The seedy side of San Francisco

Last time we were in San Francisco, we went to the touristy and posh areas of the city. It has been quite different this time. First time we went for a walk we ended up in the area we had been advised to keep away from: Tenderloin. We hadn’t planned to go there, but it is so near the civic center that we just ended up there by mistake. To make things worse, we looked like tourists. Normally we try to blend in and leave all valuables behind. This time, we had just dropped off the hire car so were carrying things from the back seat and so on in a small backpack. I was also still wearing my geeky rain jacket. We noticed that the streets were looking a bit run down but it wasn’t until we started noticing the gangs that we started to feel a bit worried. This part of Turk Street was the sort of neighbourhood where a lot of men were hanging around, some passing stuff to others. They eyed us suspiciously. There were also some winos, vagrants and some people obviously high on drugs. From a gang of street walkers, a large black lady hollered over to us “Hey! - Big white guy….”. We pretended not to noticed but stepped up our pace and took the next available right onto Jones Street. The action thinned out and we were down to just a few dealers on street corners, and by the time we reached Post, they had gone and we were out of Tenderloin in one piece.

Just in case we hadn’t had enough action, the next day we headed to another fairly edgy area known as Mission. We had visited Mission Dolores (on our Vertigo tour) and then were exploring the surrounding streets. This area is predominantly Latino. On Mission Street there were some guys who looked like they could be dealers but we didn’t go too far down this time. We headed back to 16th street where we had seen some eateries and had great cheap Mexican food in a scruffy taqueria called Pancho Villas.


Mission Dolores in 1958 for the movie (it looks the same today)

The third interesting area were saw was “Castro”. Again gangs of men on the street, but this time not at all threatening – this is the heart of gay San Francisco. It is much gayer than Ibiza or Ipanema. Clone couples held hands while going about their Saturday afternoon business. Same-sex couples hugged and kissed freely in the street. Butch, leather-clad guys hung out in Starbucks and the street outside. A couple of men looked at David with interest but then noticed me. We had a coffee at Tulley’s and then headed on to the park.

Golden Gate Park is huge and we only saw a fraction of it. It was bitterly cold and icy gusts were blowing in from the bay so we didn’t last long. Just long enough to take in some of the park life. Street artists practiced their juggling. Tots worked on their soccer skills and street musicians combined efforts while the homeless looked on with nowhere else to go. We jumped on a Muni (cable car which turns into the subway) and headed back into town.