On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Rosa Marroquin peeked out the front door of her son’s pre-school at 1954 Mission St., between 15th and 16th streets.
Gripping her three-year-old boy’s hand, she looked left and right a couple of times before walking out. She had reason to be fearful: A few months ago, while leaving school, Marroquin said, a man ran past them, followed by two others holding a knife and a gun.
“One of the men screamed, ‘You better run, because you’re dead if we catch you,’” she recalled. “I panicked and pushed my boy against the wall and used my body as a shield to protect him. The man got in a car and escaped, but we could’ve witnessed a murder.”
Residents at the housing complex next to the school say their lives are similarly fraught. People wander in off the street, others smoke drugs, the sidewalk is trash-strewn, and residents are raising children in the midst of it all. Some of their apartments look out onto Wiese Street, which has become a notorious place for drug deals and other criminal activity.
“It’s ugly to live like this. It’s a mess,” said Orlando Lopez, a tenant who sometimes wishes he could move. “My kids don’t wanna see all of this anymore.”
Marroquin and Lopez are among the 18 parents, school workers, and tenants who spoke to Mission Local about the “horrible” conditions outside the Mission Campus of the nonprofit Mission Neighborhoods Center and the 157-unit affordable housing complex at 1950 Mission St., where some of the students live. The early education center has 42 students and is connected to the housing complex, which opened four years ago and is known as La Fenix.
Mercedes Uriarte, the school’s principal, said she and others have alerted the police, but things haven’t changed much, not even with the crackdown at the plazas that began in mid-March, along with Mayor Daniel Lurie’s visits to 16th and Mission streets.
Bridge Housing, the property manager at La Fenix, said in a statement that it is “committed to listening to all concerns about the safety of the property, and responding with urgency.” It has already added security and cameras, and will soon implement “additional security enhancements,” management wrote. “We take these reports seriously and are looking into them immediately.”
After publication, Bridge also provided a cache of photos showing the sidewalks after cleaning.
Mission Housing, which is the resident community services provider and co-owner of the building, also said in an email that it remains committed to “listening to concerns and responding with urgency.” It wrote that “the safety of everyone in and around La Fenix is not only a top priority, it’s a shared responsibility we take seriously every day.”
A representative of Mission Neighborhoods Center, which runs the school, wrote that the nonprofit “always supports the safety of our children and families.”
Still, residents, parents and school administrators said the area is unsafe. At both the school and La Fenix, people who congregate outside the buildings are coming inside of the building. The entrance on Mission Street has a front-desk employee who checks IDs for non-residents, but residents said that people often get in through emergency doors in the back and on the side.
Mission Housing confirmed that the owners hired a security company to sit at the front desk and perform safety rounds. But still, tenants said, there are problems.
“The building is beautiful, but we can’t sleep, because people come into the building,” said one resident of La Fenix, describing outsiders wandering through the halls and knocking on doors.
Ana Chan, another resident, fears someone will open the door to her apartment and hurt her children — a fear, she adds, her daughters share.
“My daughter is afraid something will happen to me. Sometimes people don’t let you go by … there’s shouting and insults all the time,” said Chan.
At the school, parents and administrators feel equally exposed.
An emergency door connecting La Fenix lobby to the school next door leaves students vulnerable, said Mercedes Uriarte, the school’s principal. The emergency door is often left open by residents, who use socks and other objects to keep it from closing. She fears outsiders will use it to enter the school grounds.
Bridge Housing has not fixed the issue, Uriarte said.
The school’s front door also takes about seven seconds to fully close, and when parents don’t wait for it to shut, people on the street have ambled in. Parents love the school, but fear what might happen if a stranger walks in during class.
“On more than one occasion, we’ve had men just wander around the school. It’s so scary, because we have very young children here,” said Uriarte.
Once, she said, “a man walked with a knife hanging from his waist, and crossed the playgrounds towards the building.”
Even without the anxiety about unstable people entering the school or the housing complex, there is a constant reminder of the misery outside.
“It’s not healthy for our kids to get out of school and see people consuming drugs,” said a school parent. “My son asks me why people live on the street and smoke.”
