Posted on 10/29/2006 3:33:52 PM PST by Lorianne
SAN FRANCISCO -- When Carolyn Abst moved into this city's harsh Tenderloin district several years ago, she thought she would be welcomed. As owner of an architecture firm, she was bringing in jobs and ideas to revitalize the area. Instead, some of her neighbors called for her head.
"Wanted" posters went up around the Tenderloin last year, featuring Ms. Abst's photo. Someone circulated pamphlets disparaging her. Residents yelled at her in the street. Ms. Abst's offense: trying to plant 400 trees in the area. "I had no idea that cleanliness, beauty and safety could get people so riled up," the 58-year-old says.
In San Francisco's Tenderloin, residents aren't fighting the usual gentrification battle over displacing low-income families. Instead, they are fighting for the neighborhood's gritty ambience.
Often described by tourist guides as San Francisco's worst neighborhood, the Tenderloin has for years been a gathering point for pimps, drug addicts and transvestites and transgender residents, some of whom work as prostitutes. Some residents say that's what gives the Tenderloin its personality and makes it a crucial piece of San Francisco's diverse cityscape. Cleanup efforts, these residents contend, threaten to destroy an atmosphere that welcomes people on the fringe of society, who otherwise could find no refuge. And it distracts from the issues the neighborhood really cares about, such as safety for sex workers and affordable housing.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Hope she learns a good, conservative lesson.
-ccm
Pelosis pride.
Pelosis pride.
s/b Pelosi's pride.
They are probably already in the SF mix.
Just more heart and soul of America there....
NOT.
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Tenderloin....San Fran....Clean up....Welcome the fringe....
ROTFLMAO!!! (gasp)
Try church and many good things may come to one.
The Tenderloin needs to be carpet-bombed.
More proof that you can take the people out of the slum (or clean up the slum) but you can't so easily take the slum out of some people.
Sounds like half the people who attend the Democratic National Convention every 4 years.
They say that slaves learn to love the lash. Apparently fruitcakes learn to love the slums.
That's my old neighborhood.
But it doesn't tell the whole story. What some of the poor residents of the neighborhood are afraid of is rising rents. They want a cleaned up neighborhood, but it's a two-edged sword. If it becomes nicer, rents will go up.
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