by Randy Shaw on January 22, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)
Dealers and Users fill 7th and Market
Clearing Tents, Users, Nighttime Drug Markets
Last Thursday at 2:30 am rival drug gangs fired over twenty gunshots on the 400 block of Turk. A block with senior housing, permanent supportive housing, a “tot lot” playground and the headquarters of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supporting Housing.
In the weeks prior to the shootings SFPD had allowed roughly 100 drug dealers and users to operate on 400 Turk from evening to early morning. The violence was hardly a surprise. In fact, the preceding afternoon I asked JJ Smith (follow him on X at @war24182236 ) if he could check out the 400 block the following morning because the organization I head houses tenants at the Vincent Hotel on that block. Smith agreed, and ended up tweeting out a video of the post-shooting scene.
The shootings were a reality check. Those eager to claim victory in the city’s efforts to close drug markets were reminded that more must be done. The drug crowd moved to the 400 block after they were pushed from the 100 block of Hyde due to a prior shooting spree. Now the SFPD has allowed them to return back to 100 Hyde —further confirming Chief Scott lacks a clear strategy.
Visible Daytime Progress
To be clear, SFPD and its law enforcement allies have made visible daytime progress in reducing open air drug dealing. Rec and Park’s skateboard park has made long troubled UN Plaza significantly safer. The notorious 300 block of Hyde, an open drug market for years, has finally been cleared. So has the Pelosi Federal Building. But evening drug activities, all-day camping by drug users refusing shelter and trash left by both still negatively impact San Francisco businesses and residents.
Here’s where law enforcement must finish the job.
Nighttime Drug Markets
400 Turk/100 Hyde
Under pressure from UC Law SF whose new building was hit by a shot from the 100 Hyde drug market, police allowed the evening drug market to relocate around the corner to 400 Turk. But allowing drug markets to move nearby isn’t an effective strategy. SFPD must close this drug market for good.
7th and Market
Over 100 dealers/users operate each night near the Proper Hotel. The crowd used to cover the west side of 7th Street (at 83 McAllister) but now surrounds the Proper (see photo above). It’s a super bad look for the city. SFPD must close it down.
Hyde and Ellis
If you follow @TLTube on X you have seen nightly videos of dealers at Hyde and Ellis. Yet the SFPD has not closed this openly visible drug market. Nor has it removed the parade of day and night drug users in front of the Cova Hotel, a city-funded SIP hotel between Larkin and Hyde on Ellis.
24/7 Camping, Drug Use and Trash
Protecting the quality of life in neighborhoods also requires removing sidewalk tents from those refusing shelter. And monitoring sidewalks after removal so the campers don’t simply return the next day.
This remains a big problem in the Tenderloin. For example, during the past three weeks tents have surrounded the Mentone Hotel at Ellis and Jones. The tents initially blocked the entrance to a P.O. Box for mail deliveries and the door to the historic Cinnabar bar. Now the tents completely block one side of Jones Street, leaving trash throughout the area. The city plans to clear the encampment this week but what about the past three weeks?
Tent dwellers are part of the drug trade. They refuse shelter because drugs are not allowed. They have few or no public bathrooms to support their life on the sidewalk. SFPD must make tent removal a consistent priority until the systemic problem is cleared.
Protecting Public Sidewalks
Residents and businesses in the Tenderloin, Mid-Market and SOMA deserve the same right to walk safely through clean sidewalks as those in other neighborhoods.
Is that controversial?
Is it a “moderate” rather than “progressive” stance? When did it become “progressive” to support criminal behavior in low-income and working-class neighborhoods?
I get that the SFPD has other priorities. But so long as these tents wreck the quality of life for residents and businesses, their removal must be a top priority.
The SFPD and its law enforcement allies must finish the job of restoring safe sidewalks throughout San Francisco. When you hear Chief Scott and others talk about “making progress,” remind them that the drug crisis afflicting the above neighborhoods is in its fourth year.
That’s not a rate of progress San Francisco should accept.
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
