"If you go to San Francisco, wear some flowers in your hair..." During the "Summer of Love", that would work.
If you go to San Francisco in 2010, be sure to keep your eyes on where you're walking...you may have to clean "stuff" off your shoes. I'm not referencing chewing gum.
Also, keep your pockets closed as pickpockets are rampant and panhandlers sit, stand, and lie everywhere.
For the last 28 years I have lived on the east side of SF Bay. Until just a few years ago, we had season tix to the SF Symphony for 15 years. My husband and I finally said, "Enough!" to the crud, the smells, the mess, the high prices, and the political correctness of the town. We have watched San Francisco deteriorate at warp-speed. The place is a mess and the sidewalks stink!
My friend, who grew up in SF in the 40's and 50's, tells me about wearing a hat, gloves, nice dress, and shoes to go shopping downtown (Union Square), how the business men wore a hat with their business suit and tie, etc. Now, you are just as likely to see someone half naked parading and prancing around...be they male or female...and not just in Union Square.
"Local color" is fine, but San Francisco continues to take it extremes. Ah, but for some thrill seekers, that's the charm of San Franciso. It's not a Rice-A-Roni commercial...although "ding! ding!" could be an apt description.
And yes, I put my money where my mouth is. We do not support anything in San Franciso by going there. The only time we may go there is if we have visitors who want to go. Generally, what we do is give them a few good maps, directions to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), or directions on how to take the ferry from Jack London Square in Oakland to the Ferry Building in SF, and then take a GrayLine tour of the city or take the cable cars to the tourist sites.
There was a time when I was enchanted by San Franciso. Not any more. It's grubby, expensive, and it smells (and I don't mean ocean breezes, either).