The Tenderloin: A People’s History of San Francisco’s Most Notorious Neighborhood

Upper Tenderloin Historic District. Photograph Source: Smallbones – CC0

“Any city that doesn’t have a Tenderloin isn’t a city at all”

– Herb Caen, longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnist

Few San Francisco neighborhoods have had more ups and downs than the 33-block area still called “The Tenderloin”—a name which derives from the late 19th century police practice of shaking down local restaurants and butcher shops by taking their best cuts of beef in lieu of cash bribes.