A man named Vile stood in a circle with three other friends underneath a stairway in a parking garage, passing a pipe around on a recent Friday.
While they smoked, shoppers went up and down the stairs, which connected the garage to the Potrero Center strip mall. Some noticed the group and walked a little faster. Others barely noticed.
Potrero Center’s parking lot has offered a hidden space for drug users for a long time. Manuel Diaz, a maintenance worker who has been there for eight years, is no stranger to seeing it. But the drug use is growing, workers say, and the city is taking note.
“Everyone comes here … it makes one feel unsafe,” said Diaz. “People have pulled out weapons, and they consume all kinds of drugs.”
Longtime employees have seen an increase in the number of people frequenting the shopping center that coincides with increased police presence at 16th and Mission streets.
“There’s always been people smoking drugs here, but we have seen an increase recently,” said Maria Sanchez, who has worked at Noah’s Bagels for eight years. “You’ll see them right outside the Safeway. Often, some come here to steal drinks.”
Vile, one of the men in the circle passing around the pipe, says he was “spooked” by the operation on 16th Street.
“It’s definitely been a deterrent for me wanting to go there. I don’t wanna get in the middle of a hot zone when I can avoid it,” he said.
Another man in the group, who moved here from Nevada to access more programs, said he’s felt “harassed at 16th and Mission since the arrival of the police bus.”
The man said he now avoids 16th Street on his way to the Gubbio Project at Julian Avenue and 15th Street, where he often finds a place to rest and a free cup of coffee.
“The HOT [homeless outreach team] and places like the Gubbio Project are part of the solution,” said the man. “I just have to go around to 14th Street now whenever I want to go to the Gubbio.”
Offering services is also now the job of the Mission Street Team, one of six in the city. The team includes personnel from the the sheriff’s department, the police department, the fire department, the Department of Emergency Management, Public Works, and the Department of Health, Homeless and Supportive Housing.
Santiago Lerma, the head of the Mission Street Team, said he started seeing an increase in drug activity around the Potrero Center six months ago, as well as more phone calls from neighbors around the center reporting those changes.
Lerma’s team began meeting at Martin De Porres House of Hospitality on the east side of Potrero between 16th and 15th streets every Wednesday morning to offer services three weeks ago. Martin De Porres offers homeless residents lunch, showers and a space to hang out from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. most days.
Towards the end of last week, Lerma said he had begun to see an improvement in conditions in the area. Success for the team is connecting people to shelter and services. “We’re gonna keep coming back,” said Lerma.
A volunteer at Martin De Porres also confirmed that Mayor Daniel Lurie visited the space about two weeks ago. Another man, who lives on a bus parked on 16th Street between Bryant Street and Potrero Avenue, also said the mayor had knocked on his door a couple of weeks ago, asking what kind of services the city could offer him.
On a recent Friday afternoon, a security guard at Parkside Hardwoods, on Utah Street between 16th and 15th streets, said the conditions in the area have been bad for a long time. On a normal work day, he added, he keeps people from urinating, defecating, doing graffiti, smoking drugs and setting up tents.
The security guard pointed to Martin De Porres as a place that attracts loiterers and drug users. He believes many of the people who loiter nearby on Potrero Avenue are waiting for the free restaurant to open in the morning.
On a recent Monday evening, a group of about 10 people sat outside Martin De Porres, blocking the entire sidewalk. Pedestrians walking past turned their heads and jumped onto the street as they passed the group.
Some in the group ate ice cream. Others passed a pipe around and shared snacks. A man rested against Martin De Porres’ door.
“They are mixing the people with the place,” said Ruby Lopez, a woman in the group, about neighbors who complained about De Porres. “This is a great place. There’s no other place that offers you the resources they have.”
Lopez then pointed across the street to the entrance of the mall’s parking garage and described it as a hideout because of its privacy. When asked about the police operations at 16th and Mission, she shrugged her shoulders and took a deep breath.
“It’s definitely pushing people away. It keeps me from going now. You never wanna have a confrontation with the police,” said Lopez.
Across the street, underneath the same stairway Vile stood a few hours earlier, a man named Reese B. folded a small piece of aluminum foil as he told Mission Local that he smokes fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Reese B. has been arrested twice since Lurie took office: Once at 6th and Market streets, and once at 15th Street and Julian Avenue, both times for holding a pipe. He was let go after 48 hours each time, he added, because he didn’t have any pending warrants.
“It all depends on what you got on you,” he said.
Nearby, at the back door of one of the businesses on Potrero, a door opened for a few minutes. Inside, three young men wearing O’Reilly’s Auto Parts uniforms moved boxes around.
“I’ve been working here since January, and started to see the difference around March, a big difference,” said Emmanuel Quiñonez, one of the men in uniform. There’s always more than 20 people outside the door, he said. “When they’re smoking, the smoke comes in.”
The two coworkers nodded in agreement.
“Another coworker saw stolen stuff from the store being sold at 16th and Mission on his way home,” Quiñonez continued.“At least we’ve seen more police presence recently.”
Isn’t that also where the entrance to 24 Hour Fitness is?
That’s on the Bryant side. The Potrero side is much worse often with 10-20 people doing drugs in the open. The garage itself smells like a toilet
I’ve seen a member of the Safeway security team dash down the stairs to administer Narcan to a man who had collapsed in the auto path. It made me wonder how many lives he has saved.
I am glad Oscar Palma has written this article. It’s high time someone raised awareness of drug use and disorder on the 200 block or Potrero and inside the Potrero Shopping Center itself. It’s sad to remember back when the Center was a social destination, with outside tables and chairs, with shoppers enjoying a bagel and a cup of coffee…back when bus shelters were used by moms with strollers instead of people lying next to their belongings. No more. Martin de Porres may be providing much comfort for the drug addicted but working families have paid the price.
Thanks for reporting
To be honest hsoc , outreach , nonprofits will not solve the issues here
The problem is the drug scene
Until the drug supply is stopped , people will gather like rats and continue to ingest lethal poisons .
They are addicts .
Tragic
Allowing this to continue is cruel.
It is time to get serious and get the drug supply and usage stopped at all cost in SF
We cannot solve it everywhere but in this 8 by 8 mile city it should be easy
If people cared and wanted to ,
Great, go tell the new acting police Chief to do his job.
Bring a laugh track cued up ready to play.