by Randy Shaw on July 10, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)
Dealers remain outside Elk Hotel, 670 Eddy
Police Target Skateboarders Over Dealers
Business remains strong for dealers of deadly drugs in San Francisco. Recent announcements of new resources have yet to close drug markets. While dealers get arrested and fentanyl seized, visitors who post reviews on social media still find “drug dealers in plain sight.”
What about the 130 deputy sheriffs who were supposed to start a late June crackdown on dealers? Governor Newsom’s doubling CHP officers? Congressmember Pelosi’s securing resources from Project Overdrive? Mayor Breed setting up a command center headed by Mary Ellen Carrol of the Department of Emergency Management?
None have made a visible impact. There is no sustained law enforcement visibility in drug dealer hot spots.
The beat patrols and fixed posts that Mayor Breed has long called for? Still missing.
Have dealers been arrested and a lot of fentanyl seized? Definitely. But as I wrote about two weeks ago, these are the wrong measurements for success.
The only scorecard that matters is drug markets closed and drug users and dealers displaced. In the Tenderloin, Mid-Market and SOMA through last week, this scorecard is little changed.
The above July 6 photo of the 600 Eddy open air drug market in front of the Elk Hotel is the same drug cartel-driven operation whose photo accompanied my June 26 story.
The west side of the 300 block of Hyde remains filled with drug users and illegal vendors. Dealers moved around the corner but return at night. A nearby property owner describes the scene the city allows on 300 Hyde as “mayhem.” There is not another block in San Francisco that has been so given over to users and dealers.
What’s the Problem?
My previous story highlighted the failure of the SFPD’s strategy of prioritizing arrests over closing drug markets. Efforts to get Chief Scott to change this approach have failed. Scott refuses to use beat cops, fixed posts or to otherwise pursue a more aggressive approach (unless, as discussed below, the target is teenage skateboarders).
The Sheriff announced his plan to allocate 130 officers to combat drug markets on June 8. It was stated at the media event that “the deputies will work overtime for a six-month deployment beginning this month.”
Sheriffs have issued eleven citations so far. But there is little sustained visibility. The Sheriff told the SF Chronicle last week that starting June 28 “eight deputies at a time from the emergency squad hit the streets for two-week rotations.” Eight is a far cry from 130.
It appears the 130 number does not reflect those working at the same time but rather the overall number to be allocated. The Sheriff meets with the Tenderloin Business Coalition this week. We should get more clarity on the commitment.
The timing for Project Overdrive has never been clear. I hear about DEA officers walking in the Tenderloin, SOMA and Mid-Market and that they have made some arrests. But the DEA has not materially improved any area. In fact, last week drug dealers and users filled their usual spots along Market Street near the ACT-Strand Theater. At night, Market between 7th and 8th Streets—also the site of the now closed Whole Foods—has as much drug activity as ever.
The CHP has more visibility since Newsom doubled its capacity. But it’s not clear how their effort connects to a clear strategy to close a particular drug market.
Why has increased political pressure not brought greater results?
A lack of accountability. Plus a lack of a coordinated strategy to close drug markets. And an SFPD leadership whose rhetoric about closing drug market is not matched by actions..
Nobody has lost their job due to drug markets killing San Francisco’s large and small businesses..
San Francisco’s “Doom Loop”
Many see San Francisco on a downward cycle spinning the city toward becoming a West Coast Detroit. I disagree with that.
But even detractors of the “doom loop” scenario note that San Francisco’s return to office rate has not improved since February. That office vacancies have hit a record high. That “Muni subway passenger volume was 51% of 2019 levels in May and BART exits in downtown San Francisco were at only 33% of 2019 levels.”
San Francisco’s downtown cellphone rate is only at 31% of pre-pandemic levels, well below other major cities. Tourist revenue still lags and retail sales revenue could further decline.
Open air drug markets are driving San Francisco’s problems. Dealers undermine feelings of public safety. Their negative impact goes far beyond where their sales occur.
Skateboarders vs. Drug Dealers
Many wonder why we don’t see police and other law enforcement taking back blocks from dealers. They see 30-40 officers trying to stop fireworks at 24th and Harrison and wonder why similar numbers aren’t dispatched to the 600 block of Eddy? Or the 300 block of Turk? Or along Market between 7th and 8th Streets and at the Pelosi Federal Building?
Last Saturday night dozens of officers were dispatched to 21st and Dolores Streets in a massive operation to arrest teenage skateboarders. According to Mission Local, “Several times during the evening, SFPD declared an unlawful assembly, charging at skaters and spectators to clear the corners where they gathered.”
Joe Rivano Barros’ story about the aggressive SFPD tactics against skateboarding teens—113 were arrested, 81 under 18— raises major questions for those seeking to close open air drug markets. He reported how SFPD was “moving from corner to corner, clearing intersections.”
Why doesn’t the SFPD use those aggressive strategies against drug dealers?
On the one hand the SFPD claims that fixed posts on blocks don’t work because dealers will just move a block away. Yet Chief Scott has police following teenage skateboarders from block to block and then rounding them all up.
This raises some obvious questions.
Why isn’t the SFPD acting with similar aggressiveness toward dealers of deadly drugs? Why aren’t officers declaring an unlawful assembly for drug dealers as they did for skateboarders ? Or pursuing dealers for blocks as they did for the Dolores Park area teens?
These are great questions. And the mayor and Board of Supervisors deserve answers.
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
