By JESSE McKINLEY


SAN FRANCISCO - The city’s civic boosters have decided they want to add a highly unlikely stop to the usual tourist itinerary: the Uptown Tenderloin, the ragged, druggy and determinedly dingy domain of the city’s most down and out.

“We offer a grittiness you can’t find much anymore,” said Randy Shaw, a longtime San Francisco housing advocate and a driving force behind the idea of Tenderloin tourism. “And what is grittier than the Tenderloin?”

Indeed, after years of neglect and battles over gentrification, the Tenderloin remains one of the most stubborn challenges in San Francisco, which prides itself on its looks, its way of life and its bold solutions to social ills.

So community and city leaders are readying the Tenderloin for its big moment, complete with plans for a new museum, an arts district and walking tours of “the world’s largest collection of historic singleroom occupancy hotels.’’ And a trip to the Tenderloin could include a unique attraction.

“We can bring people into an SRO and show them where people are living now,” Mr. Shaw said, referring to the single-room occupancy dwellings, or residential hotels, in the area. “And that’s a real plus.”

The Tenderloin is one of the western United States’ most densely populated areas , officials say, with some 30,000 people in 60 square blocks, almost all of which have at least one residential hotel. The district’s drug trade is widespread. The police recently asked for special powers to disperse crowds . Deranged residents are a constant presence, and after dark the neighborhood can seem downright sinister, with drunks collapsed on streets and people furtively smoking pipes in doorways.

Laurie Armstrong, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, called the recent efforts “a step in the right direction,” but added that there was a “very, very long road” to go . But Mr. Shaw counters that the area is brimming with historical nuggets, like the Hotel Drake, where Frank Capra lived as a starving young film director in the early 1920s, or the Cadillac Hotel, in which Mr. Shaw plans to open a $3 million museum, where Muhammad Ali later trained. Jerry Garcia also lived at the Cadillac, and Jefferson Airplane recorded several albums in the area.

Whether the efforts to revive the district are enough to conquer poverty remains to be seen. Chris Patnode, a self-described wanderer who is staying in a local SRO, seemed willing to welcome tourists. Just as long as they know when to come knocking.

“In daylight, it’d be O.K.,” said Mr. Patnode, 48. “But people aren’t going to want to come down here at night. I don’t even want to be here at night. And I’m staying here.”