Neighborhoods of San Francisco
The historic center of San Francisco is the northeast quadrant of the city anchored by Market Street and the waterfront. It is here that the Financial District is centered, with Union Square, the principal shopping and hotel district, and the Tenderloin nearby. Cable cars carry riders up steep inclines to the summit of Nob Hill, once the home of the city's business tycoons, and down to the waterfront tourist attractions of Fisherman's Wharf, and Pier 39, where many restaurants feature Dungeness crab from a still-active fishing industry. Also in this quadrant are Russian Hill, a residential neighborhood with the famously crooked Lombard Street; North Beach, the city's Little Italy and the former center of the Beat Generation; and Telegraph Hill, which features Coit Tower. Abutting Russian Hill and North Beach is San Francisco's Chinatown, the oldest Chinatown in North America.[88][89][90][91] The South of Market, which was once San Francisco's industrial core, has seen significant redevelopment following the construction of Oracle Park and an infusion of startup companies. New skyscrapers, live-work lofts, and condominiums dot the area. Further development is taking place just to the south in Mission Bay area, a former railroad yard, which now has a second campus of the University of California, San Francisco and Chase Center, which opened in 2019 as the new home of the Golden State Warriors.
West of downtown, across Van Ness Avenue, lies the large Western Addition neighborhood, which became established with a large African American population after World War II. The Western Addition is usually divided into smaller neighborhoods including Hayes Valley, the Fillmore, and Japantown, which was once the largest Japantown in North America but suffered when its Japanese American residents were forcibly removed and interned during World War II. The Western Addition survived the 1906 earthquake with its Victorians largely intact, including the famous "Painted Ladies", standing alongside Alamo Square. To the south, near the geographic center of the city is Haight-Ashbury, famously associated with 1960s hippie culture. The Haight is now home to some expensive boutiques and a few controversial chain stores, although it still retains some bohemian character.
North of the Western Addition is Pacific Heights, an affluent neighborhood that features the homes built by wealthy San Franciscans in the wake of the 1906 earthquake. Directly north of Pacific Heights facing the waterfront is the Marina, a neighborhood popular with young professionals that was largely built on reclaimed land from the Bay.
In the south-east quadrant of the city is the Mission District—populated in the 19th century by Californios and working-class immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Scandinavia. In the 1910s, a wave of Central American immigrants settled in the Mission and, in the 1950s, immigrants from Mexico began to predominate. In recent years, gentrification has changed the demographics of parts of the Mission from Latino, to twenty-something professionals. Noe Valley to the southwest and Bernal Heights to the south are both increasingly popular among young families with children. East of the Mission is the Potrero Hill neighborhood, a mostly residential neighborhood that features sweeping views of downtown San Francisco. West of the Mission, the area historically known as Eureka Valley, now popularly called the Castro, was once a working-class Scandinavian and Irish area. It has become North America's first gay village, and is now the center of gay life in the city. Located near the city's southern border, the Excelsior District is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco. The predominantly African American Bayview-Hunters Point in the far southeast corner of the city is one of the poorest neighborhoods and suffers from a high rate of crime, though the area has been the focus of several revitalizing and controversial urban renewal projects.
The construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1918 connected southwest neighborhoods to downtown via streetcar, hastening the development of West Portal, and nearby affluent Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood. Further west, stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean and north to Golden Gate Park lies the vast Sunset District, a large middle class area with a predominantly Asian population.[98] The northwestern quadrant of the city contains the Richmond, also a mostly middle-class neighborhood north of Golden Gate Park, home to immigrants from other parts of Asia as well as many Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. Together, these areas are known as The Avenues. These two districts are each sometimes further divided into two regions: the Outer Richmond and Outer Sunset can refer to the more western portions of their respective district and the Inner Richmond and Inner Sunset can refer to the more eastern portions.
Many piers remained derelict for years until the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway reopened the downtown waterfront, allowing for redevelopment. The centerpiece of the port, the Ferry Building, while still receiving commuter ferry traffic, has been restored and redeveloped as a gourmet marketplace.
Contents
Downtown
Downtown San Francisco is the eastern part of the city, mostly north of Market Street, extending to Fisherman's Wharf in the north and as far west as Van Ness Avenue. It includes such landmarks as Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill, Russian Hill, Chinatown, North Beach, and Union Square. Nearly this entire area was destroyed by the fire following the 1906 earthquake. Rebuilt over the next couple of decades, it enjoys a rare architectural consistency. Neo-classical styled row buildings of three and four stories line most streets, replacing the redwood Victorians claimed by the flames.
Most areas are crowded with residents and visitors day and night. Traffic is congested, a condition exacerbated by the steep hills. Parking is difficult, if not impossible, with most street parking banned during rush hour periods and parking structures charging outrageously hourly prices. Fortunately for residents, there are many shops, markets, and restaurants to serve them, making ownership of a car mostly unnecessary. The weather is almost always fit for walking and scenic views abound. Buses run frequently and reliably, and taxis are available everywhere. Stretched limos, usually white, prowl the streets in search of tourists willing to pay the hefty hourly rates to be shuttled around the city in luxury. And, of course, there are the famous cable cars.
