by Randy Shaw on February 6, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)
Nearly 200 people at TogetherSF Action Feb 1 meeting
Growing Citywide Movement to Close Drug Markets
“The energy last night was incredible! San Franciscans everywhere are fired up and ready to take action. This year, we will end open air drug markets in San Francisco!”—Tweet on Feb. 1 TogetherSF Action meeting
The Tenderloin Business Coalition (TBC) has its rescheduled meeting with Mayor Breed on February 7 at 2:30 pm. Its January 24 meeting was delayed after the mayor expressed dissatisfaction with SFPD’s plans for closing Tenderloin open air drug markets. She wanted to make sure SFPD offered the TBC a strategy that would work.
Will SFPD’s new plans pass the mayor’s muster? Has anything changed in regard to Tenderloin drug markets in the last two weeks?
The answers are Yes and Yes and No.
SFPD’s Disruption Strategy
On January 26 Tenderloin Police Captain Sergio Chin told the TBC’s leadership meeting that he was starting a new “disruption” strategy for closing drug markets. The plan would do exactly what it sounds like—use beat officers to disrupt drug markets.
Mayor Breed has long promoted this disruption strategy. But it never got implemented. When drug markets overflowed early last week it seemed the “disruption” was the latest broken promise to the Tenderloin.
But something happened on the night of February 1 that is a potential game-changer for the Tenderloin.
“Probably the most honest, realistic and informed civic meeting I’ve ever witnessed. Keep beating this drum.”—Tweet about Feb. 1 meeting
At a citywide meeting of nearly 200 people convened by TogetherSF Action, Assistant Chief David Lazar announced that the Disruption plan for the Tenderloin would begin Saturday, February 4. He publicly detailed exactly what would happen in a way that the SFPD has not done since open drug markets exploded in 2020. You can hear Lazar’s plan on the NBC Bay Area coverage of the event (among the many excellent television news stories on the meeting. The SF Chronicle ignored it).
The Tenderloin is a show me neighborhood. It takes nothing for granted. But Lazar has put his credibility on the line. And two factors have changed the dynamics around Tenderloin drug markets.
First, the TBC has brought a powerful and politically sympathetic constituency into the battle. When over 190 businesses, many owned by women and/or immigrants, sign petitions saying that their survival is imperiled by drug markets, City Hall feels compelled to respond.
Second, never before has the Tenderloin had a growing citywide organization like TogetherSF Action in its corner. TogetherSF Action’s involvement sends a message that closing open drug markets is a top city priority, not just a problem for those working or living near the dealers.
TogetherSF Action is uniting diverse constituencies behind closing drug markets. I talked to many people and organizational representatives at the meeting who I did not know cared about this fight; there is already a much broader citywide base for closing drug markets than I realized.
Initial Signs of Progress
The day after TogetherSF Action’s February 1 meeting saw two unusual developments. Eighth Street between Market and Mission was clear of dealers for the first time in at least a year. The notorious 300 block of Hyde was cleared of dealers for the first time in at least two years.
A coincidence? Or the city’s desire to quickly show a broader public that it is listening?
Active drug markets remained on both sides of the 600 block of Eddy. So the full power of the Disruption strategy remains to be seen.
Also remaining at the end of last week was the expansion of dealers to blocks patrolled by Urban Alchemy. This expansion preceded any disruption. This is not a case of dealers being pushed by police to once safe blocks. Keep this in mind should you hear such claims in the weeks ahead.
Tenderloin drug dealing steadily expands due to a lack of police enforcement. There were so many dealers on the 300 block of Hyde last Tuesday—the day before the TogetherSF Action meeting— that the entire sidewalk was blocked. Dealers had no choice but to move to other blocks.
Measuring Success
There’s only one way to measure the new strategy’s success: is there a visible reduction of open air drug dealers in the Tenderloin?
An increase in arrests says the police are more active. But if police are walking down 600 Eddy all day and night dealers will leave to avoid arrest. That’s why the TBC and other Tenderloin activists have always called for the sidewalks to be cleared without regard to arrests.
I always urge reporters to come to the Tenderloin and see the open drug markets instead of relying on misleading and often irrelevant statistics about arrests and drugs recovered. But many don’t want to deal with the drug scene that Tenderloin children, seniors, and other residents and workers face every day.
Because much of the media relies on arrest statistics I connected with Stanford Professor Forrest Stuart to review the same stats the SFPD uses. Stuart did not find evidence for the high arrest rates claimed by by SFPD. The statistics instead showed a downward trend. He will be working with the community to monitor Tenderloin drug arrests stats as the disruption strategy takes hold. Stuart will track arrest stats for as long as needed.
The TBC’s February 7 meeting with Mayor Breed will hopefully confirm that the mayor made a good decision in waiting for a winning strategy before meeting with aggrieved Tenderloin small businesses . The meeting hopefully becomes a turning point in the city’s approach to Tenderloin drug markets.
Open drug markets damage San Francisco’s present and future. Please email the mayor and supervisors to demand their closure.
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