The front door is often covered in urine, said Uriarte and several parents. On one occasion, Uriarte said, a person defecated so near to the front door that opening it meant spreading excrement all over the entrance.
As residents and parents come and go, they witness semi-naked and naked individuals, and people smoking drugs. One neighbor took a photograph of two people hanging out below his window on Wiese Street, and only realized later that they were having sex.
Waleska Zeron’s living room at La Fenix where she lives with her three-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, faces Wiese Street. She has seen all kinds of illicit activity go on from her living room, she said.
Most maddening for Zeron is trying to help her son navigate the area: He’s a wheelchair user, and there’s a de facto obstacle course outside their front door.
On a recent Friday afternoon, this reporter stood next to Zeron as her son was being dropped off by a school bus. A parked car blocked the wheelchair-accessible ramp in front of their building, as it often does.
“It is so infuriating,” said Zeron. “Sometimes they’ve had to drop my son off at the corner because the ramp is blocked. During the weekends, I have to walk in the street with my son because we can’t use the sidewalk.”
Zeron said she’s reported the cars to 311 multiple times, and the city has come to give a citation. But the issue still remains. She’s never witnessed a car being towed.
The sidewalks are also packed with garbage, burnt aluminum foil, syringes and empty alcohol containers.
The block of Mission Street between 15th and 16th streets becomes a “flea market” of illicit sales over the weekend, extending to both sides of the street. On Monday mornings, there is so much garbage left behind that parents have to watch each step so their kids don’t walk on drug detritus.
“You can’t walk this sidewalk on the weekends,” said Aracely Navas, another parent. “I just stay home.”
Tiffany Fung, a teacher of almost three years at the school, said she has reported the conditions to District 9 supervisors over the years, but little has changed. She recently sent an email to Supervisor Jackie Fielder, attaching photos of people blocking the school’s main entrance.
On Feb. 19, Fung got a response from Fielder’s office. In it, an aide said safety was a priority for Fielder, and that the office was working closely with the Department of Emergency Management and Mission Station Captain Liza Johansen to bring resources to the area.
Three weeks later, a police command center arrived at the 16th Street BART Plaza, and police operations began in the area. Illicit activity directly on the plaza has moved elsewhere, but residents and parents say not much has changed.
Carolia Muñoz, who has lived at 1950 Mission St. for three years, says just getting to the front door of her apartment remains a challenge.
“My five-year-old daughter asks me why people fight and throw garbage on the street,” said Muñoz.
It’s a difficult question to answer.
“At times when I walk him to school we have to walk on the street to avoid the garbage and the people blocking the sidewalks,” said Gabriela Giron, a parent of a three-year-old boy. “He doesn’t understand it yet, but he shows sympathy. He tells me, ‘Mom, that poor kid is sleeping on the ground and it’s cold outside.’”
This is important reporting. Too often, these issues are framed as the homeless/unhoused v. wealthy gentrifiers or bootlickers. The reality is, it is the working poor that live amongst the homeless or public drug use and associated crime and grime, and it is the working poor that want some semblance of law and order in their communities.
Stay on this story, exert pressure on policy makers, and do the necessary follow-up reporting.
Exactly. The truth is, according to city officials the people in our community don’t matter. That’s why there’s a disproportionate concentration of shelters and addiction services placed here—in fact, right next to our schools. It’s no accident. It’s policy.
For too long, people in the Mission have been misled by politicians and a network of nonprofits profiting from the suffering of our most vulnerable residents. Supervisors like Ronent et. al., have allowed our streets to deteriorate because it’s politically easier than demanding equity from wealthier districts.
It’s time to say: no more. Support Supervisor Bilal Mahmood’s legislation, which would require every district in San Francisco to take responsibility for homelessness and addiction services. This is a citywide crisis—and the burden must be shared citywide.
Let’s hold Supervisor Fielder accountable, too. Compassion without fairness isn’t justice. We’ve carried this weight long enough.
Definitely not a city wide crisis. Homeless will gather where there are support facilities or nonprofits nearby. Not all districts in SF have these facilities. Also of note, most of these homeless and users aren’t even from SF. They are from surrounding counties or even out of state. They come here because we provide housing, food, care, and most importantly, access to drugs. It may sound crazy, what if we cut funding for these organizations and let people know that SF only takes care of its homeless, not other people’s homeless.
