A tourist talks about visiting San Francisco

Eric Risberg, A.P.

As Mayor Breed contemplates opening up drug injection sites in the city, she should also contemplate this letter to the editor in last week's SF Chronicle:

A visitor’s critique of San Francisco’s dirty streets

My wife and I have experienced San Francisco the past few days; we both work in downtown Chicago. We will have spent three days south of San Francisco along the coastline and four days at a “historic hotel.” Our hotel attracts multitudes of foreign tourists. I have to believe that if the city by the bay does not address the homelessness and open drug use that word will spread to avoid San Francisco.

Less than two blocks from the hotel’s main entrance we have seen people using needles in public to inject drugs. We’ve seen needles discarded on the sidewalk. We’ve seen users slumping on racks, staggering along sidewalks, seeking cigarettes, etc. 

One homeless man told his homeless companion within two feet of me that he was not going to go purchase two packs of heroin; instead, he was seeking “one pack of heroin and one pack of meth.” Glass pipes and foil are being used openly, but users are not smoking cannabis. Youth in the subway openly use drugs beyond pot. These problems are not limited to Market Street.

Chicago has its problems dealing with homelessness, and thus I am quite familiar with the sights and smells. However, your city’s downtown area has a homeless problem on steroids compared to Chicago. 

While waiting to ride a cable car, a person approached the Italian family directly in front of me with hopes to extract money by offering his jumbled advice. The daughter, who was approximately 10 years old, fought back tears during the exchange. I have heard that one convention recently withdrew from your city.

Chicago is also a major city that presently experiences deplorable conditions, albeit different ones. Chicago’s south and west sides are shooting galleries between gangs. Chicago’s finances are some of the worst in the nation, and the state of Illinois has the nation’s worst credit rating. Illinois citizens are leaving the state in droves.

I digress.

I read about proposed legislation called “Our City, Our Home” that will tax about 650 companies with a tiny tax to help the city address the major problems of homelessness and drug use. I strongly encourage your city to pass this legislation. 

Your downtown streets and sidewalks are filthy with litter. Do you sweep your streets? Do you even attempt to eliminate the prevalent urine odor? These are clearly symptoms of a greater problem. If San Francisco does not pass “Our City, Our Home,” your problems will exacerbate while tourism dollars decrease and more lives publicly waste away.

I know I will blog negatively about downtown San Francisco, vowing never to return, and I have to believe that foreign and domestic tourists will spread their observations upon leaving Ban Francisco.

Mark Erickson

Skokie, Illinois