San Francisco city officials admit there is no quick fix to what has become an intractable problem of illegal drug use and street fencing at the Mission District’s BART plazas. But, they said this week, the city is doubling down on trying to uproot it.
In June, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a “90-day strategy” for the the 16th Street and 24th Street BART plazas, and a spokesperson for the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, which is coordinating a multi-agency push on the plazas, confirmed on Thursday that the plan will continue indefinitely.
“While the early results of the 90-day strategy are promising, we know our work is far from finished,” read a statement from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. “The City is continuing the coordinated work launched as part of the 90-day strategy, and there is no set end date for this next phase at this time.”
Coordinated city efforts to crack down on vending and drug use around 16th Street began in March last year with the arrival of a giant San Francisco Police Department “mobile command unit” parked on the BART plaza.
Since then, the city has deployed police raids, set up “family-friendly” pop-up markets, contracted with private firms to hire street workers to discourage loitering, promised to boost police presence, and held town halls with multiple city departments to address neighbors’ concerns.
Mission Local covered the first 100 days of the 2025 crackdown on 16th Street, and continues to report on conditions around the plazas.
The latest strategy leans heavily on many of the same approaches that have been tried before, and city officials admit there’s no easy solution.
Santiago Lerma, who leads the Mission Street Team, says that the coalition of city agencies focused on the plazas should be more effective now that the departments “hyper-communicate” with one another.
Rafa Moreno, from the economic and workforce office, agreed. “’It’s not as compartmentalized. It really is more coordinated. Everyone has each other’s telephone numbers now.”
In the biggest change from earlier efforts, a state bill approved in October, 2025 has given police officers the authority to enforce illegal vending; eight new police officers and a lieutenant have been assigned to the plazas.
Police say that they have issued 534 notices of violations, 93 first time citations, 14 second time citations and three misdemeanors since the 90-day plan began on June 7.
The Office of Economic and Workforce Development is planning to spend $1 million this fall on “activations” like pop-up markets and “family-friendly” events at the 16th and 24th St. BART plazas, and the state has given the city $3 million to fund “public safety infrastructure” there.
Some examples, the mayor’s office said, are improvements in lighting and funds for more activations.
But there doesn’t seem to be more money for other interventions. Currently, the Mission has 12 street ambassadors and two street workers from Ahsing Solutions who patrol the plazas from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. to deter illegal vending and drug use.
Last month, District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder, noting that conditions were worse at night, asked the mayor’s office to assign street ambassadors to cover the plazas 24 hours a day. The mayor’s office denied the request on Aug. 18. Putting street ambassadors on around the clock, it said, would raise the cost from $2.2 million to nearly $8 million.
Fielder did not reply to a request for comment.
Is it working?
According to the mayor’s office, the first 80 days of the strategy’s implementation were marked by a 34 percent decrease in emergency calls about people who appeared homeless, and a 22 percent drop in calls about public drug use.
But the number of calls does not always reflect the concerns of those nearby. On a recent Thursday, in the streets around both plazas, the assessment of the strategy’s success was mixed.
Ernesto Cabello, owner of Ernesto’s hair salon near 16th and Mission, said he’s seen substantial improvement over the last three months. But, he added, stabbings still happen.
In January, three people were stabbed at 16th and Mission, just hours after Mayor Lurie visited one of the “activations” on the plaza. On July 14, two people were stabbed within a couple hours of each other, according to a spokesperson from the police department.
Awad Faddoul, owner of La Boheme at 3318 24th St., at Osage Street, said that even though he can’t see the ins and outs at the plazas throughout the day, conditions around his business do look a little better.
“Overall, it is a little better. I’ve seen less people in the alleyways, thanks to the ambassadors,” Faddoul said, adding that there’s still room for improvement.
Brian Tublin, owner and co-founder of Kitava at 2011 Mission St., near 16th Street, said that he’s noticed more police and enforcement. That enforcement, however, doesn’t continue into nights and weekends.
“We, honestly, are not seeing enough progress. We’re not seeing enough of an effort, despite the fact that there’s been this 90-day push,” said Tublin. “We’ve had some of the worst days that we’ve seen in these last 30 to 60 days.”
Neighbors have been sounding the alarm for months. As recently as Aug. 28, in emails shared with Mission Local, residents shared pictures with Fielder’s office of both the plazas inundated with people allegedly fencing at different times of the day.
“The most dysfunctional people continue to gather in the area, creating dangers for themselves and others who live in the area and/or depend on public transportation,” read an email sent to Sasha Gaona, Fielder’s chief of staff.
A woman sitting on Mission Street near 16th Street, who asked to be identified by the initials A.R., said on a recent Thursday that she’s been coming here as a vendor for over 25 years. But in recent months, she said, she’s stopped selling things on the sidewalk because she fears city employees will confiscate them.
She is still selling, but keeps her bottles of shampoo in a duffel bag that she can carry away quickly.
She does notice fewer people in the area using drugs, she said. “Now, they hide instead of using in public.”
Later that day, as this reporter interviewed three people at the southwestern 16th and Mission BART plaza, a man a few feet away started to jerk back and forth, in what looked like a seizure.
“Wake the fuck up,” a woman yelled desperately as foam poured out of the man’s mouth,and a worker with Ahsing Solutions administered first aid.
All three interviewees seemed unbothered by the scene.
“That’s just what you see here,” said one of the men.
Interesting. I wonder how “A.R.” gets the bottles of shampoo that she’s worried city employees might confiscate.
I’ve lived by the 24th Street station for years and if I can easily find someone selling what are likely stolen items, or step over someone smoking powder out of tinfoil, it seems like the cops should be able to as well. This doesn’t require Sherlock Holmes deduction.
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The mayor and Fielder , many other non-profit $$$ executives, Santiago Lerma etc. have been advised to look at what’s been happening for a long time!! No better now where I live across from the Marshall Elementary school. These kids have to experience all of this. I am a 35 year resident right there and a senior citizen. Don’t I have a right to feel safe at night walking around or living in my own neighborhood? Tired of gunshots drug dealers and their Fentynal customers all day and overnight .
If the City had wanted to clean up the area they would have years ago. It’s intentional to have a crime containment zone here. I don’t see initiatives to move these people to Forest Hills Bernal, Marina, Specific Whites areas, to spread out the non profit ineffective ‘services’ to outside of The Mission and SOMA. Brown skinned parents and school children who are the majority population here in the inner Mission around the BART plazas are being discriminated against.
Both Mission BART plazas are dangerous places populated by violent addicts, but I think 16th Street is worse than 24th.
Both 16th Street – and even worse 15th Street between Mission and Market- are MUCH worse this past 8-12 months. The Gubbio Project – while well-intentioned – seems to care zilch for the fact most of their clients get a meal and then take a fix out on the 15th Street corridor. At the Mission Senior Housing on 15th Street between Guerrero and Dolores, we see addicts shooting up in the hedges at all hours of day and night. We pick up their garbage – including Narcan – every morning. And addicts and dealers are ALL OVER the Church and Market Bermuda Triangle after dark. It never ends and everyone see it. We need Supervisor Mandelman’s office to step up for the North Mission sector which gets it coming both ways – from the 16th and Mission BART and Gubbio Project & from the Church Station after-dark drug dealing. It spills out into all the small streets – Landers, Ramona, Caldonia, Julian, Wiese. Twice in August, I personally had to call 911 twice when drug addicts got violent with passersby on the street – and this is during daylight hours – and our neighbors experienced the theft of an electric bicycle – which was his work transport. After rarely seeing homeless people or encampments near Mission Dolores Cathedral, they are now a daily occurence. So who is paying attention? Supervisor Mandelman? SFPD Mission Station?
The mayor can make it hard for those on the streets, but did he ever ask how people ended up on the street? And actually took the time to understand?
No one would’ve choose that, if they had better options.