Main Thoroughfares
Market Street is the city's main street. Beginning across from the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building, it cuts diagonally across town, eventually turning and twisting its way up Twin Peaks. Clogged with cars and buses, it is several lanes wide. As it cuts across streets on an odd angle, and has limited left turns, it is often difficult for a driver to find a way across Market when trying to get from one side of the city to the other. Market Street is a major shopping avenue featuring places like Nordstrom's and the Emporium. A number of fine hotels are also located along here. Women's sho stores seem particularly abundant.
Southwest of Powell and Fifth Streets, the neighborhoods begin to undergo a quick change. Upscale stores are replaced by bargain clothing outlets and adult theaters as one enters the area known as the Tenderloin. Street people are more abundant and drugs more commonly for sale on the street. Market continues to serve as a commercial strip until it begins to rise into the mountains.
Van Ness is a six-lane, divided street that marks the early limits of the city. It bustles with traffic and is lined by auto dealers (including Ferrari), appliance outlets, furniture stores, and restaurants like the Hard Rock Cafe.
Chinatown
One of the city's most famous landmarks, Chinatown is a tourist attraction and world unto itself. Narrow Grant street is home to the Chinatown familiar to tourists. Beginning at Bush, it is entered by Foo Dog-guarded gates. The commercial shopping district found here continues north for several blocks. Strung with overhead lanterns and banners, the street is lined with innumerable restaurants, chintzy souvenir shops, overcrowded gift stores, and countless live seafood stores, more authentic tea markets, and Asian bakeries. The small alleys and cul-de-sacs of Chinatown house near-infinite restaurants, goldfish stores, and secreted Buddhist shrines.
A short stretch of Stockton also runs above the tunnel. Little used and comparatively remote from the rest of the city, it is the site of the expensive Carlton-Ritz Hotel, opened just a few years ago. Of stunning classical design, it was formerly a college. Since it is located away from tourists and downtown, it has become a favorite with shy celebrities and foreign diplomats wishing to avoid publicity. The hotel features a white Rolls-Royce courtesy car and motorcades of policemen are frequently seen lining up in the horseshoe driveway.
The Chinatown of the 19th century was a well-known haven of opium smugglers, Chinese slavers, and prostitution. Chinese gangsters, hatchet men, and highbinders stalked the streets, fighting in vicious tong wars with axes and revolvers. Even then, though, it had a reputation as a "must-see" for the daring tourist.
Vicious Asian gangs roam Chinatown, many probably spawned in the foreboding Chinese housing project on the south side of Pacific between Stockton and Grant. Rarely interfering with tourists or anyone outside the Chinese community, these gangs prefer to extort she owners for protection money, and war with each other over drugs and other illegal trade. The 1970's massacre at the Golden Dragon restaurant, where several patrons were killed and many more wounded, was an exception. In the midst of a war over the illegal fireworks trade and mistakenly believing that members of a rival gang were attending the restaurant, the gunmen entered and opened fire indiscriminately. Although denied by some, these gangs are the direct descendent of the vicious tongs of earlier days and closely watched by the police. Civic Center Plaza
The center of the city's government, this area contains the opulent Beaux Art-styled domed City Hall, the Opera House, Davies Symphony Hall, the Main Public Library, and other facilities. Part of a larger design never completed, most of the buildings were constructed just prior to World War I, replacing the buildings destroyed by the earthquake and fire. A farmer's market operates here on Saturdays and Wednesdays and the plaza is busy most days with business people, shoppers, bureaucrats, protesters, and the ever-present homeless. Bordered on the north by the Tenderloin and on the west by a span of depressed housing projects, the sunny plaza and its benches are a magnet for the unemployed and unoccupied. To the east is the United Nations plaza dominated by the Federal building, an unpleasant-looking 1950s high-rise housing the FBI, IRS, and other institutions.
In the late 80s and early 90s, with the rise of the homeless, the broad plaza became a campsite for hundreds. After more than two years and any number of complaints, many from the tuxedoed and evening-gowned opera and symphony crowds, several additional shelters were opened by the city and the homeless driven out in 1990. By day they are everywhere, but at night are forced to leave the area.
Embarcadero
Embarcadero is the name of the main street running along the eastern edge of the city, but also refers to the general waterfront area. A double-decked freeway formerly ran down the center of the Embarcadero, spoiling views of the bay and Ferry Building but, damaged by the 1989 quake, it was torn down.
For more than a century the wharves were the bustling center of San Francisco’s economy, visited by whalers and traders, shipping out gold and bringing supplies in. It is now a quiet, nearly desolate place, the long wharves unpopulated, their warehouses for the most part empty. A few salvage and diving companies operate out of here but the commercial shipping trade died years ago, moving over to Oakland’s containerized facilities across the bay. A few wharves not completely abandoned now house private pleasure craft and an occasional surprise like Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior, hidden away at a dock just south of the Bay Bridge.
Fisherman's Wharf
San Francisco’s number one tourist attraction is Fisherman’s Wharf. Running along the north shore of the city for more than a half-mile, from Pier 39 to Aquatic Park, it is a crowded place busy nearly any time of the day or evening, year-round. Actual fishing activity in and out of the area is far less than it once was, though charter boats are available for the sport fisherman. Fresh seafood markets abound, as do restaurants and stalls serving clam chowder and shrimp cocktails eaten on the street. Street artists and entertainers are everywhere, singing, dancing, playing guitars.
Most of the main promenade is given over to the tourist attractions like Ripley’s and the Guiness Records Museum, boutiques, restaurants, and nightclubs. The old cannery buildings have been remodeled into open air shopping malls. Pier 39 is the most famous attraction on the wharf and now features a dock invaded and completely taken over by native sea lions. Forbidden by law to harm or drive the protected creatures off, owners of the pier have instead moved the boats out and installed special floats for the creatures to bask upon, creating one more tourist attraction.
A number of ferry lines operate off of the wharf, offering trips to Alcatraz, Angel Island, Sausalito, Tiburon, and Vallejo, as well as tours of the bay. Helicopters can also be chartered. The piers east of 39 house a number of cruise ships that make trips up and down the West Coast. A World War II vintage submarine is docked in the area and available for tours while the Hyde Street pier features several authentic early sailing vessels and steamships.
Ghirardelli Square is nearby. A shopping area, it is also home to San Francisco’s famous Ghirardelli chocolate. Aquatic Park, at the foot of the square, is an old facility. Few bathers dare the cold waters; it’s mostly used by sunbathers sprawling on the broad concrete steps above the narrow beach. The curving public pier shelters the water from the waves and currents of the bay. The National Maritime Museum stands at the foot of the park.
Financial District
Despite the growth of cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, and Seattle, San Francisco remains the financial center of the West Coast and the home of the Pacific Stock Exchange. Although there are taller skyscrapers on the coast, San Francisco's sixty-odd story Bank of America Tower and the unique pyramid-shaped TransAmerica Building are among the best known and most widely recognized. The city's no distinctive skyline is a recent development. It was long a city of low-rise buildings; the few multi-story hotels and business offices were formerly congregated around Powell and Sutter, and atop Nob Hill. Rampant development began in the 1970s, first with the erection of the Bank of America building in the city (and only a few feet higher than the hulking BoA tower) is the distinctive TransAmerica pyramid at 855 feet. Nearby stand the four massive Embarcadero towers lined up in a march down to the bay. Filled with multi-floored shopping plazas in the lower levels, they end at the sunny plaza of Vallencourt Fountain which overlooks the water and is usually busy with skateboarders.
The Financial District occupies the land at the eastern foot of Nob Hill, on ground that used to be part of the bay. Formerly Yerba Buena Cove, this area was steadily filled in over the years as streets ended in wharves extending out into the bay. Beneath the foundations of San Francisco's skyscrapers lie the remains of fires, earthquakes, and more than a hundred wooden sailing ships that one lay derelict in the harbor when crews deserted for work in the gold mines. Busy by day with bankers, stockbrokers, and others, the area seems dead after dark and on weekends. Jackson Square
This historic area lies just north of the Financial District, in the shadow of the TransAmerica Pyramid and the Embarcadero Center, squeezed in between the waterfront, North Beach, and Chinatown. Once the infamous Barbary Coast, it is now one of the quietest parts of downtown. Surprisingly, while the rest of the city burned during the 1906 fire, the Barbary Coast remained relatively untouched. Many of the area's buildings are mid-to-late 19th century brick low-rises, former warehouses, and distilleries. Once the sites of some of the most infamous dives and brothels in America, they are now home to antique shops, graphic design firms, and the occasional attorney's office. At the northern end of the district lies Levi Plaza, headquarters of the famous jeans manufacturers. Any number of buildings in the area are of "unreinforced masonry," a fact noted on warning plaques affixed to such structures following the 1989 earthquake.
The immediate area has long been a hotbed of literary and intellectual figures. California's first magazine, The Golden Era, was published out of offices on Montgomery Street near Jackson in the 1850s and helped launch the careers of Bret Harte and Samuel Clemens (also known as Mark Twain). Oscar Wilde paid a visit to neighborhood artist Jules Tavernier in 1882; later, John Steinbeck and William Saroyan used to spend nights drinking in the now-vanished Black Cat Cafe. The Marxist artist, Diego Rivera, dwelled here in the 1930s. The particular block now occupied by the TransAmerica Pyramid once held a small office building populated by writers, artists, and political radicals. Twain, Harte, Ambrose Bierce, and Joaquin Miller were all frequent visitors to its first floor bar and restaurant. George Sterling and Maynard Dixon visited years later and Sun-Yat-Sen, publishing his newspaper, Young China, from a second-floor office, plotted the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty.
Nob Hill
Long known as the haunt of San Francisco's millionaires, the outrageous mansions raised by railroad barons and silver bosses that once stood atop this 338-foot high rock were long ago destroyed by the fire following the 1906 earthquake. Only the brownstone Flood mansion remains intact on the corner of California and Mason; it currently serves as headquarters for the exclusive Pacific Union Club. The Hopkins, Stanford, Crocker, and other mansions were all lost, leaving only a few deserted ruins as a lonely reminder of their past glory. Opulent hotels now grace the hilltop: the Mark Hopkins, Stanford Court, and the world-famous Fairmont Hotel. Nearby Huntington Square is a small green with a fountain and benches, frequented most often by young, upscale residents of the town houses on quiet Sacramento and Clay Streets. Next door to the square stands the imposing structure of Grace Episcopal Cathedral, a smaller version of Notre Dame in Paris. Directly across the street is the equally massive Masonic Temple.
