Bums of the TL

In the Tenderloin, it is generally advisable to come prepared with a destination and walk with a purpose when strolling through the ‘hood. For this reason, every time I have been to the TL by myself in the past to weeks I have been traveling to a pre-determined space.

After making two amazing incidental discoveries last week in the Shooting Gallery on Geary and a $1 store on lower Polk, I decided that even in the TL its worth taking a stroll around.

So this week, after spending a bit of time in my neighborhood and deciphering the generally safe from the generally dangerous, I took a different approach to my neighborhood and tried to do some things that a typical resident might find themselves doing.

So, what did I do? I looked for cheap food and cheap beer and stopped to get food at a great local restaurant that has been featured by several local and national writers called Tommy’s Joynt. The outside is decorated with a huge brightly colored mural obvious from the street, yet inside is a small dark space with a serving tray style that seems not to match all the hype. It wasn’t until I bit into the warm savory sandwich that I realized this place isn’t about hip they’re about making the best sandwich you will ever put in your mouth!

Next I observed the neighborhood from above on the rooftop of a friends apartment on the corner of Larkin and Ofarrell. This was the highlight of my day. I have always been a people watcher and spying on others has always been a voyeuristic pastime, so in the Tenderloin this proved to be pure gold.

I crawled up the shaky wooden stairs seven flights onto the rooftop, holding my breath with each step and clutching to the railing for fear of slipping to my death at any moment. One doesn’t need to dig far to learn that redevelopment and upgrades are few and far between in the Tenderloin, especially in older apartment buildings offering affordable rates.

Once at the top the view was breathtaking, but what I was really interested in observing was below eyProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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level, lurking in the alley that runs in between two apartment buildings with a liquor shop at the base. There stood a disheveled young man that twirled around with very little sense of balance – and apparently himself. He clutched a stack of cardboard and ran up to the public trashcan at the end of the alley. There he began to stack up his cardboard, and when bending down literally let his pants fall off. He seemed not to mind, but interrupted a man who stood right outside the liquor shop where he had purchased a newspaper. The young man then started spinning around, ass up in the air catching the evening breeze… just another day in the TL I guess!