In the Chronicle, Lurie’s administration said that expanding the hours of ambassadors to later in the evening would put ambassadors in harm’s way.
Instead of SFPD or ambassadors risking being put in harm’s way, it will be residents, businesses and transit riders who continue to be put in harm’s way.
We need for SFPD to station 4 officers at each of the 4 BART plazas between 8PM and 11PM to ward off the commercial activities on the plaza.
According to New York Magazine, tech billionaire Chris Larsen ordered London Breed to “clean up the Tenderloin first” two years ago and that led to the displacement of fentanyl tourists into the Mission.
Why is Supervisor Fielder taking an evil tech villain forcing addicts into a low income community of color with many vulnerable immigrants, lying down?
SFPD Mission Station IS the problem.
If the cops would uphold laws then there would be less lawlessness.
Seriously, 6 Captains in 5 years and a forceless force. Gut the station, retire the long term dirty (and often lazy), cops running the station and reassign every officer and employee.
No wonder why the Missions a MESS!
Time is to first fix, that station and restore public health and safety laws created to protect not destroy communities. Obviously, this is the root of all the issues.
K.,
You hit the nail on the head.
Their union is good at making paper clips said a techie.
A good union gets you the highest pay possible with the least work and under safest of conditions.
SFPOA has done that out the butt.
Concerning 16th and Mission, it is dangerous because the cops abandoned it.
For a short time there was a cop there you could walk up to over a counter at any time of day or night.
The gangs hated it and actually shot holes in the top of one a retired captain told me when we were talking about such things and I lamented that the cops kept the blinds down on every window of their station and such.
They made a deal with Willie to take the 24/7/365 cop boxes Feinstein put at the BART stops and in Chinatown cause the duty was too dangerous as Maros points out and more dangerous to us cause we don’t have guns and double zero designations.
The way the Cop Box works is that one officer (Patrol Special) is in booth while two other officers doe 2 block Foot Patrols by themselves like their daddies and granddaddies did and they rotate.
I’m talking 16th and Mission and the friggin’ Mission Police station is on 17th a single block away if they need help it will come in seconds with a dozen cars !
After a couple of weeks the neighborhood would get to know their beat cops by name and support and love them just as we did when I was a kid in the St. Louis slums.
The real answer is to change the Charter so’s we can elect our own Top Cop.
Give them the power to hire and fire and suspend without pay.
“It might take a couple of election cycles cause the first one you elect might not do what they promised but you could eventually get someone like me who lasts for 32 years.”
Retired Sheriff Michael Hennessey said that to me 25 years ago.
I’ve been advocating for an elected Police Chief since.
go Niners !!
h.
16th and Mission was a haven for drugs and crime long before Breed was mayor. It has been that way for at least the 30 years that I have been in the city.
Insofar as ne’er-do-wells were driven out of the TL, they would naturally be attracted to the part of the city most similar to the TL.
I’ve lived here for 37 years and previous waves of drug use were nothing remotely like fentanyl has been over the past two years.
This is not acceptable and Mission residents are finally organizing districtwide to put an end to it.
@Marcos, can you elaborate on how/where Mission residents are organizing so we can join?
We have >20 people on our small block ready to help, we are all sick of dealing with drug addicts & dealers near 16th & Mission. Our pleas to the Mayors office, SFPD Mission Station, seem to disappear into a black hole, and Supervisor Jackie Fielder seems to be MIA…. (Again). Could someone tell her this is the only thing she should be focusing on. It the number 1 issue in the Mission.
On the other hand there is less open prostitution there than there used to be.
As for the locals “organizing” to “put an end to it”, I won’t hold my breath. This is a job for the professionals.
What do you call Doubling Down on Proven Failure ?
You call it Mayor Lurie’s approach at 16th and Mission.
Why not bring back the only things that have worked there ?
1. Licensed permanent Vendor Stalls
2. 24/7/365 staffed Security Kiosks
3. Corner raised stage for music and poetry and preachers
Only a goddamned idiot would park their bike there so those racks must go and be replaced by permanent vendors.