Lower Nob Hill is the neighborhood south of California, spread across the broad southern face of the hill, roughly situated between Stockton and Polk Streets and extending as far south as Geary and the Theatre District. This is a residential neighborhood filled with neoclassical row apartment buildings three, four, five, or more stories in height surrounded by numerous markets, cleaners, delis, and diners.
Hidden in among the endless row apartments are a dozen or more longstanding private clubs. The most notorious is perhaps the Bohemian Club found at Post and Taylor. Organized in the late 1800s by artists and newspapermen, it soon evolved into a businessman's club with an arty slant. Former members include Ambrose Bierce and Jack London.
The San Francisco Academy of Arts also occupies quite a number of buildings in the area, its main headquarters on Powell between Bush and Sutter. This, along with the always active Theatre District nearby, lends a bohemian slant to much of the lower hill.
North Beach
North Beach is a favorite area with young, upscale singles. Occupying the lowlands between Telegraph Hill and Russian Hill, and bordered on the south by Chinatown, North Beach is a brightly lit and active nighttime area.
North Beach was long the city's Italian enclave. Though still populated by many older Italians, and sporting any number of Italian restaurants big and small, the area has undergone many changes in recent decades. Famous in the fifties as the stomping grounds of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, famous "beat" clubs like the Purple Onion and the Hungry i still standoff the north side of Broadway across the street from the City Lights bookstore. Next door to them are North Beach's contribution to the early 1960s: America's first topless bars.
North around the corner, narrow Grant Street is filled with crowds patronizing the restaurants, pizza parlors, and the three blues clubs found along this stretch: the Saloon (the city's oldest bar), the Last Chance Saloon, and Grant Green at the end of the block. All feature one or two bands a night, seven nights a week.
Washington Square Park is a flat green, by day a place for art shows, lunch, and old Italians sitting on benches, by night a place troubled by drug dealers and other criminals. The Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, known for its twin spires, faces south onto the park.
South of Market Area
Known as the SoMa, it is that area south of Market Street composed of streets running at an angle to the normal north-south axis of the city’s plan. Like most of the area immediately south of Market, it is smooth flatlands, populated by banks and businesses near the waterfront with more and more hotels and shipping areas as one moves inland. Upscale near Market, the neighborhood quickly deteriorates as one travels past Howard and Mission. Off Market, the area is a mixed bag of old, sleazy city populated by junkies and muggers, and upscale, high-rise condo developments with doormen and secure parking facilities. Restaurants and nightspots proliferate in some spots while other streets display bleak panoramas of abandoned warehouses. Some of these older buildings have seen renovation and are now rent out as “artist’s lofts.” The struggle between reclamation and decay seems as of yet undecided.
Second Street near Market has lately become the headquarters for many electronic development firms, earning it the nickname “Multimedia Gulch.” It is near the foot of what is left of Rincon Hill, now leveled to serve as the foundation of the Bay Bridge’s main pier. A number if condos and townhouses have been lately erected along the waterfront in this area, replacing the old, disused warehouses and light industry that used to stand here.
Located on Fifth near Mission is the pillared San Francisco Mint. No longer operative, it is open for tours. Farther down Fifth are the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Transbay Terminal is located at First and Mission, a depot for buses from Oakland, Marin, and San Mateo. A large bus station with shoe repair shops, dry cleaning outlets, diners, and a cocktail lounge, it has long been a refuge for many of the city’s homeless. The train station is found at Fourth and Townsend and runs hourly to San Jose and back.
Telegraph Hill
The lowest of the three major downtown hills, Telegraph still affords some of the best views available. Located north of the Financial District’s skyscrapers, it is distinctively marked by the white, cylindrical Coit Tower, erected in 1933 by Lillie Coit in honor of San Francisco volunteer firefighters. Climbing to the top of the tower, or even standing on the small plaza beneath it, one is given a magnificent view encompassing everything from the Golden Gate Bridge in the west to Berkeley and Oakland in the east.
Telegraph Hill was long ago blasted for its rock by entrepreneurs seeking ballast for outgoing ships. Although the blasting was finally halted by city order, the eastern face is quite sheer and badly cracked. Homes perched along this edge face uncertain futures as earth tremors and alternating droughts and rainstorms create small landslides, undermining foundations.
A narrow territory roughly south of Geary Street between Mason and Van Ness, the Tenderloin borders on and spills over into the Civic Center Plaza, as well as the tourist areas around Union Square. Unlike many urban neighborhoods which once enjoyed better times, San Francisco’s Tenderloin has always been known for its crime and seedy denizens. Traditionally the neighborhood of oppressed minorities, it is currently populated by sizable Vietnamese and Laotian communities, refugees from their homelands.
Prostitutes, pimps, and drug dealers prowl the streets while muggers and carjackers lurk in alleys. The corruption spreads to nearby areas, visiting the Theatre District, rubbing shoulders with the tourist areas, and invading Civic Center Plaza. The streets are dirty, littered, and typically increasingly degenerate as one proceeds further downhill. Daytime is reasonably safe, but nighttime is an entirely different story.
Aside from the usual shops and markets, video rental stores, head shops, porn shops, and adult theatres are all common fare. Not surprisingly, the Tenderloin contains some of the city’s cheapest hotels.
