by Randy Shaw on December 1, 2025 (BeyondChron.org)
Ongoing 6th and Market evening drug market
Overdoses are down. Arrests are way up. Tents are way down. Treatment facilities have opened. A fentanyl emergency is in effect.
These are positive developments. But they do not change a core measuring stick for San Francisco in 2025: the lack of a noticeable reduction in sidewalk drug activities.
San Francisco has the most visible open-air drug markets of any major U.S. city. Day and night, hundreds of drug users sit on sidewalks. Newcomers steadily arrive. Young drug users flock to city sidewalks despite Mayor Lurie’s condemnation of drug tourism.
I understand why many want to promote San Francisco’s comeback. Mayor Lurie’s 70% approval reflects the optimism he promotes about the city’s future. I’m all for optimism. But treating statistics that have little to do with closing open air drug markets as if they do clouds the real story: Sidewalk drug use has been allowed to thrive in San Francisco for years.
Consider:
It’s been four years since Mayor Breed issued an Emergency Declaration for the Tenderloin.
It’s been nearly six years since COVID spawned drug-infested Shelter in Place (SIP) hotels. This misguided strategy invited drug tourists from across the nation to come to San Francisco for free rent, free meals, and a private bathroom. The nearby Pelosi Federal Building’s takeover by drug users and dealers soon followed.
Its been over seven years since the New York Times in 2018 exposed the huge drug scene on the northwest side of Eddy and Hyde in Tenderloin. Yet it looks the same today (See “San Francisco’s Oldest Drug Market Still Thrives,” November 3).
The 5th and Market Westfield Center, long home to Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, has all but closed. The exciting new Whole Foods at 8th and Market and Turtle Tower in Little Saigon closed due to problems caused by nearby drug activities. Retail vacancies in these areas have soared.
Despite all the meetings, announcements, task forces, and pledges to do more, drug-filled sidewalks in San Francisco remain. In November 2024 San Francisco elected a mayor who campaigned on a plan to close them. But even a mayor completely committed to this goal could not meaningful reduce public drug use in his first year.
Why, unlike other major cities, has San Francisco been unable to close its open-air drug markets?
Residents and small business owners in the Tenderloin, Mid-Market, lower Polk, SOMA, the Mission, and other areas daily impacted by sidewalk drug use are especially frustrated. So are visitors to Market Street theaters, tourists staying in Central City hotels, and patrons of nearby restaurants, clubs, bars and cultural venues.
Few understand why San Francisco cannot protect its sidewalks.
Is there any reason to believe the situation will improve in 2026? Here’s what Mayor Lurie is doing and could be doing to end this crisis.
Too Few Officers
An obvious explanation for drug filled sidewalks is a police force missing 500 officers. Our incredibly committed District Attorney Brooke Jenkins prosecutes every drug case she gets but the the number of arrests cannot keep up with the influx of drug tourists. Police visibility deters drug activities. But for at least five years the police visibility necessary to close drug markets has been lacking.
Former SFPD Chief Bill Scott repeatedly told Tenderloin business people that he wouldn’t blame a lack of police for the area’s drug activities. That made the Breed Administration even more culpable.
Mayor Lurie takes a more honest approach. He’s made it clear that the SFPD struggles to provide the staffing residents and businesses need. His “Rebuilding the Ranks” strategy has increased police officers as well as deputy sheriffs; he’s also made it easier for retired officers to add to these numbers.
Lurie is also addressing the problem that arrests take officers off the streets for hours. His proposed sobering center at 444 Sixth Street will enable officers to make drug arrests and go right back on the street. Tenderloin activists addressed the issue of Station Transfers on a six month trial basis in 2014. It was expected to increase police officers in the neighborhood by 20%. Unfortunately, the pilot was not extended.
Mayor Lurie’s sobering center should save officers even more time. We will be closely monitoring its impact after it opens in March.
Mayor Lurie is trying multiple strategies. Not all work as hoped. He launched a crackdown on Sixth Street only to see the area’s drug activities resume after police operation ended. He extols medical treatment operations like that at 822 Geary Street while open air drug markets thrive a block away.
Providing medical treatment to those in drug crisis is essential. But there is no evidence such facilities help close nearby drug markets (and neighbors contend that the medical program at the Adante Hotel at 610 Geary has made drug activities in the area worse).
The city also continues to allow nonprofits to distribute drug paraphernalia to addicts. It’s a great way to fuel sidewalk drug use.
The mayor’s office also supported, via Interim Chief Paul Yep, the redistricting of Tenderloin Police Station. When it takes effect in June it will meaningfully increase police visibility in the Tenderloin.
But more is needed. To finally close drug markets Lurie should consider the original drug clearance strategy planned by Mayor Breed. We all had high hopes for this plan but Chief Scott refused to implement it.
The Original Drug Clearance Strategy
After declaring a Drug Emergency in the Tenderloin (Chief Scott added no officers so it failed), Mayor Breed brought in Urban Alchemy to help close drug markets. The strategy was clear: after the police cleared drug activities off a block, Urban Alchemy would maintain the block’s safety. This block by block strategy would soon cover all of the drug market blocks in the Tenderloin.
But Chief Scott’s SFPD did not want to collaborate with Urban Alchemy. Nor was the Chief willing to give the Tenderloin the police staffing needed for this strategy to succeed.
So after clearing a large swath of Tenderloin blocks—which remain clear to this day— Urban Alchemy was able to only barely expand in the neighborhood. When you look at the many blocks Urban Alchemy has cleared, the SFPD’s failure to clear more blocks for Urban Alchemy’s expansion was a huge missed opportunity.
Instead of this systematic approach to closing drug markets the SFPD has pursued a “whack a mole” strategy where blocks are cleared for one to a few hours only to have the market return the same day. The lack of consistent police presence has brought the expected result: sidewalks remain filled with drug activities.
Why not implement the block by block closure strategy now? And not just for the Tenderloin but for Mid-Market, SOMA and other neighborhoods suffering with drug-filled sidewalks?
The Lurie Administration knows that closing drug markets requires more than isolated arrests. It knows that taking back blocks requires consistent action.
Can the city financially afford this strategy to close drug markets? I would say the city cannot afford not to do so.
San Francisco should not allow another year to pass without closing sidewalk drug markets.If City Hall doesn’t like the block by block strategy outlined above, let’s see an alternative that finally accomplishes this goal.
Randy Shaw
<I>Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s new book is the revised and updated, The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. His prior books include Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. 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. </I>
