Tenderloin, San Francisco

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O'Farrell Street in the Tenderloin section of downtown San Francisco, near Union Square

The Tenderloin is a small, densely populated neighborhood in downtown San Francisco. In addition to its rich history and diverse community, there is significant poverty, homelessness, and crime. It is known for its immigrant communities, single room occupancy (SRO) hotels, restaurants, artistic community, and large homeless population. The Tenderloin is well served by public transit and is near Union Square, the Financial District, and Civic Center. The 2000 United States Census reported a population of 28,991 persons, with a population density of 44,408/mi² (17,146/km²), in the Tenderloin's 94102 ZIP Code Tabulation Area, which also includes the nearby Hayes Valley neighborhood.^[1]

The Tenderloin is now a designated historic district with many hotels from the early 20th century, some of which have been renovated into boutique tourist hotels and others into supportive housing. Squalid conditions, homelessness, crime, illegal drug trade, prostitution, liquor stores (more than 60 in 2008), and strip clubs give the neighborhood a seedy reputation. However, these conditions have also kept rents in the area more affordable to low-income and working class people in a city that is among the priciest in the country.

With some of San Francisco's most prestigious real estate only a few blocks to the north, the nearby office towers of the Financial District and the upscale retailers and hoteliers of Union Square located immediately to the east, the Tenderloin often surprises tourists. As with other lower-income neighborhoods such as the Mission and South of Market (SOMA) districts, many artists and writers make the Tenderloin their home.

While Tenderloin streets closest to the Market Street corridor are among San Francisco's most undesirable, a gradual but distinct rise in income level occurs as one travels north toward the affluent Nob Hill neighborhood (the gentrified north part of the Tenderloin is sometimes referred to with the euphemism / neologism Tendernob). Relative to other areas, the Tenderloin is the only largely working-class neighborhood within the downtown area.

The dot-com boom of 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.

Area

The Tenderloin is a dense downtown neighborhood located in the flatlands on the southern slope of Nob Hill, nestled between the Union Square shopping district to the northeast and the Civic Center office district to the southwest. It encompasses about fifty square blocks and a conservative description has it bounded on the North by Post Street, on the East by Mason Street, on the South by Mission Street and on the West by Van Ness Avenue and Ninth Street. The northern boundary with Lower Nob Hill 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 the Western Addition and Van Ness corridor, and north of SOMA.

It includes neighborhoods referred to as Civic Center, Downtown, Polk Gulch, and Little Saigon. The words "The Tenderloin" seldom appear in real-estate listings.

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 names, including Tenderloin Heights, Lower Nob Hill (widely used in real estate listings) or The Tendernob. 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 the City of San Francisco.

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.^[2] 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, the Saint Anthony Foundation and St. Anthony Dining Room, founded by Franciscan friar Alfred Boeddeker in 1950. UC Hastings, California's first law school, and the oldest law school west of the Mississippi River, is also present in the area.

In July 2008, the area was designated as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.^[3] The historically accurate name for the neighborhood is "Uptown Tenderloin," as opposed to the "Downtown Tenderloin" on Kearny Street (closer to the Financial District.)

Night life

The Tenderloin hosts major world class institutions and cutting edge alternative arts groups.

Large theaters in the neighborhood include the Geary, the home of the American Conservatory Theater, and the Curran, Golden Gate and Orpheum Theatres operated by the Shorenstein Nederlander Organization. The neighborhood includes the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library and the Asian Art Museum. Adjacent to the neighborhood on its Western edge is the San Francisco Opera House, Davies Symphony Hall and the Herbst Theatre.

Alternative theaters in the Tenderloin include EXIT Theatre, which operates four storefront theaters and produces the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the New Conservatory Theatre, the Phoenix Theatre, the Off-Market Theatre, The Last Planet Theatre and others. Alternate galleries include The Luggage Store, the 509 Cultural Center, the Shooting Gallery and others.

The Tenderloin is a historic downtown bar neighborhood dating to prohibition and before. Many bars have entertainment including Lefty O'Doul's piano bar, the Dixieland-oriented Gold Rush, and the drag bar, Aunt Charlie's. Larger live music venues include the Great American Music Hall and the Warfield Theatre.

The Tenderloin hosts many dive bars, including some left over from when the neighborhood housed large numbers of merchant seamen such as the 21 Club^[4] and the 65 Club. New, trendy bars have surfaced in the neighborhood, some designed as imitation speakeasies. Hip dance clubs, such as Club Six, Suite 181, and Ruby Skye sport long lines late at night. Historically, the Tenderloin has had a number of strip clubs, although their number has decreased in recent decades. The most well known is the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre.

Transportation

The Tenderloin is one of the most public transit friendly neighborhoods in the Western United States. It sits atop a transportation hub that connects to all of the Bay Area transit systems, as well as the historic downtown cable car turnaround. Major bus lines that run North and South, as well as East and West, dissect the neighborhood.

The neighborhood's Powell Street and Civic Center subway stations connect to the San Francisco MUNI Metro lines running under Market Street and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, including service to and from San Francisco International Airport.

On the surface of Market Street run the popular F Market line with historic streetcars from around the world, electric trolley buses, and many bus and streetcar lines. The City's busiest bus line, the 38 Geary, runs through the neighborhood as it goes from the Bay to the ocean. There are stops in the Tenderloin for Marin County's Golden Gate Transit and San Mateo County's SamTrans. The Transbay Terminal, with connections to Amtrak and the East Bay's AC Transit, is a short Market Street bus ride away.

With the large number of hotels, restaurants, bars and theaters in the neighborhood, cabs are usually easy to hail and there are several rental car agencies in the area. Market Street, with designated bike lanes, is friendly to bicycles, although very busy with autos and buses. Wheelchair lifts on many buses make the system accessible to the disabled.

Driving and parking in the Tenderloin are problematic for the uninitiated and is discouraged by many transit activists. Street parking is scarce and expensive. Private parking lots are expensive although there are short term public lots nearby at 5th and Mission Streets and Ellis/O'Farrell (between Powell and Stockton). Onramps to the major east/west Highway 80 and Highway 280, and the major north/south Highway 101, are a short drive from the neighborhood.

History

The Ambassador Hotel is a neighborhood renovated SRO that sits on the Eastern edge of the Tenderloin.

The Tenderloin borders the Mission/Market Street corridor which follows the Spaniards' El Camino Real which in turn traced an ancient north/south Indian trail. Sheltered by Nob Hill and far enough from the Bay to be on solid ground, there is evidence of a community living here several thousand years ago, and when the area was excavated in the 1960s for the BART/MUNI subway station at Civic Center remains of a woman dated at 5,000 years old were found.

The Tenderloin has been a downtown residential community since shortly after the California Gold Rush in 1849. It had an active nightlife in the late 1800s with many theaters, restaurants and hotels. Almost all of the buildings in the neighborhood were destroyed by the 1906 Earthquake and the backfires that were set by firefighters to contain the devastation. The Tenderloin was immediately rebuilt with some hotels opening by 1907 and apartment buildings shortly thereafter, including the historic Cadillac Hotel.^[5] By the 1920s, the neighborhood was notorious for its gambling, billiard halls, boxing gyms, "speakeasies," theaters, restaurants and other nightlife depicted in the hard boiled detective fiction of Dashiell Hammett who lived at 891 Post Street, the apartment he gave to Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon.

In January, 1917, 300 prostitutes confronted Reverend Paul Smith of Central Methodist Church, at the corner of Leavenworth and O'Farrell, after he had begun a crusade against prostitution in the neighborhood. They claimed they would not be able to support their children if Smith's crusade against prostitution was successful. Smith called it "the most dramatic incident of my life." However, their pleas went unheeded. The next month police raided every brothel in the Tenderloin and the city passed laws closing 208 cafes, dance halls and "parlor houses," where prostitution was taking place. The prostitutes were forced to flee the Tenderloin.^[6]

In the mid-1900s the Tenderloin provided work for many musicians in the neighborhood's theaters, hotels, burlesque houses, bars and clubs and was the location of the Musician's Union Building on Jones Street. The most famous jazz club was the Black Hawk^[7] at Hyde and Turk Streets where Miles Davis,^[8] Thelonious Monk,^[9] Gerry Mulligan, and other jazz greats recorded live albums for Fantasy Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

With housing consisting almost entirely of single room hotel rooms, studio and one bedroom apartments, the Tenderloin historically housed single adults and couples. After World War II, with the decline in central cities throughout the United States, the Tenderloin lost population creating a large amount of vacant housing units by the mid-1970s. Beginning in the late 1970s, after the Vietnam War, the Tenderloin received large numbers of refugees from Southeast Asia—first ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, then Khmer from Cambodia and Hmong from Laos. The low cost vacant housing, and the proximity to Chinatown through the Stockton tunnel, made the area attractive to refugees and resettlement agencies. Studio apartments became home for families of four and five people and became what a local police officer called "vertical villages." The Tenderloin quickly increased from having just a few children to having over 3,500 and this population has remained. A number of neighborhood Southeast Asian restaurants, banh mi coffee shops, ethnic grocery stores, video shops and other stores were created at this time which still exist.

