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Old 06-29-2008, 12:32 PM
 
Location: San Francisco bay area
37 posts, read 90,983 times
Reputation: 18

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Quote:
Originally Posted by gizmo980 View Post
San Francisco is a pretty safe city, especially if you stay in the tourist areas... daytime is generally fine, and nighttime is only sketchy in certain spots (like Civic Center & Tenderloin). Try taking the cable car to Chinatown, and visit North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39, which are accessible by either cable car or Muni. You can also kill LOTS of time in Union Square, if you like to shop. I can give you some more unique suggestions, but would need to know what kind of stuff you enjoy. Have fun!!!
Gizmo: you'd still recommend Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39? Except for a place to catch a boat tour I didn't see much there besides ho-hum street performers, a bunch of T-shirt shops and several unremarkable eateries - or do you know of some treasures there?
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Old 06-29-2008, 01:01 PM
 
Location: Portlandia "burbs"
10,229 posts, read 16,266,427 times
Reputation: 26005
Someone should mention Ghirardelli Square. (I just scanned through the entries and didn't notice it. . . though I might have "missed" it.) It is one of my least favorite tourist spots in SF, but I know that a lot of people love it. It DOES have a great Ghirardelli Candy Shop, which is a great spot to have a sundae and rest awhile.

Japantown's Mall is an easy bus ride (#38 along Geary) to get to, and it shouldn't take up too much of your time. It's different. There is an Asian-version of a discount store there with all kinds of interesting junk. Nice decor.

If time permits, take that same bus to the Cliff House-Sutro Baths ruins. All that remains of the baths is the foundations, but it's a nice area for light hiking and for photographs. You can walk a little farther down to walk along the shore if you want. Easy to get there, but this WOULD take up time considering the distance.
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Old 06-29-2008, 04:34 PM
rah
 
Location: Oakland
3,314 posts, read 9,218,326 times
Reputation: 2538
Quote:
Originally Posted by RandalR View Post
Sure. San Francisco is an order of magnitude safer than most large American cities
So many people say things like this, and It's really not true. SF is not close to the most dangerous city in the US, but it's not an order of magnitude safer (maybe it will be in 20 years when gentrification is complete city-wide...we'll see) I agree with everything else you said though.

People shouldn't get the wrong impression of the city. SF's truly bad parts are no safer than bad parts in other US cities. In fact SF is probably somewhere in the middle in terms of overall crime. There are plenty of cities that have higher numbers, and plenty with lower numbers (LA included.). The crack epidemic and gangs hit just as hard here as anywhere else, and that caused a lot of problems. In the late 80's to the mid-90's SF's crime rate was relatively high, then in the late 90's and early 2000's it actually dropped down a lot, until a couple years ago, when it started to shoot up again. The fact that LA and Oakland are so close (and that they have higher crime rates, especially back in the 80's and 90's, though LA has a lower overall crime rate than SF now), coupled with SF's fame for things such as hippies, human rights, gay rights, etc, etc, has created this impression with many that San Francisco is an extremely safe place. There's a good segment of the population though that has to live with violence and such every day, they're just out of the view of visitors, mostly in the southern half of the city (and of course tourist maps only show the northern half, acting as if most stuff south of Market doesn't exist)

Now if you say the tourist areas of SF are "an order of magnitude safer", it might be true to an extent. The northern section of the city where all the tourist stuff goes on is really safe overall, with a couple pockets of sketchiness (the tenderloin, fillmore projects, mid-market). Also, you're probably just as likely to get robbed in this part of the city at night, as if you were in the middle of hunters point, just because people know there are rich people and tourists in the northern part of the city, so they go there to find targets.

Just treat SF as you would any other city. Don't be fooled into thinking it's way more safe, and then walk down the wrong street without a care and find yourself in a sticky situation (also, don't walk down a nice street at night, flashing money around, and expect it to be perfectly fine either). This is especially easy in a city where the sketchy areas are separated from nice areas by no more than a couple blocks. Another confusing thing is that some sketchy areas don't look the part based on buildings alone, because a lot of the housing projects were replaced in the last 10 years, and buildings in general aren't left to rot because land is so valuable and limited here.


I kind went off on a rant there...to answer the original question:

Fun stuff to sight see would be Union Square it's self, chinatown, Nob Hill and all the old hotels on top, the cable cars, Market Street, the Westfield, Metreon and Yerba Buena Gardens, the Embarcadero, Ferry Building and the farmers market, North Beach, Civic Center including the Main Public Library, City Hall, and the Asian Art museum. Also, i'll even recommend fisherman's wharf and pier 39 (fake tourist trap area). I hate to admit it, but it is fun to go to check that area out for a couple hours. Also, if you wanna venture out a little farther, you can take the 38 bus west to the cliff house and ocean beach and walk around, or you could go take the 5 or the N train and go to golden gate park. Also when at fisherman's wharf, you could walk west until you hit the palace of fine arts and exploratorium, and keep going, down crissy field, to Fort Point, and then up to the golden gate bridge. It would a be a long, but very nice walk.

