Just got back from my first trip to San Francisco in years. It was not that bad!
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Anonymous
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DH and I just returned home from a long weekend trip SF. Our overall takeaway is that San Francisco is wonderful place, certainly one of the great cities of the world!
We spent Saturday/Sunday walking some 30 miles through the north half of the city, exploring everything from China town to the incredible Golden Gate Park. I am still trying to reconcile the experience we had with the overwhelmingly negative press the city receives in some media circles... Far from being a distopian hellscape, we found a vibrant atmosphere full of some of the kindest strangers we have come across in a very long time. I will just say that while we had an incredible trip, the homeless problem did not go unnoticed... Specifically the mentally I'll homeless problem. The one really bad incident involved human feces on the sidewalk that was actively being trampled by a huge crowd of people, it was honestly one of the grossest thing I have ever seen in my life... Everyone's shoes had poop on them. Then one woman took off her shirt and proceeded to "body slam" the (now decimated) poop pile, getting poop all over her torso and hair. While the issue of mentally ill homeless people is not unique to San Francisco, I think it is also fair to say that the good people of the city should not have to deal with this. There's no excuse for someone to pull down their pants and poop on a sidewalk that people are walking on. If someone does that they need to be taken off the streets, period. That is simply unacceptable behavior in any civilized society. With all that being said I would just like to reiterate that we had a wonderful visit!! |
Anonymous
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Sometimes those sidewalks are just asking for it.
Did you spend any time in The Brisket? |
Anonymous
| This is good to hear. We are spending two days in SF after a visit to Yosemite in April. I'm insisting on the SF side trip and DH is convinced that it's going to be a dystopian hellscape. I would love it if he's just partially wrong. |
Anonymous
| As always, the media entirely exaggerated the situation in SF, which remains one of the most beautiful cities in the world. |
Anonymous
It's a beautiful city. I'm sure he'll love it. |
Anonymous
No, but my husband isn't into sex with men for money. |
Anonymous
| Was this post satire? |
Anonymous
| Was there about 5 years ago. Stayed on Market Street at the Four Seasons. Beautiful hotel. Area had gone remarkably downhill by then compared with our dozen prior trips (relatives live in the wine country) |
Anonymous
| I know someone who lives there and they have a homeless guy living in front of their garage. He flipped out when they moved his shopping cart so they could get the car out of the garage. He tried to stab them with something. The cops just moved him across the street so they could get out but wouldn't arrest him for assault. No thanks. I'd rather live somewhere else. |
Anonymous
| I also recently visited San Francisco and had a lovely trip like you. I was pleasantly surprised as I was expecting a lot worse. Actually, the homeless problem and everything is more visible here in DC. |
Anonymous
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They cleaned up a lot of the mess for the Chinese premier visit.
Visiting SF is fine. Living there is when you really feel the challenges to QoL. You're not noticing businesses closing or homeless antics. |
Anonymous
My question exactly. You lost me at “body slam poop pile” |
Anonymous
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I do like San Fran.
Haven’t been in many years. Poop story is GROSS! |
Anonymous
You apparently misread op’s post. |
Anonymous
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Were you there for the convention?
We also just returned and maybe I was expecting worse based on what we’d heard. It wasn’t as bad as I expected. We took Muni and BART a bunch and definitely ran into some colorful people but I never felt unsafe. Would I move there? Also no. |