The horrific reality of life on San Francisco’s drug-infested streets has been brought to light by a lifelong resident who filmed her commute to work in scenes that have made the city an international symbol of misery and despair.
Tiktoker “Freqmeek” captured the terror before dawn as she gingerly made her way through dozens of desperate addicts in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
Some are hunched over against the cold while others are too drunk to care, as cars and buses try to force their way through unconscious addicts lying hundreds of meters across the street.
“The fear we feel driving to work in the Tenderloin every day is incredible,” she wrote.
“There are so many concerns and protections for drug users and homeless people, but what about the working class who have to pray that they can make it to work and home in this environment?”
In the city’s Tenderloin district, residents must make their way through streets full of unconscious and semi-conscious people
At some point, a man wearing what appears to be a burned hoodie steps in front of the TikToker, while other ghostly figures emerge from the darkness
“These are real dangers that you face every day just to provide for your family.”
The Tenderloin district is in the heart of San Francisco and close to the Asian Art Museum. It’s just a few blocks from City Hall. The area also includes part of the Compton Transgender Cultural District.
Robberies are up 14 percent so far this year in the Golden Gate City, where Mayor London Breed last month called for 18 percent cuts to next year’s police budget.
According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, reported drug overdose deaths reached 620 in the first nine months of 2020, up from 540 in the same period in 2020.
And the city is expected to lose $200 million a year from business exodus that has caused major hotels and retailers to flee the city center.
Retail stalwart Old Navy announced the closure of its flagship store in the area last month, making it the latest chain to leave the city.
Nordstrom also announced it would close all locations in the city.
In April, Whole Foods announced it would close all of its locations, and Anthropologie and Office Depot had also made the same decisions, leading some analysts to predict that the city had entered a “loop” of permanent decline.
Last week the city was widely ridiculed by Chinese media as it prepared to host its President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
US Chinese radio headlined: “Major blood exchange in ghost town of San Francisco as APEC set to give city safest week in history.”
Many are bent on the characteristic aspect of the fentanyl user
Many hurl themselves onto the road, putting themselves and their drivers at risk of a collision
A analysis of cuts facing key departments in San Francisco shows the police department faces $18.5 million in savings and public health budgets could lose $26 million
Due to the drug crisis in the city, 620 overdose deaths were reported in the first nine months of the year
“Now it has become a crime mecca, the streets are in disarray and it is rapidly slipping into ghost town status,” Chinese media sneered
A map shows the major companies that have left or are planning to leave San Francisco in recent months
Other headlines include the terms “garbage city,” “ruined city” and “fallen city” as the city’s crippling drug problem and widespread homelessness continue to plague the city.
Another headline on the Chinese website Phoenix also said the city had entered a “death cycle.”
One article also states: “San Francisco was once a jewel on the West Coast of the United States, but as Democrats advanced their radical agenda.
“Now it has become a crime mecca, the streets are in disarray and it is rapidly slipping into ghost town status.”
On Saturday, British Home Secretary Suella Braverman cited the city as an example of what could happen in Britain as she outlined plans to stop charities distributing tents to the homeless.
“If we don’t act now to stop it, British cities will follow the same path as places in the US like San Francisco and Los Angeles, where weak policies have led to an explosion in crime, drug use and misery,” wrote she.
The city’s U.S. attorney, Ismail Ramsey, announced Thursday a multi-agency “all hand on deck” project to combat drug trafficking in the Tenderloin, admitting that it has become “ground zero for drug tourism.”
He revealed that 50 kilograms of fentanyl were seized on the county’s streets in the last four months, nearly double the amount in the same period last year and enough to cause 20 million fatal overdoses.
“Our drug crisis has been exacerbated in part because the sale of fentanyl has become a lucrative profession for people who find our neighborhoods, and especially the Tenderloin District, a convenient and risk-free marketplace,” he said.
For residents who have to live and work in the city, this is a reality that is all too obvious.
Drug addicts and homeless people gather in the Tenderloin District of the California city
Earlier this year, a homeless woman was photographed giving birth to her child on a Tenderloin sidewalk as pedestrians walked by.
The baby lay crying on the sidewalk, covered in the mess of his birth, until his mother picked him up with a piece of cloth.
“This is overwhelming and mentally exhausting,” the TikToker wrote.
“Not to mention the dangers of the unpredictability of this environment.”
“The tenderloin was rough, but it was never, ever like that, and I was born and raised here, so this is not the same scene before the pandemic.”
“Imagine children and the elderly having to deal with that, it’s definitely frightening.”