You’ve seen, smelled, and likely stumbled smack into them. Yes, I’m referring to the epic proportions of San Francisco’s sidewalk shit. With about 7,000 homeless people and 120,000 dogs living in our 47 sq. mile city, it comes as no surprise that some blocks see up to seven piles of feces a day.
So, where exactly are the most feces-laden streets, and what’s the story behind all the poop? Well, between the San Francisco 311 data, communal feedback, and personal encounters, I’ve pinpointed the epicenters of excrement, leaving you with a road map to avoid or embrace the smelliest quarters of San Francisco.
1. The Tenderloin: Eddy Street and Turk Street, between Taylor and Jones
Known for its dense population of homeless San Franciscans, the streets of the Tenderloin also serve double duty as local relieving quarters. Over the past eight months Turk Street, from Jones to Taylor, received 198 steamer cleaner requests, making it the smelliest block in its district. Eddy Street, its popular counterpart, saw up to 14 piles of crap on each side of the street during a four-day survey conducted by the San Francisco Department of Public Works. Thankfully, the DPW initiated the Tenderloin Pit Stop in July, placing portable bathrooms just one block away from these neighborhood hot spots.
Just to put things in perspective, so far in 2014, San Francisco’s 311 department has received 9,300 steamer cleaner requests citywide, primarily for human and dog waste; 3,977 are derived from the downtown and Tenderloin areas. Sam Dodge, program support analyst for the SFDPW says, “Every Tenderloin block needs and receives 80 times the amount of [cleanup] requests as a non-Tenderloin block.” Yup, that’s a whole lot of poop.
2. SOMA: 6th Street and 12th Street
Having worked just one block away from 6th Street for a few years, I grew accustomed to keeping my eyes glued to the ground after almost stepping in one too many piles of human shit. Yet, this thoroughfare is just the hub’s center. Neighboring alleys like Minna and Natoma Streets, as well as freeway-adjacent areas like 12th Street also see their share of bare bums. I mean, I get it: the City has lots of homeless folks and limited public facilities, so when you got to go, you got to go. Hence the 1,191 cleanup requests SOMA has racked up. Yet, after walking up to the SF Chronicle’s back entrance and seeing a pile of shit smeared against the door, I began to wonder if said squatters poop with a certain strategy in mind.
3. The Mission: Capp Street and Sycamore Street
I’ll never forget the first time I walked down Capp Street. Between 16th and 17th stood a bearded man relieving himself alongside a tree. As I passed on the opposite side of the street, he looked up utterly disgusted, waved his hand in outrage and shouted out, “Oh come on! Are you serious?!” as though I was the one with my pants down. At that moment I realized there is some kind of unspoken understanding that Capp Street and other streets like it are unofficially deemed Potty Lane. Yet, according to DPW figures, this one still comes up short to Sycamore Street (between Mission and San Carlos), which takes the cake for owning 136 of the Inner Mission’s 1,107 cleanup requests.
4. Financial District: St. George Alley
Dubbed the filthiest alley in San Francisco, the SF Public Works Department knows St. George Alley quite well. With approximately 30 piles of poop plopped every seven days, the cleanup team makes its rounds once a week, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. While Stevenson Street has its fair share of stank, for some unknown reason the bulk of the Financial District’s 253 cleanup requests come from good old St. George.
5. Upper Haight: Haight Street
Adored by the world as the birthplace of the hippie movement, Haight Street still carries a solid dose of free-spiritedness amidst its new-age shops and abundance of pipes and pot. It’s also home to a cluster of panhandling neo-punks, which hints at why the tourist-friendly street ranks the highest in the neighborhood for water pressure cleaning. Of the area’s 178 requests, the local relieving quarters spike between Masonic and Ashbury.
6. Bayview: 3rd Street from Oakdale to Mendell and Palou
Ranking just below the Castro with 92 cleanup requests, neighborhood meanderers should keep their eyes peeled for poop when trekking down 3rd Street, specifically from Oakdale to Mendell and Palou.
7. Duboce Triangle: Duboce Park
Known as “Dog Poop Park” this city green space not only houses abandoned feces, but has also seen its fair share of fame. The canine-friendly park got its first debut with gay rights activist Harvey Milk on KQED circa 1977. The local icon was filmed demonstrating how owners should clean up after their dogs, a conversation that later led to San Francisco’s Scoop the Poop Act of ’78. More than 30 years later the park made its way to Hollywood in the Oscar-winning film Milk, where Sean Penn reenacts the infamous scene. Duboce Triangle’s honorable mention goes to Sanchez Street between Duboce and 14th for tallying 17 of the neighborhood’s 105 requests.
8. Noe Valley: Douglass Park
It’s no secret Douglass Park hosts a wide range of dogs on a daily basis, but after chatting with a number of local dog walkers, I learned that this open space was cited as a top contender for its unusually high amounts of unclaimed crap. Fortunately, the neighborhood nonprofit, Friends of Upper Douglass Dog Park, stays on top of the issue by orchestrating regular poop sweeps and beautification days to offset any unsightly stank.
As you can imagine, these are just a handful of the City’s urine and feces-friendly zones. Think we missed any? Let us know in a comment below.
