A woman in a red hat walks away from a pile of clothes on a city sidewalk; other pedestrians and a garbage truck are in the background.
9:05 a.m 6./02, southwest 16th Street BART Plaza. Photo by Lydia Chávez.

At 8 a.m. this morning, Juan, who works in maintenance for La Fenix at 1950 Mission St., had his blower blasting an impressive amount of garbage from the sidewalk and onto the street. There are no trash cans on Mission Street between 16th and 15th streets, so the block is dependent on the street sweepers who come by.  

The vendors packed the sidewalk on Saturday and Sunday, but at some point each afternoon, drug users became dominant, or nearly so. By Monday morning, only a small group of people remained, four with pipes and one active user. Others were across at the northeast 16th Street BART Plaza. 

This is no surprise to Santiago Lerma, the street team lead for the Mission District.

“We had made a lot of progress in late March and through April and early May, and then all of a sudden … I think we displaced everyone onto Mission Street, and there has just been a very big influx, and the numbers have really grown on Mission Street.”

Over the next few weeks, we can expect a change in strategy on Mission Street, where Lerma said, “We saw people returning to the street and using on Mission Street in particular.”

 We will be following the efforts.

West side of Mission Street and southwest plaza

  • A city sidewalk with scattered litter and debris, bordered by a building wall and street trees. A truck and pedestrians are visible in the background.
    8:24 a.m. 6/02, west side of Mission Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • A city sidewalk with scattered litter, a parked electric scooter, graffitied walls, and a covered car.
    8:25 a.m. 6/02, west side of Mission Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • Two people sit on a city sidewalk near a parked scooter, surrounded by scattered belongings, as others stand nearby.
    8:25 a.m. 6/02, west side of Mission Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • A city sidewalk littered with trash, with a few people in the distance, a parked bicycle, and cars along the street.
    8:25 a.m. 6/02, west side of Mission Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • A person in a red hoodie walks down a city sidewalk littered with trash, with parked cars and storefronts along the street.
    8:26 a.m. 6/02, west side of Mission Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • Trash and litter are scattered across a city sidewalk and street near a parked car and a tree.
    8:26 a.m. 6/02, west side of Mission Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • A woman in a red hat walks away from a pile of clothes on a city sidewalk; other pedestrians and a garbage truck are in the background.
    9:05 a.m 6./02, southwest 16th Street BART Plaza. Photo by Lydia Chávez.

East side of Mission Street and northeast plaza

  • People gather near the 16th St Mission BART station; some are seated, others stand by food and drink tables, with graffiti and palm trees in the background on a cloudy day.
    8:30 a.m. 6/02, northeast 16th Street BART Plaza. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • People walking and standing near a colorful graffiti-covered wall on a city sidewalk; bicycles are parked against the wall and cars are parked along the street.
    8:30 a.m. 6/02, northeast 16th Street BART Plaza. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • Outdoor urban plaza with several people standing and walking; graffiti-covered walls and a stairway entrance are visible in the background.
    8:30 a.m. 6/02, northeast 16th Street BART Plaza. Photo by Lydia Chávez.

Caledonia Street

A narrow urban alleyway with cracked pavement, a beige building on the left, and a chain-link fence with colorful graffiti on the right.
8:22 a.m. 6/02, Caledonia Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.

Julian Avenue

  • A city sidewalk with parked cars along the street, multi-story buildings on both sides, and power lines overhead on a cloudy day.
    8:23 a.m.6/02, west side of Julian Avenue. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • A city sidewalk with parked cars on the left and a building with large windows on the right; a person is visible in the distance.
    8:23 a.m.6/02, east side of Julian Avenue. Photo by Lydia Chávez.

Wiese Street

A person searches through a trash bin in an alley with scattered debris, while other people stand and sit nearby; buildings and graffiti line the street.
8:24 a.m 6/02, Wiese Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.

15th Street, Capp Street

  • A city sidewalk with parked cars, a mural on one building, and two people walking in the distance. Trees and utility poles line the street.
    8:30 a.m. 6/02, 15th Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • A city sidewalk with parked cars, a mural on the left wall, and buildings lining both sides of the street on a clear day.
    9:02 a.m. 6/02, Capp Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • A city sidewalk with parked cars on the right, a black fence on the left, some chalk drawings on the pavement, and trees and buildings in the background under a blue sky.
    9:02 a.m. 6/02, Capp Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • A city street intersection with crosswalks, buildings on both sides, some parked cars, murals, and a few pedestrians under a clear blue sky.
    9:02 a.m.6/02, Capp Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
  • A city intersection with yellow crosswalk lines, a red traffic light, pedestrians waiting to cross, and vehicles parked along the street on a sunny day.
    9:02 a.m. 6/02, Capp Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.

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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.

As founder and an editor 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.

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7 Comments

  1. I wish they would put in trash cans, just to finally prove to Lydia that it would not change a thing. The people leaving trash throughout the area don’t care about norms or etiquette. Trash cans would, if anything, worsen the problem, with the desperate pawing through the trash looking for treasure and tossing it out of the can and into the street.

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  2. Day 10 000 at the 16th st plaza: ” nothing has changed; billions of $ have been poured in..zero effect.Non profit: zero effect. Politicians: zero effect.Start by agressively arresting those people, put them on a bus to a nice secluded jail in the middle of nowhere.Provide them with access to doctors,etc..A few can/will be rescued.The majority can enjoy each other company..only then you won’t have to write about 16th Plaza issues.

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  3. Thanks for reporting

    It appears throughout the city the open drug usage and drug dens is up and out of control all over .

    Lower Polk and Larkin sidewalks have no more space for the addicts . They are overflowing into the streets

    The dealers control the streets

    Lawlessness is lawlessness

    Police physically walking a few block area like is done in other countries should be started

    Calls for outside help and hiring private security who are trained to help intervene and get control of the problem areas is necessary .

    Really tired of the nonstop drug dealers and addicts destroying their lives and ours .

    Really getting old .

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  4. there are trash cans at 15th and mission and there are trash cans at 16th and mission. does ML want trash cans in the middle of the block? that seems pretty unusual

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  5. You remind me of Adachi,

    When he did the Night Court himself at night for no pay.

    The boss shows commitment to a story by working it herself over weekend and …

    Trouble for me here is that I have been the only one to offer new paths and they have been ignored in favor of … ??

    Let’s see you come up with 10 suggestions from your Staff as to how to keep the 16th and Mission BART plazas clean and safe.

    You already have mine about 50 times in comments and thanks much for that.

    Your suggestions are … ??

    go Niners !!

    h.

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    1. Reply

  6. This series is an agenda-driven pressure campaign. There’s no insightful reporting here, just a Groundhog Day story. ML is watering down its hard-hitting brand.

    Those on the street are fighting for their existence. Those in the RV are staring at their phone. Anyone who doesn’t know how this one ends is a fool.

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