by Randy Shaw on December 16, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)
New Political Leadership Offers Hope
It’s been a tough four years for San Francisco’s Tenderloin and Mid-Market. But better times lay ahead.
Why do I say that? Incoming Mayor Lurie and new Supervisor Bilal Mahmood are far more committed than their predecessors to addressing the core problems in both neighborhoods.
Former Mayor Ed Lee showed that when City Hall prioritizes Mid-Market and Tenderloin revitalization, both neighborhoods improve. Here’s what must quickly be done.
Closing Drug Markets
The revitalization of Mid-Market and the Tenderloin starts by closing open-air drug markets and sharply curtailing drug activities. Period. This is a prerequisite.
Mayor Breed seemed to understand this when she issued her Tenderloin Emergency Declaration in December 2021. But Chief Scott never added the police necessary to implement her plan.
Instead of arresting Tenderloin dealers Breed opened a Linkage Center in UN Plaza that made 7th and Market much worse. It became the regional hub for drug activities. The drug scene around 7th and 6th and Market exploded. It still holds Mid-Market and the Tenderloin back.
Mayor Lurie has made it clear that his first priority is closing drug markets. His Chief of Public Safety will report directly to the mayor “to ensure accountability on outcomes.” I am hopeful that Lurie appoints an Interim SFPD Chief with the strategic skill set to curtail public drug activities.
Economic Stimulus Strategy
Both neighborhoods need an economic stimulus strategy. This starts with the mayor providing the type of personal attention to Mid-Market and Tenderloin business owners that Mayor Lee did after he took office in 2011.
Mayor Lee recruited investors to both neighborhoods. He held public business openings for every new venue in the Tenderloin or Mid-Market. I think I attended them all. They ranged from small cafes, hamburger joints and bicycle stores to Dolby’s sparkling new quarters. Every business that opened in Mid-Market or the Tenderloin starting in 2011 got Lee’s personal attention and attendance at an opening.
As for an economic stimulus strategy, it starts with a plan that won’t cost taxpayers a dime: re-open Mid-Market to cars.
Is it a surprise that the one neighborhood in San Francisco that bans cars is suffering economically? Do bike advocates really want to hold up San Francisco’s Mid-Market as a model for what a car ban produces?
I’ve written extensively about this: See “Should Uber, Lyft Be Allowed in Mid-Market?,” January 12, 2024 and “Momentum Grows to End Mid-Market Car Ban,” February 5, 2024.
San Francisco cannot continue to allow Mid-Market to be an economic casualty of citywide conflicts over bike lanes. It’s not fair. It’s bad policy. And its preventing Mid-Market’s revival.
When virtually every business in Mid-Market identifies the car ban as a huge obstacle to revitalization, City Hall must listen. And if City Hall doesn’t listen it can look forward to the continued exodus of business from Mid-Market.
Other Economic Strategies
Prior to Covid, office workers were a key customer base for the area’s ground floor retail. Their departure has significantly reduced positive foot traffic in Mid-Market. The 16 story building at 6th and Market went from 100% occupied to 100% vacant; that’s a massive loss of revenue for nearby retail.
Working in conjunction with Mid-Market stakeholders, Lurie needs to come up with a stimulus plan. Mid-Market can no longer sufficiently underbid downtown rents to attract tenants.
I floated the idea of city subsidies for businesses that open in Mid-Market whose workers come to their offices five days a week (See “How Mayor Lurie Can Revive Mid-Market,” November 18, 2024). Between Mid-Market’s bright business minds and those in Mayor Lurie’s office, a feasible incentive plan can be developed that will get those offices filled and Mid-Market back on track.
Only Drug Activities Hold Back Tenderloin
The Tenderloin faces an easier challenge. The Tenderloin is a residential neighborhood long dominated by restaurants, bars, corner stores and entertainment/cultural venues. All the Tenderloin needs to get back to positive pre-Covid path is a safe and healthy sidewalk environment.
Most San Francisco neighborhoods take safe and healthy sidewalks that for granted. But City Hall has tolerated drug activities in the Tenderloin. As a result there has never been a full scale, sustained police crackdown in the Tenderloin. There have been many one-day “crackdowns” that allow dealers to return the next day or even within hours. But we’ve never had the sustained “hot-spot policing” crackdown that permanently cleared open-air drug markets in New York City and other cities (See my story, “San Francisco can quickly end Tenderloin drug dealing, ” December 6, 2021, SF Examiner).
Why has the SFPD not used the most effective strategy to clear Tenderloin drug dealing? Two reasons.
First, Chief Scott doesn’t believe in the strategy. He told me that when I met with him soon after his appointment eight years ago. He has since reiterated his belief that the strategy doesn’t work (while failing to implement a strategy that does).
Second, drug dealing persists as part of Mayor Breed’s efforts to use the Tenderloin as a drug containment zone. The federal court lawsuit against San Francisco filed by residents and businesses cites many specific programs designed to attract and retain drug activities in the Tenderloin. That lawsuit should be settled with the city cancelling these programs.
Tenderloin is Primed for Revival
The foundational elements for a robust Tenderloin neighborhood are all there.
We have UC Law SF’s Academic Village, which at 198 McAllister includes 656 units housing graduate and professional school students. Future plans call for building 300-400 new housing units on UNITE HERE Local 2’s site at Golden Gate and Leavenworth; the project will also include a new union hall.
Both UC Law SF projects will dramatically increase positive foot traffic and small business spending in the Tenderloin—once drug markets are closed.
The Tenderloin Museum has launched a capital campaign to triple its existing space. The former Newman’s Gym space under the Cadillac Hotel became vacant and the museum rented the 6000 plus square foot space. This offers a larger event space and some new permanent exhibitions. One will focus on how hotel ownership by Indian-American’s across the United States has deep roots in the Tenderloin; it will be the nation’s first permanent exhibition recognizing the Indian-American hotel industry.
I often hear people who care about San Francisco say they have not been to the Tenderloin Museum. It’s about to celebrate ten years! Check it out this holiday season.
Many restaurants are ready to open in the Tenderloin. All awaits the removal of sidewalk drug activities. Also moving forward is St. Anthony’s dynamic Golden Gate Greenway project. Supervisor Bilal Mahmood is prioritizing the completion of this ambitious reuse of Golden Gate Ave between Leavenworth and Jones. It will also boost visitors to the neighborhood.
My book about the Tenderloin—The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco—exposes the falsehoods and misunderstandings many have about the neighborhood. From 1907 through the mid-1950’s the Tenderloin was among San Francisco’s most prosperous neighborhoods. While the city suffered during the 1930’s Depression, the Tenderloin thrived.
I show how the Tenderloin’s decline was no accident. City Hall intentionally wrecked the neighborhood in the late 1950’s due to a personal vendetta by the city’s mayor.
Mayor Ed Lee in 2011 became the first mayor to make the Tenderloin’s revival a priority. And it worked. But Mayor Breed reversed this progress.
Mayor Lurie wants the best for the Tenderloin. So does our new supervisor, Bilal Mahmood.
That’s why I see better days ahead for both Mid-Market and the Tenderloin.
Join me and others discussing Mid-Market on a zoom panel on December 17 at noon sponsored by SF Standard . Register via this link
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
