At 15th and Julian streets on Thursday morning, a large group of people gathered on the sidewalk under the shade of a large apartment building.
A woman wearing a construction vest uttered, through a bullhorn, the first and last names of residents from Friendship House. Members of the crowd said, “Here” one by one as their names were read aloud.
A man, who did not want to be identified, stood in the patio area of his Julian Avenue home; he had no idea what was going on. The man, wearing a baseball cap and surgical mask, was waiting for a social worker.
“It’s just a fire drill,” explained Mark Garcia, who has been a chef at the indigenous-lead addiction treatment center Friendship House for the last 14 years.
Garcia, for his part, said the police presence near the plaza has helped the situation on 16th Street. But he’d like the city to do more to help the unhoused community in the area. “They need to pay more attention to the homeless. They have to make it easier for people to get help,” said Garcia, before walking back into the building with the large group.
The Julian Avenue resident looking over the crowd said that the situation on Julian Avenue has gotten a bit worse in recent days, but that “it’s mainly people wandering around.”
The San Francisco Police Department’s mobile command unit has now been parked at the southwest plaza for 73 days, and this neighbor at least said he’s noticed a difference.
“Where the dollar store used to be, there’s always people hanging around,” he said, pointing to the northeast BART plaza at 16th and Mission streets, before his social worker arrived.
Weise and Caledonia streets were both quiet today. Julian Avenue had a couple of people waiting outside the Kailash Hotel, a single-room occupancy hotel that has become the source of neighbors’ ire and has a long history of complaints.
But there wasn’t too much foot traffic. On Capp Street, a small group of people on the right side were huddled around together, smoking.
At the northeast plaza, things were fairly quiet, too. Some people gathered around the plaza. A woman sitting in a chair looked on as people came up from the BART station. A large group of people waited for the 14-Mission bus headed toward downtown. At the corner of the plaza, two women sitting in chairs faced in the direction of the mobile command unit.
At the southwest plaza, the situation was even more quiet. Two SFPD vehicles accompanied the mobile command unit. There was a steady group of people who came out of the BART station and headed towards the Muni stop. A single food vendor waited by herself as people and traffic passed her by going in both directions.
“They need to pay more attention to the homeless,”
Hey Mission Local, did you know San Francisco spends nearly $2 billion a year on homeless people? No? You should read a newspaper sometime.
Pedro —
Your inability to parse a quote of a man on the street in a news article and the editorial voice of the paper is disturbing. More disturbing still, you felt comfortable memorializing this and writing a condescending bit of “advice” to us.
Thanks for reading.
JE
Thanks for being kind Joe, I know it can’t be easy sometimes.
Ppl are so fed up. The city’s being sued cause a tenant in her bldg set fire to her dog and it set bldg on fire. City was supposedly negligent allowing dog. Yet, as landlord try and legally exclude a tenants dog from living in bldg, won’t happen. Extreme policies mean prop. Owners aren’t going to try and why should they when they are always the enemy in the city’s eyes?
Sounds rough, Ray. I don’t know how landlords survive in this commie state with its socialist Prop 13 and Costa=Hawkins provisions. Conditions being so awful for landlords, they might consider selling their properties and looking for other investment opportunities (crypto is all the rage..).
Hey
How about providing the same coverage to Lower Polk and Larkin?
Come and visit .
Report the daily suffering and tradegy there .
Drug dens on every block.
Addicts out of their minds harming themselves 24/7.
That area is run by drug activity .
Unbelievable
Coverage would help those on the street and the neighborhood there which is a no go zone and unsafe.
For 40 + years San Francisco has been ‘helping’ vagrants destroy the city. San Francisco ‘progressives’ are now known worldwide for their expertise in urban destruction. Nobody does it better. Maybe just a few more billion will finish the job?