Early Tuesday afternoon, the temperature was a pleasant mid-60s in the Mission District. People bought cut fruit from vendors at the 16th Street BART Plaza, and seniors sat on stoops, taking in the sun. Others stood under the shade provided by the police command center while they waited for the bus.
On Caledonia Street, a neighbor cleaned the sidewalk and broke down parts of an old couch someone had left outside his house. The neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, said Tuesdays are his days off, but today felt nothing like that.
“I’m so sick of the situation here. Every single day, I have to clean the mess on this street,” he said, adding that on many occasions people jump the wall into his patio to use or hide their drugs.
“It’s been hell living here,” said the neighbor, while a man nearby yelled at him in protest.
“Fuck you. I ain’t doing shit,” yelled the man. “You’re making assumptions.”
“See, this is the shit I got to deal with daily,” the neighbor retorted, while two men walked slowly by, staring him down. “They try to intimidate me, but I’m not afraid of them.”
It’s something Mission Local has heard often on its daily updates of the conditions near 16th and Mission streets: The police presence has pushed drug use, drug dealing, and loitering to surrounding alleys. Residents are fed up.
While this scene took place on Monday, a car with employees of the city’s Homeless Outreach Team waited for the neighbor to move his car, which blocked the one way street.
“That’s disrespectful. Move your car,” yelled the second man to the neighbor. “I’m talking here. I have to clean all these up,” responded the neighbor, referring to garbage in front of his house.
The neighbor then moved his car.
Just east of Caledonia, Julian Avenue was quiet for the most part, except for a group congregating at the northwestern end of the block.
Wiese Street looked quiet, too; half a dozen people hung out and eyed the police turning left onto 15th Street at the end of the alley.
As for the plazas, they were busy. People went in and out of BART, waited for the bus or just hung out. A police car was parked at the northeastern plaza and two officers leaned against their car and chatted with a Public Works employee.
Nearby on Shotwell Street, about 10 people hung out on the sidewalk between 16th and 17th streets; at least four lay down, smoking from a long glass pipe with a big circular end.
A man told a couple smoking in the middle of the sidewalk to please be respectful: There is a school nearby.
“Oh yeah,” answered the man, sarcastically, while taking a hit. “Think about the kids.”
I have an office at 15th and Caledonia, been here 6-7 years. Pre-pandemic and pandemic time it was the center of a tent city, 30,40, maybe 50 tents on 15th, Caledonia, Julian, literally in front of my doors. The city swept the tents a few years ago and for the most part that situation has improved. But now it is just as bad, sans tents, more garbage, constant yelling, feces everywhere, more violent behavior. It really is a sausage that gets squeezed, 16th BART is better and the surrounding blocks are a zombie hell hole. I will give the City some credit, there are cops around all the time, city outreach workers, and DPW is a constant presence trying to clean things up, but they can never get ahead of it. At 11:00 AM the alley is cleared out, by 3:00 PM it is back to the new normal. How can we allow a couple hundred people ruin a neighborhood with thousands of law abiding citizens. The only way to “fix” this is for the people creating the problem to be removed from the equation. I do not have a solution, but the problem is obvious. The Social Contract is broken…
Why are these people allowed to loiter and do drugs in public in the Mission but not in other parts of San Francisco or the Bay Area? The San Mateo PD would have no problem shutting this down in a few days.
Too many losers around the 16th Street plaza and side streets. Serious law enforcement and/or intervention needs to take place asap or just walk away and let the dreck do what they want.
“They try to intimidate me but i am not afraid”..who want to live like this everyday? the cops are doing what they can, but it isn’t time to make neighborhood patrols? at night and during the day? large ones like the Guardian Angels but more forceful, meaning making those people’s life’s miserable for a change? it is about time the fear change camp, those ass…. need to be taught a lesson and pack their bags to the middle west where they are from..and the dealers back to their country…98% of those people are drug tourists, not locals..time to stop being nice to them.
‘“Oh yeah,” answered the man, sarcastically, while taking a hit. “Think about the kids.”’
Sounds exactly like what the city funded nonprofiteers said about siting Mission Cabins and the proposed permanent supportive housing for substance and psych adjacent to Marshall Elementary, not to mention their silence on the Tenderloinization of 16th/Mission while residents of 1950 Mission clamor to be relocated, both in content and tone.
What is your Supervisor doing to solve these chronic problems?
Working with the mayor who runs the departments and influencing the budget process to fund appropriate interventions is about all she can do.
I blame the so called leaders and those in government who are making money on the homeless and the drug addicts, and the crimininals. Tons of money there putting in there pockets,that is why nothing has changed and in fact only gets worse and worse . It is Un believable,horrifying, tragic, and sad to see what has happened in these areas. SF DESTROYED !!! The only way to fix is to cut off all money to them and send, them back to the states and cities that there really from , and for the,all the state and local Goverment to start caring about taxpaying citizens.
It is such a sad and unfortunate landscape that we are all living in these days, and I consider myself incredibly lucky as I’m able to live in a rental unit and have a roof over my head. This so called clean-up has simply swept the undesirable behaviors into scattered directions and it seems as though it’s actually gotten worse. Photos from the daytime do not nearly share the truth, photos of the nighttime on-goings would be a more honest sharing of what our neighborhood truly looks like.
This is America? If Laurie and Newsom can’t fix this, Trump should send the National Guard in.
Thanks
If you think this reported areahas problems ,
Come visit Lower Polk and Larkin.
This paper will not even cover or expose that area .
It is a major dumping zone where dealers sell poison to addicts all day everyday for over SEVEN Years .
All day long people hang out getting high , destroying the neighborhood for their selfish habits .
Garbage poop pee graffiti crime .
Hell on every door step.
Death and dying
Complete failure and chaos.
The reported area at it worst is not half as bad as Lower Polk abd Larkin.
If you want to visit hell and see addicts overdosing and drug dealers kicking addicts to buy more drugs , come visit .
You will not stay around .
This City has been in trouble for decades due to their anarchistic policies, sanctuary, drug enablers, you see the destructive results, decay and destruction.
intimidate. it looks like the police are the ones using intimidation with the presence at the bart station. everyone else trying to survive the poverty.
We need more confinement space.