[giotto]

San Francisco is a caricature to those who have never been there, or seen only the most infamous parts of it. In reality, it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, even after eight years of King Willie.
It's a real city, where you can walk out of your house, eat lunch at a great restaurant, shop for a hat, buy a book, visit a museum, toss a frisbee in the park, and go to a concert, all in the space of a few blocks. And by the time you trudge back up the hill to your apartment or hotel, you've also gotten all the exercise you need for a week. This is why there are few fat San Franciscans.
In spite of all the perverts, wierdos and lefties, there are many normal people there, who wouldn't think of living anywhere else.
That having been said, everything in the article is absolutely accurate.

[August West]

I visited San Francisco for a day last January and I found it to be a real hellhole. Am I missing something?

[Ichneumon]

Like I always say, the only thing wrong with California is that it's full of Californians.

(My apologies to the "red zone" Californians, I'm aiming this at the "blue zone".)

[Yeti]

San Francisco is a caricature to those who have never been there,

I lived there for a few months in '81. It was a sick, festering pit of evil and depravity. Difficult for me to believe it's changed that much.

What kind of people name whole sections of their town for the teenage runaway male prostitutes that roam the streets looking for someone who will give them some food in exchange for "gay" sex, as is the case with the "tenderloin district" in San Francisco?

The news reporters, the government, everyone refers to the area around Polk Street by this "cute" euphemism that seems like it would be only appropriate from those who frequent the area and participate in the fun.

Do they still have the Exotic Erotic Ball thingy? A city-funded mass orgy downtown each year?

It was a crazy place, like most large cities, only taken to a hypersexual "gay" extreme. If it doesn't bother you, it's because you're acclimated to it. Live someplace where there isn't a torture chamber in any bar or hotel for miles around, and after a while, maybe the haze will clear, and you'll begin to recognize the profundity and ubiquity of madness that saturates that place. Go someplace where transvestites at least trouble themselves to shave before applying their makeup.