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Originally Posted by BTinSF
The Tenderloin is a thriving minority (mostly southeast and south Asian--Vietnamese, Laotian and Pakistani mostly) neighborhood
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Don't forget the Central American community that's been growing quite a bit lately. The Surenos, who most people only associate with the Mission District, actually claim part of the tenderloin as their territory, as well as part of SOMA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdxtex
is the tenderloin really that rough, ie, crime-wise??? i just don't coorelate hardened criminal activity and san fransisco in the same sentence...im from detroit so my sense of dangerous neighborhood might be skewed....
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It's not SF's worst neighborhood, but yes it can be rough, crime-wise. The tenderloin is very busy and mostly ok during the day, especially if you have any street smarts. During the day as long as you aren't looking for trouble or being stupid you'll be fine. At night it tends to get much more sketchy though because it empties of most "normal" people, but all the drug dealers, addicts and homeless people stay out and about. As far as the crime, drug dealers from around SF and the Bay Area congregate in the tenderloin, and they like to shoot each other pretty regularly. Then of course there are tons of addicts who need money, which increases the amount of robberies, thefts, smash and grabs from cars, and stuff like that. In terms of homicides and shootings the tenderloin tends to have less than other SF hoods such as Hunters Point or the Mission District. The tenderloin does have the largest concentration of robberies in SF though, and it has to have the most prostitutes (of all genders) around. Here's a news article about a recent drive-by shooting in the tenderloin that killed one and injured 5, just to give an example:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/crim...-41465372.html
I don't know why people have this perception that just because it's San Francisco, there's can't possibly be any "hardened criminal activity." No the crime rate has never been as high as Detroit, but that doesn't mean there are no parts of SF with a serious history of violence, poverty, gangs and drugs and all that stuff. It does exist here. For example, San Francisco has had a higher crime rate than LA for the past three years, and the crime rate was actually pretty similar to LA's back in the early and mid 90's when things were particularly bad in both cities. The city and alot of uninformed people like to make SF seem exceptionally safe, the former for business/tourist interests, the latter simply out of ignorance (they tend to be transplants who don't know much about the city except for stereotypes). The fact that Oakland, which is always on "most dangerous" lists, is right next door, probably doesn't help bring attention to this misconception either.
The only time in recent years that SF has really had a low overall crime rate was in the time from around 1998 until maybe 2003.