I think that in general, the working poor are actually a lot more compassionate than the rich, and the “just round them all up and dump them in the bay” camp is basically comprised entirely of higher-income people who moved to SF relatively recently. That said you are of course absolutely correct that the impact of homelessness falls disproportionately on the poor, since the public spaces, stores, etc that are being made unlivable by the homeless are mostly those that serve lower income people.
The working poor and the destitutes are pawns in the game. They’ll remain fucked, of course. It’s officials, organizations, and the media who will benefit. Sure there is genuine concern and altruism at play, but objectively, that’s who will benefit. It’s built in.
But maybe they can clean up that one corner. Like Agent Starling saved that one lamb.
I attended the meeting where Supervisor Hillary Ronen announced plans to open a homeless shelter directly adjacent to a school. Despite significant community resistance, she—along with Mayor Breed and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing—pushed it through. This is the result.
Since 2016, children and families in under-resourced, vulnerable communities have been treated as collateral damage by so-called “progressive” officials and nonprofits. These leaders claim to represent our interests while ignoring our lived realities. This must stop.
That’s why I urge you to support Supervisor Bilal Mahmood’s proposed legislation, which would require the city to approve at least one homeless shelter or behavioral health site in every district within the next 18 months. His proposal also includes a vital safeguard: it would prohibit any new sites within 1,000 feet of an existing one—an essential step toward ending the overconcentration of services in neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, SoMa, the Mission, and Bayview.
Just as importantly, we need to put pressure on Supervisor Jackie Fielder to support this plan. Accountability matters.
I’ve seen firsthand what happens when there’s no oversight. My neighborhood was deeply affected when Dolores Street Community Services opened a poorly managed Safe Sleeping Site here. There was zero accountability, no safety measures, and no support for residents forced to deal with the fallout. Additionally, disruptive residents from the site were ejected into the sidewalks in our community and in front of our homes. That would never happen in a higher-income neighborhood—just look at how the Embarcadero Navigation Center was handled.
Enough is enough. We will not accept being exploited any longer by the very people who claim to act in our name.
Ronen and Breed were progressives? Hang on, I think we’re using that term differently. Breed was notoriously reactionary (the opposite of progressive). Ronen was just checked-out and ineffectual.
Ronen was a nonprofit funding technician who could not be bothered to innovate or legislate to solve problems. Combined with Campos, who was similarly tepid, and Ammiano’s attenuation towards the end, the Mission suffered two lost decades while nonprofits marked time and cashed checks.
If this the result of putting a homeless shelter next to the building and school, why do you think the other supervisors or the residents of that district will want a similar facility there? Walton had brought up this issue before and the City couldn’t find sites in other districts to house said facility because no one wants to. You can support this effort and adding more shelters in other districts will add so much infighting in this City.
My name is Lori Sanchez, I live at 1950 Mission St(LA Fenix) I noticed that Bridge Housing says they hired security and put cameras system in. All true! But they are not telling you the whole truth. I’ve lived here for over 3 years and in that last year crime has risen outside our building 100%! the level of crime,drug use outside the school,our windows(my window faces Wiese alley) is out of hand. Let me say that the security that Bridge Housing hired is useless,all they do is sit. I have never seen any of the women (that’s a joke,ain’t nobody afraid of women) confront those in front of the school to move away from school door(I’m speaking from what I seen only,not no one else) like they getting paid to do,no! they don’t say nothing! What is security for if they ain’t gonna do nothing but just sit at the desk. I’ve confronted staff here in the office about issues,I even offered myself to monitor cameras,but I was told no, because I live here. Security need to make sure that that are observing tenants letting people from the streets in through back/side door and report them to Courtney (B.H. Manager) I also mention to managers and suggested putting up fence,putting a “Ring” doorbell in back side gates,but was told another plan in progress to alert security,plus there are no cameras on stairwells at which that was another suggestion, I made to them, But…B.H. needs to hire more security to do there job and remove these homeless away from the door of the school,and our building. As far as Cameras, Nobody is afraid to be seen on cameras when Security fails to do they job anyway! B.H needs to STEP UP,HIRE MORE MALE SECURITY WHO WILL WALK THE PREMISES,CONFRONT TENTS WHO ARE ALLOWING HOMELESS,DRUG ADDICTS TO COME THROUGH BACK/SIDE GATES PERIOD!!!! AND WRITE THEM UP! THATS IT! or EVICT THEM.
