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Tenderloin, San FranciscoSan Francisco's Tenderloin district is a high density urban area in the heart of the city. The area, trapezoidal in shape, has Market Street as its diagonal, northeast-to-southwest boundary, with Union Square enclosing it on the east, Bush Street on the north, and Van Ness Avenue on the west. It is known for older tenement housing, sidewalks that smell of urine, vagrancy, easy availability of illegal drugs, and obvious street prostitution. It is also noted for its racial diversity, eclectic nightlife, and excellent restaurants in a city known for such things. A similar — and according to some, even more downscale — neighborhood can be found on the other side of Market Street from the Tenderloin, and the two coterminous areas are often reckoned collectively as the city's "Skid Row." History In the early Twentieth Century it was known as a place of cheap amusements, and after the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages throughout the United States, it became notorious for its concentration of illegal bars, or "speakeasies." A legend has it that the neighborhood earned its name from the words of a local police captain, who was overheard saying that when he was assigned to another part of town, 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. Another version of the story says that the officers that worked in the Tenderloin received a "danger pay" bonus for working in such a violent area, and that is how they were able to afford the good cut of meat. 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. Demographics The Tenderloin is remarkably close to the ritzy Union Square tourist and shopping area. This provides for societal contrasts, such as the sight of a strung out junkie covered in urine passed out in front of a $300 a night hotel. Vietnamese immigrants have moved to the area and have improved the neighborhood somewhat with their shops and restaurants. Signs along Larkin Street proclaim this part of the neighborhood "Little Saigon". Lately, an influx of Pakistani resturants has earned the area centered on the intersection of Jones and O'Farrell the name "Tandoorloin". Other Tidbits The Tenderloin is also affectionately known as the "TL" by the city's youth. To divide up regions even further, a very small area (east of Van Ness, north of O'Farrell) where the Tenderloin begins to morph into Nob Hill is known as the "Tendernob". The same area is sometimes called the "Trendyloin" because of the popular nightlife there. The corner of Turk and Jones is known as "Pill Corner," due to the narcotics known to be sold there. External links
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