People at 16th and Mission streets were getting ready to celebrate the second day of Carnaval in the Mission. Barricades awaited on the sidewalk, ready to shut down Mission Street for the celebratory parade.
“No, I’m not excited. It’s my day off, but I’m working,” said a San Francisco local about Carnaval. He wanted to remain anonymous, but says he grew up around the 16th and Mission area. “I’ve been here all my life,” he said as a person behind him painted over graffiti on a yellow wall.
“Are you from the city? There’s been no difference,” he said about the presence of the San Francisco Police mobile command unit, which has been at Southwest 16th and Mission Plaza since March 12.
“I appreciate the police being here,” he said, pointing toward the Mission Police Station at 630 Valencia St. “But it really hasn’t made a difference, you call them [police] and they take forever to get here.”
“The Tenderloin has gotten better. I think people are coming from over there,” he said. He explained that he thinks SFPD drove out drug users from the Tenderloin, and they’ve migrated to the 16th and Mission area. “It’s sad, because I grew up here. This used to be a family neighborhood.”
“I like that the mayor is putting his foot down and addressing the problems,” he said about Mayor Daniel Lurie. The man said he’s grown to be supportive of the mayor because of the positive feedback he’s heard from his friends. “My friends who work in high places in the city tell me the mayor is doing what he has to do.”
“I appreciate the fact that he’s walking around the neighborhood. Apparently, he was standing right here,” he said as he pointed at the corner of 16th and Valencia streets. “I’m hopeful that he’ll get it done,” he said about the mayor’s promise to the 16th and Mission neighborhood.
When can we stop this ongoing crap? I would love to read something pertinent
I like the daily updates but haven’t read them all. Please do a walk-through and report of Mission St between 16th and 14th Streets during the weekend. I saw many vendors the two times I walked through in the last month, some of whom displayed liquor (twice), marijuana (once) and cigarettes with no tax stickers (once). Selling these items is clearly illegal. I also saw six police officers in two groups of three, walking the area on a Monday, when no vendors were present.
“I like that the mayor is putting his foot down and addressing the problems,” “My friends who work in high places in the city tell me the mayor is doing what he has to do.” “I appreciate the fact that he’s walking around the neighborhood”
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Please, dear fellow citizen, be a little more skeptical. There has been no addressing of problems. All that we’ve seen is a more aggressive version of chasing undesirables from one poor neighborhood to another. Every mayor has done that to some degree or the other, and it fixes nothing.
And don’t be bamboozled by photo ops. The mayor is too highly paid to be walking around the streets, cosplaying a social worker. He should be in his office, creating and implementing policies.
Is everyone blind? Has anyone ever seen a police office go in or out of the “command unit”? It’s for show. I’m really sorry to break it to you, there are no cops in there. I hung out down there a long time, live in the skanky hotels….I don’t anymore. Anyway, they want you to think the mobile command unit is something, but it’s not, it was parked down there A LOT when I was there, and let me tell you, no cops went in or out….and I doubt it’s equipped with like a bathroom and showers and kitchen, and even if that’s true why didn’t they ever run out and arrest someone…..I promise you it’s BS.
It’s the usual tactic of the cops leaving police cruisers in high-crime areas. Nobody’s there. They drop them off in the morning and pick them up night. The cops think this deters crime, but everyone knows the cruiser is just a prop. Nobody’s there!