Thank you Mission Local for the excellent continued reporting on this issue. Heaven knows we can’t depend on SF Gate to find out what is going on in our community.
“ People congregate outside of the school at 1954 Mission St”
At least in the short term, these folks are irredeemable. The only solution is to harass and arrest them every day until they get tired of it and decide to do drugs in some other city.
I hate this mindset. You have no idea why these people are here — certainly not enough to label them irredeemable. To make such a blanket statement makes me think that you’ve never spent a significant amount of time getting to know some of these people (or you’ve been extraordinarily unlucky; in which case, I think you shouldn’t be deterred and should continue engaging).
Also, to just pass the problem on to another city is totally irresponsible. That behavior contributed in large part to getting us into this mess in the first place. Let’s set an example for others to follow (a reminder which seems apt, given the subject of the article).
You don’t seem to want to accept that many of them belong in mental facilities or jails
Your only interest in this seems to be to want to foist these miscreants onto your neighbors to suit your ideology.
Hahahaha
No
Is that really, truly how you interpreted my comment? You think that because I dispute the claim that every single one of these people is irredeemable, I believe that every single one of them deserves to be there?
The key words are “short term.” We as a society should not give up on them, but if they insist on doing drugs in front of a school every day then they need to be removed from the situation. That is the only way the working people who live there, pay taxes, and follow the law can go about their daily business in a dignified and humane fashion.
You’re doing it again though. Your comment assumes that they’re all doing drugs in front of the school. We aren’t going to have a meaningful conversation if we can’t get the facts straight — everyone’s going to continue to walk away with a different understanding of a plan.
So let me be very clear (this is more for Brian’s benefit), if someone is smoking in the no-smoking zone surrounding the school, cite them. If they are vandalizing property, cite them. If they are quietly just trying to get through the day, ignore them in the short term and focus on the first two categories. Because we all know there are plenty of folks engaging in these antisocial behaviors — it’s just not every single one of them.
How about “do not site facilities that cater to or are are likely to attract addicts adjacent to an elementary school in the first instance?”
Alex – People have to protect themselves. Whether these folks are high or distressed, or high and distressed, is almost irrelevant; they use the public commons as their personal toilet, and that’s not right. As long as they move in the world as animals, they should be treated as such.
As long as our city, or any city, accommodates this lifestyle, then there will always be more people who choose to live it.
“ People have to protect themselves. … they use the public commons as their personal toilet“
Is this about personal safety or personal comfort? I’m all about safety. If someone is a physical threat, that must be addressed. It must. Personal comfort is a different matter.
Neat dichotomy you have there
The flee market on 14th street attracts more homeless and drug dealers. It should be closed down and clean up those blooks that only attracts crime abd violence. We are afraid to walk to Bart, bank and other pkaces
This is beyond unfortunate for the community.
Who, besides myself, recognizes the abominable and seemingly intractable conditions described in this article as a consequence of what Naomi Klein called disaster capitalism?
The forces that have thus far tolerated these conditions, after allowing them to fester so long, are now simply waiting to get permission to get a green light from a weary public to crack down more broadly, without restraint or discrimination.
I too hate these conditions which keep me from more fully enjoying the Mission as I once did, before we ever heard of oxycontin, fentanyl, or “public-private partnerships”.
And things are also bad where I live in the Tenderloin– where police cars and cock-roach-brained Waymos nonchalantly cruise day-in-day-out past gaggles of truly pathetic, ever-changing pushers, street soldiers, and hangers-on– and many of us, and children, who must uneasily coexist with them.
Lawyers, politicians, media, and nonprofit institutions have always been eager to provide convenient solutions to the problems which plague us (and excuses when they grow worse). These solutions typically ask us, not the billionaires who live among us, to give up more in the way of paying higher costs and accepting lower wages.
