Larry Kwan shares about the vibrancy of the Tenderloin neighborhood and how we all face different challenges in life.
I work in the Tenderloin in San Francisco, a neighborhood that’s too often reduced to a headline defined by homelessness, fentanyl use and open-air drug markets. To many, it’s the epicenter for everything that needs to be “fixed” in our city. Walking to work most days however, I experience a different Tenderloin.
I see a vibrant neighborhood ready to flourish. I see mothers wearing their hijabs walking their children to school; I see elderly Asian women with shopping carts full of vegetables and fruit; I see my co-workers: case managers, job coaches and medical providers – walking with purpose to accompany those in need with compassion.
The Tenderloin does not need to be “fixed.” It needs to be seen, seen as part of our community, a mirror of the city. Before my role as a physician and leader at St. Anthony Foundation, I worked at Stanford caring for Silicon Valley’s elite. There, I also saw suffering from addiction, mostly alcohol as opposed to fentanyl. I saw mental illness, less psychosis and more anxiety. The struggles were different, but no less and no more human.
What I’ve learned is this: we are all broken in our own ways. We are navigating our own addictions, health challenges and hard choices. Some are choosing between time with family, the demands of unreasonable bosses and the internal demons of perfectionism. Some of us are choosing to between drugs, food and shelter.