The Tenderloin has a long history as a center of alternate sexualities, including several historic confrontations with police. The legendary female impersonator Rae Bourbon, a performer during the Pansy Craze, was arrested in 1933 while his show "Boys Will Be Girls" at Tait's Cafe at 44 Ellis Street was being broadcast on the radio. On New Years Day in 1965 police raided a Mardi Gras Ball at California Hall sponsored by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, lining up and photographing 600 participants and arresting several prominent citizens. One of the first "gay riots," pre-dating the Stonewall riots in New York, happened at Compton's Cafeteria^[10] at Turk and Taylor Streets in August 1966 when the police, attempting to arrest a drag queen, sparked a riot that spilled into the streets. 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 and a 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.

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.

Name

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 and corruption, especially graft. Unfortunately, this usage ignores the fact that tenderloin meat is typically cut from near the animal's spine, not the belly. There are also some legends about the name, probably folklore,^{[citation needed]} including that the neighborhood earned its name from the words of a New York City police captain, Alexander S. Williams, who was overheard saying that when he was assigned to another part of the city, 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.^[6] 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").

Community

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 was the first building in San Francisco to be condominiumized and is owner occupied.

According to the U.S. Census the population of the Tenderloin is about 25,000 people, although neighborhood activists feel this is an undercount. It is one of the lowest income neighborhoods in San Francisco with among the highest concentrations of homeless, elderly, disabled, and Southeast Asian populations.

The Tenderloin has been the home of Raphael House, the first provider in The City of shelter for homeless parents and children, since 1971. It is an ethnically diverse community, consisting of families, young people living in cheap apartments, downtown bohemian artists, and recent immigrants from Southeast Asia and Latin America. It is home to a large population of homeless, those living in extreme poverty, and numerous non-profit social service agencies, soup kitchens, religious rescue missions, homeless shelters and Single Room Occupancy hotels.^[11] All of this comes together to make this one of the most diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco.

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.

The Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC)has offered important social services to the poor of this neighborhood for decades. According to its Director, Randy Shaw, the clnic's "mission is to prevent tenant displacement, preserve and expand the City’s low cost housing stock and to provide comprehensive legal assistance to low income tenants. The Clinic is successful in fulfilling this mission by providing free legal services, securing SRO units through the Master Lease program and offering comprehensive support services to our clients."

Religious institutions providing community services to the Tenderloin include Glide Memorial Church which was founded by Cecil Williams in 1963, and Saint Anthony's, a program of the Franciscans. Both provide meals and other social services to poor and homeless residents and others. Glide and the surrounding neighborhood provided much of the setting for the 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness.

Recently, residents have spearheaded a local arts revival with the creation of The Loin's Mouth, a semi-quarterly publication about life in the Tenderloin and Tenderloin Heights area. The Loin's Mouth was conceived of by its Editor, Rachel M., in the spring of 2006 and released its first issue in June the same year. It has a current circulation of approximately 6,000.

Parks

Historically, the downtown Tenderloin had no parks between Union Square to the East and Civic Center Plaza to the West until a number of activists, organizing around the City's Citizens Committee for Open Space, advocated for more open space in the Tenderloin in the 1970s. As a result a number of parks and playgrounds were created including first Boeddeker Park, a multi-use facility, then the youth oriented Tenderloin Playground, followed by a number of mini-playgrounds.

Boeddeker Park, located at the corner of Eddy and Jones Streets, is one of the most used parks per square foot in the City but has had difficulty meeting the needs of the neighborhood's varied communities. It is often unused by children and is commonly occupied by drug addicts and intoxicated people during the daytime. Periodically there are efforts to improve the park, such as holding free concerts.

The Tenderloin Playground, on Ellis Street between Leavenworth and Hyde Streets, has attractive indoor and outdoor recreational facilities and hosts a number of community and family events.

Sgt. John Macaulay Park, named after a San Francisco police officer who was killed in the adjacent alley while on duty, is a small gated playground at the corner of O'Farrell and Larkin Streets. Although the park is located across the street from a strip club, it is frequented by parents and children from the neighborhood.

Restaurants

Restaurants range from the classic to the trendy, from ethnic to traditional American, with prices from low to high.

The neighborhood abounds in low priced ethnic restaurants, many of which have won raves from critics. There are many informal Pakistani/Indian restaurants featuring northern Indian, including the Punjab Kebob House (located on the lower level of the Ambassador Hotel San Francisco), Pakwan, Naan 'n' Curry, Sultan's and Shalimar, featuring specialties like tandoori chicken and dahl, where late at night you will see many cab drivers. There are many Vietnamese restaurants—the most famous of which is Tu Lan where Julia Child dined. These include Pho noodle soup shops and banh mi cafes featuring Vietnamese sandwiches on French-style baguettes. There are several taquerias, including critically acclaimed Can-Cun on Market Street, as well as fish and chips, Thai, Chinese, Turkish, Korean cuisine, Middle Eastern, and other cuisines. There is a concentration of Halal restaurants of all ethnicities (e.g. Halal Mexican).