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The Tenderloin
Introduction
The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco, in the flatlands on the southern slope of Nob Hill, situated between the Union Square shopping district to the northeast and the Civic Center office district to the southwest. It encompasses about 50 square blocks, and is a large wedge/triangle in shape (point faces East). It is historically bounded on the north by Geary Street, on the east by Mason Street, on the south by Market Street and on the west by Van Ness Avenue. The northern boundary with Lower Nob Hill historically has been set at Geary Street.
The terms "Tenderloin Heights" and "The Tendernob" refer to the area around the indefinite boundary between the Upper Tenderloin and Lower Nob Hill. The eastern extent, near Union Square, overlaps with the Theater District.
Part of the western extent of the Tenderloin, Larkin and Hyde Streets between Turk and O'Farrell, was officially named "Little Saigon" by the City of San Francisco.
History
The Tenderloin took its name from an older neighborhood in New York with similar characteristics. There are several explanations of how that neighborhood was named. Some said it was a reference to the neighborhood as the "soft underbelly" (analogous to the cut of meat) of the city, with allusions to vice and corruption, especially graft. Another popular explanation, probably folklore, attributes the name to a New York City police captain, Alexander S. Williams, who was overheard saying that when he was assigned to another part of the city, he could only afford to eat chuck steak on the salary he was earning, but after he was transferred to this neighborhood he was making so much money on the side soliciting bribes that now he could eat tenderloin instead. Another version of that story says that the officers who worked in the Tenderloin received a "hazard pay" bonus for working in such a violent area, and thus were able to afford the good cut of meat. Yet another story, also likely apocryphal, is that the name is a reference to the "loins" of prostitutes.
The Tenderloin borders the Mission/Market Street corridor, which follows the Spaniards' El Camino Real, which in turn traced an ancient north–south Indian trail. The Tenderloin is sheltered by Nob Hill, and far enough from the bay to be on solid ground. There is evidence that a community resided here several thousand years ago. In the 1960s, the area was excavated to develop the BART/MUNI subway station at Civic Center.
The Tenderloin has been a downtown residential community since shortly after the California Gold Rush in 1849. However, the name "Tenderloin" does not appear on any maps of San Francisco prior to the 1930s; before then, it was labeled as "Downtown", although it was informally referred to as "the Tenderloin" as early as the 1890s. The area had an active nightlife in the late 19th century with many theaters, restaurants and hotels. Notorious madam Tessie Wall opened her first brothel on O'Farrell Street in 1898. Almost all of the buildings in the neighborhood were destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and the backfires that were set by firefighters to contain the devastation. The area was immediately rebuilt with some hotels opening by 1907 and apartment buildings shortly thereafter, including the historic Cadillac Hotel. By the 1920s, the neighborhood was notorious for its gambling, billiard halls, boxing gyms, "speakeasies", theaters, restaurants and other nightlife depicted in the hard boiled detective fiction of Dashiell Hammett, who lived at 891 Post Street, the apartment he gave to Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. Also around this time, due to Red Light Abatement Act, prostitution and other vice began to be pushed out from the Barbary Coast district to the more southern and less business-occupied Tenderloin.
In the mid-20th century, the Tenderloin provided work for many musicians in the neighborhood's theaters, hotels, burlesque houses, bars and clubs and was the location of the Musician's Union Building on Jones Street. The most famous jazz club was the Black Hawk at Hyde and Turk Streets where Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, and other jazz greats recorded live albums for Fantasy Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
With housing consisting almost entirely of single-room-occupancy hotel rooms, studio and one bedroom apartments, the Tenderloin historically housed single adults and couples. After World War II, with the decline in central cities throughout the United States, the Tenderloin lost population, creating a large amount of vacant housing units by the mid-1970s. Beginning in the late 1970s, after the Vietnam War, the Tenderloin received large numbers of refugees from Southeast Asia—first ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, then Khmer from Cambodia and Hmong from Laos. The low-cost vacant housing, and the proximity to Chinatown through the Stockton Street Tunnel, made the area appealing to refugees and resettlement agencies. Studio apartments became home for families of four and five people and became what a local police officer called "vertical villages." The Tenderloin quickly increased from having just a few children to having over 3,500 and this population has remained. A number of neighborhood Southeast Asian restaurants, bánh mì coffee shops, ethnic grocery stores, video shops, and other stores opened at this time, which still exist.
The Tenderloin has a long history as a center of alternate sexualities, including several historic confrontations with police. The legendary female impersonator Ray Bourbon, a performer during the Pansy Craze, was arrested in 1933 while his show "Boys Will Be Girls" was being broadcast live on the radio from Tait's Cafe at 44 Ellis Street. In the evening of August 13, 1961, 103 gay and lesbian patrons were raided in the Tay-Bush Inn, a café frequently visited by gay and lesbian patrons.[14] As a response to police harassment, S.F. bar owners formed the San Francisco Tavern Guild. A study into prostitution in the Tenderloin found that while trans women face discrimination from certain professions and their sexual partners, sex workers in the Tenderloin area were adept at overcoming some such difficulties.
