by Randy Shaw on February 12, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)
Users and dealers converge on 1100 block of Market.
Onetime Raids Are Not Enough
“Herding for one or two nights is not a solution.”—@bettersoma on X
Adam Mesnick, owner of the popular SOMA sandwich shop the Deli Board, has been relentless in calling for an end to open air drug markets and open drug use. He often accuses the SFPD of merely “herding” drug users temporarily off their locations instead of implementing a strategy that clears drug areas permanently.
Mesnick renewed his critique in response to the SF Standard’s story last week on a major SFPD evening crackdown around 7th and Market. On the one hand, it was long overdue. I’ve heard for weeks about a new nighttime SFPD strategy and this may be part of its implementation.
But past law enforcement crackdowns around 7th and Market have been more like herding. Last Tuesday at 1:00pm I saw 50-75 drug dealers on 7th Street between Market and McAllister. The photo accompanying this story shows dealers and users on the 1100 block of Market Street between 7th and 8th Streets. The most crowded area is where drug users use the space as a public urinal; it’s a very bad look for a block that once had Whole Foods and still has the ACT-Strand.
The herding assessment also applies following recent arrests at the evening drug market at Ellis Street off of Hyde. New dealers soon arrived and new officers to arrest them did not permanently clear the area.
Then we have the giant evening drug scene on the 100 block of Hyde. This drug market was pushed to 400 Turk after shootings hit the new UC Law SF building. But after the drug market produced twenty shots and one fatality on 400 Turk police allowed it to return to 100 Hyde. It freely operates there from roughly 7pm to 7am (which corresponds to when Urban Alchemy leaves and then returns).
To be clear, some areas have been cleared for good. Most notably the Pelosi Federal Building. 300 Hyde remains clear after years of open drug activities. And let’s not forget to give huge applause to Phil Ginsberg for bringing in a skateboard park that has defied skeptics by positively transforming long troubled UN Plaza.
The Tenderloin has much fewer daytime drug activities than it had six months ago. But 2024 still has far more open air drug activities than the neighborhood had prior to COVID.
If you are tired of reading my stories calling for an end to open air drug markets, I understand. I’m tired of writing them.
Tenderloin/Mid-Market residents, small businesses and workers are even more tired. Many have given up complaining, feeling it makes no difference.
Consistency Still Lacking
Why do drug markets cleared one day soon return?
I have heard Chief Scott say time and time again that consistency of enforcement is essential. Consistency of enforcement means that after arresting dealers you make sure that others do not soon return. I’ve yet to find anyone at SFPD who disputes that consistency is a must. Yet it’s not implemented in Tenderloin/Mid-Market.
In February 2023 Assistant Chief David Lazar pioneered a “disruption” strategy for the Tenderloin. The plan recognized the need to prevent drug markets from simply moving around the block when challenged by police. The strategy imposed the consistency previously missing.
The strategy made a big difference. And then for some reason that has never been explained, after two months the strategy stopped. Many concluded that the SFPD could not sustain staffing levels—but Chief Scott has never blamed an officer shortage for the drug activities in the Tenderloin.
An Obvious Solution
Beat cops would help ensure that officers pass the same corners every day and can respond when dealers return to areas previously cleared. San Francisco now even has a a city law requiring beat cops.
But consistent with the denial of equal protection to the Tenderloin neighborhood there are no officers assigned to walk the parts of the Tenderloin neighborhood where families live and drug activities proliferate.
That’s right. No beat officers assigned to walk north of Golden Gate Avenue. Turk, Eddy, Ellis, O’Farrell—the areas where officers are most needed.
Tenderloin Station has prioritized beat cops along Market, well outside the Tenderloin neighborhood.
Absent beat cops or a renewed disruption strategy, we are left with herding. One or two day disruptions that offer media stories but not real solutions.
No wonder Adam Mesnick gets so angry. We should all be angry until people can walk down sidewalks on a daily basis without confronting open air drug use.
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
