A city street corner with a pole reading "16th St Mission." People are gathered, a scooter is parked, and buildings and palm trees are in the background under a clear sky.
The northeast 16th Street Plaza was mostly clean on Saturday morning. Photo by Junyao Yang.

On Saturday morning, both of the 16th Street BART plazas were moderately clean and lively with people selling food, giving speeches in Spanish and taking in the morning sun. The side streets were littered with trash, mostly food packaging.   

At the southwest plaza, around 10:37 am, an officer sat in the mobile-command unit, a brown bag on the dashboard. Another two police SUVs were parked on the southwest plaza, but no officers were inside. 

Right next to the command unit truck, Latino middle-aged men sat on the plaza stairs, hanging out and enjoying the sunshine. Nearby, a man, with a light pink blanket wrapped around him, sold orange boxes of faux eyelashes neatly laid out on the ground.

Twenty minutes later, he was packing up those same boxes. 

At 10:40 a.m., the northeast plaza is mostly clean. Among a group of people, a man was giving a passionate speech in Spanish, facing a camera recorder. A vendor walked around, discreetly, with a plastic bag filled with perfumes. Closer to the bus stop, there were smaller pieces of trash: Cigarette butts, spilled yogurt, wet cardboard. 

Caledonia Street was mostly clean. One person rested on the left side of the street. At the end of the alleyway, there was a blue tent and two people having a conversation. Things seemed quiet. 

On Rondel Place, a man lay on his back in the shade. A woman biked by him with two kids in tow. 

Julian Avenue was littered with scraps of plastic and food wrappers. On Wiese Street, a trash can was tipped over next to the barricades. Three people chatted on the right side of the alley. Down the street, a woman sat on the ground, enjoying her breakfast.

Around 10:45 a.m., Capp Street was a mess, definitely in the worst condition of the side streets. Trash abounded and the street smelled foul. Some five or six people rested, sitting on the sidewalk. A public works truck stopped briefly at 16th and Capp streets, but ended up taking a left turn at 17th.

A police mobile command unit is parked in a plaza with palm trees and a building in the background under a partly cloudy sky.
04/05/25 Southwest 16th Street Plaza.
Two police SUVs parked near the 16th St Mission station sign in a city setting with buildings and a fire truck in the background.
04/05/25 Southwest 16th Street Plaza.
A narrow urban alley with people standing and sitting on the side. A person walks by a building on the left, and there's a store with a red sign on the right.
04/05/25 Wiese Street.
Narrow alley with graffiti, trees, and overhead string lights. A person leans against a peach-colored building on the left. Blue-tiled section at the building’s bottom.
04/05/25 Caledonia Street.
A street scene with parked cars, a person crossing the street, and a hotel sign on a sunny day.
04/05/25 Julian Avenue.
Street intersection on a sunny day with cars parked along the sides, a stoplight showing red, and buildings in the background. Crosswalk and pedestrian visible in the scene.
04/05/25 Capp Street, looking south.
Urban street with parked cars, colorful graffiti on a wall, and litter scattered on the sidewalk.
04/05/25 Capp Street looking south.

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Junyao covers San Francisco's Westside, from the Richmond to the Sunset. She joined Mission Local in 2023 as a California Local News Fellow, after receiving her Master’s degree from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Junyao lives in the Inner Sunset. You can find her skating at Golden Gate Park or getting a scoop at Hometown Creamery.

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3 Comments

  1. Thanks for reporting .

    To be fair and equatible , please come and start doing daily reports in the Lower Polk Street Area .

    For seven years is has been ignored .

    Drug dealers and addicts line the alleyways .
    Encampments , garbage , dogs without leashes , graffiti and garbage.

    I recommend you report on a short alleyway called Myrtle .

    311 summary indicates over 300 pages of calls to city for just this block .
    Police records of calls are probably as many .
    8000? Calls

    Look forward to you covering this area .
    We would appreciate your help.

    It is a no go zone
    Next to a childrens park and senior housing project .
    Neighborhood remains neglected and all business is gone for years .

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  2. Perhaps on top of citing this small but destructive group of people for loitering, illegal drug use, selling stolen goods, public intoxication, and disturbing the peace, police can start ticketing them for littering.

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  3. Thanks for reporting

    Please come and do the same in other areas

    Lower Polk Street has been a destroyed neighborhood for seven plus years

    Drug dealers are the only business
    Kicking addicts who line the alleyways and get high all day long

    Hell on peoples doorstep

    Please start doing a daily report on Myrtle between Polk and Larkin

    You would be shocked and saddened

    Lawlessness is lawlessness

    Enough of this here

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