Few ever point a finger at the true source of all blight and misery in our city, state, country, and world: the capitalist economic system itself.
(A system that is looking more abominable itself with each and every passing day.)
What the hell does disaster capitalism have to do with any of this? This whole scene is funded by social transfers and nonprofit grants, not capital accumulation and market economies.
The lumpenproletariat is not part of the revolution.
Whenever nonprofiteers like Bruce wave their hands and blame…capitalism, then that’s an indication that the nonprofiteer should be put out to pasture because they’re indicating that they are fresh out of ideas.
We must play the hand we’re dealt, not some imaginary hand we wish we’d been dealt. The community is going to play that hand such that the general interests of residents to a safe and non-squalorific public realm. We will no longer be silenced in favor of the specific interests of addicts, psych cases or city funded poverty nonprofits.
Guilt tripping residents and blaming capitalism for nonprofit corruption are no longer on the table.
Ah, yes – the tired old lob: “it’s capitalism’s fault.” 🙄
Robert: Sounds like you would enjoy North Korea. Everyone is equal there, and it’s not capitalist!
I agree. This is all a manifestation of late stage neo-liberal capitalism.
So let’s implement one of the critical principles of socialism as espoused in 1917 by the vicar and founder of the modern socialist state:
“He who does not work shall not eat”
This will fix things up immediately.
Socialism to the rescue!
Heck – it’s even in the Bible – Thessalonians 3:10
Wise words.
“Illicit activity directly on the plaza has moved elsewhere, but residents and parents say not much has changed. “
This quote is applicable to any neighborhood in the city at any time in the past or in the future. Eventually, after we’re all long gone, they’ll realize that this has all been one giant game of Whack-a-Mole playing out like Groundhog Day. Cops don’t prevent or deter crime, they simply disperse and displace it.
The juxtaposition of this scene and the BART plaza really shows our true colors. Generally speaking, we (and by extension, the mayor) care more about optics and the politics than making meaningful change. Who gives a shit if the plaza is a mess when this is going on next to schools? Y’all are fully grown adults who can reason with and defend against these troublesome individuals. These are children.
Next time you walk past the area, take a detour past the school. Pick up a piece of litter. Remind someone not to smoke near the school. Ask them to relocate a block further. We don’t need the police. We need the people here to start acting like a community and step up.
Anyone care to report on their personal experience doing this?
I live in peaceful d1, far from any containment zone, but even here I sometimes see people with meth pipes or foil (Geary usually). I have considered asking these folks to move along but I thought it might lead to a conflict or a need to constantly look over my shoulder in case some impaired/aggrieved guy wants to sucker punch me. Am I chicken? I dunno, maybe. I’m not a tough guy that’s for sure.
And then there is the question of “move along to where?” 6th and mission or some other containment zone?
In this case “anywhere but in front of the school, shithead” seems like an obvious answer. But that still doesn’t solve the problem of the guy remembering you and maybe trying to start something later.
For those who have tried this, how did it go?
No one else has chimed in yet, so I’ll give you my take. I have one of these interactions every two weeks or so, I’d say, and I’ve never had trouble — discomfort, sure; but not trouble. The approach I take is to simply start a conversation while calling attention to the behavior. “Hey man, why are you smoking on the train?” To which I’ll get one of three responses: “fuck you”, shame, or joy (bordering on excitement). There’s no follow-up for the first category, but there’s still value in making it clear that people are watching and saying something. Enough people do this and the behavior will stop. The second category usually leads to a conversation — why they are there, where they are trying to go — and almost always results in them stopping (for the time being). The third category was the one that initially surprised me most, but I figured out pretty quickly that a lot of these people are desperately lonely. Everyone avoids eye contact with them. They avoid conversation. I think we can all relate a bit to that after the pandemic.
I think the mistake a lot of people make when interacting with folks in these circumstances is to wait until they are fuming to say anything, and when they do, it’s a command. No one likes being told what to do. No one likes being yelled at.
Thanks for reporting.
This has been the state of affairs on Larkin and Lower Polk for over seven years .
Drug dens , vandalism, garbage , graffiti encampments poop pee , pit bulls without leashes .
