Well, Mrs Drango puts a death grip on my arm everytime we get off Bart at Civic Center and walk up to Van Ness. Let's be honest...It isn't safe to do at night.
Wow, where in the city do you live and work? I lived there from 1967 to 1974. Moved out but went back to work there from 1980 to 1983. In that time I was subject to one attempted mugging (guy had a knife and I outran him). In the 80-83 period I worked at Montgomery and California and used to walk the area at lunch and was accosted almost daily by various former mental patients and homeless types. In my younger days (67 - 74) I was apparently quite attractive to homosexual men as I was approached three times in that period not to mention being subjected to whistles and catcalls (I worked near the Tenderloin and used to walk through there to Market to catch the bus). When I lived there I lived out in Ingleside (near SF State), the Haight, Filmore and Knob Hill near Grace Cathedral.
I agree that SF is a beautiful city, physically. It's a very sick city, mentally. I moved from SF to Honolulu, which is equally a beautiful place with it's own problems. Today I live in San Antonio, which is not as beautiful, but for the most part mentally healthy.
My great great great gandfather helped found the city with general vallejo. I hate the city of urine.
I agree with you.......SF is not nearly as bad as their politics and bad press say it is....it is a great place to visit and hang out in and the tourist spots are very fun. Unless you are in the Castro, you see limited gay pride and some of the funnest restaurants are in North Beach....but of course, they get so much bad press I don't blame most of those unfamiliar with it to see it in that light....
Then you've missed the best things about SF. I lived there off and on for 4-6 weeks at a time during the 70's while training for fed gov work. I was constantly accosted by homeless people, hit on by gays and transvestites, and was standing about 100 feet away from a Weatherman bomb when it went off in a gov't building at 1:00 AM. And all this while being a white guy (still white, but you know what I mean) when the Zebra killers were on the loose. Talk about fun!! You just haven't lived.