Sketchiest looking street in San Francisco? (Fillmore, Nice: sales, crime rates, hotels)

[ScottJP]

Turk between Taylor and Mason... I do like how it looks like something from another decade... it's also a reminder of what most of the Tenderloin used to look like before the clean-up. Actually it might be the only Tenderloin street that still looks "loiny" these days.

[BayAreaDave]

Yes because Ellis and Jones, Eddy and Leavensworth, O'farrell and Jones, and pretty much the rest of the TL has been cleaned up.

[andyadhi01]

6th street between Market and Howard! mod cut

[ScottJP]

Hmmm, I have to disagree. Did you see what the area looked like before, or have you been through there lately? I mean there is hardly anything left to complain about these days in the formerly sketchy area of downtown comprised of Mid-Market, the Tenderloin, and 6th St.

I remember when you could point to nearly everything east of Van Ness, north of Golden Gate, south of Geary, and west of Taylor/Mason and every block looked dicey.

Now what blocks actually give off that "loiny" vibe? The clean-up efforts over the years have been vast. Geary isn't dodgy at all. The only part of O'Farrell that might be considered sketchy is that block between Jones and Taylor where people hang out in front of the church and the old Naan 'N Curry. Jones and O'Farrell is looking pretty damn good these days.

The only block west of Leavenworth that gives off any dodgy vibes is Hyde between Turk and Eddy, and the Hyde-Turk intersection is only about 1000% less dodgy these days - there used to be crowds of 30-40 transients hanging out there, now I see maybe 5 or 6 guys hanging out on the northeast corner.

Jones and Ellis is really up-and-coming. It looks like O'Farrell and Jones did 5 years ago. It used to be nothing but transient types but now it's got a mixed crowd. The whole "Union Square West" moniker seems to have reached down there. Ellis between Taylor and Jones is a persistently troubled looking block because of Glide mostly, and that's not likely to change as much as some other blocks, but just look at Ellis between Jones and Leavenworth. This used to be Crack Road where I'd see people *regularly* not occassionally smoking and selling crack. It might be the most "improved" block in the Tenderloin lately.

The only streets that seem at all "loiny" to me in the Tenderloin are:

- Eddy between Mason and Taylor
- Turk between Mason and Taylor
- Taylor between Market and Eddy (the Market Street redevelopment seems poised to gobble up that first block of Taylor at the very least)
- Leavenworth between Ellis and Golden Gate - probably going to be the toughest nut to crack as it seems like this stretch of Leavenworth is somewhat removed from the Market Street redevelopment and "undesirables" are being herded here from other streets, like 6th. Still, I'm seeing more average citizen types on Leavenworth these days than ever before.
- Ellis between Taylor and Jones - like I said, Glide.

The rest of formerly sketchy downtown? The infamous stretch of 6th between Market and Howard has never been more accessible and clean, with new businesses and the new cop shop and police pressures. It used to get downright unnerving. It has really mellowed out.

Mid-Market - Wow. There's nothing remotely objectionable except that block of Market between 7th and 6th, maybe in particular where Jones and McAllister meet Market (I still see the occassional drug deal going on in front of the Checks Cashed place across from the Hibernia) and people hanging out in front of the Hollywood Billiards mural. I don't even expect this block to look like anything out of the ordinary in another year or two.

So the "grim, seedy Tenderloin" is down to a few scattered blocks? I just remember when nearly every block looked grim. Remember how bad Larkin and O'Farrell used to be? O'Farrell and Leavenworth? Hyde and Ellis? Nice looking blocks now. If no one told you Hyde and Ellis was in the Tenderloin you wouldn't guess it otherwise. Turk between Jones and Leavenworth is a surprisingly polished block these days... I could go on...

Anyway, just my two cents. Maybe people won't be convinced until a Whole Foods opens up at Turk and Leavenworth but I sure am.

[HappyinCali]

I assume not many of us here hang out in the Bayview or Hunter's Point.

BTW, I think that the areas around BART stations on 24th and 16th and Mission are disturbing. I go to restaurants around both of those, but I would not want my wife there by herself.

6th street between Market & mission is super dicey, too.

[bmw335xi]

I know this isn't a specific street, but I would say the area around where these streets intersect (or nearly intersect)...

Market St & 6th St & Golden Gate Ave & Taylor St & Turk St

If you were to look at a map, just go to Market St / 6th St and you will see the other streets I mentioned. My favorite taco place is right there, but it is sure sketchy looking, especially on a cold foggy night.

[ScottJP]

I'm not sure what the actual crime rates say about Bayview-Hunter's Point... my impression is that the negative impression of these neighborhoods is horribly exaggerated. I know some people who live down in that area (I've heard the term "Lower Dogpatch" tossed around, which I don't care for as I don't like these new frame of reference sales bids and hate terms like "LoDo") and some of the areas look workaday industrial or catering to auto body/car repair places but nothing that, if it weren't in San Francisco, would have such a bad reputation. Haven't been down every block obviously but I've never felt unsafe there or gone "Whoa, this is sketchy." Reminds me of when people from out of town ask "I read in Fodor's that the Western Addition is full of gang violence" and I'm thinking "When? In 1990?"

The Mission is maybe the one neighborhood that *looks* worse than it actually is. There's a stretch of residential hotels and dog-eared thrift stores south of 16th St on Mission that doesn't look as hip as you hear the Mission to be... then again that large 99 cent depot place farther south on Mission just closed and I know some people called it an "eyesore."

Back to the sketchiest street, Turk between Taylor and Mason... it will be interesting to see how the new mall across the street impacts the street... it has a stretch of public-assisted SROs that likely aren't going anywhere any time soon but just because a street has a lot of SROs on it doesn't mean it has to be shady... Eddy between Leavenworth and Hyde has a lot of SROs but it's actually been a pretty stable, fairly decent looking street for a while now considering it only has like 6 SROs crammed into one very short block.

[ScottJP]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

I know this isn't a specific street, but I would say the area around where these streets intersect (or nearly intersect)...

Market St & 6th St & Golden Gate Ave & Taylor St & Turk St

If you were to look at a map, just go to Market St / 6th St and you will see the other streets I mentioned. My favorite taco place is right there, but it is sure sketchy looking, especially on a cold foggy night.

6th and Market looks great these days. For my money the intersection of Turk and Taylor is probably the sketchiest looking intersection in the city I've seen.

[Natural510]

None of them are really as bad as they used to be. 15-20 years ago you'd see a dozen winos on any given block in Sixth Street laying on the sidewalk, half drunk the other half passed out. There were streets in the Fillmore you just plain didn't go if you weren't from there; now most of them are gentrified or at least subdued. Not sure about Hunters Point, but it seems more residential & spread out, and the worst projects (there were two towers in particular I can't remember the name) were torn down there awhile back.

[BayAreaDave]

I like how people are trying to say the Tenderloin isn't that bad anymore. Trying to think of any TL block that I haven't seen public drug use in...can't do it. These ares were obviously worse 15 years ago during the crack epidemic, but thats a national trend everywhere.