Alternate S.F. Tenderloin walking tour focuses on the positive
SAN FRANCISCO -- A lot has been said lately about the social and economic spiral that San Francisco has been suffering since the pandemic. On Saturday morning, an anonymous individual was offering to conduct a so-called "Doom Loop Tour," showing off some of the worst aspects of the city.
Things turned out a little different.
The Doom Loop Tour was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. in front of City Hall. It was advertised online as a chance to "get close and personal to the Doom and Squalor of downtown San Francisco! We will view the open-air drug markets, the abandoned tech offices, the outposts of the non-profit industrial complex and the deserted department stores," read the posting for an event that was said to be sold out. But, at the appointed time, no one from the Doom Loop Tour had showed up and that's when things took an unexpected turn.
"When we heard this tour being advertised, we thought, 'let's show them how to do it Tenderloin-style,'" said Shavonne Allen, who works in the neighborhood every day. "We don't engage but we wanted to make sure that the wonderful things about this neighborhood are also highlighted."
About 50 people set out on a free walking tour of the Tenderloin, accompanied by a man who is well known there, the so-called mayor of the Tenderloin, Del Seymour.
"They describe our situation in the Tenderloin as a bunch of encampments. My people aren't camping!" he said. "That's what we have offered them to live and we haven't offered any alternatives and, when you walk through the neighborhoods this morning, remember -- you're walking through someone's bedroom."
There were people living on the sidewalks and some were taking drugs -- everything the Doom Loop Tour advertised. But Shavonne thought it would be a cheap shot for someone to make that the entire focus.
"One thing that we know is not to use human suffering as a way to make money and to highlight someone's suffering to make a point," she said.
Instead, Seymour pointed out the positives, like the towering affordable housing that doesn't exist in many other parts of the city.
He guided the crowd past the theaters that bring Broadway shows and major musical acts to the area. And he took them into the center of the glistening Trinity Place, the largest housing development in the city, with its massive, chrome sculpture of Venus de Milo.
While non-profits are roundly criticized in the Doom Loop Tour posting, Elgin Rose, who founded a support group for Tenderloin fathers, says they're at least trying to make a difference on the streets.
"A lot of people just want to collaborate and come together and get it solved," he said. "But we just need to stop dumbing it down on what is happening. It's happening but people want it better. It's not acceptable."
The tour ended at the Code Tenderloin Career Center, a full-service facility working to get people back on their feet. Seymour said the idea of pointing fingers and focusing on San Francisco as a doom loop is self-defeating.
"We are so polarized as a city. I will not add to their polarization. That's stupidity," he said. "We've got one problem -- we've got two solutions. That don't work nowhere! We can compromise but we won't do that! We won't go across the aisle."
Seymour said he's been conducting walking tours of the Tenderloin for 17 years but he scheduled Saturday's gathering as an alternative to the advertised Doom Loop Tour.