by Randy Shaw on October 16, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)
What will world leaders see when they come to SF?
Whole World Will be Watching
“Everything is back to status quo. Eddy is a mess and the drug dealers are back in droves”—October 9 text from Tenderloin small business owner
When Governor Newsom met with San Francisco business leaders on May 24 he emphasized that he did not want open air drug markets in the city during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders Summit, or APEC. APEC will be held at Moscone Center from November 11-17. Thousands of attendees are projected to inject $36.5 million ito the city’s economy.
Mayor Breed has echoed the governor’s concern. The last thing San Francisco’s tourist industry needs is potential Asian-Pacific tourists seeing viral videos of dead bodies sprawled out on sidewalks, people shooting up in front of stores, cars broken into and open air drug markets.
I assumed San Francisco would be sure to close open air drug markets prior to APEC. But there are few signs of this happening.
I see only one strategy. And it greatly concerns me.
Tenderloin Becomes Mass Containment Zone
Dianne Feinstein’s recent memorial saw drug dealers and users moved from the Civic Center Park area to the adjacent Tenderloin. That’s what I expect to see prior to APEC.
But on a much grander scale. Think Tenderloin as a drug containment zone times ten.
DreamForce 2023 showed how Moscone Center can be isolated from the rest of SOMA. President Biden and other leaders can go from their luxury SOMA hotels to Moscone without seeing the dead bodies and drug activities in SOMA alleys.
The Tenderloin’s luxury hotels are on its eastern border. Expect drug users and dealers to be cleared east of Taylor and allowed to freely operate in the rest of the Tenderloin.
An Overlooked Story
Big picture, the city’s failure to close open drug markets in the Tenderloin, Mid-Market and SOMA remains an overlooked story. The media reports on increased arrests, overdoses, and money and drugs recovered—all statistics provided by police or city officials. What the SPFD, city officials and media do not report is the number of people still openly dealing and using drugs.
The persistence of open drug markets should be topic number one at Board of Supervisor meetings. Instead, it’s like “so what else is new”?
Mayor Breed announced a Tenderloin Emergency Declaration in December 2021. That followed over a year of out of control drug activities.
Shouldn’t open air drug markets be closed by now?
There has been some recent progress. The Pelosi Federal Building and adjacent Stevenson Alley are typically clear during the day. But at night dealers and users still dominate the block of Market between 7th and 8th Streets. That’s the block where drug activities forced Whole Foods to close. It’s the block where ACT-Strand must attract patrons to evening performances.
I recently saw a nighttime video of roughly 200 dealers and users bordering 83 McAllister at Leavenworth (the northeast corner of UN Plaza). Who is being held accountable for this?
Should Board Hold Hearing?
APEC should cause the Board of Supervisors to hold a public hearing on what the city’s plans are to close drug markets. It’s well past time to for greater transparency. After all, open air drug markets and the related shootings and problem sidewalk behavior continue to cause business closures, deaths, and economic decline.
I get that everyone wants to believe that progress is steadily being made. Some post photos with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background to prove that the city is not the “hellscape” some media claim.
But our “progress” fails many parts of San Francisco. Most impacted are working class and low-income residents, many of whom live in the 100% affordable housing projects that are supposed to preserve the city’s economic diversity.
It’s unconscionable that “progressive” San Francisco has normalized open lawlessness in its non-gentrified neighborhoods. Sadly, APEC is unlikely to improve this situation.
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
