There is an interesting article in today's LA Times about how much tourism is down in San Francisco with the dot-com bust and both business and recreational air travel way off from past years. If you are thinking of visiting the Bay Area it looks like now is the time but be sure to shop around for hotels and ask for their "best prices" since occupancy levels are low and they should be hungry for your patronage. The article also mentioned that restaurants have more tables available without the long waits as in the past. Perhaps now tourists will be treated less like kitty litter and more like paying customers....

Dot-bust is just one part of it. There's also a lot of bad press about the HUGE problem in SF with homelessness, and the negative impact on tourism of aggressive panhandlers, blatantly insane people wandering the streets, and human excrement on the sidewalks. Local hoteliers have even launched a campaign to address the problem - see www.wewantchange.com

Spent a week in the City last fall. Saw no human excrement. And no more panhandlers than any other American city. Didn't notice any blatantly insane people wandering the sidewalks, either.

OK. So I picked a good week to visit. Someone shoveled up the crap, dumped the panhandlers in Oakland, and the the crazies in San Jose. Now, it's all magically reappeared.

I have yet to see a workable plan to deal with, shall we call them, the less fortunate human beings in our midst.

Reminds me of an old Art Buchwald column from the Vietnam War era. Someone had just published figures showing it was costing us $350,000 for each NV/Vietcong we KIA. Art suggested we bring the North Vietnamese over here, settle them somewhere, give 'em a house (and, I believe, a pension) and we'd still save money. And American lives.

What do we do with the crazies and the bum? Inquiring minds, in a helluva lot of cities and states, want to know.

NBC Nightly News ran a piece last week about (American) tourism in Europe and the findings are very similar to SF. There, compared to last summer, travel is down a full thirty percent and hoteliers/restauranteurs (Paris) said they now have walk-in openings where they used to be fully booked months in advance.

Massachusetts reported last week that tourism was down across the state from last year's figures. This included the big tourist draws of Boston, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Berkshires. In Massachusetts the figures are derived from hotel/motel state taxes.

What are the best restaurants in SF?