Diana Enriquez, a Tenderloin resident who lives with her two small children and husband, doesn’t typically go out after 7 p.m.
It’s primarily because she’s busy with the kids, she says, not because she’s afraid of the street conditions, or her block of Turk Street, which often draws unhoused people looking to sleep. But she does hear things from her window, like excessive noise and fights, that are concerning.
“Many people are in the street at night, and the truth is that there is also a lot of noise, a lot of problems,” Enriquez said in Spanish. “Over there, they sell liquor, and [the people] start fighting in the night.”
Enriquez lives at one end of what will be the “Tenderloin Public Safety Area,” the 20 square blocks where city leaders are seeking to close the many corner stores and smoke shops by midnight, as part of a new two-year pilot curfew program.
Nearly half of the population in that area earns less than $20,000, and a third are seniors or live with disabilities. Meanwhile, crimes like assaults are reported at a far higher rate here, compared to the rest of the city.
The curfew program targets these businesses that, “in effect, facilitate the late night-time drug market by providing a lighted gathering point,” according to the legislation from Mayor London Breed, which will be voted on by the Board of Supervisors today. If the legislation passes, those stores will be required to close by midnight. It is unclear how many stores this will affect; on a single block of Leavenworth, Mission Local counted three late-night shops that will be forced to close early under the new curfew.
Enriquez supports the plan, and many of the dozen residents Mission Local interviewed did, too. But many were surprised to learn that stores with state liquor licenses will be exempt from the curfew, and can remain open until 2 a.m.
“That’s backwards,” said Abdul Malik Muhammad, a resident. “Those are the stores that should be shut down, I believe.”
Muhammad and others also said that only certain stores are truly problematic.
Even so, there is support for any stores being shut down.
Shirley, a 23-year-old who lives with her boyfriend, said she doesn’t go to the shops after dark, because she doesn’t feel safe with the dozens of people who often gather outside certain late-night or 24-hour stores that sell torch lighters or other drug paraphernalia.
“After, like, 7 [p.m.], I’m already inside the house,” she said, which is around when people start to gather in larger numbers. “Just be from work, straight to the house.”
On some nights, the entire sidewalk fills with people outside certain shops, like Plaza Snacks and Deli at 7th and McAllister streets. The store sells fresh produce, pastries, and other typical convenience-store goods.
“No tobacco, no alcohol,” said Walie, one of the owners, on Monday afternoon as customers flowed in and out of the shop continuously. Still, the location seems to draw issues: Last week, a person was shot at that very store around 11:15 p.m.
But Walie, like many business owners, said he doesn’t believe the curfew will change anything, and instead will just hurt his business. “That’s not gonna make any difference, I guarantee you. I’ve been here for 20 years. They just move them from one block to the next.”
Leydi, a longtime neighborhood resident, said the curfew is worth trying, though she is unconvinced that it was a good plan, long-term. She has heard many fights, with drunks throwing bottles at cars, and said she believes alcohol is a big part of the problem.
Gerardo, another resident, who also works for the Tenderloin Community Benefit district, said he knows of one smoke shop in particular that doesn’t pay for Recology service, and just leaves its garbage on the corner.
When he’s on the job, Gerardo ends up having to clean up the mess.
Others complained of bottles of urine, human feces and other waste collecting at these congregation points.
“Some of the stores are like magnets, and they attract problems,” said Muhammad, accusing some store owners of price-gouging their low-income customers, and not giving back to or caring for the community.
But still, other stores, while they may attract unhoused people and drug users congregate near it, serve as a lifeline for some.
TL Market & Deli, at Turk and Leavenworth streets, is open 24 hours a day, and it’s in rough condition. Battered cases display cookies. An open tub of hard-boiled eggs sits next to a tub of pickles on the counter, among litter. In the back, a mouse can be seen scurrying to and fro.
But when people enter, Abdullah, the man behind the counter, helps however he can. One woman requests change for her $20 bill in quarters; Abdullah starts counting coins. A man brings back a container of Morton’s salt he borrowed earlier. Another man purchases a snack and begins walking away, forgetting his change, and Abdullah calls after him.
Shanique, the woman getting change, said she lives in the building across the street, and woke up hungry early Monday morning. She only had to cross the street to grab a snack.
While she is not happy she will be losing the convenience of her corner market, like many others, she gave a tentative “yes” on the plan to close the stores at night.
“Realistically, for our neighborhood, though? Yeah,” said Shanique, who blames her boyfriend’s addiction issues on having grown up surrounded by the conditions of the Tenderloin. “Of course, if all these stores didn’t stay open late, it wouldn’t be so much traffic later at night. Yeah, of course.”
And lately, she has seen more people hanging out in the streets than ever before.
Then again, Shanique said, “even [when] the stores are closed, they’re still there.”
The homeless, and SRO residents in alienating housing, will congregate on the street regardless of whether there is an open store for them to hang out at or not, as one of the interviewees points out here. Hard to see how this will do anything beyond making it harder for certain Tenderloin residents, like those working late hours, to get groceries.
It’s baffling to have liquor stores and bars open after midnight but not grocery stores. It’s hard to see how it could help. I don’t live in the Tenderloin, so it’s not my place to tell TL residents they’re wrong if they think it’s worth a try. But I get the sense from these comments that they’re just desperate for some positive change, and willing to try anything. This just happens to be the only idea put on the table by the Breed administration. There could be many other, better, ideas worth trying.
