Reoccurring Friendships

For the last couple of days, I’ve been having this on again off again friendship with this guy who sleeps in front of my house on the sidewalk. I think I’ve seen this dude at least four or five times, and he’s always sleeping right in front of my house. Supposedly, he knows somebody in the building next to mine, but I think he may have actually lived there. My theory is that he was recently evicted when the new owners came in and started to work on the building.

Each time I see this guy, I puff my chest out, start to talk aggressively, and generally turn on my “being an asshole.” I say things like, “Hey, you need to be up out of here, we can’t have this in front of my house.” Or even, “Ay dude, look at me, look at me, did you hear what I said?” It’s very confrontational, and I don’t like doing it. It makes me feel like an adult. But seriously, it’s like dealing with children sometimes in the tenderloin.

There’s this Chris Rock skit where he’s talking about racism and he mentions how he’s prejudice to everyone, even people of his own race. He talks about when people act "ignnnit,” here’s the youtube clip, it’s super funny.

So in the routine, he talks about people congratulating themselves on accomplishing things they’re already supposed to be doing. Things like taking care of your kids, not being thrown in jail, etc. It’s a funny stand up routine for sure, and I think it would apply perfectly to behavior in District 6.

People piss in the street, get high in the street, and generally tear up the street. I sometimes can’t believe how the City of San Francisco can tolerate such nastiness in its streets. It’s like, c’mon dude, get it together. I can’t think of a better way to say it than that. Reasoning, logic, and any sense of social decorum have been thrown out the SRO window; these social norms have given way to lottery tickets, street sales, and massage parlors.

Our neighborhood doesn’t need to be like this.

I recently attended a meeting of the Community Leadership Alliance at the TL police department on Eddy and Jones. These guys have been doing this work for a while, but I think they’re being re-energized with the work of the Safety Network.

Are community watch and/or community organizing groups the right thing for the Tenderloin? Let me know what you think, I’m dying for some feedback.

Incidentally, one thing at the meeting that was interesting to hear was people’s thoughts about the current condition of the TL versus what the tenderloin looked like eight to ten years ago. I often forget that people sleeping on sidewalks is the least of the police officer’s worries when they have to deal with guns, drugs and straight up thug shit in the loin. The police chief I talked to at the station after the meeting told me, “Yeah, I get a lot of responses and complaints from your area, but by the time my guys get up there they’re dealing with something else.” That definitely shut me up and put things into perspective.