Thugs and idiots hanging out all day , blocking sidewalks and demonstrating no interest in contributing or showing respect for others or the community .
The animals act better then the humans.
What is wrong is these peoples behavior and the city allowing these persons to destroy the wellbeing of all.
The babysitting needs to end , just round up and remove these persons who are entitled and ruin neighborhoods .
We are sick of their selfishness .
I’m glad I don’t live there.
After six years of regular emails to Public Works and a few hundred 311 requests regarding piles of garbage, shit, syringes, rotting food, furniture, broken miscellaneous things, fentanyl foil, bags of stolen mail, electronic waste and all sorts of unknown crap, I recently received a very helpful message from a DPW outreach coordinator about how to deal with this problem on the alley adjacent to Tenderloin Community School. (I’m being facetious about how helpful it was)
“We have regular scheduled cleanups on Elm. I’m apologizing for not seeing this sooner but often times it’s pretty challenging based on our schedules to do cleanups with a request this way [a direct request to the person who told me to send her a message directly to get a fast response]. May I advise signing you and or the school up for Adopt A Street? We supply cleaning tools/supplies and you and or staff would leave [bagged trash] on a corner for us to pick up.”
Some days there are large piles of trash – maybe twenty or thirty large trash bags would handle it, but I can’t put a futon or refrigerator door in a Hefty bag. I am happy to volunteer at the school, and in fact spend close to seven hours a day there every day of the week supporting kids and staff. I am also willing to do a little sweeping, but my purpose at the school is not to play DPW worker. When I am on Elm Street, I supervise kids’ playing before school, keep Waymos from trying to drive down a street that is clearly marked “Road Closed” and to help with pick up at dismissal. There isn’t a chance in hell I am going to “adopt” Elm Street and spend an hour or two before school each day simply because Public Works cannot schedule their work correctly.
The school is two blocks from City Hall so I have frequent occasions to observe the streets or sidewalks around the halls of power, and then to compare that to how the city wants to welcome 300 kids to school every day.
I hope the 16th and Mission area gets better results after this article than I have been able to get since before COVID.
This is a substantive comment. I’m reading, thinking about what you said, and I hope others are too. No zinger attempt on this one.
Neighbors,
I live 2 blocks away at 14th and Valencia and as far as I can see out my triple bays and that’s from Guerrero to Mission including half block down side streets you’ll barely find a cigarette butt.
Cause me n’ my dog spend 2 hours every morning picking them up.
And, the feces of any species and broken glass.
We drag furniture that’s draggable for a one man and a 25 lb dog operation to nearest corner for easy Recology or DPW pickup as appropriate.
We have litter for fresh vomit or liquid stool.
And, I know the regular benign Street People by name and medical condition and give em money and up to a fiver after payday or a beer tho I wore my own liver out, I do smoke pot with em and talk about most of you tho not by name usually.
The neighbors love me as do the school kids and City Workers and clerks.
I don’t know any cops in the Mission yet.
But then, I’ve only been living here for 10 years.
Encountered one single beat cop around a month ago and 5 years or so back I ran into a cop on a bicycle and it turns out they were the same cop.
Not a lot going on in the way of a Work Ethic with the Mission Cops or maybe this is the way they are ordered to patrol the district.
About this troubled block, I’ve cleaned it before by myself a number of times over the years and what it needs is a Set of Regular Beat Cops.
I presented a poorly personally drawn Foot Patrol spidering out from a Police Koban running 24/7/365 from 16th and Mission whose threads extend 2 blocks in either direction in alternating pattern and this would give the tenants and business owners in that block a chance to meet about 20 of the same but different cops walking the same Permanent Foot Patrol beat …
Presented that to the Police Commission about a year or so ago.
Different Commission.
Different Mayor.
It’s a great idea and would 15 cop salaries monthly be too much plus another 5 to administer which isn’t so much when you’ve got over 2,000 Funded Sworn Officer positions ?
I don’t think so but then I’ve always been pretty free with Government money.
Hey, it worked under Feinstein but cops didn’t like it cause it was too dangerous for them kinda like it is for you now.
So, they abandoned us for the safety of cruisers and RV wagons.
I say bring em back.
Eskenazi says he doesn’t think they are the “solution”.
When I asked him what his solution was he had no answer.
And, he’s the best in town.
go Niners !!
h.
In short, I have the
In short,
they re on 16th and mission. its historically has been bad. thats why they re there. low rents. then its a bunch of women with kids scared of everything. they dont even talk to people in the streets. alienation, segregation. class issues. police enforcement doesnt work. they should go clean up the sidewalk instead of waiting on the city to help.
Allow street “vendors” and you are allowing shoplifting and sales of stolen goods so drugs can be bought.
Allow living on the streets and you accept the trash from people with no interest in the place they “live” with drug users passed out as well.
Stop policing of minor crimes and you accept that no policing will happen.
Change all of the above with policing, accept that there will be some heavy handed enforcement – but you will be able to live without fear of living in a savage place. It’s not about money, it’s about agreeing to follow the rules (laws) that we have in place.
Off the top of your head, how many laws do we have? If you can’t answer that question, how could you know (and therefore follow) every single rule? Law and society are far more flexible and nuanced than certain interests would have you believe.
Are you saying there are too many laws so you can’t figure it out? And so you choose you not follow any of them????
That’s why we employ police, district attorneys, public defenders, judges, and even social workers and public health people- to help people like you who need an answer about what civil society is (look up a definition) and what public decency is (we define that by the laws we have).
There is no “nuance” to people having to fear for their own safety when leaving their homes.
The housing complex at 1950 Mission was only built a couple years ago… didn’t any of the prospective tenants look at the area *before* moving in?
I would imagine they were on a waiting list for years before being told to take or leave a spot at this location? Hope someone more knowledgeable can chime in.
Where is the S.F.P.D police 🚓 department? THIS IS REALLY bad for kids to see things like this.. kids remember everything at that age 😎!
and why is the police not arresting criminals? I miss (MAYOR WILLIE BROWN)
“Ana Chan, another resident, fears someone will open the door to her apartment and hurt her children — a fear, she adds, her daughters share.”
Why would that happen if the door is locked?
Someone I know who lives in a very nice low income housing building had their front door broken down/destroyed while they were inside. Fortunately the family was able to run away from this crazed person because they had a back door. The perpetrator was a dissatisfied client of a (presumed) drug dealer who sought his dealer but went to the wrong apartment. The drug dealer had been placed in the building by the city or some such agency. This happened 8-10 blocks away from 16th & Mission.
At the very least, the city could send a DPW cleanup crew to all the trashed areas near Mission St preschools & schools every morning.
Great article & photos–thanks!
You’re engaging in scare tactics. Please stop. That story, while unfortunate, has little relevance to our discussion. Drug dealers generally don’t let their customers use directly in front of their place.
Should not be a fear for her or her daughter. What if the lock was broken or the door kicked in? What if she happened not to lock it in a moment of in attention or someone rushed in behind her as shes opeing the door? Sit down and stop blaming victims and get these criminals and garbage people off our streets. Blame the right people. These people are choosing this life and need to be locked up in an asylum or jail
Cynthia manages to empathize with the people who can’t walk half a block to do their business in a public bathroom instead of on the sidewalk but cannot fathom a mother worried that their house door may one day be inadvertently unlocked. Is there a term for this affliction?
Yes, there is. It’s called “a rational-thinking adult”. Worrying about what-ifs is the hallmark of the paranoid and paralyzed. Your complete misunderstanding of the heart of the question demonstrates your own emotionally-driven mindset. Cynthia is cutting through the hysteria with their question, while you’re further fueling it.
This has been the result of the one party system that wants to lead this Country. Most sane people point to SF and LA and say this is what will happen if you continue to support the policies of the party of the Blue States. Enjoy.
Didn’t get through all the comments, but as usual, the root of the problem is class war.
Problem: Housing is extremely unaffordable for the low-wage mostly brown people who cook, deliver, and clean up after the calories required by the twenty-something software coders upon which San Francisco real estate speculation (and therefore local political power) is based.Solution: As the “market” will never, ever provide housing that is affordable, the city steps in to bail out the billionare real estate speculators by building affordable housing for the low-wage mostly brown people who provide services to the coders.Complication: The city puts the affordable housing on underutilized land it already owns or relatively cheap land it acquires. The problem is that this land is in the parts of town where the most marginalized are corraled, and the city lacks the understanding, vision, or resources to manage this crisis of gentrification arising from its own obeisance and servitude to the billionaire real estate speculators and tech lords.Solution: There is no simple solution, no band-aid. The problem cannot begin to be addressed until the city acknowledges its role and actions in the class war waged by the billionaire real estate speculators and tech lords against the rest of us.Happy May Day, Comrades! 😉
Pues los “líderes locales ” hispanos aprueban esto!, eanse los casos de corrupción y robos que a diario suceden ! La realidad nos alcanza.
Good morning,
I am the founder of a organization that services this community. The Struggle Organization when I first move here back in 2020 I had been a very hard journey. My family and I live in the building, The Struggle has been supporting the families in this community. It seems the homeless and drug’s addicts are coming from the tenderloin area and making it hard for our folks. The Struggle has been out for 4 years and still support and serve humanity the best we can . I just want the city to look into this because we are the community thank you. It be nice to have support from the city to back up The Struggle. We are a very independent organization no support from this city .
Tax the rich, put people in free housing, no strings attached. This is an easy problem to fix, just requires money. TAX THE BILLIONAIRES.
I remain shocked that Mission Local has decided crime is bad. Pleased, but shocked. Glad to have you aboard.
You guys are some sore winners, boudin has been gone for years now but our problems remain. Maybe work up some new material?
Chesa may be safely enjoying his ivory-tower post at UC Berkeley. But his negative impact on San Francisco remains.
Criminals Boudin refused to prosecute remain free to rob and assault us.
Stores that closed because he refused to prosecute shoplifters remain closed.
I don’t know how long it will take to overcome Boudin’s reign of terror. Hopefully not too long. But the job isn’t done.
How do you think the court system works here? Why would “Criminals Boudin refused to prosecute remain free to rob and assault us” under the current DA? I feel a need to correct this misunderstanding.
There’s a satisfying aspect watching this concerted effort fail. Lurie’s extreme wealth does not exist without extreme poverty.
This road doesn’t lead to socialism. It leads to private security, gated communities, and the general abandonment of public spaces by most of the population, which in turn accelerates the collapse of any type of communitarianism or sense of the common good.
Creating shelters is important, but maybe we can create those shelters somewhere else? Meals, beds, showers, laundry, drug counseling, and clean needles (or whatever gear they need) could all be facilitated in camps in the central valley. It would be much cheaper to buy the land and set up all the support facilities in a field off the 80 than in the most expensive real estate in America. If family members wanted to visit or take them home, they could. It would not be a prison. But if they are found high or pooping on the streets of our communities they will be remove to the camp.
Keep writing like this ! Someday someday will do something about it and can’t say no one said anything, thank you. Let’s pray 🙏 .
I think all the residents around 16th/Mission should just get used to it or move. No improvement will happen anytime soon.
Sorry.
That’s not how it works. It’s true that you’ll never get rid of all of the street urchins, but if you do nothing, they proliferate like mad.
The criminal element is now controlling the 16th/Mission corridor.
Get used to it or move people.
Now? It’s been bad since I moved here in the late 1980s…it’s gotten worse but still,,,it’s been bad
This is absolutely ridiculous and Ive finally had enough. Next election Im voting for a different democrat!
Manny Yekutiel: where are you?
Great chance to teach kids that the best way to engage with crazed people on drugs is to make them a sandwich and invite them into your space. The second best way is to fund dozens of culturally aware nonprofit service providers to offer them cookies and equipment to get high. The third best way is to legalize shoplifting so that they steal from the business next door instead of you.
What is the purpose of your comment? It’s a sarcastic rant, but I don’t understand what it has to do with the article or any of the other comments here.
You need to learn Who , What, Where, Why and How. Your article leaves out the fact that this is in San Francisco and California.
I laugh at the Mission.
And the Mission laughs back.
Seems like there’s a LOT more crying than laughing back by the looks of this article
Low income housing is directly related to crime, drugs, trash, etc. The Mission is a great example of creating their own problem.