Nice world-class city ya got there. Be a shame if it turned into a third-world shithole.

San Francisco needs to get its shit together.  From the article:

The city's seedy underbelly leaves behind other forms of hazardous waste too. A February NBC report revealed that in addition to feces, downtown San Francisco is polluted with more garbage and used syringes than some of the world's poorest slums.

Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious diseases expert at the University of California in Berkeley, told NBC reporters that in some parts of the city, the contamination is "much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or Italy."

Getting stuck by a used needle can pass on diseases like HIV and Hepatitis B and C. San Francisco has one of the largest HIV-positive populations in the US, with an estimated 16,010 people living with the disease.

I won't even include any of the photos from the article - they're just disgusting.

This comes on the heels of this article where the president of the city's visitors bureau discussed how the situation is getting worse and affecting San Francisco's tourist trade. From the article:

"The streets are filthy. There's trash everywhere. It's disgusting," D'Alessandro said, adding he's traveled the world, and San Francisco stands out for all the wrong reasons. "I've never seen any other city like this - the homelessness, dirty streets, drug use on the streets, smash-and-grabs.

"How can it be?" he continued. "How can it have gotten to this point?"

Remember, this is the man whose job is to glorify San Francisco, which tells you something about how far the city has sunk.

I keep wondering if one of the writing conferences I attend will announce San Francisco as a location. They're planned well in advance, so there would be time for SF to get its act together, but as of right now I'd take a pass on an event there even though it's just a quick and easy Southwest flight away, there's no way I'm walking the streets of San Francisco under these conditions.