Friday, January 28, 2011

Lots-O-Drugs



When I first moved into the neighborhood there were drug dealers, mostly a Mexican outfit from what I can tell, that worked the corner. I would watch them from the window. The lady would stand across the street as a lookout. There were a couple of dudes who would do the actual transactions. They knew me, they knew that I lived here. I felt safe, almost, with them around. They kept the homeless and weridos at bay. The Mexican drugs dealers haven’t been there since The Bambuddah Lounge at the Phoenix hotel opened. Closed now, it had attracted too many eyes to the area. They had to move on, or up; either way, they’re no longer here. Despite their move, we have lots-o-drugs in the Tenderloin.

I caught a cab coming home late from work one night. I was pretty tired and thought it was super funny when after I let the cabbie know where I was headed, he asked me if the reason for my visit to the Tenderloin is so I could procure drugs. I informed him I was headed there because that’s where I live. We started talking and he continued to tell me that pretty much the only reason people ask to be taken to the Tenderloin is to buy drugs. He said one night when he was driving some drunk dudes through the neighborhood, they wanted to stop and get cigarettes, so he drove them to the closest market and pulled over. A black man approached the cab and the occupants grew increasingly nervous, the cabbie started to explain that this man just wanted to sell them drugs, they immediately started yelling, “drive, drive, drive.” I laughed at the sight of this image. The only time I’ve seen this word being spoken in such rapid succession like that is in the movies.

There are a lot of drugs out in the open here. There are blatant drug deals in front of the police office on Eddy and Jones. People barely try and hide the fact that they are buying it, let alone doing it right on the streets in front of everyone. It’s almost an unspoken contract…if you walk through this neighborhood you’re accepting the fact that you may see some unpleasant things while you do so.

On my way to school a few years back I was headed to catch Muni at 7 in the morning, I made the wrong turn, walking down Hyde, the image I saw next is an ingrained-in-my-brain FOREVER kind of situation. A train wreck, something you know you shouldn’t look at, but you just can’t help it. A dude, sitting on the sidewalk, shooting up into his bruised and open wounded bloody arm. It was infected and vomit inducing. Requiem for a Dream kind of situation. I don’t go that way anymore.

Living in a neighborhood like this makes you contemplate doing drugs, or at least gives you a point of view that maybe selling drugs is a profitable, legitimate way, to make money. So many people are doing it, why not you? Recently, there have been two separate incidences where I’ve glimpsed “rocks,” as druggies lovingly refer to crack, on the ground still in plastic wrap. Wrapped in plastic so the drug dealers can keep the product in their mouth for safe keeping until the point of sale. As I walked by, I contemplated plucking it from the street and trying my hand at selling it for money. I keep walking on as sanity takes over, I know that I am the kind of person that would walk right up to an undercover cop and let him know, I’m in business!

So I decide that I won’t be picking up the “rock.” Unfortunately, I won’t be taking over the corner and trying my hand at dealing drugs anytime soon. I’d rather just walk around pretending that those bums indeed just met, as their handshake might imply.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Community News

Little Saigon, a few blocks in the Tenderloin where the Vietnamese community is abound. The food is good and the people are nice.

Every year they celebrate New Year with the Tet festival. It's a cute little fair with music and performers and booths and yummy food, located around Larkin and Eddy (represent!!). Here's some more info, come check it out this Sunday, January 30th, 2011.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Poopy Here, Poopy There, Poopy Everywhere



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.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

I'm Pretty Sure I Heard Gunshots

I usually tell people that my neighborhood isn't as bad as they think it is, even at night, and that I'd rather be around a lot of crazy people rather than on the quiet streets at night. I don't think that when I hear gunshots. Multiple gunshots in rapid succession. Not cool. Nerve-racking and disturbing to say the least. I was hanging around my house and then gunshots. Just like that, out of nowhere. They sound different from the rest of the noises you hear in the day-to-day. I bolted to the window to see what I could see, which was nothing, except all the people on the street frozen, staring in the same direction.

Apparently San Francisco's Tenderloin has been having a rough start to the new year, and according to the Examiner's article, there have been three homicides in the neighborhood since the beginning of the year.

Makes me think of this song: