Outdoor market with tables displaying various goods, including perfumes and clothing, set up under tents along a mural-decorated alley on a sunny day.
2:37 p.m. 6/21, The flea market on Mission Street between 15th and 16th Streets where vendors pay $25 a weekend to set up their tables. Photo by Lydia Chávez


You can see all the 16th Street posts here and our summary after 100 days here. We are now posting occasionally to check on progress.

Roberto has a table at the flea market on Mission Street between 15th and 14th streets, but like others in the neatly kept parking lot, customers are few. Vendors pay $25 a week to be able to sell there, but it’s hardly worth it. All of the action is outside on Mission Street.

“Every weekend,” he says of the Mission Street competition. No one stops it. No matter the vending ban.

That was true on Saturday. The sales on Mission Street were so heavy that vendors turned the corner at 15th Street and set up along the sidewalk, nearly to Wiese Street. At Paul O’Driscoll’s building on the corner of 15th Street, a commercial lease sign hung in the window. Anyone visiting the space and the tenants who live there must navigate through the vendors.

At 2:30 p.m. or so there were plenty of vendors – a wheelchair had trouble navigating the path near 16th Street. I counted at least a dozen people with pipes out and one using tin foil. In all of my time going to 16th Street, I’ve only witnessed one drug deal – cash being exchanged for a small plastic bag with a white, grainy substance. Today, I saw my second.

Two employees from the Department of Public Works made their way up Mission Street with bags and trash pickers. I asked if police would be accompanying them today. “Those are the guys in the green vest,” the worker said. So no, not today or maybe later.

At the southeast plaza where Mobile Unit Two has been parked for 102 days, no one answered the door when I knocked. A police SUV was unmanned, but the lights flashed as if it were racing to a crime scene.

Caledonia and Wiese streets and Julian Avenue were fairly clear at the south end near 16th Street, but more active at the north end near 15th Street. Capp Street south of 16th remains a gathering place.

Southwest Plaza and the west side of Mission Street, 15th Street

  • An elderly person in a wheelchair surrounded by people and belongings on a city sidewalk; a man in a red jacket stands behind her.
    2:32 p.m. 6/21, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • People gather on a city sidewalk where various goods, including snacks and household items, are displayed on tarps for sale.
    2:32 p.m. 6/21, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • People browse items laid out for sale on a busy city sidewalk lined with trees and parked cars. A "No Parking" sign is visible above the scene.
    2:33 p.m. 6/21, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A group of people stand and wait in a line on a city sidewalk next to a building on a sunny day.
    2:33 p.m. 6/21, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A group of people gather on a city sidewalk with belongings and tents; some sit or stand, while one man looks down at his hand. A neon "YOU NEED ART" sign is visible in the background.
    2:34 p.m. 6/21, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A busy sidewalk scene with several people standing near a storefront, including a worker in a safety vest pushing a cleaning cart.
    2:41 p.m. 6/21, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • People browse items laid out for sale on a city sidewalk; some belongings are attached to a bicycle, and buildings line the background.
    2:41 p.m. 6/21, 15th Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A long line of people stands on a city sidewalk near a building and trees, with several parked cars and bicycles along the street.
    2:52 p.m. 6/21, west side of Mission Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • People walk past a parked police car and a mobile command van in a sunny urban plaza, with buildings and string lights in the background.
    2:52 p.m. 6/21, southwest plaza, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Northeast Plaza and the east side of Mission Street

  • Busy urban street corner with pedestrians, graffiti-covered walls, palm trees, traffic lights, and overhead wires under a clear sky.
    10:08 a.m 6/21, northeast plaza, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • People are gathered in an urban outdoor area with some sitting, others standing, and graffiti on the wall in the background. A person in the foreground carries clothes.
    2:49 p.m. 6/21, northeast plaza, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A man leans on a scooter near an elevator entrance as others walk by on a city sidewalk scattered with belongings and clothing during the day.
    2:49 p.m. 6/21, east side of Mission Street Photo by Lydia Chávez

Caledonia Street

  • Narrow urban alley with graffiti-covered wall on the right, apartment building on the left, and a few people visible in the distance under a clear blue sky.
    2:30 p.m. 6/21, Caledonia Street looking north from 16th Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A city alleyway with graffiti-covered walls, a green trash bin, and a few people sitting or lying on the ground in the distance.
    2:43p.m. 6/21, Caledonia looking south from 15th street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Julian Avenue

