This may also be reflective of how bad D.C. is, since you're making a comparison, so SF may not exactly be idyllic, just a little better than D.C., which is pretty bad in that dimension.

I have been going to SF at least once a year for the past 30 years to see family. There has always been a noticeable population of homeless people, even long ago. But I never saw the alleged surge of the past 5 years. Have never seen feces on the street. I am sure it has been bad in some areas but to paint the entire city as one big feces strewn homeless hellhole has always been incorrect.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, they've been arresting the homeless people the last few months. So maybe you came right after a sweep, didn't hang out in the Tenderloin or SoMa, and didn't know which alleys or overpasses to look down. I live in SF and they are around.

This, and SF locals got fed up with the DA who would not do anything.

I heard they recently made a big sweep of all the homeless people.

10 years ago we visited SF with kids and didn't see a single homeless person. But we stuck close to tourist spots, so maybe that was why.

I was there for work a year ago and had the same experience, OP. I obviously didn't get around the entire city but it was as beautiful as I remembered.

And Waymo cars everywhere.

San Francisco has a new mayor who is really making a difference in the homeless and crime issues.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, they've been arresting the homeless people the last few months. So maybe you came right after a sweep, didn't hang out in the Tenderloin or SoMa, and didn't know which alleys or overpasses to look down. I live in SF and they are around.

+1 Newsom ordered cities to clean up.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/31/california-gavin-newsom-homeless-encampments

Yeah, it doesn't work though. What it means is that a flood of homeless people walk up 24th Street from the Mission, to Noe Valley. Stuff like that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FOX "News" is for entertainment only, so don't believe anything they say about anything. Including places in the United States.

Not a FOX viewer. What I’d heard came from our meeting planner a few years ago and from here. Obviously wasn’t worried enough about it not to travel to SF though.

- OP

Definitely more of an issue couple of years ago. Also, depends a lot on where you stayed, even back then. If someone is at a big hotel right on Union Square, they could walk 2-3 blocks west and see some of the encampments, etc. If you go the other direction you wouldn't ever notice.

We went to Seattle couple summers ago and stayed in neighborhood rentals. Went downtown and there were basically 2 streets that looked pretty bad. Everywhere else in the city was totally fine. This is what people mean when they complain about it being blown out of proportion.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, they've been arresting the homeless people the last few months. So maybe you came right after a sweep, didn't hang out in the Tenderloin or SoMa, and didn't know which alleys or overpasses to look down. I live in SF and they are around.

+1 Newsom ordered cities to clean up.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/31/california-gavin-newsom-homeless-encampments

Anonymous wrote:FOX "News" is for entertainment only, so don't believe anything they say about anything. Including places in the United States.

Not a FOX viewer. What I’d heard came from our meeting planner a few years ago and from here. Obviously wasn’t worried enough about it not to travel to SF though.

- OP

I visited the downtown area in 2019 for four days for a conference. I walked around a lot. There were definitely people living on the street/sidewalks. I was harassed in the BART station by someone scruffy trying to sell me a ticket for cash and another indigent person stepped in to help me (wheelchair user who was just hanging out and not going anywhere).

I grew up in the Bay Area and SF is where I saw my first obviously demented person interacting with strangers. And I had visited for a week in 2000. 2019 was definitely the trip with the most visibly distressed population of street people.

I haven't been back since Covid but what I saw pre-Covid generally matched news coverage I've seen since then.

Yeah, they've been arresting the homeless people the last few months. So maybe you came right after a sweep, didn't hang out in the Tenderloin or SoMa, and didn't know which alleys or overpasses to look down. I live in SF and they are around.

FOX "News" is for entertainment only, so don't believe anything they say about anything. Including places in the United States.

Just spent the past few days in SF. I was wondering what it would be like given other posters talking about how impacted it’s been by homelessness and dirtiness.

We stayed near Fisherman’s Wharf but also were down near where the Powell-Hyde trolley ends at market, bikes through the city on the way to GG park etc. Saw a lot fewer homeless people than at home in DC and the city did not have a dirty feel to it - actually seemed overall pretty clean.

Just sharing a recent anecdote for others considering it for a trip.