Gated Living In The 'Loin (San Francisco)

SF Gate ^ | Monday, April 4, 2005 | Gerald D. Adams and Ilene Lelchuk, Chronicle Staff Writers

[Simmy2.5]

Surreal but true, there is a gated community in San Francisco's drug- , alcohol- and sex-shop-filled Tenderloin.

In the city's great housing squeeze, a handful of homeowners who moved into a neighborhood known for drunks and drug deals has taken an unusual step to make urban living more livable. Borrowing a page from suburbia, they gated off a tiny cul-de-sac where their front doors open to the elements.

Meacham Place off Post Street is protected by a classy, black, wrought- iron gate and shields residents, some in houses worth more than $800,000, from homeless encampments, used heroin needles, human excrement and dumped garbage.

"Now there is no more illegal parking. No more nuisances. People are bringing their kids and dogs to play here. They pick up after their dogs, and the street looks a lot better," said David Overdorf, a retired business consultant and one of about four homeowners on Meacham Place.

[Simmy2.5]

I thought this was funny. While I personally have never been to the Tenderloin, from what I read in the article, it isn't exactly the Sunset that's for sure. Sex clubs, homeless people, and drunks using the streets as a toilet? Wow! I want to live here. [/sarcasm] Though I have to admit, to an extent, it is a great place for a gated community. Paid by the homeowners by the way. Though as the article states, the gate isn't locked. And the area around it is still a dump.

I myself don't nesscessarily see a problem with this itself. Whatever improves the area, I'm fine with that. However, if the mayor would get off his 'I love gay marriage' and 'unions good, hotels bad' butt and solve the homeless problem, reduce crime, and clean the streets once in a while, maybe this gate wouldn't have been nesscessary (I know that he had some improvement of the situation a bit. But still, has a long way to go).

[E. Pluribus Unum]

This is pretty much what the wealthy in third-world countries do.

Bad things happen to uninvited guests who trespass.

[Savage Beast]

Sex clubs, homeless people, and drunks using the streets as a toilet? That's what the Left has done to San Francisco. If they had their way, that's what the entire U.S.A. would be like. Thank God for the American Heartland!

[hillary's_fat_a**]

PLEASE don't make fun of Nancy Pelosi's hometown. /sarcasm

[delapaz]

They did this sort of thing in a lousy Dayton, OH neighborhood called Five Oaks. It worked there. Link.

[kimosabe31]

What a miserable existance. If the Lord doesn't SOON destroy San Francisco, he'll owe an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah.

[starfish923]

It's probable that some brainess public advocate lawyers and twit-brained non-proftit lawyers will find this gated community among the poor and homeless completely unacceptable.

There moronic, leftist, bleeding heart fools will then go whining to the hapless, p.c., racist, sexist, heterophonic Board of Stuporvisors.

A stupid, uselss, racist, sexist, heterophobic and unconstitutional law or ordinance will then be passed.
The gated community will go.

San Francisco politics.

[riri]

I only visited San Fran once. And though, I thought the natural beauty was staggering, I was appalled by nearly everything else. Three things especially stuck with me.
1. The homeless travelled in packs of at least 5.
2. They had needle exchangel boxes at the Safeway
3. I read an article in the local paper, a "Dear Abby" type thing. The guy writing in need help for his STUMP fetish and was basically stalking an amputee that worked at the local library.

I knew then, it wasn't the place for me. And that was when I was 25 and considerably less conservative than I am today!

[fieldmarshaldj]

Baltimore ?

[starfish923]

Thank goodness the Tenderloin is only some four or five square blocks. The city itself is only seven square miles, with most homes, condos, flats and apartments NOT downtown or near the sewer known as the Tenderloin.
The only ones who can live downtown are the stinking rich and the stinking poor. They can have it.

[RippleFire]

Sounds like one of those diverse urban environments that the professional planners tell us we should all live in.

