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San Francisco- Tenderloin - Nothing "Tender" about the Tenderloin except for this comfortable, clean studio. Area is not nice but these studios are. Newly carpeted, street side view on the second floor of a six story building. One elevator and coin operated laundry on site. View More Listings -->
Tenderloin Information
The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in San Francisco. It is known for its drug
trade, prostitution, ethnic restaurants, bar scene, and close proximity to the
Financial District, Downtown and Civic Center.
The squalid conditions, homelessness, crime, drug sales, prostitution, liquor
stores (over 60), and strip clubs give the area a seedy reputation. Many tourist
publications suggest avoiding the Tenderloin all together and its notoriously
exaggerated mythology of danger keeps many San Franciscans away from the area
after dark. However, these conditions have also served to make rents more
affordable in a city known as among the priciest in the country. Though the area
is commonly thought of as being uninhabited by families, it is one of the few
areas of the city affordable to poor and working-class families and has one of
the city's highest concentrations of children.
With some of San Francisco's most prestigious real estate only a few blocks to
the north, and the Financial District's high towers and hotels just to the east
(along Geary Street), the Tenderloin is often striking to tourists as a
definitive example of microculture within the city. As with other lower-income
neighborhoods like the Mission and SOMA districts, many artists and writers make
the Tenderloin their home.
While the streets close to Market Street are among San Francisco's most
undesirable neighborhoods, a gradual but distinct rise in income levels occurs
as one travels north, ascending to the Nob Hill sector. Relative to other areas,
the Tenderloin is the only largely working-class neighborhood within the
downtown area.
The Dot Com boom in the late 1990s brought a great deal of redevelopment and
resident inhabitation to the SOMA district in particular, but some
revitalization funds put into the Tenderloin made a prominent impact —evident
today by a much broader section of new ethnic restaurants and bars, as well as a
more long-term young working class.
The Tenderloin is not quite as easy to define as other San Francisco
neighborhoods. A conservative description is for it to be bounded on the North
by Post Street, on the East by Taylor and 6th Streets, on the South by Mission
Street and on the West by Van Ness and 9th Streets. The northern boundary with
Nob Hill is especially hard to define and can range as far north as Pine Street
in western sections of the Tenderloin, such as the Polk Gulch neighborhood. The
Tenderloin roughly lies west of Union Square, south of Nob Hill, east of Western
Addition and Van Ness corridor and north of SOMA ("South of Market").
It includes neighborhoods referred to as Mid-Market, Civic Center, Theater
District, Lower Nob Hill, Polk Gulch, and Little Saigon. 'The Tenderloin' is
almost never used in any real-estate listing; instead it is usually one of the
above neighborhood names.
The extension of the Tenderloin south of Market Street in the vicinity of Sixth,
Seventh, and Mission Streets is known locally as Mid-Market and is "Skid Row",
or sarcastically, as "the Wine Country", an allusion to "winos" (street-
dwelling alcoholics). The northern part of it beginning at Post Street is called
a variety of nicknames including the Upper Tenderloin, "Lower Nob Hill" (widely
used in real estate listings), or facetiously "The Tendernob", "Tenderloin
Heights", or the "Trenderloin" (a reference to the area's increasing
gentrification.) The eastern extent where it meets Union Square is known as the
Theater District. Part of the western extent of the Tenderloin, Larkin and Hyde
Streets between Turk and O'Farrell, was officially named "Little Saigon" by
Mayor Gavin Newsom shortly after his election in 2004.
Nestled between successful commercial areas and high priced residential areas,
parts of the Tenderloin have historically resisted gentrification, maintaining a
seedy character and reputation for crime. The region includes City Hall, San
Francisco Public Library, and the Asian Art Museum. Abandoned architectural
landmarks are also located here, such as the old Hibernia Bank located on the
dilapidated corner of Jones and McAllister Street, near a methadone clinic and
Saint Anthony's soup kitchen.
