Posted on 08/13/2012 4:17:58 AM PDT by Dusty Road
I'm attending an AASHTO meeting and it's a 4 day deal. On the drive in I saw several people laying on the side walks and many more just sitting with their bags or baskets. Before the driver could get the vehicle ubloaded I aready had two people come up and beg for money. While eating lunch over the square watch a young man go head first into a trash can and pull out a leftover drink and a container of half eaten food, which he started eating with his fingers then just threw it on the ground. Lunch for 4 at the Windam ran 130 bucks, a Crown and water is 12 bucks and the bottle of water in the room is 4.50. The Wifi runs me 14.95 a day and it's slower than Jim's snail. I don't speak until Tuesday if I dont go broke first, their sucking money out of me faster than Vegas does. I now suspect most of the homeless here were once customers of the Windam and just couldn't afford to leave. I do not like San Francisco!
So sad. In the 1940s and 1950s it was a really cool place. The zoo, Japanese gardens, China Town, the ferry, Lombard street, the wharf. All of these places hold memories for me from when I used to go there with my folks.
I was in San Francisco 5 years ago. The only thing I liked about it was Alcatraz, and in the morning, there was fog rolling through the bay. The fog only reached the bottom of the Golden Gate bridge. Other than that, they can keep San Fran. I did like the sports bar they had though. I think it was called Julian’s.
Nice place to visit for a very short time.
Honeymooned in San Fran back in 1998. I probably managed to see the city just in time, while it was still vaguely livable.
I was just in SF a few weeks ago - in the Haight Ashbury area - and saw SO many pandhandlers....and not only relics of the 60’s - but young people - really sad. It’s such a beautiful city, that I was actually thinking I’d like to live there, and just try to find the few conservatives there and huddle together for warmth - but it’s EXTREMELY expensive, and such a PC bastion I don’t know if I’d be able to take it.
Last time I was here was about 50 years ago and I thought it was one of the most beautiful towns in the US. The years and the politic’s have done their damage to this part of our history.
We honeymooned in SF in 1989 and loved it. Only thing was our 1st night at the Fisherman Wharf Marriot. The woofers from the cars were so loud we couldn’t sleep. We moved the next day. 1st place we went to was Alcatraz. I’d go back just to see that again.
—by the time I lived there in the late ‘70’s—early ‘80’s, about every other door in the Hashbury was a rehab center—no doubt gone downhill since-—
Beautiful city. Just remember that the panhandlers are AN INSTRUMENT of the current government there. They can be shut down virtually overnight, if they want them shut down - but they serve to build (local) political support for their welfare state.
I think few people there, and very few people that visit, understand just who these people are. Basically, the vast majority of them could get real jobs without a problem, but choose to panhandle, since it’s easier and higher paying work - many are released criminals that could still get work (not well paying though), and the rest are people that used to be locked up, either pyschos or druggies.
The number of people that are simply “down on their luck” is miniscule. No one should be doing that, and they don’t do it in New York city, as it is not tolerated there.
Did you guys know the city will pay one of its workers if they want to get a sex change? I left there a long time ago and happy I did.
I thought San Fran had taken the homeless off the streets many years ago?
” it’s slower than Jim’s snail”
Jim’s snail’s feelings are hurt.
Every Democrat-run city turns into a cesspool betimes.
Yes - I think so...Then again, since I’m going into the field of substance abuse counseling, I would definitely have a lot of clients...in fact, I met a few of them. One toothless, obviously drunk guy approached me and said,”Hey, weed is good for your liver!” A future client right there...
Longtime SF Chron columnist Herb Caen didn’t call it “Baghdad by the Bay” for nothing.
Windam = Windham?
I lived there from ‘78 until 2002. About 12-15 years ago they rousted the “homeless” from the Civic Center area for a special event. When they ID’d them they discovered that over 90% were wanted on fugitive felony arrest warrants from around the country.
The D.A. refused to extradite any of them. Of course the D.A. of SF was himself an ex-con.
I thought my fellow FReepers had a lick of sense! That you would set foot in that god foresaken hell hole is proof that I was mistaken! Run while you still can!
(No offense meant to the SF FReepers that are stuck there.)
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