Classic restaurants in the Tenderloin include John's Grill, where Sam Spade ate in The Maltese Falcon, the renowned Fleur de Lys, and Original Joe's, founded in 1937 and a pioneer of display cooking on a mesquite grill which closed, at least temporarily, after a fire in October 2007. Many of the hotels in the neighborhood also have bars and restaurants, including Cityscape on the 46th floor of the Hilton Hotel with a bird's eye view of the Tenderloin and the surrounding counties.

Crime

The Tenderloin is a high crime area, particularly violent street crime such as robbery and aggravated assault. Seven of the top ten violent crime plots (out of 665 in the entire city as measured by the San Francisco Police Department) are adjacent plots in the Tenderloin and Sixth and Market area.

The Tenderloin had a rich history of crime and gambling during the early and mid-twentieth century, much of it centered around the Downtown Bowl at Eddy and Jones and the surrounding pool halls, card rooms, boxing gyms, cigar stores, news stands and during Prohibition, speakeasies. FBI interviews included in the Warren Commission Report state that Jack Ruby and his sister lived in an apartment on Jones Street across from the Bowl in the 1930s while they were selling tip sheets at a local mob owned horse racing track.^[12] Edmund Brown, father of California governor Pat Brown and grandfather of governor Jerry Brown, owned a nearby cigar store and gambling room. The most famous boxing gym was Newman's Gym on Leavenworth, founded in 1924 and operating for over 60 years, where many great fighters trained including heavyweight champions Jack Dempsey^[13] and George Foreman and middleweight champion Bobo Olson. Future District Attorney Terence Hallinan would work out there as well.

The area was considered to be the origination of a notorious Filipino gang Bahala Na Gang or BNG, a gang imported from the Philippines. In the late 1960s to the mid 1970s, the gang was involved in extortion, drug sales, and murder for hire. Graffiti is common and this is the notable deathplace of Tie One, an 18 year old graffiti artist who was shot and killed by a resident who believed he was trying to break into a building at 120 Taylor Street (now replaced).^[14] Dealing and use of illicit drugs occurs on the streets. Property crimes are common, especially theft from parked vehicles. Violent acts occur more often here and are generally related to drugs. The area has been the scene of escalating drug violence in 2007, including brazen daylight shootings, as local gangs from San Francisco, and others from around the Bay Area battle for turf.^[15] 14 of the city's 98 homicides took place in the area in 2007.^[16]

Musical reference

The Tenderloin is referenced in Scottish band Belle & Sebastian's track "Piazza, New York Catcher" from their 2003 album Dear Catastrophe Waitress.

Tenderloin is song #5 on Rancid's second studio album, Let's Go. This song was also covered by NoFXon BYO Split Series, Vol 3.

The Tenderloin is mentioned in the song Save Me, San Francisco on the album of the same name by Train.

Tenderloin is mentioned in the Leftover Crack song Crack City Rockers.

See also

• Urbanization
• Tenderloin, New York
• The Tenderloin Times
• Hospitality House

References

External links

• North of Market/Tenderloin Community Benefit District A non-profit coalition of residents, business & property owners, working to improve our community.
• 2007 Uptown Tenderloin Survey for the National Register of Historic Places district nomination.
• Up from the Deep (The Hotel Project) History, extensive architectural data, and hundreds of recent and archival photos.
• Tenderloin Photo Tour Complete with narration, part of a massive guide to San Francisco.
• San Francisco Neighborhood Guide Tenderloin entry on sfgate.com.
• The Tenderloin: San Francisco's Fountainhead - Article arguing for the importance of working class neighborhoods to a city's vitality.
• TL Morality Crusade Draws Prostitutes' Wrath Article on Tenderloin morality crusade of 1917 in The Tenderloin Times by Don MacLaren.
• San Francisco Police Department crime statistics Crime by individual Tenderloin crime plots.
• Warren Commission Volune XXV: Exhibit 2328 FBI Interview Placing Jack Ruby in the Tenderloin during 1930s
• Glide Memorial in the Tenderloin
• The Loin's Mouth Free semi-quarterly neighborhood zine about life in the Tenderloin/Tenderloin Heights area.
• Tenderloin Housing Clinic
• Community Housing Partnership

Coordinates: 37°47′N 122°25′W / 37.783°N 122.417°W / 37.783; -122.417