[Cowboy Bob]

These are your basic Liberals. They want to live among the poor, but not mingle with them. While they can brag to others that they live in the Tenderlion district (and thereby have compassion), the fences and gates will keep the "unwashed" away from them.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The Tenderloin ought to be an upscale district - it's right next to Union Square and where the theaters are located. Imagine taking your four-year-old to see the Lion King at the Golden Gate Theatre...and having to step over twenty bums, avoid stepping in the human excrement, and dodge a couple of shrieking heroin addicts to get her safely to the front door. No other city would put up with it (OK, maybe Seattle), but the Leftist loons on the Board of Supervisors think they are delivering an object lesson in the evils of capitalism to downtown businesses and "the rich", so want the situation to continue.

Condemning about twenty or so "residential hotels" (flophouses) and replacing them with upscale condos (which would sell for huge prices) should do the trick, but then what would the Left use to shake down the taxpayers for ever more homeless funding? 200 million a year and counting to support 7,000 bums, i.e., to put their friends on the city payroll as "homeless advocates".

[SteveMcKing]

The hired help is a danger in itself. There have been cases where gate-security was breaking into homes and even a rape at one place. They're in the perfect position to prey on the community.

[starfish923]

I only visited San Fran once. And though, I thought the natural beauty was staggering, I was appalled by nearly everything else. Three things especially stuck with me.

Lol. The real estate prices are just as staggering as Manhattan and Manhattan Beach. The city has baseball, football, symphony, opera, ballet, jazz, art, museums, 4000 restaurants, parks, beaches, surfing, wind surfing, no snow, almost no mosquitos, and no need for a.c.
Their politics are almost as left as Berkeley's and Marin County's. The fog and wind will chill to the bone, and that's in July and August. The traffic sucks and the taxes are ungodly high.

It's amazing why so many people want to be crammed in there. They do and the price to live there belies the negative.
Go figure.

[RdSparkx]

I am not a bit surprised by this.

Last year the old man and I took our vacation to the Bay area. I know exactly where they are talking about. I mean these are nice houses but right outside there are at least 20 bums sitting around. However, we didn't get close enough to see the needles or human poop.

You want a third world country? Go drive through Bezerkley -uhhh I mean Berkeley. We were expecting a kind of liberal utopia (you know flowers in your hair - everyone smoking the wacky backy)- but all we found was a dirty, nasty quasi-city with run down shops, trash in the streets, homeless people everywhere. I mean downtown Atlanta looks like paradise compared to this! And that's saying something!

[starfish923]

The Tenderloin ought to be an upscale district - it's right next to Union Square and where the theaters are located. Imagine taking your four-year-old to see the Lion King at the Golden Gate Theatre...and having to step over twenty bums, avoid stepping in the human excrement, and dodge a couple of shrieking heroin addicts to get her safely to the front door. No other city would put up with it (OK, maybe Seattle), but the Leftist loons on the Board of Supervisors think they are delivering an object lesson in the evils of capitalism to downtown businesses and "the rich", so want the situation to continue.
Condemning about twenty or so "residential hotels" (flophouses) and replacing them with upscale condos (which would sell for huge prices) should do the trick, but then what would the Left use to shake down the taxpayers for ever more homeless funding? 200 million a year and counting to support 7,000 bums, i.e., to put their friends on the city payroll as "homeless advocates".

I agree with all you say, although the Tenderloin has been a crappy area for 100 years or more. That is why it has that name. It hust has more people now.

If what you suggest was done, they down and out would simply move to another neighborhood. They won't ever go away. They are like viruses. The loony tunes who run the city DO tax the holy pie outta of the locals. The LOCALS put up with it.
The buck stops with the voter. Always has; always will.

[riri]

Yes! It was late June and I remember going to look at apartments and the rental agent had on a winter coat. But, it was weird--I could be in one part of the city and be warm and be in a different section of the city and be cold.

But, it is beautiful. All of California, naturally speaking, is just breathtaking. The human debris, well, that is a different story.