The terrifying reality of life on the drug-infested streets of San Francisco has been exposed by a lifelong resident who filmed her walk to work through scenes that have made the city an international symbol of misery and despair.
Tiktoker ‘Freqmeek’ captured the pre-dawn horror as she gingerly made her way through dozens of desperate addicts in the city’s Tenderloin district.
Some huddle against the cold, while others are too intoxicated to care, as cars and buses try to weave their way through unconscious addicts strewn across the road for hundreds of yards.
“The fear we experience as we travel to work in the Tenderloin every day is unbelievable,” she wrote.
“There are so many concerns and protections for drug users and the homeless, but what about the working class who have to pray that they can get to and from work in this environment?
Residents must navigate streets full of unconscious and semi-conscious people in the city’s Tenderloin district
At one point, a man wearing a hoodie apparently burned his back steps for the TikToker as other ghostly figures emerged from the darkness
“These are real dangers that you face every day just to provide for your family.”
The Tenderloin district is located in the heart of San Francisco, near the Asian Art Museum. It is just a few blocks from City Hall. The area also includes part of the Compton Transgender Cultural District.
Robberies are up 14 percent so far this year in the Golden Gate City, where Mayor London Breed last month demanded 18 percent cuts to next year’s police budget.
According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the number of reported drug overdose deaths in the first nine months of the year was 620, compared to 540 during the same period in 2020.
And the city stands to lose $200 million a year in revenue from the exodus of businesses, which has driven major hotels and retailers to flee the city center.
Stout retailer Old Navy announced last month that it would close its flagship store in the area, becoming the latest chain to leave town.
Nordstrom also announced that they would be closing all of their locations in the city.
In April, Whole Foods announced it would close all of their locations, with Anthropologie and Office Depot also making the same decisions, leading some analysts to predict the city has entered a “doom loop” of permanent decline.
Last week, the city was widely mocked by Chinese media as it prepared to host President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The American Chinese radio used the headline ‘Ghost town San Francisco has a major blood exchange as APEC will give the city the safest week in history.’
Many are concerned about the characteristic aspect of the fentanyl user
Many spread out on the road, putting themselves and the drivers at risk of a collision
A DailyMail.com analysis of the cuts facing key departments in San Francisco shows police need to find savings of $18.5 million and public health budgets could lose $26 million
The city’s drug crisis has seen 620 overdose deaths reported in the first nine months of the year
“Now it has become a crime mecca, its streets are in disarray and it is rapidly sliding into the status of a ghost town,” beamed the Chinese media.
A map shows the major companies that have left or are planning to leave San Francisco in recent months
Other headlines include the terms “garbage city,” “ruined city” and “fallen city,” as crippling drug problems and widespread homelessness problems continue to cause problems for the city.
Another headline from Chinese site Phoenix also said the city had entered a “death cycle.”
One article also states, “San Francisco was once a jewel on the West Coast of the United States, but when the Democrats pushed forward their radical agenda.
‘Now it has become a crime mecca, the streets are in disarray and it is rapidly descending into ghost town status.’
On Saturday, British Home Secretary Suella Braverman cited the city as an example of what could happen in Britain as she outlined plans to stop charities handing over tents to homeless people.
“Unless we act now to stop this, British cities will head in the same direction as places in the US like San Francisco and Los Angeles, where weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug use and misery,” she wrote.
The city’s U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey announced Thursday a multi-agency “All Hand on Deck” project to tackle drug trafficking in the Tenderloin, admitting it had become “ground zero” for drug tourism.
He revealed that 50 kilos of fentanyl have been seized from the District’s streets in the past four months, almost double the amount in the same period last year and enough to cause 20 million fatal overdoses.
“Our drug crisis has been fueled in part because selling fentanyl has become a lucrative calling for people who have found our neighborhoods, and especially the Tenderloin District, to be a convenient and risk-free marketplace,” he said.
It is a reality that is all too clear to the residents who have to live and work in the city.
Drug addicts and homeless people congregate in the California city’s Tenderloin District
Earlier this year, a homeless woman was pictured giving birth on a sidewalk in the Tenderloin as pedestrians walked by.
The baby lay crying on the sidewalk, covered in the mess of his birth, until his mother reached out to pick him up with a piece of cloth.
“This is overwhelming and mentally exhausting,” the TikToker wrote.
‘Not to mention the dangers of the unpredictable nature of this environment.
“The tenderloin was rough, but it was never, ever like that, and I was born and raised here, so this isn’t the same scene before the pandemic.
“Imagine children and seniors having to navigate this, it’s absolutely terrifying.”