Street scene with an ambulance parked at an intersection, people standing nearby, and buildings in the background. Wires cross the sky, with a palm tree and streetlights visible.
3/19/25 SW 16th Street Plaza Ambulance, Photo by Ronna Raz

Update Marc Saloman and Michael Brown sent in photos.

Brown’s photos were taken around 4 p.m.

Narrow alley with people standing or sitting, some with belongings, against graffiti-covered walls and metal barriers. A yellow building and a taco shop are on either side. Overcast sky above.
3/19/25 Wiese Street, 4 p.m. Photo by Michael Brown.
Discarded coffee cup and medication box on a littered urban sidewalk, with a person in the background sitting against a yellow brick wall.
3/19/25 Wiese Street. 4 p.m. Photo by Michael Brown.

Saloman said his photos illustrated a whack-a-mole involving Wiese, Caledonia, and Julian.

All of the photos were taken after 5 p.m.

A person leans over near a wall in a narrow urban alley lined with barricades and graffiti. The alley shows scattered debris and leads to a distant street.
3/19/25 Wiese Street. 5 p.m. Marc Salomon.
People congregate on a city sidewalk beside parked cars and a blue recycling bin. A hotel sign is visible. Some individuals are sitting or using wheelchairs.
3/19/25 Julian Avenue, 5 p.m. Photo by Marc Salomon.
A narrow urban alley features various people gathered, surrounded by graffiti-covered walls and overhead power lines.
3/19/25 Caledonia Street, looking north from 15th Street, 5 p.m. Photo by Marc Salomon.
Street scene with people near a sidewalk filled with various items. Cars are parked on the left, and a pedestrian wait signal is visible. A person with a stroller is seated by a wall.
3/19/25 Capp Street looking south of 16th Street. Photo by Marc Salomon.

Earlier on March 19

Ronna Raz, our intern, went out today between 2 and 2:30 p.m.  She reports that the southwest plaza “was very busy,” with “a lot of fixing going on,” mostly maintenance and police officers on what appeared to be Facetime. “The northeast plaza had plenty of people,” some just taking advantage of the sunny weather, she said. Capp Street, which a few readers have asked us to photograph, had a lot of activity, as did Julian Avenue and Wiese Street. It does not seem that there is much police monitoring of those streets. 

I checked in with Rachel Gordon, the director of policy and communications for Public Works, on the trash can situation.  Good news for those who want more bins.

She wrote that the trash can on the northeast corner of Mission and 16th streets “was removed for a construction project, and will be replaced soon.”

Moreover, she added: “We are assessing the cans in this area.” In the past, she wrote, there have been issues with people rummaging through them and leaving garbage scattered on the ground. 

At present, she wrote, the department has three block sweepers assigned to the 16th and Mission area. Two work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and a third works from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Say hello and thank them when you visit the plazas. It is not an easy job. 

In addition, the city steam cleans and picks up trash overnight at 16th and Mission. “We also have regular proactive runs and responsive (311 requests) runs with our Litter Patrol team throughout the day. These are the folks who drive the white pickup trucks; they are assigned to the larger Mission/Bernal Heights zone.”

The city does not “routinely clean the BART plazas, which are BART property under BART jurisdiction, but do some brush-up work,” Gordon added.

We are waiting to hear from BART on their cleaning schedule.

An urban alley with a person sitting on the ground near a building, a painted mural on a fence, and string lights above.
3/19/25 Caledonia. Photo by Ronna Raz.
People gather on a sidewalk near a building with a "Hotel" sign. A parked car and scooter are nearby. An open blue trash bin is visible on the street corner.
3/19/25. Julian Avenue, east side. Photo by Ronna Raz.
A group of people gathers in a narrow urban alleyway with colorful buildings and string lights. Some individuals stand, others sit on the ground. A person on a bike approaches the intersection.
3/19/25 Wiese Street. Photo by Ronna Raz.
Street scene at 16th St. A pedestrian crosses by with a bicycle, with buildings and graffiti in the background. Traffic signal shows "Don't Walk.
3/19/25 Capp Street looking south. Photo by Ronna Raz.
Workers in a lift repair a streetlight next to a utility vehicle on an urban street. Orange cones mark the area for safety.
3/19/25 SW 16th Street Plaza lights maintenance. Photo by Ronna Raz.
A man in a black hoodie and cargo pants standing beside an open compartment of a large emergency vehicle on the street.
3/19/25 SW 16th Street Plaza bus maintenance. Photo by Ronna Raz.
Police officers and workers are present in an urban plaza with a parked utility truck and an orange lift.
3/19/25 SW 16th Street Plaza. Photo by Ronna Raz.
Urban scene with people walking and sitting near street vendors. A fence with graffiti and a palm tree are in the background.
3/19/25 NW 16th Street Plaza. Photo by Ronna Raz.
A person stands with his dog against a graffiti-covered corner of a building on an urban sidewalk, with pigeons nearby and people in the distance.
3/19/25 NE 16th Street Plaza Corner. Photo by Ronna Raz.
Map showing a section of Valencia and Mission streets. Trash can icons indicate locations with trash cans. Red circles mark areas on 16th Street and Mission Street with no trash cans.
Many of the side streets and some of the main streets along the 16th Street corridor don’t have trash cans. We have suggested where some might be useful. Map by Kelly Waldron.

Follow Us

Ronna Raz is an illustrator and intern with Mission Local.

Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still here.

As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.

At ML, I've been trying to figure out how to make my interest in local news sustainable. If Mission Local is a model, the answer might be that you - the readers - reward steady and smart content. As a thank you for that support we work every day to make our content even better.

Leave a comment

Please keep your comments short and civil. Do not leave multiple comments under multiple names on one article. We will zap comments that fail to adhere to these short and easy-to-follow rules.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *