Excerpt from a letter to a friend

Fall 2009
I am currently looking out my 14th story window. Literally straight in front of me, across two cities and a bay, is the Oakland temple, just a pointy white dot symbolizing eternity. If I could go by way of crow, I could be there in minutes, but limited in my capacities, I will have to find another way. Rising from the streets to my window, the city echos with sirens and the schizophrenic arguments of the resident scavenger population. You could film a zombie movie here without any makeup. The staggering stumbling drunkenness, the crazed crack induced muttering. The violent outbursts over park benches and drug money. This is where I live, in a horror film of humanity.... but really that is just the surface. There is alot of good to be found on these streets.
From the same window I can also see Bloomingdales, nordstroms, Union square with Prada, Gucci, and Berk's favorites, Zara and H&M. 2 blocks away to $500/night hotel rooms and thousand dollar handbags. Sometimes the locals here will wander there to do their daily gathering (Most of them stopped hunting millennia ago), but by and large, invisible boundaries keep people in their place. Still, the only real difference in the two worlds is the price of the self indulgence, not the emptiness its masking.

Wikipedia says of my neighborhood (the Tenderloin): “"In addition to its rich history and diverse community, there is significant poverty, homelessness, and crime. It is known for its immigrant communities, single room occupancy (SRO) hotels, restaurants, artistic community, and large homeless population."

"Squalid conditions,homelessness, crime, drug sales, prostitution, liquor stores (more than 60 in 2008), and strip clubs give the neighborhood a seedy reputation."

"The extension of the Tenderloin south of Market Street in the vicinity of Sixth, Seventh, and Mission Streets is known locally as Mid-Market and is "Skid Row," or sarcastically as "the Wine Country," an allusion to "winos" (street-dwelling alcoholics)."

"The Tenderloin hosts many dive bars, including some left over from when the neighborhood housed large numbers of merchant seamen such as the 21 Club[4] and the 65 Club."

"...there is evidence of a community living here several thousand years ago, and when the area was excavated in the 1960s for the BART/MUNI subway station at Civic Center remains of a woman dated at 5,000 years old were found." (proof that early inhabitants of the tenderloin did indeed hunt)

"There are a number of stories about how the Tenderloin got its name....Another is a reference to the neighborhood as the "soft underbelly" (analogous to the cut of meat) of the city, with allusions to vice and corruption, especially graft....Yet another story, also likely apocryphal, is that the name is a reference to the sexual parts of prostitutes (i.e., "loins")."

"[Boedder Park] is often unused by children and is commonly occupied by drug addicts and intoxicated people during the daytime."

I wish Wikipedia were wrong on this account, but unfortunately, my daily eye-witness confirms the editor knew what s/he was talking about.
I live here because the rent is an affordable $1215/month for my small studio. Add that to my $40,000 annual tuition and I am suffering under undo amounts of debt. Fortunately for me, debt is really fashionable right now. Its the perfect all-purpose accessory. It pretty much goes with everything you want and all the hip people have it. I fear I have always been a hipster at heart. This is just quantitative proof.