Homeless people are rare in most of SF, but super common in the middle of downtown (Market St area). So if you live/work near Market St (especially near Tenderl

Homeless people are rare in most of SF, but super common in the middle of downtown (Market St area). So if you live/work near Market St (especially near Tenderloin), you'll feel like homeless people are everywhere. If you don't, you probably won't I saw comments (perhaps yours?) along these lines on the last HN post about San Francisco I read. This doesn't jive with my experiences in San Francisco at all. In fact a couple weeks ago I took the 38R to the outer richmond and was just shocked both by the number of vacant storefronts along Geary and the number of homeless folks around. I felt super safe in SF. Even in the Tenderloin, I never felt unsafe or heard of any of my friends being mugged or anything. Stolen bikes, yes. There are parts in and around the Tenderloin that feel very sketch, even if they're safe. You can find neighborhoods like that in most any big city. The difference in SF is that they're in the middle of downtown I've never had a problem in the Tenderloin and I've plenty of opportunity to, but Turk & Taylor definitely earned its reputation. It's a dirty and poor neighborhood but the junkies generally put me less on edge than the folks with more outward facing psychiatric issues like you find in Potrero. Public transportation isn't anywhere near as good as NYC, but you can get most anywhere on a bus and/or muni (metro/subway). Where I lived most recently (Haight Ashbury area), I thought public transportation was pretty convenient. I took ubers to get to my office in Dogpatch though New Yorkers will happily kvetch about their public transit (last time I was there I ended up talking with these women on the subway who were grousing about having to transfer or walk a few blocks because late night service was upended by construction/maintenance). And, quite frankly, you'll have trouble getting to the outer reaches (especially outer Queens + Brooklyn) on a bus/taxi/subway car. The Haight is incredibly well served by buses and streetcars, but the Dogpatch is not. The metro past embarcadero is a shit show (by design).