You can see all the 16th Street posts here.
A phalanx of police officers, DPW workers and members of a new nonprofit doing clean up, converged on Mission Street Saturday to keep the sidewalks at Mission and 16th streets clear and clean for pedestrians.
On the weekends, Mission Street north of 16th Street has become a free-for-all for unpermitted vending and open drug use.
Earlier Saturday, it appeared another regular frenzy might be developing, but by 1 p.m., the west and east sides of Mission Street from 14th to 16th Street looked like any other commercial corridor with pedestrians.
A police SUV sat on the southwest plaza. Mobile Unit Two, moved for July 4th, had not yet returned, but the plaza was clear of unpermitted vending.
The northeast plaza had some open drug use but two BART crisis intervention workers were on the plaza talking to people and keeping an eye on a few.
On-site at 1 p.m on Mission Street:
- One police superintendent, two sergeants and three police officers, said Sgt. Jones, who was on Mission Street.
- A clean-up crew of eight in white vests from Ahsing Solutions, which has a contract with the city’s Department of Emergency Management.
- At least five DPW workers as well as a DPW driver and truck.
- Two BART crisis intervention workers.
When he sees someone using a pipe on Mission Street, “I ask if they could please relocate and keep moving,” said Ronnie Calderon, a worker from Ahsing Solutions, who said he and his crew will be working the 16th Street area in the coming weeks.
As he talked, a couple of elderly women walked by and he called out to them. “I know people here,” he said, adding that he grew up in the Mission and had worked earlier for the Latino Task Force, a group of neighborhood activists and nonprofit leaders that formed during the pandemic.
Further down the block, a DPW worker who identified himself as Hayward, said, “The mayor, he’s had it with this,” referring to Mayor Daniel Lurie and his focus on making the 16th and Mission Street intersection more habitable.
As we spoke, Hayward asked a young man to stop riding his scooter on the sidewalk. The man ignored him and Hayward excused himself to catch up and remind the man of his request. He complied.
Is this a one-day victory or will it continue? It’s unclear.
By 7 p.m., vending on the east side of Mission Street and the northeast plaza had returned, but the west side of Mission Street and the southwest plaza remained fairly clear. The crew from Ahsing Solutions was still walking the west side of Mission Street.
Saturday was their first day on the job at 16th Street and later, Santiago Lerma, the head of the Mission Street Team, said the Ahsing crew – a community safety and engagement team – will be working five to seven days a week from 11:30 to 8 p.m. Their focus is strategic: the alleys off 16th Street between Mission and Capp streets and Mission Street between 14th and 16th streets.
Although we are posting now twice a week, we visit every day at different times. There has been some improvement this week – especially so during the day on the west side of Mission Street. But it can deteriorate later in the day and the east side of Mission Street has remained fairly active this week.
During the afternoon operation on Saturday, Wiese and Capp Streets saw the biggest influx of people. In the afternoon, the Ahsing crew was on Wiese and when I returned this evening, Wiese had only a few people sitting on the curb.
Residents continue to send in photos showing activity on Julian Avenue.
Southwest Plaza and west side of Mission Street
9:59 a.m. 7/5 southwest plaza, Photo by Lydia Chávez 
10:00 a.m. 7/5 west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez 
1:04 p.m. 7/5 west side of Mission Street Photo by Lydia Chávez 
1:07 p.m. 7/5 west side of Mission Street Photo by Lydia Chávez 
1:25 p.m. 7/5 west side of Mission Street Photo by Lydia Chávez 
7:28 p.m. 7/5, west side of Mission Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez 
7:28 p.m. 7/5, the crew from Ahsing Solutions. west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
Northeast Plaza and east side of Mission Street
Wiese Street
Capp Street
We welcomed 165 Capp, the Neighborhood Services Center, 20 yr ago. The presumption was that there were already homeless people here, so why not provide services? That’s not how it worked out. The 100 block of Capp went to shit shortly after the facility was opened.
Gubbio Project slipped through the cracks and led to the enshittification of 15th and Julian, fires and addicts across the street from Centro Latino that serves meals to seniors and close to Friendship House of American Indians treatment center. Gubbio would have been supercharged into an addict electromagnet had legal objections not inhibited a safe consumption site there, all to assuage the guilt of one middle aged white woman.
Learning from this, residents organized against Mission Cabins which has been adjacent to Marshall Elementary for one year now. Hillary Ronen pretended to engage with us but lied to us repeatedly, without shame. Weeks after the facility opened, 16th and Mission became Tenderloin South with the influx of hundreds of zombie fentanyl addicts. Mixing that with illegal vending led to a spate of gunfire late last summer. 15th from Mission to Capp in front of Marshall has often seen the overflow from containment in the BART plaza.
Not satisfied with the damage these professional minders of other people’s business have done to our neighborhood, they want to double down on the harm by siting permanent supportive housing, treatment for the most difficult substance and psych cases, adjacent to Marshall Elementary which is overrepresented in kids of color and homeless, immigrant and low income kids.
Ethnicity and poverty nonprofits have choked progressive politics down to a nub of maybe 2 votes at the Board. In many cases, they’ve played the race card against anyone who challenges their business model. They are determined to squeeze the husk dry.
When it comes to built environmental injustice against their purported constituencies, the ethnicity and poverty nonprofiteers play the other kind of race card, the white supremacist one that shows kids of color, poor kids, immigrant kids and homeless kids and their families exactly where they stand, prone with a city funded nonprofit’s jackboot on their neck.
To recap: An indigenous/Latina supervisor and Latino and housing and homeless nonprofits feel that the appropriate intervention adjacent to an elementary school in the American Indian Cultural District is drug and substance treatment permanent supportive housing for the toughest cases.
Addicts mostly die. Marshall students are our future. This is a no brainer.
This is what money driven, shameless, anti-poor, anti-immigrant racism looks like, all neatly wrapped in a progressive banner. And they call me the right winger.
Great overview of the scene,
You really are a civic jewel, Marc … !
It would seem we have floating and expanding containment zones.
Remember Arthur Evans description of the “Narco Nomads” ?
He was talking about a young colony that moved up and down the coast and loved his neighborhood in San Francisco when they visited.
Getting rid of the tents did not get rid of their inhabitants.
I know because my dog and I pick up their trash while moving around them in our morning cleanup 14th Street from Guerrero to Mission plus the back and North side of the Armory.
All of these projects should be moved to Treasure Island where there are a couple of hundred vacant acres scheduled for soccer fields and the like.
Organizations that need brick and mortar can move into the Job Corps facilities.
Adjacent to a thousand unit RV and Tent Campground.
Hey friends, these people have nowhere to go and now they have no cover from the elements, so congrats on tent count being down.
I’m guessing the SFPOA sabotaged Captain Johansen to please the racist Irish thugs who still rule the rank and file.
Now, after she is gone they show you what they can do.
New Mayor learning the ropes.
I hope.
We’ll see if our new Station Chief continues to hold regular Community Meetings out in the community or if he brings back the idea building another literally brick and mortar wall around the station.
I’ll phone and ask tomorrow.
A big Tell will be how the new guy handles this year’s Hill Bomb which could come at any moment ?
go Niners !!
h.
“Addicts mostly die. Marshall students are our future. This is a no brainer.”
How do we help?
And what the hell is Ahsing Solutions?
Where do city officials FIND this endless series of poverty nonprofits?
Ronnie, the worker from the nonprofit, asked the person on the glass pipe if they could smoke somewhere else hahaha.
This is solving anything, that’s not taking care of the problem, it’s just moving, pushing it somewhere else, and the problem with this city!!
Yeah that’s the real story here. Is that what the city is paying Ahsing Solutions for? If I was a journalist, I’d be digging into that contract.
“When he sees someone using a pipe on Mission Street, ‘I ask if they could please relocate and keep moving,’ said Ronnie Calderon, a worker from Ahsing Solutions…” Um, there are laws against consuming illegal narcotics in public. There’s a police SUV a few feet away. How about informing the officer and getting this individual some help – even if it’s against his will – rather than allowing him to slink off around the corner and continue to ruin the lives of the poor and working-class community of color around him?
You can’t really force people into a program. Police have been citing some offenders. At other times they don’t. We are trying to get answers as to why because I don’t entirely understand. For their part, the outreach workers attempt to keep people moving – it is a pedestrian walkway.
With all due respect, Ms. Chavez, yes, you can absolutely give people simple choice: enter a program, go to jail, or leave town. Staying on the sidewalk in this city and using illegal narcotics is not one of the choices. Are they “forced” to enter a program? Not literally – but they will probably take that option over the other two, and accept the chance to reclaim their lives. Many addicts have expressed the hope that the city would actually use this option and end their cycle of addiction and despair – we as a society owe it to them to help!
The inability of SF law enforcement to be able to regain control of the illegal
Activity going on in many neighborhoods , including the one you keep reporting and Lower Polk/Larkin raises many questions?
Cannot they not see what is going on?
Are they being paid off by the cartels?
Are they not aware they have failed and need to step it up?
It appears they dont really care , lack the ability , interest and are on the grift?
Easier to go after a vendor .
I think there is enough evidence that has shown for years , sfpd has not been able to have an effective proactive plan .
Usually people call for help when they cannot do something .
SF is not that big .
35.000 city employees , cops only driving around and sitting in cars ?
I would hope they would be walking the beat by now .
People from other cities and places see sf as a drug den shithole .
Until this illegal activity is cleared , the addicts will keep coming like rats .
Enough of the hand holding and take your pipe to the next block . Arrest and hard labor will clear their body of the poison and help them understand that poisoning yourself on the sidewalks here to get high is selfish and citizens are sick of their ruining everyones lives .
Step up and take responsibility
Mature a little
DPW IS A CROCK. THEY CAN CARE LESS I WORK FOR HUNTERS POINT FAMILY AND DPW DONT CARE ABOUT NO ONE.. WE WORK AND DPW FUNDS ..AND WERE ARE EXPOSE TO SO MUCH OUT ON 16 MISSION PIT STOP.WORKERS WE HAVE NO COVER WITCH DPW SAID THAT WE DONT NEED COVER EVERDAY WORKERS ARE EXPOSED TO MANY DANGEROUS ELEMENTS. . ALL THEY SAID TP BUY WARMER CLOTHES ..WHAT IS THAT. Pit STOP WORKERS DO WE TAKE CARE OF THE BATHROOMS WE WATER THE SIDE WALK THE WHOLE STREETS TO WE SWEEP PICK UP TRASH CALLED 911 WITNESS PEOPLE DROP DYING OF FENTINAYL .. PICK UP POOPS ALL KIDS OF STUFF.. WHY.NOT RECONIZE WHAT PITSTOP WORKERS DO DAY IN AND OUT ESPECIALLY THE NIGHT SHIFT. OH MY WHAT WE SEE AND PEOPLE MAKING THREATS TO KILL US EVEN SAYING IM GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS.GROWN MEN TALKING TO A WOMEN LIKE THAT DRIVE BYES.. DRUG TRANSACTION PEOPLE SHOOTING UP.. LET ME SEE I CAN KEEP GOING ON.. DPW DOESNT TO NOTHING .. I SEE IT ALL HALF WAY CLEANING JOB THEY HALF ASS PICK UP TRASH ..PLEASE DONT BLVE WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA HAS TO SAY.. AND THE COPS ARE A JOKE .. THE TRAILER IS FOR SHOW THEY BARLEY COME OUT ACTUALL NO ONE COMES OUT AT TIMES THEY ARE NOT FRIENDLY I SEEN PEOPLE GET HIGH GET JUMP AND CURSED AT IN GRONT OF THE COP TRAILER AND THEY DO NOTHING ..YOU HAVE TO KNOCK AND KNOCK FOR SOMEONE TO COME OUT.. YOU THINK.THEY CARE YA RIGHT HALF OF THE TIME THERE SLEEPING IN THERE COME ON THE TRRAILER IS FULLY LOADE WITH A SCREEN TVS MICROWAVE HOT PLATE HEATER COME ON..PLEASE DONT BELVE THERE CRAP.. I WORK RIGHT NEXT TO THE TRAILER.. OK AND I SEE DPW EVERYDAY HALF ASS WORKERS.. SO RECONIZE WHO DOES THERE WORK RIGHT .. DONT BLVE WHAT YOU HEAR.
Did the SFPD change their rank structure?
There is no rank of superintendent within the SFPD
Great overview of the scene,
You really are a civic jewel, Marc … !
It would seem we have floating and expanding containment zones.
Remember Arthur Evans description of the “Narco Nomads” ?
He was talking about a young colony that moved up and down the coast and loved his neighborhood in San Francisco when they visited.
Getting rid of the tents did not get rid of their inhabitants.
I know because my dog and I pick up their trash while moving around them in our morning cleanup 14th Street from Guerrero to Mission plus the back and North side of the Armory.
All of these projects should be moved to Treasure Island where there are a couple of hundred vacant acres scheduled for soccer fields and the like.
Organizations that need brick and mortar can move into the Job Corps facilities.
Adjacent to a thousand unit RV and Tent Campground.
Hey friends, these people have nowhere to go and now they have no cover from the elements, so congrats on tent count being down.
I’m guessing the SFPOA sabotaged Captain Johansen to please the racist Irish thugs who still rule the rank and file.
Now, after she is gone they show you what they can do.
New Mayor learning the ropes.
I hope.
We’ll see if our new Station Chief continues to hold regular Community Meetings out in the community or if he brings back the idea building another literally brick and mortar wall around the station.
I’ll phone and ask tomorrow.
A big Tell will be how the new guy handles this year’s Hill Bomb which could come at any moment ?
go Niners !!
h.