On New Year's Day in 1965, police raided a Mardi Gras Ball at California Hall[17] on Polk Street sponsored by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, lining up and photographing 600 participants and arresting several prominent citizens. One of the first "gay riots", pre-dating the Stonewall riots in New York, happened at Compton's Cafeteria[18] at Turk and Taylor Streets in August 1966 when the police, attempting to arrest a drag queen, sparked a riot that spilled into the streets. The group ended up smashing the windows of the police car and burned a nearby newspaper stand to the ground; the riot promoted the formation of the Gay Activists Alliance.[19] Prior to the emergence of The Castro as a major gay village, the center of the Tenderloin at Turk and Taylor and the Polk Gulch at the western side of the Tenderloin were two of the city's first gay neighborhoods and a few of these historic gay bars and clubs still exist.
The apartment where Dashiell Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon was once in the boundaries of the Tenderloin at the corner of Hyde and Post. Both the movie and book were based in San Francisco's Tenderloin. There is also an alley in what is now Nob Hill, named for the book's author (Dashiell Hammett). It lies outside the Tenderloin because the boundary was defined with borders different from today's. Some locations, such as Sam Spade's apartment and John's Grill, also no longer lie in the Tenderloin because local economics and real estate have changed the character and labeling of areas over time.
In July 2008, the area was designated as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2017, a portion was declared the Compton's Transgender Cultural District commemorating the historic transgender population and culture and in particular, the 1966 transgender and queer uprising, the Compton's Cafeteria riot.
Attractions and Characteristics
Nestled near the downtown area, the Tenderloin has historically resisted gentrification, maintaining a seedy character and reputation for crime. Squalid conditions, homelessness, crime, illegal drug trade, prostitution, liquor stores, and strip clubs give the neighborhood a seedy reputation.
Part of the neighborhood forms part of the theater district. Prominent theatres include the Geary, the home of the American Conservatory Theater,[23] and the Curran, Golden Gate and Orpheum Theatres operated by the Shorenstein Nederlander Organization. Alternative theaters in the Tenderloin include EXIT Theatre, which operates four storefront theaters and produces the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the New Conservatory Theater, the Phoenix Theater, CounterPulse, PianoFight, the New Music Center and others. Alternate galleries include The Luggage Store, the 509 Cultural Center, and others. The neighborhood had many bars dating to prohibition and before with dive bars, including some left over from when the neighborhood housed large numbers of merchant seamen but most of those have closed or been transformed. One bar is built on the site of a previous speakeasy, Bourbon and Branch, at the corner of Jones and O'Farrell Streets. The original speakeasy was restored in the bar's basement, including many of the original decorations. Many bars have entertainment including the historic drag bar Aunt Charlie's. Larger live music venues include the Great American Music Hall and the Warfield Theatre. Historically, the Tenderloin has had a number of strip clubs, although their number has decreased in recent decades. The best known is the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre. The Tenderloin is also a hub for the gender diverse community. The categories of LGBTIQ created a new gender politics that helped to distinguish between the different groups; the Tenderloin was heavily populated by the transgender community. Many street activists paved the way for change, such as Anne Ogborn.
In his seminar 'Take Charge of Your Life', Jim Rohn recounted his visits to the Tenderloin to experience the "human tragedy". He described his visit to a bar in the Tenderloin where the bar tender told him about a dancer by the name of Cookie, who was severely crippled and had a child suffering from leukemia.
Gentrification
The position held by policy-makers regarding gentrification is often divided, with one side of the debate arguing that it is of benefit to the public economy and revitalisation of the built setting, whilst the other side argues that the huge social costs and displacement of people, especially the poor, outweigh all potential strengths of the process.
Murals
The Tenderloin serves as a mecca for the art scene in San Francisco, housing the "White Walls" gallery and "Shooting Gallery". The Tenderloin has been home to mural work by artists such as Johanna Poethig, Mona Caron, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Mike Giant, Blek Le Rat and Dan Plasma.
The "Book & Job" gallery has become known for hosting skating legends such as Tommy Guerrero and promoting "Zine Weekends."
Crime
The Tenderloin is a high-crime neighborhood, particularly violent street crime such as robbery and aggravated assault. Seven of the top 10 violent crime plots (out of 665 in the entire city as measured by the San Francisco Police Department) are adjacent plots in the Tenderloin and Sixth and Market area. The neighborhood was considered to be the origin of a notorious Bahala Na Gang (BNG) imported from the Philippines. In the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, the gang was involved in extortion, drug sales, and murder for hire.
Graffiti art and tagging are a common problem in the neighborhood. Dealing and use of illicit drugs occurs on the streets. Property crimes are common, especially theft from parked vehicles. Violent acts occur more often here and are generally related to drugs. The area has been the scene of escalating drug violence in 2007, including brazen daylight shootings, as local gangs from San Francisco, and others from around the Bay Area battle for turf. 14 of the city's 98 homicides took place in the area in 2007.
The first block of Turk Street, between Taylor and Mason, had one of the highest rates of violence and drug activity in San Francisco, according to a survey conducted by the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. On January 31, 2014, parking was banned on both sides of the street in an effort to reduce violence and drug activity. Without parked cars to hide illegal activity, there were fewer loiterers, and a decrease in drug activity.
Additionally, on April 10, 1984, notorious serial killer Richard Ramirez committed his first known murder in a hotel basement, where he was living, in the Tenderloin district.
