The Tenderloin

So, I've mentioned a couple times I'm in SanFran.
Lovely city, so I'm told...
Sadly I'm in the Tenderloin. Not the best spot in the downtown area.

What/where is the Tenderloin?


If you'd like to be depressed, Google images - "SF Tenderloin" for a look at what it's like to walk around here... As a rule- by 9:30 I'm back in the hotel and dialed into Netflix.

I was on walkabout the first night I was here when there was a shooting about a block away- an innocuous 'pop' and and shouting from the corner of O'Farrell and Hyde. About 10 minutes later there were 4 or 5 police cars on the scene. This is at 10pm-
Really crazy shit starts about 11:30 or 12.

Yesterday the guy who runs my favorite taquería (Los Colores) was telling me about a stabbing on Wednesday evening; One of the local traffic shouters (a street person whose primary pastime is to lurch about in the street and incoherently shout at the cars going by) was stabbed in chest by another homeless person.
Not for any good reason- but because "she had bumped into her"...

I initially blew it off- until I was checking out the news-

Suspect in Tenderloin Flees After Stabbing Woman in Chest

At about 10 p.m. Wednesday, a 40-year-old woman was walking near the intersection of Leavenworth and Eddy streets when another woman bumped into her. The woman who bumped into her engaged in an argument and then stabbed her in the chest with a sharp object before fleeing, according to San Francisco police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza.

Police responded and found the victim suffering from a puncture wound to the chest. She was transported to San Francisco General Hospital with injuries that are not considered life-threatening, Esparza said.

Wow.

There was also a wrong-way-one-way police chase on Monday morning-
At 6am I was in one of the local diners having breakfast and the all-night counterman was watching the police work a traffic accident involving a parked car (where someone was sleeping)- he said a BMW was going the wrong way up Mason Street and hit the car...
Looking at the news a day later...

Stolen BMW’s wild ride across San Francisco

San Francisco police have detained a 37-year-old suspect who allegedly stole a car early this morning from a South of Market BMW dealership by driving it through the showroom window and onto city streets, a police spokesman said.
...
Upon arrival at the dealership, officers found a large floor to ceiling window of the dealership smashed and discovered cars had been moved around, according to Esparza.
....
It appears that once the suspect had gained access to the vehicle, he drove it through the window of the dealership and onto the street, according to police.

At 5:23 a.m., police responded to a call of an injury hit-and-run crash at Mason and Post streets near Union Square involving a new BMW, Esparza said.

The suspect in that crash fled the scene on foot after crashing a BMW into a parked vehicle where an occupant was sleeping. Police said the occupant of that vehicle was not seriously injured.

If you add wall-to-wall blue-staters, granola-munching hippies of all description, hipsters trying to gentrify the seedier areas of town, water shortages, wildfires, earthquakes, mudslides, general crime, insane taxes and sky-high prices... well... You see why I'm generally not a fan of this place.

Ok- Now you should be thoroughly horrified about visiting San Francisco in general.

If, however, fate decides to bend you over the back of the sofa and you find yourself staying for an interminable period at the Hilton off Union Square, here are a few places for food and drink that are approved by The Big Guy...

First- as referenced earlier-
Lunchtime:
Los Colores (link up top)- Tacos & such- Inexpensive & tasty. Try the carne asada.
Also for lunch-
David's Delicatessen - the Chopped Chicken Liver- to die for!
Kucina ni Tess - Fliipino place behind the Hilton. Kawali Lechon (pork belly) and Bistik (beef w/ lemon, onions & soy).


Dinner-
Coco Bang - Korean hole-in-the-wall on Taylor St. Amazing fried chicken.
For drinks (Or early dinner)
Redford - (But go early - at 9 hipsters hit this place hard!)
If you go before 7:00 for dinner, get the Antipasto plate and a Moscow Mule at happy hour prices. The bourbon deviled eggs are great.

Breakfast-
Pinecrest Diner - Good basic diner food. -OR-
Olympic Flame Cafe - really basic, better prices than Pinecrest, but really old.

Other places of note:
Hyde Away Blues BBQ & Gumbo cafe. I keep trying to get here, but I keep getting sidetracked or they are closed because they've run out of food.
Brenda's French Soul Food -This place is supposed to be amaze-balls - it's a little bit of a hike, but I'm going there tomorrow for breakfast... Will let you know how it goes.

Pretty much everything I've done is by foot...
If I can swing it, there is a rum bar I want to visit...
Smuggler's Cove - Supposedly one of the top 50 bars in the US...
Any place that boasts over 400 rums on hand definitely has my attention.
Again, film at 11.

If I make it.


TBG - - ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE