A crowd of people stands in line on a city sidewalk next to a building with colorful graffiti. A public bus and several cars are nearby.
7:50 p.m 7/20, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

You can see all the 16th Street posts here.

For the third weekend in a row, both sides of Mission Street have been clear during the day. But, come 6 p.m. or so, unpermitted vendors and drug users gather on the east side of Mission Street. The west side has remained clear.

That was the case Saturday and Sunday evening.

On the east side of Mission Street, the evening hours brought unpermitted vending of keychains, tennis shoes and more. A lot of open-air drug use took place in the mix. On both nights, the crowd began behind the MUNI stop and continued north along the wall of the abandoned Walgreens.

Until the evening hours, the San Francisco Police Department, the Department of Public Works and outreach workers from Ahsing Solutions kept the BART plazas clear and Mission Street looking like any commercial corridor.

The mobile unit, which has been missing from its spot on the southwest plaza for a few days, is expected to return, according to the men who work at the public toilets on the southwest plaza.

Caledonia Street and Julian Avenue had more people congregating near 15th Street on Sunday, while Julian Avenue had a large number of people parked near 15th Street on Saturday and near 14th Street on Sunday.

They will return to Mission Street once the police leave, a guard said Sunday. He was stationed near the sanctioned flea market on Mission Street between Mission and Julian Avenue.

Southwest Plaza and west side of Mission Street

  • A city sidewalk with metal barricades on the left, a delivery van on the right, and several people in safety vests standing in the distance.
    1:40 p.m 7/22, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • People walk on a city sidewalk past parked electric scooters and cars; trees and buildings line the street under an overcast sky.
    1:40 p.m 7/22, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A group of people wearing bright yellow Public Works jackets stand and talk on a city sidewalk near a crosswalk.
    1:41 p.m 7/20, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A city sidewalk with colorful tile patterns, parked cars on the street, a man walking away in the distance, and another man standing at the edge of the sidewalk.
    2:05 p.m 7/20, west side of Mission Street looking south from 15th Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A white SUV waits at an intersection in an urban area with crosswalks, overhead wires, pedestrians, and surrounding buildings on a cloudy day.
    7:37 p.m. 7/20 southwest plaza, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Northeast Plaza and east side of Mission Street

  • Several people gather on a city sidewalk near a colorful mural, with belongings, a scooter, and a dog beside them. Puddles and personal items are scattered on the ground.
    7:41 p.m 7/19, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A group of people, some wearing hoodies and masks, gather on a city sidewalk beside a graffiti-covered wall. One person holds a basketball and another sits on the ground.
    7:41 p.m 7/19, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A man stands on a city sidewalk next to a building with colorful graffiti murals; a pigeon is on the pavement nearby.
    1:42 p.m 7/20, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • People walk along a sidewalk in front of a building with colorful murals and graffiti, including a prominent Indigenous Cultural District mural. Cars are parked along the street.
    1:40 p.m 7/20, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A person rides an electric bike through a crosswalk; pedestrians stand and walk near a graffiti-covered building with palm trees in the background on an overcast day.
    1:40 p.m. 7/22, northeast plaza, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A city plaza with a few people sitting on benches, a parked utility truck, palm trees, and colorful graffiti on the background wall.
    1:41 p.m. 7/20 northeast plaza, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A long line of people waits outside a colorful mural-covered building near a glass bus shelter on an urban street.
    7:50 p.m 7/20, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A crowd of people stands in line on a city sidewalk near a colorful mural that reads “Oakland Cultural District” and “Welcome to Ramaytush Ohlone Land.”.
    7:50 p.m 7/20, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A group of people stand in line on a city sidewalk near colorful murals and a bus stop, with various bags and belongings visible.
    7:50 p.m 7/20, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Caledonia Street

  • A narrow alley with graffiti-covered walls, several people sitting or standing along the sides, and scattered litter on the ground.
    2:12 p.m 7/20, Caledonia Street looking south from 15th Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A person walks down a narrow urban alley lined with graffiti-covered walls and a chain-link fence on one side.
    7:34 p.m. 7/20 Caledonia Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Julian Avenue