  • A city sidewalk with metal grates in the foreground, parked cars on the left, buildings on the right, and a person walking in the distance under a clear blue sky.
    2:30 p.m. 6/21, Julian Avenue, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A white pickup truck is parked beside a yellow crosswalk on a city street. Several tents and people are visible on the sidewalk to the left.
    2:43p.m. 6/21, Julian Avenue, looking north from 15th Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Wiese Street

  • A narrow alleyway between two buildings, with a person standing near a taqueria on the right and parked cars on both sides of the street in daylight.
    2:56 p.m. 6/21, Wiese Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A narrow urban alley with several people; one person lies on the ground while others stand or walk along the sidewalk and street.
    2:42p.m. 6/21, Weise Street looking south from 15th Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Capp Street

  • A person in a black jacket walks down a city sidewalk lined with parked cars and trees, with a utility box in the foreground.
    2:51 p.m. 6/21, Capp Street, looking north from 16th Street is always clear thanks to security guards from Five Keys. Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • Street scene at a red light on 16th St; parked cars, a U-Haul sign, pedestrians on the sidewalk, and a few people sitting near a building with a red wall.
    2:51 p.m. 6/21, Capp Street, looking south from 16th Street Photo by Lydia Chávez

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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.

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9 Comments

  1. It’s clear to me that the city has no intentions of fixing this now or ever. They moved people from the TL and Soma to 16/Mission and they are here to stay. After living at 15/Mission for nearly 10 years, emailing my sup, calling the police/311 daily, my partner and I finally saved up enough to move to a different neighborhood and we couldn’t be happier. We have unfortunately given up on the Mission.

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  2. What is the point of having bans, ordinances, permits, laws, or indeed any requirement without enforcement? We all know the story: A supervisor/mayor/other official announces [new law] with fanfare and press coverage. And nothing changes because a) the lawbreakers know that there’s no penalty, and b) the lawmakers and enforcers do not care.

    San Francisco has normalized illegal street vending (as well as public drug use, tent and RV living, trash everywhere, public urination/defecation, and more). Nothing is about to change, and everyone knows it. The anti-quality of life forces have prevailed.

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  3. I was at Civic Center this weekend and saw that they have cleared out the people who used to hang out around the library and the plaza. The city pushed them out with no plan or care for where they would go and now they are our problem. That’s it, pretty much the whole story. The powers that be have decided that we are the new containment zone.

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  4. Agreed. The conditions now are deplorable. Just yesterday we had a junkie outside.
    How is it that 20yrs ago the Mission was cleaner? Sure there were afew bums, but now it seems like 50% of the inhabitants. Where are all these people coming from? Where the heck are the police.
    If I could sell my place I would. By the time rates come down is it going to be any better, not looking likely.
    @Lurie – WE NEED YOU TO FINISH CLEANING UP THE MISSION.

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  5. It is fairly frustrating and completely upsetting knowing that the SFPD could resolve all this in a weekend, proven by previous clean ups in the tenderloin, but choose not to. I wonder why? What purpose does it serve NOT to enforce the laws? When it comes to drug dealing the SFPD can be swift and forceful but when it comes to sidewalk sales where is the reason to not enforce the law. If you expect it to end take a look at civic center. Specifically 7th and Market, the bus stop on 7th and Macalester, the northern portion of the UN plaza. They tried the empty command van and unmanned cars but still food, given out by various agencies serving the needy, and stolen items from various stores, is, was and always be sold in these areas. Try setting up a sidewalk sale on Geary and 30th or maybe anywhere in Pac Heights or better yet Ofarrell and Powell and see how long it takes for SFPD to arrive and enforce.

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  6. Reply

    1. Hi Mitch — 

      As noted in Lydia’s 100-day column, we’re pulling back from daily coverage but are still keeping a close eye on the plaza and the neighboring environs. Of course we’re going to keep things chronologically accurate.

      Best,

      JE

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  7. I just visited Madrid Spain. What a lovely city ! No vagrants, open drug use or even potholed streets. Beautiful parks and fountains. Bustling streets, stores and restaurants. The only way to have a decent life is too….LEAVE SAN FRANCISCO NOW! You don’t have to subject yourself or your family to the hell San Francisco progressives have created. Most of the world has not been ruined by delusional promiscuous empathy…why spend your precious life surrounded by never ending misery?

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  8. This is what it looks like when your country crumbles. Eliminate poverty and everything else will follow. You can’t police social problems away. These issues have been developing for generations.

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