Posted on 09/08/2011 8:51:01 AM PDT by SmithL
Two men who appeared to be homeless argue loudly near the cable car turnaround on Powell Street, accusing each other of stealing a panhandling spot. A man approaches lost tourists, offering to give them directions - after which he'll demand payment.
Several panhandlers crowd the sidewalk in front of the Walgreens up the street, jostling for space to catch shoppers.
The two scenes play out within blocks of each other on a recent morning during the peak of San Francisco's tourist season and the beginning of the convention season. And it is angering the businesspeople and hotel owners who make their money from the panhandlers' unsuspecting targets.
"We're known for the Golden Gate Bridge, trolley cars and panhandlers," said Anna Marie Presutti, general manager of Hotel Nikko in Union Square. "This year, it's gone to a different level. It's not just a street bum sitting up against a building shaking a cup anymore. It's aggressive and it's intimidating."
She said her guests have complained of being followed by panhandlers - and one even likened it to being stalked.
John Handlery, owner of Handlery Hotel in Union Square, said it's the worst he's seen in 30 years. He now tells his guests catching an evening play or dinner just a couple of blocks away to take a cab back.
"I had one guest say, 'Well, you told me four years ago you were, quote, working on it. I'm back, and it's worse.' OK, what's my next line?" he said.
Hotel owners around Union Square, Yerba Buena, Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf are reporting an uptick in complaints this year from guests about aggressive panhandlers, said Joe D'Alessandro of the San Francisco Travel Association, formerly the Convention and Visitors Bureau. He said his organization has had more complaints
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
There's a marked increase in people's observations of people panhandling, sitting and lying on the street, acting strangely, public urination and public defecationMore San Francisco values!
I’m waiting to hear how the nude people walking the streets are going to affect the tourists.
We celebrated our 10th anniversary in SF in 1985 and it was GREAT. Stayed there a few years ago while visiting Napa and Sonoma - we were sorry we stayed in SF. The parasites have taken over.
I loath San Francisco.
San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)
Scott McKenzie
If you’re going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you’re going to San Francisco
You’re gonna meet some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair
All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There’s a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion
For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
They need to start doing this naked since it’s legal there.
Might as well take the crazy all the way!
hell have gay sex parties in front of all the elementary schools ! why not! free sex education class for all! /s
Agressively using threats of violence to take people’s hard-earned money while providing nothing in return is the Government’s job!
Agressively using threats of violence to take people’s hard-earned money while providing nothing in return is the Government’s job!
Sounds more like the Tijuana I remember.
What happens when they refuse to pay?
Why go to Mexico?
Why go to California?
There are plenty of other good places to go.
If ur najed why do you put your wallet?
If ur najed why do you put your wallet?
Certainly my thought. Why in the world would any one want to go to SF for anything?
...and heroin addicts, crack addicts, prostitutes, urine and feces on the sidewalks, shiftless "homeless" sleeping on the sidewalks, dirty teenagers with multicolored hair...
A close friend from childhood who has lived in Europe since college sent his son and a girl on a tour of the U.S.A. Among other things, they drove up Highway-1 from San Diego. I asked if they liked San Francisco. The father replied: "Hell no!"
San Francisco is the trashiest dump on the planet.
Mrs. Tick and I were there for nine days in July (trade show). We go every year and have for more than a decade.
If anything, I thought the bum situation was *better* this year than last year. They’re there, to be sure, but we didn’t have anyone get up in our face.
We stay in a hotel just off of Union Square, and we walk everywhere we go (no car, no cabs, no bus, definitely no cable cars). So we weren’t hunkered down in our room, either.
Two things that may explain our milder experience: we don’t frequent the tourist areas hardly at all, and we usually aren’t out much past 9 or 10 pm.
We did see not one, but TWO bums openly shooting up on the street. I haven’t been treated to that experience until this year.
There is one trick that one should practice: DO NOT make eye contact. And don’t feel you have to respond to them AT ALL. Just ignore ‘em as though they aren’t even there.
US AG Holder isn't busy prosecuting criminals and now that Fast and furious is temporarily on hold maybe he could weigh on this important matter and assert the Supremacy Clause.
US AG Holder isn't busy prosecuting criminals and now that Fast and furious is temporarily on hold maybe he could weigh on this important matter and assert the Supremacy Clause.
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