The cops abandoned Feinstein’s Kobans as too dangerous which suggest we need another more reliable round the clock security that has been proven effective for over a hundred years and that would be Patrol Specials.
Make the BART plazas in SF into Patrol Special beats and fund them by hiring their officers to fill a hundred of the 400 vacant SFPD positions.
The entertainment and poetry and preaching is already happening there and only needs an equipped stage with permanent schedule manager.
All this works.
What Mayor Lurie is doing has been proven not to work.
Worst item on the ballot come November is the one taking away the Mayor’s power to put items on the ballot by themselves.
It’s akin to giving your leader a vasectomy or tubal ligation as appropriate and then telling them to go create a tribe.
I cannot for the life of me understand why he is backing cutting off his own balls.
That’s a metaphor.
go Niners !!
h.
I was raised on 24th, three blocks off of Mission. Its hard not to cry at what it has turned into. If the mayor can’t get it and keep it clean, I say we don’t give him any grace on election day that year.
We are all sick of the conditions.
The City need to throw everything and anything at it.
1. ICE agents: Go for it
2. Police: cite all drug dealers & users
3. Shut down the Gubbio project. No more homeless services in the Mission, it’s out of control. It has only gotten worse since they came to the Mission.
4. End all City/County subsidies to drug tourists, pretty sure that’s the big ticket.
5. Make sure these people don’t just move to the adjacent streets.
6. REPLACE OUR SUPERVISOR! We need someone who cares about the hard working, tax-paying residents of this area. We live here and we are sick of the deteriorating conditions.
Get the druggies & thieves out of town.
This latest series of moves from corrupt City Hall shows the incompetence of Daniel Lurie. It also shows his deep lack of empathy about what is going on in the Mission. Using police to sweep the streets harkens back to former NYC mayor Giuliani’s days of cleaning up 42nd Street/Times Square area. Residents of the area reported that all it did was move the homeless and desperate up to Fort Washington, then a largely Dominican latino area. Where will the desperate folks from 16th St. and 24th St go when Zionist ‘Denim’ Dan Lurie sweeps them out of the area (of course, which will be lauded on social media with his paid PR cadre and hailed as more wins for the self-proclaimed saviour of San Francisco).
A better solution is to determine the actual source of the problem AND FIX IT. The sweeps are surface level first aid to a much deeper societal issue that existed for generations. It’s poverty, man. Simple. The folks who live in the Mission are the most marginalized of all communities in SF. It used to be Bayview Hunters Point area but gentrification and exodus of the black population during the past two decades has pacified that area which now features some million dollar townhomes with gated garage parking next to old mom and pop grocers, shops and places where you got haircuts and nails done.
This is the play from Denim Dan and his rich billionaire buddies from surveillance tech and real estate are trying to roll up the gentrification as fast as possible not just in the Mission but District 4 as well.
It’s poverty, man. That’s the central issue in San Francisco. Housing is an adjunct because (listen close) if people can’t afford a place to live, they go to the streets and that’s what you see up and down Mission Street north of Army Street all the way down to the Ferry Building.
We gotta get Denim Dan Lurie, a low-key Trump emulator and phat Zionist out of office as soon as possible.
Anyone care to join this initiative? It needs to happen quickly before the gentrification hits full stride. I hope the staff at Mission Local join this.
So you hate Bayview because it has been “gentrified”
And you hate the Mission because it has not?
Make your mind up.
What happened to the”team of teams” approach which assumes political/social problems can be solved by better management techniques based on the spectacular (and violent) success of the US military touted by serial killer Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal, fired for his overt racism, was known for raiding civilian homes and killing anything that moved — same thing endorsed by some commenters here. It worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan, it should work on 16th and Mission
Send ICE through there and a sizeable portion of the troublemakers will soon be gone. Instead of just trying to manage the problem, have the courage to do something that will actually make a difference.
Try harder, troll, that shit is old