The mean streets of San Francisco

It's easy to get jaded in SF because there are so many panhandlers. There's also different classes of panhandlers... There's gutter punks, scam artists, drug addicts, mentally ill, and dudes who are just down and out. There was a guy by my house who I felt bad for because he was mentally retarded... until I ran into him at the pizza place and realized it was all an act. There are guys who would ask for weirdly specific amounts of money, like $8.75 or 13 dollars. There are guys who have nicer shoes than me. The gutter punks are aggressive and generally assholes. There was a 20-something girl with a shaved head who offered to give me a blow job for $5... at 7 in the morning.

Anyway, I get what the OP is saying but none of these people besides the gutter punks would be into smokes. It's sort of stupid to buy smokes for homeless people if you don't smoke. Even beyond the homeless, SF is lurker central. Smoking in SF means that everyone on the street will ask you for a cigarette, from homeless people, to drunk yuppies whose wife won't let them buy cigs, to teenage girls up for the weekend from Stockton.

In summary... having cigarettes will actually ensure that you have about 5x as many encounters with people on the street than you normally would.

Really the only way to deal with the panhandlers (and everyone else in SF) is to learn how to say "no." If you want to feel better about yourself volunteer at a shelter or soup kitchen.

The disconnect between the world we are living in and the streets is huge. That's why I hesitate to pass judgment on other people - I don't know how they have been shaped by their society, and perhaps if I went through the same process they went through, I would also have their viewpoints.

It's like people who listen to rap passing judgment on country music or vice versa. These represent different lifestyles and approaches to life. None is wrong - brought up in one circumstance, you would sing the one and in another the other.

I had to re-read the part where he skips from

"You might describe my attitude, in the words of the philosopher McCartney, as “live and let die.”"

to

"Three weeks after my 18th birthday, I was taken by gunpoint to a Greyhound station in Orlando with a ticket to California and a twenty dollar bill."

I thought I missed a paragraph there or something.

> Ignoring the homeless, or begging off, carries its own problems.

Don't do either, then. If you don't want to give money, just give a polite and firm "no". I can't believe that anybody takes such a response personally.

To be honest, it's no wonder this guy is harassed by the homeless if he is handing out $100 to them inside a week.

    Give beer to those who are perishing, 
      wine to those who are in anguish;
    let them drink and forget their poverty 
      and remember their misery no more.

-Proverbs

I was homeless at the age of 14 and this is quite true. I like the fact that you've mentioned the cigarette as currency. In many cases I've been able to trade a cigarette for food and clothing. At the same time, like money, that cigarette brought troubles at times.

Thanks for the good writeup.

I'm not rich but I've begun to give the homeless in SF quite a bit of my money. I used to just give them "spare change" and cigarettes, but you should see their face light up when you hand them a $5 bill + loose change. Try it with an open mind, you might find that it's the best $5 you'll ever spend that day.

I used to think that I'd only make the problem worse by giving them money, but my perspective has changed. At the current rate of our economic collapse, it won't be long before we join their ranks.

  How does it feel
  How does it feel
  To be without a home
  Like a complete unknown
  Like a rolling stone?

I would not say the streets of San Francisco are mean. Out of many major cities I've been to, it looks like the nicest city for a homeless person to be. I don't know exactly what city does to help besides regular feedings on the Market str, but they all seem clean, weather is nice, people are tolerant, and many techy tourists spare cash. If there is such a thing as homeless heaven, I'd say SF is it's headquarters.

I'd be interested in learning what brand of cigarettes are available in SF for $5. Certainly not the American Spirits displayed at the top of the article.

Anyone hand out food or something else instead? I am not a big can of cigarettes but I bought a big box of Clif Bars the other day and thought that, or something similar/smaller/cheaper, would be a good handout. I'm always weary of handing out money because it just seems very likely that it will be used for alcohol, drugs, etc.

Sounds like a case of inner city pressure to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wqfcwgT0Ds

This is just crazy enough, and written with just enough of a sense of world-weary authenticity, that I think I may just be convinced to try it.

Ha, ply people with drugs, awesome! (I am not even sure, exactly how I feel about this.)