Social Issues
High prevalence of sex work in the Tenderloin area has been associated with a high rate of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, especially among men who have sex with other men and those who also inject drugs. Contributing factors include a lack of sex education and safe sex practices, including condom use. In a 2000 survey, 59% of men who performed sex with other men did not report condom use, with higher rates of unsafe sex practices among those who are not engaged in paid sex work.
Social Services
The Tenderloin has been the home of Raphael House, the first provider in the city of shelter for homeless parents and children, since 1971. It is an ethnically diverse community, consisting of families, young people living in cheap apartments, downtown bohemian artists, and recent immigrants from Latin America and Southeast Asia. It is home to a large population of homeless, those living in extreme poverty, and numerous non-profit social service agencies, soup kitchens, religious rescue missions, homeless shelters and single room occupancy hotels. Many homeless youths in the Tenderloin district are at risk of serious emotional and psychological problems arising from past traumatic experiences. Lack of appropriately targeted options available in the area has meant many youths will have few viable paths to deal effectively with their problems.
The Tenderloin Housing Clinic has offered important social services to the poor of this neighborhood for decades. The Care Through Touch Institute, located between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, offers free seated massage therapy to clients in the Tenderloin community. The founder and director of CTI, Mary Ann Finch, began offering services here in 1997, after being inspired by her volunteer work with Mother Teresa in India.
Religious institutions providing community services to the Tenderloin include Glide Memorial Church, which was reinvigorated by Cecil Williams in 1963, St. Anthony's, a program of the Franciscans and San Francisco City Impact founded in 1984 by Pastor Roger Huang. San Francisco City Impact's K-8 private school, the San Francisco City Academy, was the first K-8 school in the Tenderloin District; founded in 1997. These all provide meals and other social services to poor and homeless residents and others. Glide and the surrounding neighborhood provided much of the setting for the 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness. In 2008, The Salvation Army opened the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, a multipurpose center featuring a gym, swimming pool and fitness center among other amenities. The funding for this center was made possible by a $1.5 billion bequest from Joan Kroc, the widow of McDonald's founder, Ray Kroc. Adjacent to the Kroc center is Railton Place, a 110-unit apartment complex run by the Salvation Army for former foster youth, homeless veterans, and adults recovering from addictions. In 2016, the Tenderloin Community Benefit District (TLCBD) announced the implementation of a new public-private initiative, Operation Leadership, which aims to help strengthen existing street cleaning and beautification services.
As transgender women often face barriers such as discrimination and stigma when accessing health care, and show reluctance to disclose their gender when seeking health related services, a collaborative project named 'TRANS' was set up near the Tenderloin to appropriately address the multifaceted needs of this diverse population, as well as offering support.
In their study, Sausa, Keatley, Operario (2007) concluded that sex work for transgender women of colour must be viewed as a forced consequence of structural barriers that they face, as well as an informed choice for survival as a result of these barriers.
The Tenderloin Senior Organizing Project (TSOP; formerly known as the Tenderloin Senior Outreach Project) was initiated when local university staff realized that many seniors felt afraid of crime, rent increases, and inadequate income. They facilitate interpersonal communication through coffee & refreshments, and groups of elderly people were encouraged to meet each other.
Larkin Street Youth Services is a non-profit organization that offers a continuum of services that inspires youth to move beyond the street. Services run the gamut from street outreach and temporary shelters to transitional living programs, health and wellness services, and comprehensive education and employment programs.
Culture
In recent years, residents have spearheaded a local arts revival.
In 1987, residents and others from the Aarti Hotel on Leavenworth Street founded the 509 Cultural Center at 509 Ellis Street. After the 1989 earthquake damaged that facility, artists founded The Luggage Store at 1007 Market, at the intersection of 6th Street, Market, Taylor and Golden Gate Avenue. In 1989 the Tenderloin Reflection and Education Center (TREC) spun off from St Anthony foundation and operated a cultural center including dance, music, writing quilting, and other arts workshops in the St. Boniface Neighborhood Center. Artists and activists such as Eric Ehn from the Iowa Writing Workshop and Theatre Artaud; Miya Masoaka, a recording artist with Asian Improv Records; Lucy Jane Bledsoe, published novelist and writer for the East Bay Express; Pearl Ubungen, choreographer; Ben Clarke, Founding Editor of Freedom Voices; and Maketa Groves, poet and published author at Curbstone Press; and Tenderloin resident and Athabaskan poet Mary TallMountain offered numerous free workshops. TREC and its publishing project Freedom Voices continue to offer workshops on an occasional basis at the Public Library, Hospitality House, the Faithful Fools and other locations in the neighborhood. Tender Leaves, the Center's literary journal was published from 1987 to 2006.
From 2006 to 2009, The Loin's Mouth – conceived by its editor Rachel M. – was a semi-quarterly publication about life in the Tenderloin and Tendernob areas. Since then, others have come about to fill the gap including the Tenderloin Reading Series, which is a quarterly literary event in the neighborhood as well as The Tender, a local journal focusing on the events, food, and politics of the neighborhood.
In 2006, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts was formed to produce, exhibit, and develop creativity with the most contemporary new media technologies. Initially located on Taylor Street in an 8,000 sq ft (740 m2) space, they have since moved across the street to rent space from The Warfield.
