When our oldest son first moved to SF 14 years ago, he had a roommate in the Mission district. His roommate got married, so our son had to move out on his own. The only place he could afford (with a small amount of help from us) was a studio apartment in the Tenderloin. It was wretched back then. One time I was on the phone with him, as someone attempted to mug him. I heard the skirmish live from central Ohio. Luckily, our son was able to hold his own, and got away. He has never carried money on his person once he moved to SF.
We were so happy when he met his wife, and he moved out of the Tenderloin. The next apartment was near the baseball field, but I don’t know what part of town that is. Not long after that, they found the apartment in Pac Heights. Two incomes really helped out.
That’s when they had encounters with homeless that made them want to move. First were problems with the garbage cans. My son traveled some, and once while he was out of town, my DIL found a homeless guy going through their trash, BEHIND their fenced yard, and now with access to their apartment. So she moved the trash cans to in front of the fence, and the city fined them for having them there. They told them what happened with the homeless guy going through their trash, and how it made her feel unsafe. The city said, too bad, you pay the fine.
The next thing that happened was a homeless person defecated on the sidewalk in front of their home. The city fined them for THAT, too. The city wouldn’t clean it up. My son was supposed to clean up the feces from some other drugged out stranger. Good Lord.
That was the straw that broke the camels’s back, and they were on the hunt for a new place. They moved out to the Marin area. It is so expensive, but at least they don’t have to put up with SF city officials anymore.
I always wish they would move back to the Midwest, but I doubt that will happen.
One of the big problems my daughter and her roommates had was packages being stolen off of the front steps - she and husband now have some kind of lockbox for packages. Their garage was recently broken into - my SIL had it all on tape - they lost the “cheap” bikes that they didn’t use, the expensive ones were completely locked up and the thieves couldn’t get them, although they tried. My daughter’s friend had all of the windows in her car smashed out - for NO reason, the windows were just smashed out. This is a common occurrence in SF. We’ve seen the glass shards lining the curbs along the streets.
Daughter’s close friend lived in an area called the “Western Extension” nearby - she was coming home from work one night when a black man slipped into the building behind her before the door could close - she didn’t see him until he entered the elevator with her. Fortunately, for her, the elevator stopped on the next floor and a man was standing there - the black intruder fled. The friend told my daughter she was sure she was going to be killed that night if the elevator door hadn’t opened and someone was there.
Unfortunately, my daughter and SIL will never leave, as they’ve told me.