Tell

Luvthe, Michele, Tom,

Please stop being untruthful about SF and trying to mislead tourists. You know as well as I do that SF is, and has been in a steep state of decline in terms of trash in the streets, the homeless, agressive panhandlers, drug dealing, and prostitutes. We should not be misrepresenting SF just to lure tourists into coming here and then ending up disappointed.

SF troubles

This is sums up SF's problems in today's newspaper.

Go to New York for an "I Love NY" campaign -- but here in San Francisco, the tourist czars have ditched
the sweet hype for something more gritty: a billboard campaign calling for the city's politicians to get off their duffs and clean up the streets.
Almost overnight, 33 giant ads have sprung up all over town, with such nontourist phrases as "I don't
want to sweep people off my doorstep," "I want the Board of Supervisors to stop playing politics and actually do something about the streets" and "I want
to know why homelessness is still a problem after we spent $200 million last year?"
As for why a group that promotes tourism is hanging out the city's dirty laundry, Hotel Council President John Hutar says his group is fed up. "We're the ones who have to go out and sell the city,
and it's really becoming an issue with our customers," Hutar says.
Hutar, who is also the general manager of the Hotel Nikko, said the problem hit a peak during a recent council sales trip to Paris. "There you are trying to sell the city to booking agencies, and all you hear is 'Your city is dirty' or
'You have homeless -- they're aggressive and they scare people.' "
Hutar said he's also worried about keeping national conventions coming to the city, saying the Association of Airport Executives -- which brings
20,000 people here every three years -- told them they'd still be coming next year . . . but that after that, it was questionable.

So the Hotel Council decided to do something about it and put up $50,000 for the six-month ad campaign.
The 33 billboards appear across the city (three per supervisorial district) -- each carrying the message "We Want Change."
"We've sat down with the supervisors," Hutar said, "and they are all bright people, but they just seem scared to take on the cottage industry of homeless
service providers," he said.
Well -- not everyone. Hutar says they've already gotten favorable responses from Supervisors Gavin
"Care not Cash" Newsom and Tony Hall.

As for the billboard campaign, McGoldrick said the council would be better off spending its time "trying to solve the problem" rather than "sweep it away. "

Tom

Tell (or should I say xxx),

Get a life.

Tell

Tom,

I am not xxx. Why can't you admit to the major problems we have here in SF. We should not be misleading people into thinking that SF is something that it is not.

Kim

I live in Rochester, New York, and went to San Francisco 2 years ago. We had combined a trip with 4 days in San Diego and 5 in San Fran. If this post was out before we went on our trip...it would've been helpful. San Francisco is ugly, dirty and has crappy weather..in July.
San Diego on the other hand, is excellent, and has grown up. It has more to offer than San Fran in all departments.
I have no idea what people see in this butt city.....
San Fran was so bad , that i looked foward to going back home to Rochester , New York...figure that one out!

SD

"Lady Spartan" as in San Jose Spartans?
Guess we know why you don't like SF.

Traveling man

This travel board has been blissfully free of Mr./Ms. Spartan, etal, for a few weeks. Then, all of a sudden, in one day, we have all these negative SF posts. Do you really expect us to believe that these are all different people posting the same crap over and over? We've read all this before (I really have trouble understanding the "slam" that SF is not a big city but a small city, isn't that part of the draw?). Crawl back under your rock. Or, are you just back from vacation? Pray tell, where did you go and how was it?

Roger

It's funny I read all these negative posts before my family went to San Francisco July 1-6th this month; I was a little concerned. Now that were back My family is here to tell you: San Francisco is truly one of the greatest cities in all of the world! The pure attraction of YOUR city is totally overwhelming. My family has been to many, many destinations and ranks San Francisco as one of BEST if not the best! (Give us a few weeks; we'll miss it even more and it will be the best) My 8-year son said as we were leaving for the airport to return to Atlanta, "Mom I'm going to miss this place, I left my heart in San Francisco."

abc

Roger,

It would have been more appropriate for your son to have left his rectum in San Francisco.

shane

This is what San Francisco has become. It is really sad.