The Tenderloin was born in the aftermath of the devastating 1906 Earthquake,
when a large number of hotels were erected to accommodate the displaced victims
of the disaster. By the 1920s, the city's wealthier refugees had moved on, and
the abandoned hotels were converted into low-income housing. The Tenderloin
became notorious for its concentration of illegal bars, or "speakeasies" during
Prohibition, and has since remained the core of San Francisco's underworld.
There are a number of stories about how the Tenderloin got its name. One is that
it is a reference to an older neighborhood in New York with the same name and
similar characteristics. Another is a reference to the neighborhood as the "soft
underbelly" (analogous to the cut of meat) of the city, with allusions to vice,
graft, and corruption.
There are also some legends about the name, probably folklore, including that
the neighborhood earned its name from the words of a local police captain, who
was overheard saying that when he was assigned to another part of town, he could
only afford to eat chuck steak on the salary he was earning, but after he was
transferred to this neighborhood he was making so much money on the side
soliciting bribes that now he could eat tenderloin instead. Another version of
that story says that the officers that worked in the Tenderloin received a
"hazard pay" bonus for working in such a violent area, and that is how they were
able to afford the good cut of meat. Yet another story, also likely apocryphal,
is that the name is a reference to the sexual parts of prostitutes (i.e.,
"loins").
Prior to the emergence of the Castro as a major gay village, the Polk Gulch at
the western side of the Tenderloin was one of the city's first gay
neighborhoods. Few of the gay bars and clubs still exist on Polk Street. Parts
of Polk Street now cater to the recent gentrification of the neighborhood - such
bars as Vertigo, Hemlock, and Lush Lounge. However, many failed businesses in
the area (such as a women's gym) attest to a continuing resistance to
gentrification.
Both the movie and book The Maltese Falcon were based in San Francisco's
Tenderloin. There is also an alley, in what is now Nob Hill, named for the
book's author (Dashiell Hammett). It lies outside the Tenderloin because the
boundary was defined differently than it is today. Some locations, such as Sam
Spade's apartment and John's Grill, also no longer lie in the Tenderloin because
local economics and real estate have changed the character and labeling of areas
over time.
The Tenderloin is an ethnically diverse community, consisting of middle
class families, young people living in cheap apartments, and recent immigrants
from Southeast Asia and Latin America. It is also home to a large population of
homeless and those living in extreme poverty. The neighborhood is home to
numerous non-profit social service agencies and to numerous Single Room
Occupancy hotels. All of this comes together to make this one of the most
interesting and diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco.
With few exceptions, housing is rented in dense 4-6 story Edwardian apartment
buildings. The Hamilton, on O'Farrell Street, is a 20 story former hotel which
has condominiumized and is owner occupied.
White middle-upper income inhabitation ("gentrification") accelerated somewhat
during and after the Dot-com boom of 1999-2001 in the northern blocks ranging
from O'Farrell Street to Sutter Street.
One of the centers of community in the Tenderloin is Glide Memorial Church on
Ellis & Taylor Streets. Glide provides social service programs to the area's
residents and homeless and has been doing so for over 40 years. They serve over
1,000,000 meals a year to homeless and poor residents of San Francisco - most of
whom reside in the Tenderloin. Cecil Williams has been leading Glide since 1963
and the Sunday Morning "Celebrations" are noteworthy for their gospel-jazz choir
and band.
A park at the corner of Ellis and Jones Streets is unused by children and is
commonly occupied by drug addicts or intoxicated people during the daytime.
Sgt. John Macaulay Park, a gated playground at the corner of O'Farrell and
Larkin Streets, is commonly occupied by parents and their young children. The
playground is well maintained and lies next to a public restroom. It is across
the street from a strip club.
The Tenderloin has a number of restaurants of various types of cuisine,
especially Vietnamese, Indian, and Pakistani. There are also some Italian and
Mexican restaurants.
Many Tenderloin bars have withstood the test of time with their 1920s character
and there is a mix of new bars and lounges. There are also numerous musical
venues and theaters, especially in the northern and western parts of the
Tenderloin. There are similarly many strip clubs. The Mitchell Brothers
O'Farrell Theater is the most famous, or infamous. Other strip clubs are
clustered either nearby, on Market Street, or in the Theater District.