In talking about questionable future museums and tourists in the Tenderloin, I realized that there is a simple way for any of us with free time and internet access to get more information out there to potential tourists: wikis. The primary Wikipedia article on The Tenderloin is decent overall. Maybe it could use a bit of a dusting off, I don’t know, although maybe you, gentle TenderReader do. But beyond this article, what could really use any knowledge nuggets you want to toss its way is the Wikitravel article on The Tenderloin. San Francisco is definitely well-represented on that side overall, but visitors can always use more information.

These two items give us a lot of control over what is said about the neighborhood. While obviously there will always be contention and disagreement, they work to create a body of text that is from here as opposed to some travel writer who has to cover all of SF in two weeks and sums up the Loin as “piss”, “don’t go there”, and “decent Indian food”.

Many years ago, at my first job out of college, a guy I worked at made an extremely valiant attempt to drink at every bar in San Francisco. He did this as he had drank at every bar in Berkeley and he liked his goals to be within reach and alcoholic in nature. I’m not sure if he ever finished this noble pursuit, but as far as I’ve heard, he’s still working on it.

It appears that this girl is following in his footsteps and doing what others haven’t even realized that they’ve done in that she has nearly sloshed her way through all the Tenderloin bars. Albeit, she has a rather strict definition of what bars she’s including so the list is bound to be smaller than that of my former coworker’s. She appears to have dug on Koko so I fully support her in her drinking efforts and striving to beat her dastardly liver in to submission.

Just a quick hit, wanted to bring your attention to a local blog featuring some walks through the Tenderloin. Local lass Allison is documenting–and photographing–her walks through the city. She recently visited Leavenworth Street, walking it straight from Nob Hill through the Loin to Market Street (pic below). She’s also walked O’Farrell, Ellis, and  Taylor. On one post she gave her opinion of the experience: “The Tenderloin. Final analysis: It wasn’t so bad.” It’s not a ringing endorsement, but from a woman walking alone, I’ll take it!

We love, love, love I live here: SF, a wonderful series of portraits & stories ofy San Franciscans by the incredibly talented photographer Julie Michelle. And while it’s not very often that her beautiful subjects are photographed in the Tenderloin, we know that she has a soft spot for our neighborhood and are thrilled every time she showcases it (such as in these two stories that we’ve linked to in the past). Like in her most recent portrait of a psychologist named Bill. Here’s how Dr. Bill explains why he doesn’t own a fax machine or a cellphone:

Sometimes I’m asked to fax a report to the courthouse. Instead I have my morning espresso and walk to City Hall. San Francisco’s a small town so I usually run into one or two people that I know along the way. I pick up a newspaper (from the store, not the dispenser) and stop for breakfast: Eggs, bacon, but always fruit instead of potatoes. As I get closer to Civic Center I enjoy watching all the hustle and bustle: The self-appointed parking guides, the makeshift food trucks, the politicians, the lawyers – Especially those lady lawyers in their suits with their glasses on and their hair up. One time I ….Uhm, never mind. Then I go into the courthouse, hand in my report and chat for a few minutes with people I’ve known for years – face to face. We talk about our lives, families and travels. On the way out I stop and get a hot dog at that little stand in Civic Center Plaza and look at whatever protesters happen to be out that day.

Photo by Julie Michelle for I live here: SF

Read Dr. Bill’s full story about the end of the world on I live here: SF here, and check out his full photo shoot here.

Well, more the fact that I sent in an email to him about something that was pissing me off and he wrote up a bit on his Between Meals blog. You can read the entry here, but let me tell you that if you love your mobile phone, you aren’t going to like what I wrote…

We’re using these holidays stuck with family in the middle of nowhere in Northern California to catch up on our San Francisco blog readings. And among those we found this gem by the always fabulous Tangobaby for her project I live here: SF. Her name is Dottie.

Most of the photoshoot appears to have taken place on our street, almost at the corner of our now sub-let appartment. This, of course, made us a bit soft inside. We miss our neighborhood.

Read I live here: SF‘s story about Dottie here, and check out her full photoset here.

There’s another San Franciscan profile that we absolutely loved at I live here: SF: Coleen who works as an Advocacy Coordinator at the St. Anthony Foundation. She’s going to disarm you from the first paragraph:

I want to tell you about The Tenderloin. My version of the Tenderloin. The Tenderloin can be a rough place, but I see a lot of little miracles here every day. I certainly do not want to romanticize the difficult things that the people of the Tenderloin have to deal with. But, I have seen a lot of beauty here, a lot of kindness, I have seen heartbreak and I have seen joy.

Read the rest of the entry about Coleen here, and check out her full photo shoot here. Oh, and you can even follow her on Twitter @crivecca!

Thanks to a tweet by the all-around awesome Plug1, we stumbled upon Alapan‘s photoblog (mostly). Mostly pictures of the streets of San Francisco, and mostly in black and white, the light in his photographs has a melancholic beauty that gives them a rare and somewhat sad beauty.

Although he doesn’t focus on any particular neighborhood, I think I spotted a few shots of the Tenderloin. I’m not sure about this one taken on Geary, but I’m pretty certain the one below was taken at O’Farrell and Taylor.

And if you can’t get enough of Alapan, check out his Flickr photostream.

Yeah, so I’m not a terribly huge fan of 7×7 as whenever I feel like looking at SF’s society scenes in photo montages… I… uh… okay, I never want to see these people. But, I would never stoop to the bitch-about-in-the-blog level as the magazine is mostly just there, killing trees and losing readers along with San Francisco magazine, both waiting until they inevitably die in the near future.

They have struck a dissonant chord with me over their Neighborhoods section on their website. For some reason, they blended Hayes Valley, Civic Center, the Tenderloin, and the TenderNob in to one mega section. And the best part is that all this goes to their Tendernob page. Hey Hayes Valley, how do you feel about that? While we’ve been okay with being lumped in with Civic Center for some time, attaching Hayes, the Loin, CC, and TenderNob together is about as smart as wearing stripes and plaid at the Pride Parade in that you just shouldn’t go there.

The point is, San Franciscan’s love their neighborhoods. If you’re going to have some kind of neighborhood feature, do it right. Or at the very least, break apart the neighborhoods in to some system that actually makes sense because as you may note, they lumped Hayes in to this medley, but kept Union Square as separate despite the fact that I feel Union Square is not really a neighborhood (it’s a… hmmm… square) and that it has a great deal more in common with the Loin than Hayes. If you want to do things this way then a “Downtown” area comprised of Civic Center, Union Square, Tenderloin, and TenderNob might work a good deal better.

What’s that? 7×7′s address is 59 Grant Street? Well, I’ll be! What are the odds of that?

The other day I came across this sticker on a smashed window on Leavenworth street. From a certain distance it seemed to say “war, capitalism, revolution”, which I found to be a puzzling message. But after a closer look I saw that it actually said this:

War is the symptom
Capitalism is the disease
Revolution is the cure

The sticker also directed us to the website of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, with featured stories on the capitalist crisis and a special coverage page on North Korea. They even have a version of their site in Spanish and you can follow them on Twitter. Wow!