Japantown, SF Is it safe? (San Francisco, Fillmore: section 8, hotels, safe area)

[camm76]

Hi, I'm going to SF in March and I've been looking at hotels. I found a hotel in the Japantown area. The hotel looks awesome,but is this a good , safe area?
Thanks!

[cardozoj]

The area itself is fine (it's small), safety-wise. Whether it is a good area for visting depends on what you are planning to see and what you are hoping to have in the vicinity of the hotel.

However, you should note and plan for the fact that it borders the Tenderloin and the Western Addition, two neighborhoods that most sensible people avoid when possible. The "shortest route between two points" to the financial district and some other worthwhile areas could have you walking or taking a bus through the Tenderloin. This can be easily avoided by taking a taxi or a longer walking route, but you'd need to keep it in mind.

[mayorhaggar]

The Japantown area is fine but south of Geary there's a lot of housing projects that attract crime, so stay north of Geary. Just north of the Japantown Mall on Fillmore is Lower Pacific Heights which is another nice area. And Japantown isn't "bordering" the Tenderloin though yes you have to go through the TL if you take the Geary bus downtown.

[bmw335xi]

Filmore can be a bit sketchy late at night, but Japantown is safe. Try eating at Shabu Shabu, they have the best Shabu Shabu in San Francisco lol.

[cardozoj]

Neighborhood boundaries are the subject of some debate.
Here's a neighborhood map that may help resolve any questions about what Japantown borders.

San Francisco Neighborhoods - Guide to San Francisco Neighborhoods

Seemingly undisputed is that there are two [of four] directions that you don't want to exit Japantown from.

[bmw335xi]

Cardozoj, what hole did you crawl out from?

Ever since you started positing, it's been a nonstop conquest to spread fear. Filmore is a sketchy part of town, but even then I lived basically right there and I'd walk around 2-3 am no problem. For someone who has never been to this area, I wouldn't recommend it unless they are in a group, but wow...freaking grow some balls man. There's two areas you don't want to exit from Japantown! LMAO! Grow a pair, I'm being serious...your rants are getting annoying. You've been relentless about spreading fear and stating how liberals in SF are horrible. You must be bored...

[cardozoj]

BMW, the fellow asked, I have a duty to tell him. What's your beef exactly? You are obviously a younger fellow (dating a recent college graduate?) who has a fairly high tolerance for putting his personal safety on the line. That's nice.

I assume that people asking about safety on this forum have a slightly different risk tolerance, one that more resembles the average. You are simply giving them bad advice. I am not "afraid" of walking through a bad part of town--I just know better than to advise someone visiting the area that it is a good idea. Whatever risk you or I face, multiply that by 2 at least for an unfamiliar tourist. Plus, I don't know who this person is. What's safe for you or I may not be safe for a 22 year old woman travelling alone. Would you advise your girlfriend to walk from Japantown to the financial district at night? Would you advise her to stroll through the Western Addition? Got it?

The Filmore area is, as you note, dangerous as well, I had forgotten to add that. Until recently, I was on the board of directors of a non-profit that operated in that area (and others in SF) providing services for the poor. You should meet some of our clients, including the countless rape victims we provided counselling for and the various shooting victims--most with no gang ties whatsoever.

On the safety issue, I have demonstrated the opposite--I am really not as afraid as I should be of some of these areas, and I have spent more time in them than I probably should have and have run into problems a few times as a result. In fact, many of my bad experiences in these areas were on nights that I was walking back from board of directors meetings in the Filmore to SOMA because I was too cheap to take a cab.

[fuzzyearlobes]

Japantown does not border the TL. That map is extremely out of scale.

[ambient]

It's pretty safe, especially during the day. But they did kill a young woman there about a month ago... Not sure why, but then again, this kind of an incident could of course happen anywhere in the city... The closest threat IMO are parts of Western Addition that have those sketchy section 8 residents.

Young woman fatally shot in Japantown

[camm76]

Thank you all for the helpful info.