Against a backdrop of neon graffiti, chipped brick walls and glum fog, the homeless community of Sixth Street forms a blemish on the urban landscape for passersby and residents. The street is lined with waste and the sour stench of rotting food and urine hovers in the air. Makeshift sleeping bags and bits of cardboard scatter the sidewalks while men and women smoke cigarettes, count change in flimsy paper cups and endure another day of life on the outskirts of existence. These are the marginalized lives that are hard to witness and ever harder to change.

But a ten minute walk up Market Street offers a different perception of life.

In the Financial District, business men and women shuffle towards massive buildings that dissolve into the sky. They clench coffee cups and newspapers as they rush to work, minds engaged by the constant thought of accumulation and affluence. Spotless thousand-dollar suits and ironed ties cloak their bodies as they prepare for another day in an office in the sky. Their goal is profit. Others is survival.

It seems odd that both scenes exist in the same seven by seven mile square. The diversity of neighborhoods in large urban centers is both fascinating and perplexing, and San Francisco is no exception. There is something fundamentally abnormal about the financially privileged rubbing shoulders with those that live in filth.

Because San Francisco is the powerhouse of business on the West Coast, it has a huge concentration of capital and financial privilege. But with this lump of wealth comes much of the opposite and the city’s historically lax policy towards homelessness sets the scene for one of many economically diverse urban areas in the country.

"Even neighborhoods that aren't safe after dark are home to many normal people living normal lives," says Urban Studies Professor Linda Day. "These neighborhoods are filled with families that are just trying to get their kids to school and get to work."

This fact often goes overlooked and misunderstood. People living in poverty have families and are doing their best to make their situations work, but being geographically trapped in a neighborhood with poor education and few social resources keep the unstoppable wheels of depravity turning.

"People become trapped in a cycle of poverty and joblessness," says Day, citing the clear correlation between crime and the availability of jobs and economic opportunity in a community. She adds that housing plays an important role in this process. Those confined to low income housing projects have the most trouble securing jobs and making ends meet for their families. "So it's not necessarily the form of the housing, it's the sociology behind the neighborhood."

The crime spattered, drug infested Tenderloin District is a twenty minute walk away from Lower Pacific Heights, one of San Francisco’s most wealthy and breathtaking residential neighborhoods. Ingleside borders the privileged St. Francis Wood community by SF State. It seems wherever one lands in this city, both privilege and poverty appear side by side. A ten block walk in any direction presents a different dose of reality.

It is easy to tell which neighborhoods are victimized by poverty, homelessness and crime. The harder assessment is determining how these areas became the way they are today. Factors such as affordable housing, social services, property value and simple economics provide the basic answers, but the question remains hard to fully address.

Homelessness is a good indication of the quality of a neighborhood, and some San Francisco areas are famous in this sense. The Tenderloin District, in particular, seems to be the downtown Mecca of homelessness and drug dealing. The connection between free social services can't be overlooked in the case of the Tenderloin, where approximately 85 percent of the City's free services are located, according to SF Connect, a non-profit that helps connect homeless folks with needed services.

According to Ed Demasi, a staff member at SF Connect, a January 2007 study concluded that there are approximately 6,200 to 6,300 homeless people living in San Francisco. The estimates are shaky though, admits Demasi. People that are between homes or temporarily living with friends or family are impossible to calculate into the equation. Also, it is hard to count everyone living on the streets in one night, which is the method used to calculate the total number. This considered, "Estimates could be a lot higher," says Demasi.

"Just because you give somebody a room for a night won't make their problems go away," confirms Day, speaking of the many Single Room Occupancy hotels that offer homeless people rooms free of charge.

The affluent neighborhoods of San Francisco are spotless and well maintained. Pacific Heights, the Marina, Sea Cliff, the Outer Richmond and Lakeview are examples of neighborhoods that simply don't allow crime and poverty to land on their doorstep. But why here and not other areas?

Standing atop Broadway Street and looking across the Bay to Sausalito, the Golden Gate to one side and Alcatraz to the other, the answer becomes clear. It's simply an area of financial privilege. If someone tried to sell drugs or sleep in the manicured bushes in front of a four-story mansion, police would arrive instantly. Poverty is forbidden near the rich.