euphemism for the area between Nob Hill and the Tenderloin. It means you’re sort of close to the Tenderloin now, but still in a “nice” neighborhood. Nice, meaning people aren’t slumped over on the sidewalk begging for change or half naked, or pooping on the sidewalk as you walk by only to smile up at you and say, “Hi,” while still in the act. I’m conflicted about the TenderNob encroaching on the Tenderloin. I’m not going to lie, I like the cleaner streets up there, but I am worried that the TenderNob spells trouble for us who live, or especially for those who want to move into the Loin. It seems to be getting closer and closer. The rents have skyrocketed all over the city, but haven’t really effected the Tenderloin, until now. When I moved in six years ago, my deposit alone was 1,100 dollars. I recently saw a posting for an available apartment in my building with a move-in deposit of $1,600. As the TenderNob creeps toward the Tenderloin, so to do the expensive rents.
There’s a project in the works for a Tenderloin museum to be located at Eddy and Leavenworth in the Cadillac hotel, which the organizers say will serve the purpose of attracting more tourists into the area, instead of them avoiding it at all costs. More information on the project can be found here. According to the website, besides issues such as needing a bunch of money and not having the logistics worked out yet, from what I read, it sounds like they maybe want to give tours of the hotel including the rooms and the people who live there. Picture, a tourist group coming through every half hour to gawk at the destitute behind plate glass windows with headsets telling of how these people have been reduced to living there. Other than these issues, my biggest compliant about the museum, at the moment, is the name. They want to call it the Uptown Tenderloin Museum. There’s really nothing uptown about the Tenderloin and calling it so, does not make it so. The development of this museum indicates a changing tide, people want to clean up this neighborhood, whether it be for the good of the city and community, or for their wallets.
I guess I should be wondering why development of this area hasn’t happened sooner, considering the Tenderloin is the neighborhood adjacent to downtown and the main shopping/tourist area of San Francisco. I’ll have to admit, I do get sort of embarrassed when tourists end up walking through the Tenderloin unwittingly, with wide-eyed expressions, trying not to show fear and disgust while at the same time looking for the next block that will hopefully take them out of this area and back to safety. I remember feeling like that when I moved into this neighborhood. I’m from a small town with only 25,000 people in it when I left. I remember when I first moved here I didn’t want to leave my house at night and I did my best not to make eye contact with anyone. Now, when I tell people that I live in the Tenderloin and they get this kind of look that emotes concern, I tell them it’s not as bad as you think, which is true. I feel safer with lots of crazies around instead of empty streets. When I go back to that small town, it’s the silence and pitch black outdoors that bothers me.
San Francisco has a rich history of emigrants coming to settle here trying to make a better life for themselves and their families, while in turn making our city a more interesting, dare I say, better place. The people most effected by rising rents in the city are immigrants, people of color, families and recent graduates from college. Neighborhoods closer to downtown like the Mission, and the Tenderloin have maintained more affordable rents in the city, for the time being. I wonder if there will be a day in the near future when these people can no longer afford to live downtown, or in the city of San Francisco at all.
I ask myself now, after considering these matters, should I be tagging the neighborhood? Should I be throwing my feces on the ground or paying the bums to stay on the streets? Should I be messing up my own neighborhood in order to keep the rents low? These people and streets may reek of ass, and it may be easy enough to dismiss this as you pass by, but what they really reek of is help needed, of a service that needs to be provided. There’s been a general lack of concern for the people here. We turn a blind eye as we walk by, hoping someone else will deal with it, but who is looking? We need to deal with the greater issues at hand. These people have congregated here for a reason. They’ve been here for awhile. So don’t push them out, this is their home. This is my home. I love it for what it is. I like living here. I say, let the restaurants and shops and museums come, but I want to stay too.
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