Manny’s: Mission Local Live – Strange and terrible times at 16th and Mission

In early March, an RV sized San Francisco police “Mobile Command Unit” rolled onto 16th Street BART Plaza, a site that had long been problematic but, in recent months, had grown chaotic. In the ensuing month, a cat-and-mouse game has ensued as officers clear off unlicensed peddlers and drug-users who then return the moment cops’ backs are turned. With Mayor Daniel Lurie pledging an end to tolerance for overt lawlessness and drug-use, the ongoing action along the 16th and Mission corridor prompts so many questions: Is it enough to simply divert unwanted activity elsewhere in the city — and perhaps not far off at all? How can the city help the people on the street who are suffering? What can the city do for merchants and residents, some of whom are now afraid to leave their homes?

Mission Local managing editor and columnist Joe Eskenazi will moderate this panel bringing unique viewpoints to the issue. He will speak with Mission resident Rob Young, a member of the 16th Street Alliance, who resides with his wife and children on a side street now infamous for drug-use and antisocial behavior, and retired San Francisco Police Department veteran Al Casciato, who previously served as the police union’s president and was a Mission Station captain during the crises of yesteryear. How much does the Mission’s past inform its present — and what would a better future look like?