In the Tenderloin | Hacker News Reader

In the Tenderloin

stories.californiasunday.com

61 pointspmcpinto18 comments

The Tenderloin is shrinking. I was just through there yesterday. The 6th St corridor between 101 and Market, which is in SOMA but was effectively part of the Tenderloin, is being gentrified. The old "defenstration.org" building has been leveled and there is construction on the site, so 3 of the 4 corners at 6th and Howard have been rebuilt. The "bad area" of 6th St is now down to the 2-block stretch between Howard and Market, and there's construction in the first half-block south of Market. Most of the little alleys in the area have become sites for new high-end apartment buildings. TechShop SF is in that area. The jaws are closing.

In the Tenderloin proper, a block has been chopped off on each side. On the west, gentrification has partially advanced to Polk St, with a "globally inspired rotisserie" across from Royal Liquors. The "Polk Gulch" area, once home to rent boys and trannies, is almost gone. On the south edge, at Market, since Twitter moved into the old fashion center (SF never had much of a fashion industry; the other fashion center building, in SOMA converted to Sega, then Zynga), the "mid market" dump of an area is rapidly being rebuilt. There are still SRO hotels on that part of Market, but two of the three strip clubs have closed.

In the heart of the Tenderloin, around Glide, buildings are being rebuilt. The SRO hotels owned by nonprofits remain, but they're being surrounded by rebuilt buildings and hipster restaurants. Some of the SRO hotels are getting upgrades.

It's going. Slowly, but it's going.

I do wonder where the people previously living there go. Our homeless population statistics barely budge year to year, but the gentrification is palpable everywhere. Maybe the stats just aren't that good? But if they're leaving, where to? Do they somehow end up rehabilitated?

"Older homeless expected to die off soon" - SF Gate, 2013.

"The number of homeless people in the United States is expected to plummet over the next decade as indigents who fell prey to crack and hard times 30 years ago die of premature old age. ... This is the population that was created in the "big bang" of homelessness in the early 1980s, when multitudes of people fell through the safety net during a severe recession or became hooked on the then-new, cheap version of smokable cocaine. The economy recovered later in the decade and the crack epidemic eased, but many of the people who became homeless stayed homeless, growing middle-aged on the streets."

"The recession of 1981-82, and President Ronald Reagan's slashing of affordable housing funding to the poor by three-quarters, are fresh in the memories of many of those who have white hair and push shopping carts. Most started out poor, but they say opportunities to climb upward dwindled in their youths."

[1] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Older-homeless-expecte...

Reading this reminded me of an article in San Francisco Magazine from a couple of years ago:

http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/arise-tender...

Quoting:

[...]

But the event that truly created the Tenderloin of today took place in 1980, when developers proposed three luxury high-rise hotels in the neighborhood. Residents and nonprofit advocacy groups organized to keep the big hotels out. The high rises were built, but in the aftermath of the fight, the city passed two crucial laws. First, the city made it illegal for owners to convert SROs into tourist hotels unless they also replaced the low-income units or paid into a fund for affordable housing. Second, it passed a zoning law lowering the height maximum in the Tenderloin from 30 stories to between 8 and 13.

These laws made it virtually impossible for developers to “Manhattanize” the Tenderloin. Meanwhile, the nonprofits, which had lobbied for the laws and led the fight to keep out the big hotels, themselves began to buy or lease buildings. These nonprofits, which include the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC), the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC), and Mercy Housing, now own or lease more than 5,000 housing units in the Tenderloin. The city plays a critical role too: It has loaned the nonprofits money to acquire or rehab about 50 properties with 4,000 affordable units, and it holds or finances master leases on dozens of other such buildings. “The Tenderloin is the only place where the nonprofits own the housing,” says Field. “This protects the poor people in the neighborhood from changes in demographics.” It also gives the nonprofits a vested interest in keeping their clients from being dispersed.

[...]

Combine that with rent control, resistance to new, higher density development and an influx of high paying tech jobs, and San Francisco's current situation makes a lot of sense...*

* To be fair, policies from the '80s that closed asylums and dumped mentally ill people onto the street contributed, but SF certainly seems to have worked to maximize the effect.

The homeless industrial complex. See also the weeping and gnashing of teeth when anti loitering laws are enforced in BART stations.

    The homeless industrial complex.

Not sure I really like the phrase (or, rather I do, but it feels unsavory), but agreed. Seems as though every 6 months or so I hear a rehashing of the situation on KQED's Forum; invariably, the discussion swirls around San Francisco's situation is so complicated and needs so much more money to fix. Then I read these articles and the situation doesn't seem so complicated. As you allude, parties with conflicts of interest have stepped in to complicate it...

San Francisco desperately needs to be a city where you don't need to be a software engineer, Stanford law grad, or VC to live in. At the same time, the Tenderloin and the issue of the homeless is somewhat orthogonal to that, I think. I think a lot about it stinks (hence my pithy phrase I coined, and pardon the pun) but there's still serious housing issues in SF.

I remember driving through the Tenderloin with my friend. We'd just drive through and observe the city life, since we were from the wine country up north a bit. Every time we went there was something new to see.

The Tenderloin was particularly dangerous and we'd usually visit there once in a blue moon. My friend and I would turn onto O'Farrell heading eastbound then take a left onto Larkin where we witnessed some of the worst things. One time we decided to park my car on Cedar, get out, and walk around. It wasn't a very smart idea. My friend got egged while we were walking south on Larkin, somewhere between Post and Geary. We also got offered some crystal meth in front of that liquor store on Geary and Larkin while casually talking to some prostitutes. There were also always a small group of prostitutes on the corner of Larkin and Sutter.

I'm not sure what it's like out there now, if it's any better or worse. Has anyone been around Larkin lately?

I walk south down Larkin every day and turn left (heading East) down Post. Without fail, there is a 50-100 person line of young people every morning outside the door of this place:

http://www.mrholmesbakehouse.com/

So yes, as another commenter mentioned, there can be quite a contrast present.

I've lived in that area for a few years now. There's still drug dealing and prostitutes along Larkin between O'Farrell and Geary, but a block north where your friend got egged there's now a stylish cafe and an art gallery. The line of gentrification is so sharp sometimes it's almost surreal, and it's been moving south at a brisk pace the past five years or so.

The inter-neighborhood "force fields" in SF are unlike anything I've ever seen elsewhere.

I walk up and down Larkin regularly, and I've never gotten any of that kind of treatment. I have seen street prostitutes on Post between Larkin and Hyde a few times, but not consistently.

The events that occurred all were in one night at 3AM.

> There were also always a small group of prostitutes on the corner of Larkin and Sutter.

Please! They're transvestite prostitutes. They're a step up from regular prostitutes.

What the fuck, why would you post this.

I was recently at the edge of the Tenderloin, in Union Square, when out of nowhere when a man walked up behind me, drunk or high or crazy (or some combination of the above), hands covered in blood, and a trail of blood behind him. Before I even noticed him, he casually wiped his bloodied hands on my shoulder, and slurred some loud but incomprehensible statement at me. Not really sure how to react, I briskly walked away, and kept an eye on him doing much the same thing to other people as I did my best to simply keep my distance. Perhaps I should have called the cops, perhaps even an ambulance given the state of his hands, but in all honesty I just wanted to keep my distance and not get even more covered in blood, or assaulted in some even worse way.

I'm not trying to make any particular point with this story, just adding my contribution of an event that happened in the area.

>You’ve read 2 of 3 free articles this month.

Is this a joke?

At least I didn't get a full-screen come-on to buy a subscription to some site I've never heard of, before.

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