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At a town hall in District 10 on Thursday night, residents could agree on one thing: lawlessness and misbehavior is rampant in the neighborhood.
“It feels to me like we don’t enforce rules and laws in Bayview,” Bayview resident Shane Mayer said in his remarks, eliciting chuckles and sounds of agreement from the crowd.
Around 50 residents of District 10 had assembled in a large, airy room at the Southeast Community Center, ready to raise issues to City Attorney David Chiu, District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, and two representatives from the SFPD: Bayview Station Captain Michael Koniaris and Lieutenant Kevin Lee from the Police Department. The town hall with Chiu was a one off event, though the Bayview Station holds monthly in-person meetings.
Though united by frustration, residents raised a wide range of issues, providing Chiu, Walton, and the police with a laundry list of problems to address.
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Mayer mentioned three in his remarks: cars constantly double parked on Third Street, frequent fireworks, and sideshows. “We have brand new roads and they already have ring lines of donuts,” he said.
A resident of Hunter’s Pointer, Leticia Irving, echoed Mayer’s concerns about fireworks, saying that on July 4 it was particularly frustrating to see people lighting new fireworks even as firefighters were putting out fires right beside them.
“What are we going to do to make sure this community stays safe and we don’t burn it down?” she asked.
Maika Pinkston got up to ask about several issues including illegal dumping in the district, explaining that in her housing complex, trucks will come and dump trash over the wall into the dumpster on the other side. She’s seen garbage, mattresses, furniture, and paint get dumped.
“I have an issue with this dirtiness around here. We got so many germs and cooties,” she said.
Others brought up RV generators blocking sidewalks, poor conditions at the Alice Griffith housing complex, and more.
To each of the resident’s concerns, Walton, Chiu, and the police officers attempted to convince residents that their concerns would be addressed — or at the very least that they would do their best.
Koniaris from the SFPD blamed the issues, in part, on the Bayview Police Station being understaffed. At the moment, the station has 78 police officers compared to the 140 it used to have. “Responding to the 911 calls is our main function. And right now with staffing, it’s kind of the only function that we can have,” he said, explaining that non-emergencies, like addressing double parking, fall through the cracks.
For his part, Chiu seemed determined to convince residents he could help in a sometimes-confusing 15 minute presentation that explained what the City Attorney does.
Later, when sideshows were brought up, Chiu mentioned that in an earlier town hall, he had learned that the cars were often installed with devices that could drop a plastic cover over their license plate with the click of a button, making it difficult for officers to document the cars involved. So, they found the online marketplaces where these were being sold — Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy — and sent them cease and desist letters. Soon the products were off the websites.
“Feedback from you on what’s actually happening, the things that you’re seeing, can help all of us address the issues here in the neighborhood,” he said, and mentioning that for RVs and illegal dumping, his office could likely help.
Still, the crowd seemed skeptical.
“If I had a nickel for every time I heard somebody from City Hall use the term accountability or transparency, I’d be a freaking millionaire,” one man said, triggering clapping from the crowd.
Gloria Berry asked about the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Social Impact Program, where contractors hired by the commission are encouraged to make contributions to the impacted communities — like the Bayview, which houses the city’s sewage plant.
“You can smell the stench now and it’s not healthy,” Berry said.
Berry asked why money from that program doesn’t seem to be reaching residents of the neighborhood. “Are your hands tied when it comes to the poverty pimps receiving funds intended for us?” she asked.
A 2021 city audit of the program found that it was “poorly designed, with significant flaws in the monitoring and enforcement of contractor commitments.”
Walton said the program is being amended to, hopefully, produce better results — and “collect on resources that have been owed from the past.”
But even as some residents were skeptical that they would see any results, they were still eager to have Chiu, Walton, and the police hear their concerns.
The last questioner of the night asked Chiu, Walton, and Koniaris if they might consider having more meetings — with a virtual option, for greater accessibility. “If we had something more regularly, we can voice concerns and keep updated as opposed to being a powder keg and everybody’s blowing up,” she said.
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IO YEH GILMAN
REPORTER/INTERN. Io was born and raised in San Francisco and previously reported on the city while working for her high school newspaper, The Lowell. Io is a rising senior at Harvard where she studies the History of Science and East Asian Studies and writes for The Harvard Crimson.More by Io Yeh Gilman
