A book I quite enjoy states, Everybody poops, and in San Francisco, everybody poops on the sidewalks of the Tenderloin! In any given day I see poop at least twice while strolling down the streets, and even though I’d like to think that someone was just careless not to pick up after their dog, there are some tell-tale signs that indeed it is human feces. Classic human feces: One futile piece of toilet paper settled on the top of a pile. Or how about the stuff that’s been stepped in and smeared for half a block all over the sidewalk willy-nilly; it’s like playing hopscotch just to avoid it all. I’ve even gone so far as to shove friends to help them avoid a pile. I try and keep a vigilant eye out. You don’t want to be tracking that shit into your house. It’s a difficult job since it’s fucking everywhere, one might even go so far to say, it’s an epidemic!
San Francisco is an amazing city, yet it’s super filthy. Not just poopy dirty, but trashy dirty. There’s trash everywhere. There are overturned trash cans, left for days, trash in the street and on the sidewalks everywhere you go, and of course the aforementioned poop. It’s sad to see such a beautiful metropolitan city look so grubby.
Why is San Francisco so dirty? Maybe the city isn’t spending enough on cleaning and maintenance, or enough time, which is also money. However, our new Mayor, Edwin M. Lee announced that he wants to prepare the city in order to be the host of the 34th America’s Cup scheduled for 2013. You can read a bit more about this here. I say, what a perfect time to invest in cleaning and beautifying the city.
This is a call to action, for business owners, and the city Supervisors, especially you, Jane Kim, new Supervisor of District 6, whom I voted for, please invest in the cleanliness of our amazing city; and to business owners…hose down the sidewalks, if there is an empty business next door, help the neighborhood out, hose that part down too! And people, please pick up after your dogs. And by the way, don’t throw your trash on the ground, it’s your trash, find a place to put it, preferably not on the ground, but rather, in a trash can. What a new idea! As for the homeless people that take dumps on the sidewalks, they dance to a different tune than me or you, usually the one in their head, but I hope as the city, and the Tenderloin become cleaner, that bums won’t be so inclined to pooh on the sidewalks.
When I was in SF in June 2012, I saw a woman take a dump on a busy Tenderloin sidewalk in broad daylight. I don't know what was more disturbing: the fact that the woman pulled her jeans and underpants back up without wiping, or that passersby acted as if it was the most normal thing in SF for a grown woman to shit on a sidewalk on a Thursday afternoon.
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