In years past, the local Vietnamese Community has hosted the Tết celebration of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year in the Little Saigon section of the Tenderloin.
Parks and Recreation
Historically, the downtown Tenderloin had no parks between Union Square to the East and Civic Center Plaza to the West until a number of activists, who organized the City's Citizens Committee for Open Space, advocated for more open space in the Tenderloin in the 1970s. As a result, a number of parks and playgrounds were created including first Boeddeker Park, a multi-use facility, then the youth-oriented Tenderloin Playground, followed by a number of mini-playgrounds.
Boeddeker Park, located at the corner of Eddy and Jones Streets, is one of the most used parks per square foot in the City. It underwent a renovation, completed in December 2014, which has revitalized the park. YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club occupy the clubhouse, providing programming for youth and seniors. "It's the hub of positive community togetherness", Tenderloin police Capt. Jason Cherniss said of the park. "It's not necessarily police, it's community. It's ripe for that now. We're all getting more connected and sharing information."
The Tenderloin Children's Playground, on Ellis Street between Leavenworth and Hyde Streets, was opened in 1995 and has attractive indoor and outdoor recreational facilities and hosts a number of community and family events.
Sgt. John Macaulay Park, named after a San Francisco police officer who was killed in the adjacent alley while on duty, is a small gated playground at the corner of O'Farrell and Larkin Streets. Although the park is located across the street from a strip club, it is frequented by parents and children from the neighborhood.
The "Tenderloin National Forest" (a project of the nonprofit organization The Luggage Store/509 Cultural Center) is an unofficial park that was established in 1987 that maintains the park and opening hours. It is located on Cohen Alley just off Ellis Street.
Renaming Attempt
In March 2011, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Vice President Tracy Reiman sent Mayor Ed Lee a letter proposing for renaming of the neighborhood and suggesting an alternative name like the Tempeh District, claiming "the city deserves a neighborhood named after a delicious cruelty-free food instead of the flesh of an abused animal". The proposal was widely met with ridicule by locals and Mayor Lee responded that it was more important to improve the lives of the residents than rename the neighborhood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenderloin,_San_Francisco
Theatre District
The city’s major theatre district lies on Geary Street roughly between Mason and Leavenworth. The Large theatres like the Curran and the ACT (American Conservatory Theatre) host Broadway shows and other major productions. Dozens of smaller theatres are also found in the area, some no more than second floor walk-ups over markets and restaurants. The well-known club Trader Vic’s is found in the neighborhood, in an L-shaped alley northwest of Taylor and Post. Medium-priced hotels are found in the area, as well as a number of upscale restaurants. However, the Tenderloin is nearby and street hustlers, prostitutes, and pimps are common. Union Square
Union Square is the closest thing to “center” found in San Francisco. Site of the annual Christmas tree lighting and other civic events, it is a sunny, landscaped square dominated by a tall pillar with a figure of winged Victory atop it. The monument was dedicated to Dewey, the victorious admiral of the Spanish-American War. Situated atop an underground parking garage and populated by street musicians, lunching office workers, and the occasional strolling police officer, it is a typically pigeon-populated urban green spot featuring weekend art sales and occasional noisy demonstrations. Despite a small contingent of street people from the nearby Tenderloin, criminal activity is limited or non-existent. The square, in the heart of the tourist district, is well-lit and well policed.
The square is also in the center of the hotel and shopping district. The venerable and swank 12-story St. Francis Hotel caters to some of the city’s most famous guests, and is the usual campsite of presidents and other U.S. officials. It was while leaving the St. Francis that President Gerald Ford was shot at by would-be assassin and former Charles Manson follower, Sarah Jane Moore. The St. Francis was also the scene of the infamous Fatty Arbuckle case, in which the popular silent film comedian was the prime suspect in the suspicious death of a young starlet. In those days, San Francisco was a favorite weekend party spot for Hollywood celebrities bored with the diversions offered by a relatively new Los Angeles. Behind and rising high above the old St. Francis is the ultramodern St. Francis Westin, a 36-story glass tower with external elevators riding up and down its eastern face.
The Sir Francis Drake Hotel, one block up Powell on the other side of the street, tries to compete with the St. Francis and features a doorman dressed in a beefeater costume. The hotel is large, but less convincing. The interior is somehow reminiscent of the hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
Climbing the hill is broad Powell Street, the main artery of the area, lined with bookstores, camera shops, electronic outlets, a few restaurants, some outrageously priced, and the occasional “adults only” store dealing in video tapes and rubber goods.
At the foot of Powell is Hallidie Plaza, San Francisco’s version of Times Square. Here the tourist and businessman stand next to the vagrant and homeless from the Tenderloin just next door. Street vendors prevail and there are always musicians performing for the crowds lined up for the cable car. Preachers of a dozen different faiths, most proclaiming San Francisco the “new Sodom,” compete for attention of people desperately trying to ignore them. The most pitiful folk beg for coins from passersby while perennial chess games are staged year round on the concrete cubes set along the broad sidewalk of Market Street. Pickpockets work the area, but violent crime is minimal, at least during the day.
Kindred Reservations
- Pacific Heights -- Reserve #1
- Bayview --
- Sunset --
