Broken Glass, Syringes, Poop: SF Street Filth Getting Worse

San Francisco's getting filthier, and we're not talking just about Dore Alley. From the Bay to San Bruno Mountain, detritus is piling up on city streets, and the city is taking notice.

A city study shows that street cleanliness is now "significantly" worse than it was a year ago, according to the San Francisco Examiner.  The exact makeup of the clutter in the gutter includes feces, needles and broken glass, according to the newspaper. That's not good -- though somehow, city landscaping, graffiti removal and the overall condition of trash cans has improved, the report said. So that's nice -- just be careful where you step, we suppose.

Officials for the Department of Public Works, which is resposible for sweeping the streets and keeping them clean, said that budget cutbacks -- it appears at least 90 street cleaners lost their jobs over the past year -- are largely responsible for the sharp decline in clean roadways.

Oddly, despite the prevalence of things -- specifically, poop and needles -- that most city residents wouldn't want to see in a toilet, a May study revealed that most San Fransicans think their streets aren't so bad.

The Street and Sidewalk Perception Study, released in May, revealed that most city residents "generally perceived San Francisc's streets and sidewalks to be acceptably clean, even in cases where the streets and sidewalks failed inspections based on the City's maintenance standards," the newspaper reported.

That could be one sign that you've lived in San Francisco too long.

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