The second question:

Walking around SF during the day alone in Union Square will be perfectly fine. It would be fine at night too. If you go a block or two west, into the tenderloin, it can get pretty sketchy, and you may feel uncomfortable, possibly more so as a woman by yourself..but then again, i don't know what you're used to, and the Tenderloin might not phase you at all. It's basically full of homeless people, crackheads, and prostitutes, and there are plenty of drug dealers hanging around too (plus plenty of regular people as well). The people who live in the buildings are mostly poor people including lots of asian and latin immigrants living in SRO's. But, there are a lot of good restaurants and bars in the area too. So maybe you'd actually want to check it out. Just be aware of your surroundings.

Now, assuming you're staying just in the northern part of the city, the only other area to watch out for is the housing projects in the fillmore district, which can also be easy to accidentally walk into. They extend west from Civic Center, south of Geary Street, and east from Divisadero street. If you visit Alamo square (of fullhouse fame) the projects are just a couple blocks away from there. Once again be aware. Those projects aren't as bad as they used to be, but a lot of screwed up stuff still happens. Aside from those two areas though, you should be perfectly fine all over.
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Old 06-30-2008, 11:48 AM
 
287 posts, read 1,085,007 times
Reputation: 142
Thanks for all the replies! I'll add some of the places suggested to my list.

Many of you mentioned the Tenderloin District...we booked a room at the Prescott Hotel, which is a 4 star and had great reviews from what I could see. But when I checked the map, it's technically in that area (one block west of Union Square). I can cancel for a small fee, but we got such a good deal online, I'm hoping someone will tell me it's ok! Advice?

And as for the poster that commented on San Francisco not being the most dangerous city in the US, that would be St. Louis, where I live Good to know I'll be ok in San Francisco. It seems like the "bad" areas are a few isolated chunks, not street by street like in some cities, so that makes it much easier.

ETA: whoops, St. Louis is #2 this year. We're moving up in the world!
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Old 06-30-2008, 01:33 PM
 
Location: Portlandia "burbs"
10,229 posts, read 16,266,427 times
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A friend of mine booked a room in the Tenderloin when she and her husband decided to spend a weekend there. She knew zilch about San Francisco and didn't think to ask anyone for suggestions first. But, like you, they got a good deal, so they decided to brave it.

Well, when they entered the district they could see some of the problems, and the hotel doorman warned them to be very careful outside and to move quickly. They never lingered in that part of town and, therefore, were fine.

At night I suggest that you use cabs, then you'll be honky-dory.
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Old 06-30-2008, 01:37 PM
 
52 posts, read 215,230 times
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I just checked the map and it looks like the Prescott is at Mason/Post. The area right around it is fine. You just don't want to head south from your hotel. That will get you right into the worst part of the Tenderloin within a few blocks. Just west is not as bad, but still sketchy at night. You want to head east (to Union Square/Chinatown) or north/northeast to Nob Hill, Russian Hill, North Beach, Fishermans Wharf, etc. As a tourist, these are the directions you'll want to be heading anyway, so you'll only get into trouble if you make a wrong turn, and trust me, if you do that you'll know it pretty quickly and you can then just turn around. Anyway, SF is a very small city, so even if you do run into a bad area, it only lasts 7 or 8 blocks at most - unless you are in the south part of the city where large areas are unsafe/dangerous. As a tourist, you won't be going there anyway.

Also, if you like wildlife, I'd suggest going to see the sea lions at Pier 39. It's the only reason I ever go to Fisherman's wharf. A large colony of sea lions just moved in and took over the boat docking area about 10-15 years ago. At first, they tried to get rid of them, but those sea lions were pretty determined and after they realized what a great tourist attraction it was, they gave in and stopped trying to drive them out. You can't miss it - just walk down Pier 39 until you hear the barking.
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Old 06-30-2008, 02:47 PM
 
Location: In the Redwoods
30,286 posts, read 51,833,691 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joelle_SF View Post
Gizmo: you'd still recommend Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39? Except for a place to catch a boat tour I didn't see much there besides ho-hum street performers, a bunch of T-shirt shops and several unremarkable eateries - or do you know of some treasures there?
I personally haven't been to Fisherman's Wharf in YEARS, but the tourists usually enjoy it - just to get that San Francisco "feel" that you see in movies. As for Pier 39, I've always enjoyed going there... they have some really unique and fun shops, "The San Francisco Experience" movie, a small (overpriced) aquarium, and a pretty cool arcade. You can also watch sea lions there, who moved to the wharf following the '89 quake. It's not something I do reguarly or anything, but I do enjoy it once in a while! As I said in an earlier post, these are definitely touristy suggestions... I can get more unique, but would have to know more about the OP first.
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