  • A group of people stand and sit on a sidewalk under trees next to parked cars and buildings on a city street.
    10 a.m. p.m. 7/19, Julian Avenue, Mission resident
  • Several people stand and sit on a city sidewalk near a parked white pickup truck, with some gathered in groups and others near a building and trees.
    10 a.m. p.m. 7/19, Julian Avenue, Mission resident
  • Two white vans are parked on a city street while a group of people with belongings gather near a brick building in the background.
    2:10 p.m 7/20, Julian Avenue, looking north from 15th Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A group of people stand on a sidewalk near parked cars and buildings on an overcast day in an urban neighborhood.
    2:12 p.m 7/20, Julian Avenue looking south from 15th Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A sidewalk lined with parked cars beside a brick building with a sign reading "Kailash Hotel, 179 Julian Ave"; a few people walk in the distance.
    7:35 p.m 7/20, Julian Avenue, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A person stands near a building on a city sidewalk, looking down at an object in their hands. Cars are parked along the street.
    7:35 p.m 7/20, Julian Avenue, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Wiese Street

  • A wet, empty alley lined with metal barricades, yellow and green graffiti-covered walls, and a few people visible in the distance.
    1:39 p.m. 7/20, Wiese Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • Narrow city alley lined with metal barricades on both sides, bordered by buildings with graffiti and faded paint.
    7:36 p.m 7/20, Wiese Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Capp Street and 15th Street

  • Several people walk and stand on a city sidewalk near a street sign for 16th Street; a man walks a dog, and litter is scattered on the ground.
    7/20 9:45 a.m. Capp Street near the Victoria theater. Every day DPW is power washing both sides of Mission north of 16th street. For now the vendors selling stuff, the drug dealers and their customers all scurry away. Photo by George
  • A crosswalk with yellow stripes leads to a red building on a cloudy day; traffic lights are red, and cars are parked along the street.
    2:01 p.m 7/20, Capp Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • People walk along a city sidewalk lined with parked cars and storefronts; one person opens a door while others are further down the street.
    1:58 p.m 7/20, 15th Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A city sidewalk with trees in planters runs alongside parked cars and modern apartment buildings on an overcast day.
    2:06 p.m 7/20, 15th Street looking West from Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Hoff Street

Two people stand on a sidewalk corner while another person sits with belongings near a red and blue building. Several parked cars and buildings line the street.
7:35 p.m 7/20, Hoff 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.

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.

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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10 Comments

  1. I came up from BART at 10:30 on Friday night and the entire plaza was covered in people smoking drugs, selling drugs, and selling stolen goods. You could barely walk through it. It continued all the way up Mission to 15th Street. Does anyone have any information on the timeline for the new building that’s going in on the old Walgreen’s site? Feels like nothing is going to change on the plaza until they get rid of the incredibly misguided tiny home village Ronen forced on the neighborhood.

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  2. What concrete steps has Jackie Fielder taken lately to stop this from happening? This is her district after all.

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  3. “according to the men who work at the public toilets on the southwest plaza”

    the same guys that sit there and smoke cigarettes just a few feet from a public bathroom with a “no smoking” sign on it? I’m sure they’re a very reliable source.

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  5. Conflating “unpermitted vendors and drug users” feels classist at best and profoundly racist at worst. Vendors used to be one of the bearing hearts of the mission before the rampant gentrification, property speculation, and techies changed the face of the neighborhood where I used to spend most of my time.

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    1. Damien, the vending that takes place in this specific location is part of the drug ecosystem of the neighborhood. It’s the fencing of stolen goods to fund drug addiction. Full stop. This is not about the “tamale ladies” or sausage carts or permitted vendors that have served the Mission for years. It has nothing to do with race or class. There are people of all races, and very likely hailing from all different classes, addicted to drugs and doing everything they can — yes, including selling stolen goods — to feed their addiction on public streets.

      Come see for yourself.

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    2. Vendors were never the beating heart of the Mission. There was not a proliferation of vendors selling stuff on tarps along Mission Street until the 2010s.

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  6. The ‘sanctioned’ flea market ?

    It’s called ‘little flea’ or pituita or something like that and I’ve been shopping there for about 20 years and is open Saturdays and Sundays 9am til 5pm and is parking lot for a non profit jobs place called Arriba Juntos whose building abuts the Southern face of the Armory whose Mission Street front and Julian Street rear run some 367 feet of potential vendor space.

    Toss in the Northern side of the Armory and you end up with right at around 1,000 linear feet of potential Vendor space and Ronen had a project on weekends giving more vendors space but as the Armory’s sidewalks were half filled with illegally abandoned scaffolding she had to close Julian which angered neighbors who parked there.

    Now, with the scaffolding gone it is possible to return vendors without closing the street.

    Worth a try.

    go Niners !!

    h.

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