Also, does one need to show some type of credit report or can one just come in with a bunch of cash and wave it around and get a place?
East Palo Alto is probably more dangerous than the Tenderloin.
The most dangerous parts of SF are Bayview / Hunter's Point and the eastern half of the western addition (near Jefferson Square Park).
Within the last month, for example, there was a stabbing at Laguna and Fell (which is highly unusual) and a shooting around Laguna and Turk (less unusual).
In 2007-2008 I believe the area around Jackson Square Park wad THE most dangerous place in SF.
This is juxtaposed with Hayes Valley immediately to the south, which is filled with lots of 20-something professionals.
Edit: Why am I being down voted? Everything I said was accurate.
>This is juxtaposed with Hayes Valley immediately to the south, which is filled with lots of 20-something professionals.
Accurate? Orly.
Let me tell you, 20-something professionals are a dangerous f'in lot. Stab ya fer yer VC soon as lookit ya.
i lived in the tenderloin for a year and some change and i kind of liked it. there's good night life on polk street and good cheap eats there. i had four indian restaurants within a block of my apartment and could walk to the great american music hall or BART. but it takes a certain kind of person to live amongst that kind of drudgery for so long.
if you want true danger, head down to bayview and hunters point. even the tenderloin has its share of wine bars and quaint coffee shops. the 'view is like another world.
In fact, I once pulled over into a gas station only to have the attendant tell me I needed to get into my car and drive off.
I've never once had an experience like that in SF.
How exactly does this prove it's a decent neighborhood again?
Also, I wouldn't call it a "decent neighborhood," I just don't want to make it seem like you'll get shot for setting foot there, is all. I wouldn't live there.
It's definitely gotten better since the 1990s, but I still would really not want to live there and do a startup.
It's nothing compared to HP, Bayview, EPA, parts of East San Jose, or parts of Oakland, though. When in the area, I often am driving to HP at night (to go to 200 Paul Ave, one of the big datacenters on the West Coast), and I'm always relieved when the gate closes behind my car.
The mission has some bad areas too; unfortunately the area right outside Noisebridge is actually pretty sketchy.
Just throwing out my datapoint...
http://dougmccune.com/blog/2010/06/05/if-san-francisco-crime...
The tenderloin is the most ghetto in the middle of the city. Personally I feel the danger in this area is overrated but it definitely seems sketchy. The 2nd sketchiest seeming part of the city is 6th and Market. It's like a zombie movie after midnight.
In the city I had more trouble from roving bands of drunks looking for fights in North Beach than I have from either crazy people or muggers.
I have been mugged in both Oakland and Berkeley near the Ashby stop. There are many more spaces where you can be walking around in the dark with nobody around in the East Bay.
You generally need a credit report but the last 2 apartments I rented in SF, the landlord did not ask for one. If it is being rented "by owner" it is up in the air. If it is a management company they will usually want a credit report. If you have no credit report (like, you're from overseas) you can often get by if you pay for a number of months up front.
True. And it also has Tu Lan, Julia Childs' favorite San Francisco restaurant, as an old greasy newspaper clipping in the window used to proudly substantiate.
What sort of references did they ask for, and did they verify income in any way?
Are you sure they didn't run a credit report anyway (even if there was no history of borrowing on it)?
In SF, they tend to ask for a copy of your credit report or enough info (social security number) to run one themselves.
And they ask more aggressively when the market is tight -- for example, in 2000, it was wise to bring a printed credit report to the first showing of a vacancy, so your application could be considered in the batch of 10+ people that were applying on the spot. It's not nearly so tight right now.
Sacramento and the East Bay. No rent control. I was only an overseas immigrant without a rental history the first time.
What sort of references did they ask for, and did they verify income in any way?
I think the most recent one did call my boss to verify my income.
Are you sure they didn't run a credit report anyway (even if there was no history of borrowing on it)?
They always run credit reports, even though I tell them "It'll come back blank". The last one did express some surprise that I still had a blank credit report after three years in the US, but nobody ever thought I was a bad risk.
That was in the East Bay, not in the city itself. Still, I have plenty of friends who have got straight off flights from overseas and rented apartments in San Francisco proper with no dramas. As long as you have a steady job and an adequate income I don't think they care about a blank credit report, just as long as you don't have a bad credit report.