by Randy Shaw on April 17, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)
SF Needs Citywide Strategy
Whole Foods’ closure in Mid-Market exposed the core problem: San Francisco’s leaders talk about closing drug markets but the city lacks a plan to do so.
A plan has clear markers for progress and accountability. A plan measures outcomes daily and adjusts resources accordingly. A plan ensures close collaboration between DPW and DPH to monitor sidewalks and streets to eradicate public health hazards. A plan has a target date for completion.
I don’t see this in San Francisco. I see officers temporarily ousting and sometimes arresting dealers. Drug markets—such as those surrounding Whole Foods—do not get consistent enforcement.
San Francisco has allowed drug cartels to openly operate for three years! It’s well past time for a more strategic approach.
A Viable Plan
SFPD’s “disruption” strategy in the Tenderloin offers a partially viable plan. It’s a model that, with federal and state help, could expand citywide.
The strategy, publicly announced by Assistant Chief David Lazar at the February 1 meeting of TogetherSF Action, disrupts existing markets while preventing dealers from opening new ones a block away (some dealers join nearby markets but do not create new ones).
The strategy closed the Tenderloin’s two big daytime drug markets. Dealers still converge on other blocks like 300 Golden Gate at night but overall daytime dealing in the Tenderloin is way down.
But UN Plaza/Mid-Market didn’t see an effective disruption strategy. The dealers and vendors displaced from UN Plaza simply moved across the street or down a block. The police did not follow them.
SFPD’s disruption strategy is limited by a lack of officers. A shortage that will soon get even worse due to more retirements. Relying on paying overtime to officers is not a sustainable strategy for closing drug markets citywide.
The SFPD clearly needs help.
Newsom Must Intervene
On December 12, 2022 I urged Governor Newsom to “send in the National Guard” to close drug markets. Newsom did not embrace the idea but we heard that California Highway Patrol officers could be available.
Newsom may be waiting for a public request from Mayor Breed but the situation demands action now.
Nobody will fault the Governor for dispatching CHP officers to Mid-Market, the Tenderloin, SOMA and 16th and Mission to stop open drug dealing. Newsom would get great local, state and national acclaim if he helped oust drug cartels from San Francisco. In contrast, the governor’s inaction has already raised questions why he’s visiting other states instead of helping solve a crisis in the city where he was mayor.
CHP officers tackling drug markets would free up the SFPD to address car and home break-ins, commercial burglaries and other crimes. Bringing in the CHP on a short-term basis is essential to getting the city under control.
On March 27 Mayor Breed sent a letter to the new US Attorney requesting federal help to combat drug markets. She posted the letter and renewed her request in her April 11 Medium article. But there is no evidence the feds have responded.
That’s why I was glad to see Board President Aaron Peskin call last week for Newsom, Pelosi, BART, the UC Regents, the DEA, and the California Highway Patrol to “coordinate with San Francisco police to help end the deadly epidemic of Fentanyl dealing in San Francisco.”
Skeptics questioned why Peskin waited so long to get directly involved. But what other Supervisors have stepped forward to push this comprehensive law enforcement response? And don’t we want every San Francisco elected official to push the state and feds to help solve the city’s drug dealing and overdose crisis?
We need all of San Francisco’s elected officials to demand a clear citywide plan to close drug markets in 2023. The city’s future depends on it.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco
