About a month ago, I moved into a new apartment not far from Lombard St. Around 1:30 a.m. after taking a half a dozen Zipcar trips from my old digs, I finally unloaded my last moving box. As I walked to my new building, I noticed a haggard, toothless woman standing in the doorway. I asked if I could help her, and she responded, “I am a prostitute and the dude in Apt. 3 called me. Can’t you help me out?” Seeing as my place was Apt. 3, I knew she was bluffing, and just wanted to come in. So I made an excuse and tried to sneak my way past her. She then proceeded to call me a b*tch when I wouldn’t let her in. Welcome to the neighborhood, I thought.
During my two years in my previous apartment just two blocks away, I’d never had an experience like this. Could the local flavor really change so much in just a few hundred feet? As it turns out, it may have been more about climate than geography.
Neighborhood groups from lower Polk to Russian Hill have noted that prostitution has drastically increased in the last month. Board of Supervisors President David Chiu thinks that crime normally associated with the Tenderloin has migrated North to Russian Hill. That said, with prostitution comes drug dealing and other unpleasant activity — like the disarming aggression I myself encountered. Police Chief George Gascon will announce plans to handle the issue next Tuesday afternoon, but one of the ideas he’s tossing around is publicly shaming “patrons” of prostitutes to discourage them.
This is a tricky subject. Not only do I think this sort of behavior should be unwelcome in my neighborhood, but I wouldn’t wish it upon any other community in the city; I wouldn’t recommend “pushing it back to the Tenderloin where it belongs.” And while I don’t condone prostitution, I also understand that enforcing laws against it can put marginalized types into more danger. I hope we can get this under wraps soon. Until then, I’m bolting my doors.
Nefarious, nefarious, nefarious Russian Hill. Why weren’t the prostitutes there when I lived there?
CTM
Hmm, when I first read the headline I thought this was just a clever way of drumming up new business…
The hookers in SF are nasty – nothing is nastier than a crackhead hooker. yuck. who the hell actually hires these dames anyway? That is what boggles my mind – nasty breath, diseases, gross all around.
Of course I did see one cute one at the doughnut shop late one night. Ask Jesse about it. She looked deep into my eyes, licked her lips, scratched her crotch and cooed in the sweetest redneck accent “Don’t you want me to have an apple fritter baby?”
Oh yes i did.
I was walking home from a bar on Polk last weekend. There was a “working girl” on the corner of my street (never seen one there before in over a decade). I asked what she was doing all the way up here. She said that the cops were running a sting on the Tenderloin portion of Polk, so all the girls move north for the night.
She was cute and cool, the price was right, so she walked the 1/2 block to my entryway and blew me on my back stairs.
Thanks SFPD!!!
They have been out in droves… I don’t usually see them North of California though.
I really doubt the “public shaming” will be much of an effect. I’m pretty sure the hookers are looking for drunks that already gave up on girls at the bars. If your willing to pick up a hooker you’ve got more determination then a few people heckling on the street will stop. Unless the cops do stings and put up the “johns” pics on billboards on the street… that could deter!
All that said… I hate Vice Cops… I mean, if it’s a Vice it’s already inherently bad for you. You sleep with hookers – you get diseases (bad). You take drugs – you get addicted and your life goes to shit (bad).
Is’t getting arrested kind like adding insult to injury?
How about beat cops? As in get out of the police cars and walk the street.
TMI, Truff : )
I don’t know Allen, public shaming seemed to work for Eliot Spitzer.
I get what you’re saying about vice cops…but enforcing it hopefully could keep the unwelcome activity away from where it’s not wanted…and unfortunately some people are too dumb to protect themselves. It’s all survival of the fittest though I suppose.
So, let me get this straight. The women go to jail and the men get the equivalent of a traffic ticket – which can then later be removed from their record? If that isn’t the most gender biased (ish) I’ve ever heard. As both a RESIDENT of the Polk Street and a female, I am not pleased. Its fine to clean up the streets, but it takes 2 to tango. Let’s keep things equal or not bother at all. I’ll take prostitution over discrimination any day.
Meaghan, a lot of, if not all, vice crimes are two-sided — “two to tango” like you say. So I wouldn’t say it’s gender-biased, just biased in general. But prostitution has actually three parties at fault, including pimps. At this point, maybe the question is what sort of deterrent will work best for each party, not why isn’t it equal.
Maybe Meaghan, but you forget that 9 out of 10 hookers on Polk are actually men.
Touché!
thats why you have to go for the BJ only