Comments for The City Obscure

Comment on Something San Francisco Needs by The City Obscure

The City Obscure — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:44:43 +0000

[...] I wonder how how long ‘temporarily’ will be. I’ve written before about my desire to see a centralizing locale for theatre and performance art. The DeAvila School, centered squarely in one of San Francisco’s most artistically vibrant neighborhoods and easily accessible by MUNI, is the perfect candidate. [...]

Comment on The Tenderloin by laurendo

laurendo — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:16:32 +0000

Boedekker has always been a very trouble ridden part of the TL neighborhood. The weird thing is, even located across the street from the TL Police Department hasn’t helped solve the problems. It really is a shame because open space in the TL is very scare and there are a lot of families that live in apartments and have no yards to play in safely and Boedekker is one of the few parks in the TL.

I really hate Gary Delagnes answer though regarding the problems in the TL. I used to work in the TL and talked to cops there all the time who said if they had the manpower and more cops walking neighborhood beats, it would deter a lot of the negative acts in the TL. Gary Delagnes’ “solution” was a cop out (no pun intended).

I don’t think that the folks living in the TL are so dismissive of things you are talking about, but when you think about who is living there (e.g. people of color, the very poor, immigrants with limited English) those aren’t the power players in SF or anywhere else. Combine that with the HIGHEST concentration of social services and nonprofit agencies like soup kitchens, shelters, etc… and you bring additional problems into the TL which should be spread out throughout the entire city.

Comment on PARK(ing) Day by Steve Boland

Steve Boland — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 20:47:37 +0000

Channing,

I’d like to talk to you about The City Obscure. Could you drop me an email? seboland at gmail dot com. Thanks.

Comment on The Tenderloin by Channing

Channing — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 18:20:37 +0000

With these pictures, I wanted to show the bleakness of the park itself. To tell the truth, I wouldn’t feel safe wandering around the streets of the Tenderloin snapping photos. To get a sense of the streets, visit this site: http://www.tenderloin.net/

I can’t say that it’s merely a feeling one has when walking through the Tenderloin. It really is all there, right out in the open. I’ve seen (from my car windows) men shooting up, dozens of drug deals, women selling themselves. Once I saw a man defecating in a street gutter. A few weeks before I made this post, my colleague saw a homeless couple having intercourse in front of the Boedekker Park clubhouse in bright daylight - the Tenderloin police station is directly across the street.

Comment on The Tenderloin by Marianne

Marianne — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 02:18:37 +0000

What fascinates me about your blog is that the pictures don’t look that bad. I guess you’d have to FEEL the sense of degradation by actually being there–?

When I was new, very new, to this country, I visited New York and went for a job interview at The Nation. No one told me about “Needle Park”, or 14th St. (Today the area is very gentrified, there’s even a Whole Foods just opened there), and when I emerged from the subway stop, I immediately became confused at the sight of so many hard-faced people. I had $500 in my wallet, I wanted to run, and I’ve never felt such a sense of panic in my life. Now, would this be similar to what an outsider would feel if he/she were to take a stroll in the neighborhood in your pictures?

Comment on The Tenderloin by J.W.

J.W. — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:04:57 +0000

I’ve always been baffled by the fact that the T-loin borders on so many nice neighborhoods and so closely to large civic structures like City Hall and the UN plaza. How could it remain so un-gentrified under such proximity to nicer parts of downtown? I don’t think I’d like to see the area turned into more upscale condos or anything like that, but I’d like to feel like I could walk through it without a can of mace some day. It has lots of beautiful buildings, hidden restaurants, and other little gems just waiting to be discovered, but my inclination to tour the area is always thwarted by the extremely obvious degenerates in the area.

If there’s one reason to clean up the neighborhood, it’s for the families and individuals in the neighborhood who deserve better living conditions. Even though there are families and children living there in struggle, people in SF seem to tolerate the drug addicts, dealers, prostitutes, and corner thugs. The SF attitude seems to be “It’s a way of life. Let them live that way.” Or, worse, “They aren’t hurting anybody.”

In reality, the conditions of the neighborhood are actually making life harder for those poor families and individuals who are forced to live in the area because they can’t live anywhere else. I don’t think people in S.F. have come to that realization yet.