Hacker News Reader

Comment by Panini_Jones | Hacker News Reader

> SF isn't a nice town

You make this assertion but back it up by remarking on things from the past. The Mission was a bloodbath for Native Americans one or two centuries ago, yes, but how does that support your initial claim that it currently isn't a nice town? Is that supporting claim really affecting the residents of the mission so greatly right now?

I think San Francisco is a nice town. I hated it before the pandemic because I only stuck to the Mission and SoMA. I started taking walks in Russian Hill, North Beach/Telegraph Hill, the Marina, Ocean Beach, etc. Those are awesome neighborhoods with great people and many things to do. Just like any city in the USA, you get out of it what you put into it.

View on HN

> The Mission ... currently isn't a nice town?

I lived in the Mission District. I can tell you some stories. Gangsters and just crazy shit. It's still pretty wild there despite gentrification.

Sunset used to have something called "Sunset District Incorporated" or something like that. Skinheads basically. Dunno how it is now.

I went to high school in Hunters Point. Doublerock isn't as famous as Compton but it gets respect. East of 3rd street down there is where the enlightened progressives of San Francisco segregate our Black folks.

What I'm saying is we have lots of different sorts of gangs here in SF. You don't get jumped for your Nike's on Muni so much these days, but still.

But that's not all.

Go walk around the Tenderloin for a minute (DO NOT ACTUALLY DO THIS, I am speaking rhetorically. It's physically dangerous. Highest incidence of male-on-male rape in the nation in the Tenderloin.) I lived there briefly and saw some wild things.

I haven't even touched on the folks living in tents and in Golden Gate Park and down by Lake Merced, or the rampant public drug abuse downtown.

> Russian Hill, North Beach/Telegraph Hill, the Marina, Ocean Beach, etc.

Are you trolling? Those are the nice neighborhoods!

Even Detroit has nice neighborhoods.

In contrast I lived in a Canadian city for a little while and I can remember the night I was coming home late and it dawned on me that I was perfectly safe, in a way that I had never felt growing up in San Francisco.

I love this town, but she's a shady lady.

- - - -

And BTW wtf are you doing going for walks and doing "many things" in the middle of a pandemic!? Goddamnit dude.

I grew up in Toronto. I'm aware of the safety disparity but nevertheless I still think this is a nice place. There are also places in Toronto that I wouldn't go to. Anecdotally, I've been beaten up randomly in Toronto but not in San Francisco. Anecdotally again, I've seen people shoot up in Toronto but not in San Francisco.

> Are you trolling? Those are the nice neighborhoods!

Your assertion was that SF is not a nice place. Those neighborhoods are what SF is to many people, including myself. To me, SF is a nice place with bad parts. To you, it seems to be a bad place with nice parts.

> And BTW wtf are you doing going for walks and doing "many things" in the middle of a pandemic!? Goddamnit dude.

I don't know if anyone has told you, but we've been allowed to go on walks. Even in the current lockdown, you are permitted to walk to a park.

But, again, from what my Canadians friends told me, Toronto is practically American in terms of roughness!

Toronto is like the New Orleans of Canada.

> Those neighborhoods are what SF is to many people, including myself.

Yeah, I know for a lot of people SF ends at Twin Peaks, but that's my whole point: folks ignoring the gritty reality of life in SF, living in bubbles, protected by wealth and privilege, and then complaining that the rest of the city can't be their Disneyland too.

> To me, SF is a nice place with bad parts. To you, it seems to be a bad place with nice parts.

Like I said, I love this city. I grew up here, it's my home town. But I also know our history. (And shady stuff goes on up to this very day, just for example check out the FBI corruption probe[1]. Shady.)

> I don't know if anyone has told you, but we've been allowed to go on walks.

Self righteous and snotty? No thanks, I'm all stocked up.

> Even in the current lockdown, you are permitted to walk to a park.

But that's not what you said you were doing. You said "I started taking walks in Russian Hill, North Beach/Telegraph Hill, the Marina, Ocean Beach, etc. Those are awesome neighborhoods with great people and many things to do."

Which sounds like you're touring around and chillaxing at the pub.

I'm out.

Good day sir.

[1] https://sfist.com/2020/07/15/ongoing-fbi-corruption-probe-hi...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com