The Last Affordable Neighborhood in San Francisco

Below my bedroom window, Freida, on drugs, is not having a good day

Freida is a Tenderloin fixture, a petite African American woman with good hair she wears in a soft afro.  She’s often seen strutting down the street in red shorts or a baggy potato-sack dress drooling at the mouth and begging anyone, “Sir, sir...can you please spare a dollar? Sir...Sir!”   She gets louder if ignored. So just look her in the eye and tell her directly "No, I don't have a spare dollar," and keep moving as quick as possible because she's trying to keep pace.

When that tactic fails, Freida has been known to walk right into traffic and not move an inch until a motorist gets out of his or her car and gives her a dollar and several more.  With all that money Freida is the happiest person on earth.  Immediately, she heads down the street to find a drug dealer. There are so many of them in the Tenderloin and that no drug is difficult to find as long as you have the money.   The Tenderloin aka the TL has become an open-air drug market in the heart of the city.  There are probably more dealers here on every corner than users.

I remember one frightful time when I saw Frieda lay down in the middle lane on Taylor Street at Eddy.  My heart raced because I was so worried about her.  At that moment I would have given her my wallet to save her from being run over.  But traffic stopped in that lane, and a kind but desperate motorist got out of his car and gave Frieda a hand full of bills.  She got up happily and raced down Eddy Street to buy more dope.