In the San Francisco, men stood on the sidewalks calling out "cheeva" or "solids," slang terms for heroin or
rock cocaine. In Halladie Plaza, with tourists lined up nearby for the
cable car, and BART and Muni commuters
constantly rushing by, young men openly sold marijuana.
Within a block of the Federal Building that houses the FBI on Golden Gate Avenue, homeless men and women fired up crack-cocaine pipes and injected
cocktails of heroin, speed and cocaine.
All of these scenes and more were observed by The Chronicle during a recent study of homelessness in
San Francisco. The city is awash in cheap alcohol and drugs. The
mayor and the police blame the district attorney. The district attorney blames Proposition 36. The city can't
provide treatment for those who want it.

Many homeless people say the availability of drugs and alcohol makes them hard to resist. Substance
abuse was the leading underlying cause of death among San Francisco's homeless in 1997, the latest year for which such data are available from the medical examiner's office.
At Mission and 15th streets, The Chronicle found a somnolent man sticking a needle into his arm, in plain view of pedestrians and motorists.
Sylvia Moreno, a social worker at the nearby Mission Neighborhood Health Clinic, said prostitution and drug use by homeless people has grown more blatant.
"They just shoot up right there, and you know we have children coming here, " said Moreno.
Police officers, businesspeople and, lately, Mayor Willie Brown and his staff have expressed anger with District Attorney Terence Hallinan's office for what they see as leniency on substance abuse cases.
George Smith, head of the Mayor's Office on Homelessness, said Hallinan is missing an opportunity to coerce people into drug and alcohol treatment.
When Officers John Lagios and Scott Huey-Custock found Charles Hood smoking crack cocaine in a doorway on Natoma Street near Fifth Street shortly
after midnight on June 2, they did not bother arresting him, but instead issued him a stern warning. Hood, who said he had been homeless for 15 years, was not impressed. "They ain't got nothing better to do than hassle some crackhead smoking? I'd be out in a few hours anyway. They ought to get the guy who sold it to me."
Lagios pointed to the human feces, the garbage and broken glass from auto burglaries and shook his head. "It scares me what's going on around us and how
everyone has accepted it," the officer said. Hallinan, in office since 1995, says he does prosecute drug cases where possible.
Chris Young, a onetime San Francisco Conservatory of Music student, harpsichord-maker and prostitute,
was a heroin addict living outside for almost two years, nine months in a tarp-covered shanty in an alley near Eighth and Harrison streets.
For a time, Young was able to support his habit playing baroque music in the Civic Center BART station for donations, but then he had to pawn his keyboard.
Young resorted to begging from drivers in traffic. He would beg from inbound motorists at Eighth and Division streets from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., when the
stoplight rhythm changed and vehicles no longer backed up at the signals.
Young would buy heroin, shoot up and nap until about 4 p.m., then beg from outbound commuters on
Bryant Street near the entrance to Highway 80. Then he would go buy more heroin and hope he had enough left over for a shot in the morning.

Simone

Just returned last week from San Fran and we stayed at the Hilton. If was fine, but recommend that you stay in either tower 1 or 2 as the rooms are larger than building 3. Just ask for a tower room. The beds are queen size rather than double, and there are bar fridges, coffee makers etc.

Eve

OK - Firsthand knowledge here! Hubby and I just returned from two weeks in S.F. Stayed at the Hilton on O'Farrell....very nice large hotel...safe. Had reservations at the Maxwell but went there a couple days ahead to check it out and cancelled out. Yuk. Our very very favorite was the Westin St. Francis Hotel right on Union Square. It's either a 4 or 5 star hotel, very exclusive, and we got in for $105/night on Starwood.com
You won't find a more upscale hotel with a better location. And we had NO problems w/street people other than a couple peddlers who asked for $$$ & when hubby gave them a firm "No" they bugged off. We were there 2 weeks and had no problems whatsoever. I rode the BART several times by myself cuz hubby was in meetings. Just watch your purse for pick-pockets! Take sweaters & jackets and eat at Nan King in Chinatown...you won't regret it!

Ruby

I would also recommend the Westin St. Francis. As already mentioned, it looks right out on Union Square, which was just refurbished. When you book the room, bear in mind that the hotel is divided into the older, historic building that looks onto Union Square, and a newly built section. I think that room rates are the same in each section. I prefer the historic, old building, but a lot of people like the shiny, polished newer section. Be sure to tell the reservation clerk which area you would prefer your room, because it totally changes the feel of your stay.

The Grand Hyatt is a nice hotel, but 1-2 blocks from Union Square, and more of a business hotel than a tourist hotel. Not much character to it.