Exactly, keep the stores open. I don’t know who you she talked to for the article but they don’t know the Tenderloin and probably never actually have to buy food at night because they have cars and big refrigerators. I depend on those 24hours stores to eat. I think Breed and all the supervisors need to be mandated to live in a SRO room in the Tenderloin for two months , one that has no private kitchen and maybe even one with no private bathroom and then they can make decisions for the T.L. I think it should be mandatory for all elected officals to be homeless for one month. I am tired of these people making decisions when they have no idea what it is like to be in this boat.
Exactly, keep the stores open. I don’t know who you she talked to for the article but they don’t know the Tenderloin and probably never actually have to buy food at night because they have cars and big refrigerators. I depend on those 24hours stores to eat.
When the Fillmore Neighborhood Safeway threatened to close, City Hall bent over backward to keep it open.
But our Tenderloin stores are penalized! Not for anything they do, but… for the light they provide!?
What about all that “candle-light” our charities and non-profits provide?
While “cursing the darkness” do they not also attract criminals by feeding and fixing them along with every other blighted soul that finds a way to San Francisco’s “containment zone”?
Shouldn’t they also be penalized in some way?
Would it be unreasonable to imagine that our “small business” merchants have every right to sue the city for being discriminated against?
Perhaps they are content making scandalous profits in our food desert where cigarettes are often sold by the stick and EBT cards are surprisingly flexible.
Imagine the police enforcing the new hours!
I recall one merchant, who runs a store on the same block as the Tenderloin Station, shrugging when I’ve suggested he call the police about the flagrant dope dealers sitting just outside, or on another occasion after his store was boosted and he couldn’t give chase.
“They don’t do anything,” he told me matter-of-factly.
The irony is that the dealers and the criminals are and always have been hiding in the dark, not in the light in front of stores. In the light we are safe, more light less crime. Now that it is a dead zone and completely dark out it is scary . I still need to go outside so I hope nothing happens. I keep commenting on here but because non of the other “News outlets” allow comments from real people.
The whole thing about the residents wanting this closure is a sham. 500 signatures in a population of 20,000 is nonsense. Again Breed has made it her mission to punish the residents of the T.L. just for being alive. We need to start a new petition to keep the stores open with more than 500 signatures. When we moved here we knew about the dealers and the crime but one thing that we could count on was the 24hr stores to make it bearable. London Breed is so out of touch with reality and the actual people who live here. Another thing about the Tenderloin is that there is nowhere for us to park without having to pay meters since they don’t have residential parking permits for this district, forcing car owners to move their cars every day at 6 am, which means we don’t have cars to go elsewhere for food and supplies at night. Another way to keep us confined and away from the rest of the city. I am sure her pantry is the size of most of the SRO hotel rooms in the Tenderloin so why would she care that we need to eat at 3am. She probably assumes we all just go eat at Glide every day. Us who live in these outdated Hotel rooms ( that are not designed for permanent living ) that our lucky to have a fridge, they are too small to even hold a gallon of milk or frozen foods. It’s after midnight and I forgot to get something drink, the closures started last night and it is only going to get worse when people realize what they have done to us in the T.L.
I guess we can always get drugs to curb our appetites until the stores open up at 5 am, j/k, sorta. To use the one store at the civic center plaza as a reference for this is just not even an accurate view of the actual Tenderloin. Everything you wrote above is totally true. I hope the store owners due sue, a legitimate reason for once. Deenas on Offarell has always been there for us anytime with Lasagna and last night it was closed, how awful.
Liquor stores are exempt. Figures. Nobody wants to solve a problem. Just create new ones.
They closed the 24 hour food stores, which we all depend on getting food when we are hungry in the middle of the night. Who decided this? obviously people with cars who have private kitchens. Closing down stores early is discriminating to everyone who is living in an SRO. Not to mention that it is also making it much more dangerous to walk around because there is no where to go that is open if someone messes with you. If you are putting a curfew on the T.L. do it to the whole city and find out how people will feel about….this is targetting lower income people and basically taking away one more thing to prevent us from feeling like we belong.
Hi Eleni. Thank you for the informative article and for including comments from residents and shopkeepers. Just a factoid here: the numbered streets do not cross Market. No matter how short it is (such as the stub northwest of 7th Street and Market) it has a name instead of a number. That short street is Charles J Benham Place, named after San Francisco’s second mayor.
We are keeping people in a living hell due to the City’s zoning plan & the City’s Homeless industrial Complex (aka non-profits that make a killing profiteering from tax payers and with no real benefit to TL residents).
Either allow the TL to be rezoned, and let the market route out the issues, or hold the non-profits accountable. Those are the 2 options, unless the status quo is desired. TL is like a 3rd world country, an embarrassment in da many ways.
TENDERLOIN RESIDENTS SAY NO TO CLOSING AT 12aM!!!!! This is so wrong. First many of us don’t have private kitchens so we are not able to stock up on food and drinks we buy them as needed. So last night after around 3am I got hungry and thirsty and nothing was open. The only thing that was around were drugs and people that are stuck on the streets. There are many of us that need the stores open. What if I get my period in the middle of the night and there aren’t any stores open, or if I run out of cat food. This is soooooo wrong in sooooo many ways, plus it isn’t going to do anything to prevent dealers, they never hung out in front of the stores to begin with. Just a bunch of misinformation by people that don’t actually live like in the Tenderloin.
This is bs there’s a liquor store in every corner all this does is give more business to liquor stores than other stores it won’t help stop the open market drug sales at all it’s either close all of them or keep all of them open