A light purple classic car drives past a crowd of people standing by a graffiti-covered building on a city street.
6:25 p.m 7/24, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

You can see all the 16th Street posts here.

It was a clear morning on the plazas on Thursday as a convoy of three Department of Public Works vehicles, the SFPD and outreach workers did their jobs.

Come late afternoon, however, officials had left the northeast plaza, and the vendors, drug users, and curious moved in. The police car and mobile unit stationed on the southwest plaza had no effect on all the activity on the east side of Mission Street.

The Ahsing Solutions outreach workers, who patrol the west side of Mission Street and its side streets, say the east side is unsafe and falls outside their scope.

On 16th Street near Wiese Street, two men banged on the door of a small white truck in the late afternoon. “Wake up, wake up. Are you okay?” The gentleman at the wheel woke up. “We thought you were ODing,” his friend said. “You were asleep for more than an hour.”

Southwest Plaza and west side of Mission Street

  • San Francisco police car and Yvonne's mobile command unit parked at 16th Street Mission BART station, with people and buildings in the background.
    11:13 a.m. 7/24, south west 16th Street Plaza. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • A city street scene with a police car, a bus, a person standing on the sidewalk, and a mural reading "American Indian Cultural District" in the background.
    6:25 p.m 7/24, southwest plaza of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • An open pink door leads into Yvonne's building, with a caution wet floor sign inside near the entrance. "La Fenty" is visible on the glass in the background.
    11:10 a.m. 7/24, 1950 Mission St., La Fenix. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • A city sidewalk with a blue and red tile border near Yvonne's, metal fence, building exteriors, and a few people in safety vests standing near the street.
    11:11 a.m. 7/24, Mission Street west side. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • A man leans against a tree on a city sidewalk next to an electric scooter; pedestrians and vehicles are visible in the background.
    6:25p.m 7/24, west side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Northeast Plaza and east side of Mission Street

  • Urban plaza with several trees, graffiti on Yvonne's building walls, scattered trash, and a few people standing and sitting near a metal fence. Sky is overcast.
    11:09 a.m. 7/24, north east 16th Street Plaza. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • People are gathered on a city sidewalk near street vendors selling various items laid out on blankets, with colorful buildings and palm trees in the background.
    6:24 p.m 7/24, northeast plaza, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • Yvonne's orange electric scooter is parked on the sidewalk near a street with parked vehicles, trees, and buildings in an urban area.
    11:09 a.m. 7/24, Mission Street east side. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • A worker in an orange safety vest collects trash on a city sidewalk in front of Yvonne's colorful mural and a gated area covered with graffiti.
    11:09 a.m. 7/24, Mission Street east side. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • A group of people stand in line with carts and bags near a colorful mural and a bus stop on a city sidewalk.
    6:25 p.m 7/24, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A large group of people gathers on a sidewalk in front of a colorful mural in an urban area; some stand, others use wheelchairs or carry bags.
    6:25 p.m 7/24, east side of Mission Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Caledonia

  • Narrow urban alley with graffiti on Yvonne's right-side fence, beige building on the left, and cracked pavement under a cloudy sky.
    11:15 a.m. 7/24, Caledonia Street. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • Narrow urban alley with cracked pavement, graffiti-covered wall on the right, and a person sitting near the end of the alley.
    6:28 p.m 7/24 Caledonia Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Julian Avenue

  • A wide, empty sidewalk runs alongside parked cars and apartment buildings on a cloudy day in an urban neighborhood, just down the street from Yvonne's.
    11:14 a.m. 7/24, Julian Avenue west side. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • A wide city sidewalk with a person pushing a stroller, cars parked along the street, and multi-story buildings on both sides.
    6:27 p.m 7/24 Julian Avenue, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A city sidewalk with parked cars on the left, Yvonne's hotel and restaurant on the right, and people with a stroller and shopping cart in the distance.
    11:14 a.m. Julian Avenue east. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • A sidewalk in an urban area with parked cars on the left, buildings on the right, and a few people walking in the distance. A man stands on the right edge of the image.
    6:27 p.m 7/24 Julian Avenue, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Wiese Street

  • A narrow urban alley with metal barricades on both sides, a yellow building on the left, and Yvonne's taqueria sign on the right. The street is mostly empty and overcast.
    11:14 a.m. 7/24, Weise Street. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • A narrow urban alleyway lined with yellow and green buildings, metal barricades on both sides, and “No Parking” signs posted on the walls.
    6:26 p.m 7/24 Wiese Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Capp Street

