Lovely city, great town. Lots of cool shit to do. The city itself is VERY welcoming....
The people -
The food -
The prices...of everything -
We stayed at the Westin in downtown. Beautiful hotel right in the middle of everything. We got there early on Wednesday and were hungry so we took to the streets. Walked west for about a block and ate at a little Cantina on the corner of Lenora and 5th Ave....great burrito snack basket BTW. After, we walked up Lenora about half a block, and we get to see our first syringe laying on the sidewalk.
It was literally laying between two city workers and they didn't dare pick it up or anything. 
All in all, we got to see two protests and a mini-riot in just five short days.I was at a national conference that was hosted by the state of Washington. This gave me a chance to talk to quite a few of the locals. According to them, the city is booming. Booming so much that the locals and natives are being forced out of the city due to the exploding cost of living. As with most any good boom, they are feeling the pain of skyrocketing homelessness and crime rates as well. Its really sad when our hosts had to warn us to not go out alone at night and avoid the overly aggressive homeless people.
Aside from the rain on Friday, the weather was wonderful. It was a nice break from the 90 degree weather we've been having in Georgia. What I don't understand is why are all the locals wearing their best North Face and Patagonia arctic gear while is was so nice outside? I'm wearing shorts and a tshirt and these people are wearing boots, puffy coats, sweaters, scarves, and skull caps
There's always someone on the other side ready to catch them.