To the Editor:
Over the last five years, I have watched with alarm as the amount of drug dealing at the intersection of Hyde and Eddy streets has steadily increased. My phone calls, emails, and letters to Captain Garrity of the SFPD Tenderloin station and Supervisor Kim have been either ignored or responded to with perfunctory obligation. Never had I imagined feeling marginalized and exploited while living in an American city.
Over the last three days, however, we’ve been granted a glimpse of what we’ve been missing: a private security guard has been posted outside one of the apartment buildings and there hasn’t been a drug dealer in sight. We’ve marveled at the sense of civility and security that has resulted from their absence. With the return of the sidewalks to the residents, merchants, and passers-by, we’ve felt our area become more of a cohesive community and less a drug dealer-occupied collection of apartment buildings, shops, and corridors.
This single security guard has shown what the presence of authority can accomplish in this challenged (yet endearing) neighborhood. Let this experience both highlight the negligence of the SFPD ( one of the best-funded police departments in California) and, more importantly, provide a goal to strive toward.
Adam Leising
Doctoral Candidate
Interdisciplinary Program in Environment + Resources
Stanford University
To the Editor:
Look, anyone who stays in a sketchy, cheap hotel in SF where you’ll have to share a bathroom with God-knows-who deserves everything they’ll probably catch. Just sayin. The SF Layover episode was a disappointment, but it confirmed my opinion of Bourdain as an absolute tool. There are so many great off-the-beaten-path local neighborhood restaurants and bars in SF he could have featured. However, maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t. I’m not sure I’d want his hangers-on ruining them.
Nina McKellan
San Francisco
To the Editor:
Although the article rightly exposes the dirty little secret that most landlords and hotel owners would like no hassle, cash paying, short term tenants, I find it troubling that the author chose to cash in on Anthony Bourdain’s name, reputation and fame to try and get some eyeballs on this piece.
Really, Jeff? You could not find a better angle from which to get ink on this worthwhile subject? Mr. Bourdain, who like the rest of us, is trying to make a buck, might well have been ill-advised to highlight this particular venue, I rather doubt that his advance staff dropped by either THC or your organization to vet the venue. Perhaps you might consider providing a service to travel shows / networks.
My other issue here is that you article more then flirts with accusatory language in as much as you tacitly express that Mr. Bourdain either should have known or should have investigated the local politics and law surrounding San Francisco’s housing issues. Even in closing you sort of let him off the hook yet you characterize him as “fooled” and then ask a question about enforcement policies.
I expect better from you, Jeff. I know you are a good man whose heart is in the right place trying to do a thankless job. Step up your game brother.
William Sappington
Oakland, CA
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