  • Graffiti covers a wall beside a city sidewalk lined with parked cars outside Yvonne’s, a yellow pedestrian button, and people standing in the distance under a cloudy sky.
    11:07 a.m. 7/24, Capp Street. Photo by Jose A. Velazquez.
  • A city sidewalk with parked cars, a handicap parking sign, colorful graffiti on the wall, and a person sitting on the ground near a building.
    6:22 p.m 7/24 Capp Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez
  • A city sidewalk with a recycling bin, black trash bin, and electric scooter near the curb; parked cars and buildings line the street.
    6:22 p.m 7/24 Capp Street, Photo by Lydia Chávez

Follow Us

Reporting from Bayview-Hunters Point. I grew up on 24th and York Street and attended Buena Vista Elementary. As a teenager, I moved to Hunters Point and went to school in Potrero Hill. I'm currently a student at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. I've developed a toxic relationship with golf.

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/executive 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.

Join the Conversation

8 Comments

  1. That crowd swarming the sidewalk and 14/49 Muni stops is a civil rights violation of pedestrians and transit riders.

    +4
    -1
    votes. Sign in to vote
    Reply

  2. Thank you for reporting. The daytime looks great, but I was unaware of the drastic change in the evening. It appears 24 x 7 monitoring of that locale would be necessary

    +4
    -2
    votes. Sign in to vote
    Reply
  3. Reply
  4. Reply

  5. Thanks for reporting

    Lawlessness is lawlessness.
    Harm is happening.

    Dura lex , sed lex.

    Law enforcement is necessary since people are not angels and it is illegal to sell or use drugs.

    Police , at this point , should know and be stationed on foot walking around 24/7 in all areas of the city where the drug business continues without check.

    Really riduculous and it shows that someone or group are incompetent ; need help and need to do their part .
    It is apears everyone is just on the grift and doesnt care .

    Is is lack of education , ability and/or training.

    We all see the 24/7 drug circus continue .

    This is really sad and embarrassing .

    Sf is being taken for fools

    +1
    0
    votes. Sign in to vote
    Reply

  6. Campers,

    I was standing pretty much where you shot your lead photo from yesterday talking to a cop named McLaughlin I believe (his partner kinda sneered and walked away when I breached the question of an elected Police Chief forward) but McLaughlin listened and honestly interacted.

    Rare in a cop in San Francisco.

    He nodded at the same gang of people (or the morning shift) you photographed and asked if they didn’t disgust me and what would I do about it.

    I told him that if I had my way the cops would offer everyone they booked for from murder to shoplifting and jaywalking ten thousand dollars untaxed and a grand a month when they get out of jail to get sterilized.

    “You’d be standing here in a few years looking at the same scene when my name comes up and a cop asked what h. brown ever accomplished you can wave your arm in a sweep of the whole familiar scene and say …

    “Say what you want about h. brown but because of him they’re all sterile.”

    Then, I told him that the obvious thing we should do is to decriminalize drugs as they do in Europe which takes the cops and dealers out of the Triad.

    “Don’t give them a citation, give them a prescription.”

    Said other things to him too but I’m boring you, right ?

    lol

    go Niners !!

    h.

    +1
    -1
    votes. Sign in to vote
    Reply

    1. “Then, I told him that the obvious thing we should do is to decriminalize drugs as they do in Europe which takes the cops and dealers out of the Triad. […] Don’t give them a citation, give them a prescription.”

      Lol, you mean, do something that’s been proven to work?

      Which reminds me of the headline The Onion posts after every mass murder:
      “No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens”

      0
      -3
      votes. Sign in to vote
      Reply

      1. Been to Singapore, pretty strict, no one lying on the street. Well-ordered.

        Bangkok, free and easy, lots of people lying in various places. Lots of disorganization.

        This was not recent, but it’s hard to decide, free versus authoritarian, can there be a middle ground?

        One thing we know, if there are no consequences, behavior does not change.

        Also, no easy answers, such as many people offer here, and elsewhere.

        +2
        0
        votes. Sign in to vote
        Reply
Leave a comment
Please keep your comments short and civil. Do not leave multiple comments under multiple names on one article. We will zap comments that fail to adhere to these short and easy-to-follow rules.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *