The smell of gunpowder hung in the air this morning as residents swept sidewalks and city workers cruised the streets, stained orange from hundreds of fireworks set off around the Mission until late. Empty boxes of Roman candles and cherry bombs, bearing names like Crime Scene, Killa 6-inch XXL, High Falutin’, Shotgun Wedding, Low Life, and Blond Joke, were stacked high on streetcorners from Potrero Avenue to Mission Street.
In the aftermath of a typically rowdy San Francisco Fourth of July, many residents said that although it was a wild night, this year’s Fourth wasn’t nearly as destructive as previous years.
But there were injuries. Bryan, a bartender at Pop’s Bar at York and 24th streets, arrived around 5 a.m. today. One of his first customers was a nurse who had toiled all night in Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s emergency room. “She said seven people lost fingers last night,” Bryan recalled.
According to a spokesperson, General Hospital saw six people with “fireworks-related injuries” between July 1 and July 4, with burns and “blast injuries” to hands and eyes. “One patient is in critical condition,” they wrote in an email, “and four are in serious condition with one patient discharged.”
Bryan from Pop’s said the SFPD gave him a warning at 4 p.m. yesterday. “They told me to stay away from the other end of 24th. Said there would be a lot of fireworks, and it sounded like they were going to let them do it as long as it was the Fourth.”
But not a minute past: As the final moments of the holiday wound down, SFPD wasted no time in putting the kibosh on the festivities. Shortly after midnight, Mission Station Captain Thomas Harvey declared an unlawful assembly at 25th and Harrison streets, near Garfield Square, where many gather annually to set off fireworks and watch sideshows.
Mission Local documented the moment SFPD rushed into the crowd, aiming rubber-ball rifles into the crowd and wielding batons while shouting at people to leave the area.
This morning, only some of the previous night’s mayhem remained. According to a Recreation and Parks employee at Garfield Square, Public Works staff was out at 5 a.m. to clear the streets of debris.
Mission residents were pleasantly surprised to wake up to tidier streets. An artist at a tattoo shop on the corner of Treat and 24th said streets, “this was a lot better than last year,” elaborating that in 2022, “they spray painted nice murals and the church,” gesturing toward St. Peter’s on Alabama Street.
“I heard they didn’t do the big one on Bryant this year, so it was a little less crazy,” said a 25-year Mission resident standing on the corner of 21st and Florida. In past years, she said, groups of people would flock to the intersection of Bryant and 22nd streets to unleash a year’s worth of stockpiled fireworks.
The woman, who asked not to be named, said she takes her children to stay with family in Hayward every Fourth of July, saying she “learned a lesson” several years ago, when Mission fireworks were especially wild.
Back at Pop’s, René Castro, a Mission native, said people come from all over the Bay to join in on fireworks. “They come from East Palo Alto, from Oakland, and they all compete to see who has bigger fireworks.”
Someone at the bar said he’s sold fireworks to people in the city for years. “I got M80s, M100s, M1000s,” he said. This year, he said, sales were much lower than during the pandemic.
Back then, “they had all that unemployment money,” he said. In 2020 to 2022, “sales quadrupled.” Not so much for 2023.
“Usually, the neighborhood comes together the next day to clean it all up,” said Castro. “This year it looks better. The community really wanted to take care of the neighborhood.”
Fun is one thing; but this kind of large, high -spirited crowd can get too wild quickly—and then people get hurt. I don’t blame the cops for keeping a lid on things to some extent, and breaking it up after midnight.
Wow, these citizens seem super excited about honoring the 2nd Continental Congress and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I had no idea there were so many colonial American history buffs along the 24th Street corridor! I think John Hancock owned a barque named named “Crime Scene,” too!
Bunch of punks disrespecting the neighborhood. Good riddance, the cops should have moved in earlier.
What does it mean when the people who live there have to find somewhere else to stay for the 4th? Get these jerks that come from elsewhere to destroy our city out. Let them burn down their own neighborhood, instead.
Agree completely
“This year it looks better. The community really wanted to take care of the neighborhood.”
What a joke. Bryant street was a complete mess. Peoples sidewalk gardens destroyed with firework debris. These individuals care nothing about our neighborhood. Same people dumping trash in corner green spaces like at Harrison and 23rd or Bryant and 21st.
I KNEW I heard M80s! God, they were LOUD
It’s a pity that these people used pandemic money for fireworks rather than for health insurance to cover the cost of their injuries and the longterm care that they will need going forward.
Did you think that money was going towards actual living expenses?
I live in La Lengua, and it was stunning even here … chains of things going off for 2 minutes 4 per second … big bright flashes 15 feet wide … troppo …
Crazy fireworks every fourth and gathering for side shows has been Mission culture for as long as I can remember. I really dislike that the cops targeted this and the hill bomb this year. And they traumatized a bunch of little kids over some skating fun! What’s the point of targeting events like these that uphold culture? It serves only to erase the community’s culture and the gentrifiers and haters only push to keep erasing it. I think it is great that the cruising ban was lifted throughout California last year. More can be done to allow people to practice their neighborhood’s activities without oppressing the people trying to participate in the og neighborhood events and activities.