BBC News: Revealed: Britain's dirty, smelly streets

Sounds a lot like downtown San Francisco to me. :-( I'll never get over the smell of urine on the sidewalks there. The thing I miss most about San Francisco, other than the friends I left, are the awesome restaurants we ate in for lunch every day. But the thing I miss least is the walk to and from those restaurants. Yuck.

I remember being so grateful when there was a good rain in SF, because it would wash the sidewalks. That meant I had about a week of being able to breathe through my nose outside in the city.