WALK OF SHAME
The sold-out planned ‘‘doom loop” tour of drug-infested San Francisco was canceled, and community leaders tried to hold a “positive walk” instead — only to still stroll past homeless camps and addicts getting high.
Curious tourists and locals had shelled out $30 a pop on Eventbrite for a weekend tour promising an up-close-and-personal experience with San Francisco, “the model of urban decay” — complete with walks past its “open-air drug markets and vacant office and retail spaces.”
But the tour’s guide, only listed as “SF Anonymous Insider,” failed to show at Saturday’s event, claiming he was afraid to carry it out because of all the controversy around it.
“Unfortunately, the substantial media interest means that it is not possible to preserve my anonymity while publicly posting the tour’s time and meeting location,” he wrote in a message to customers, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Community activist Del Seymour and others with the nonprofit Code Tenderloin — who had gathered at the tour’s designated starting point to protest the event — then led about 70 people on a early 2-mile “antidoom loop tour” through areas such as City Hall, Union Square, Mid-Market and the Tenderloin District.
One of their stops, the Civic Center district, was eerily empty except for half-baked drug addicts bent over after taking a hit of fentanyl and other drugs.
As the tour group walked past shuttered stores such as the Whole Foods grocery store on Market Street, drug deals were happening in broad daylight.
A homeless man yelled at some in the group as they passed by the encampments.
As Seymour took the group to the Glide Memorial Church and a nightclub called the Power Exchange in the Tenderloin neighborhood, participants passed by rows of tents, many with homeless addicts passed out inside.
On the corners, men exchanged crumpled up money for balls of foil.
Some openly smoked fentanyl and other drugs as the tour group walked past them.
The stench of urine mixed with human and animal feces was at times overwhelming as Seymour quickly walked the group past the notorious corner of Hyde and
Turk streets, where drug deals run rampant, especially “once the sun goes down,” a local told The Post.
Some of the homeless men and women who were lying on the street corners looked up in confusion as the tour group walked past them.
Serena, a group member who brought snacks and water in her bag, stopped to give some of the homeless men and a woman some of her food.
The woman, who was passed out on the ground, appeared to be so high, she couldn’t even lift her head to say thank-you.
Another man took a long, deep pull on a pipe and blew smoke into the air.
He grabbed one of the snacks Serena offered.
“It’s hard because housing here has turned into a crisis,” Serena, who did not want to give her last name, told The Post. “It feels like City Hall isn’t listening to the community, and this is the fallout of the broken systems that we are seeing.”
During the two-hour tour, Seymour talked about various programs available in the Tenderloin, including subsidized lowincome housing where families pay only $400 for a three-bedroom apartment that normally would rent for $5,000 to $8,000 a month.
Call for compassion
Seymour also pointed to various services available to homeless people in the area, including free meals and housing, but also told The Post part of the struggle involves getting those who need help to recognize they need it.
“If I’m unhoused and have mental challenges, you can’t just spend 30 seconds and then walk away after I say ‘no,’ ” he said. “You need to sit down with me and talk to me in a gentlemanly manner. It might take an hour, it may take two, but you have to give me that time and build that trust with me so we can make some sort of compromise.”