by Randy Shaw on August 10, 2026 (BeyondChron.org)
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back.
In January I wrote that 2026 was a Make or Break Year for the Tenderloin. The historic neighborhood was at a tipping point—it would either bounce back from the terrible Covid years or become a permanent drug containment zone.
Seven months later, the Tenderloin’s future remains unclear. There are solid reasons for both optimism and pessimism. Here’s what I’m talking about.
The Good News
Chris Larsen’s donation of $5 million to the Tenderloin Community Benefit District to revive Larkin Street and Little Saigon is a game-changer. It was the neighborhood’s best news this year. Larkin between Golden Gate and Turk has already improved. Plans to activate the Eddy Street entrance to Little Saigon are in place. If drug activities can be cleared on Larkin between O’Farrell and Geary, Little Saigon could finally recover its pre-Covid success.
The full impact of Larsen’s donation will be seen in the months ahead.
More good news is that the long vacant Civic Center Inn at Ellis and Polk, whose sidewalk drug use and camping hurt Little Saigon, is being transformed. Now owned by those with a long history of helping the Tenderloin, it will soon be a beautiful new hotel Its early 2027 opening will boost the area.
Tenderloin Museum Expansion
The Tenderloin Museum is tripling in size. This will bring even more people into the Tenderloin, improving perceptions of the neighborhood and increasing patronage to local dining spots.
The Museum’s production of the Compton Cafeteria Riot Play at 835 Larkin continues to play sold-out shows. This month marks the 60th anniversary of the actual riot. If you haven’t seen the play, use this link to get tickets.
Thanks to the Lurie Administration’ strong support, renovations necessary for the museum’s expansion were set to start soon. Unfortunately, a blocked toilet in the Cadillac Hotel in late June flooded the museum’s floors and walls. This will delay the expansion until a water redirection system is installed to prevent future leaks.
But the expansion is happening. It will feature a major exhibition on San Francisco’s boxing history, as the legendary Newman’s Gym occupied the expanded museum space from the 1930’s into the 1980’s. Muhammad Ali and George Foreman were among the legends who trained at Newman’s, as did Miles Davis when he was playing jazz in the city.
The expansion will also include an exhibition on the Indian-American hotel legacy. Why have Indian-Americans come to dominate the national hotel industry? A big part of the answer comes from the Tenderloin and SOMA.
New Businesses/ Expanded Tourism
New businesses continue to open. Check out the new bookstore/café on Golden Gate between Hyde and Larkin. Businesses backed by OEWD grants are opening on Larkin. A Mexican restaurant is even opening at the long drug-filled southwest corner of Ellis and Jones.
Tenderloin restaurants, cafes, bars and entertainment venues benefit from expanded tourism. Tourists help compensate for the government workers who no longer come to the Tenderloin five days a week since Covid. Projected rising citywide tourism helps the Tenderloin
Reduced Sidewalk Drug Activities
Overall, the Tenderloin’s sidewalk drug use has declined in 2026. Two of the three worst blocks—Hyde and Eddy (the city’s longest running open air drug market) and the 100 block of Leavenworth bordering TNDC’s Kelly Cullen Center—-have improved. The latter now bans parking, an action called for by the Tenderloin Business Coalition and supported as a pilot program by the mayor.
Jones Street between McAllister and Golden Gate has seen sharply reduced drug activities. The historic Hibernia Bank event space and Proper Hotel are booming. Unfortunately, recent shootings on Market Street near Jones have overshadowed improvements on the Jones corridor.
Finally, the new Tenderloin Police Station district boundaries finally go into effect in October. The Police Commission approved the new boundaries last November and they were projected to start by July. The new boundaries should increase police visibility in the Tenderloin and reduce sidewalk drug use.
The Bad News
Too Much Sidewalk Drug Use
The Tenderloin still has a level of sidewalk drug activity that the city does not tolerate in more affluent neighborhoods.
Two of the four corners at Jones and Ellis remain part of San Francisco’s most drug-filled intersection. The northeast corner under the Riviera Hotel operates as a mini-drug containment zone.
Larkin between O’Farrell and Jones—across from Macaulay Park—has almost constant drug activities. The city pays Glide Ambassadors to clear the area. But unlike Urban Alchemy staff, who routinely clear sidewalks of drug users, their efforts are inadequate.
I ran into two Tenderloin police officers at Jane’s on Larkin. I showed them the people crowding the sidewalk bordering the Tenderloin Housing Clinic’s Hartland Hotel at Geary and Larkin. These were not residents of the hotel.
The officers told me it was not against the law to sit against a building. I said that the combination of dogs and wheelchairs made the sidewalk virtually impassable. It certainly discouraged people from walking by. They said there was nothing they could do.
Do you think officers would allow that scene on Chestnut or Union Street? On Clement ? Or in downtown or Union Square?
No way. The police would demand the people leave for blocking the sidewalk.
That’ the policing double standard that many of us have long tried to end. Campers and drug users are routinely allowed to spend hours if not entire days interfering with passage on Tenderloin sidewalks. Without police interference.
I had hoped to see a lot fewer drug users and campers on Tenderloin sidewalks by this point in 2026. It’s a night and day difference from what San Francisco tolerates in more affluent neighborhoods.
I’ve worked fulltime in the Tenderloin for 44 years. Despite ongoing challenges, I couldn’t have chosen a greater neighborhood to spend my work life.
I describe the neighborhood’s long history of success, its four decades of decline, its pre-Covid rebirth and post-Covid decline in The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco.
It’s hard to predict the Tenderloin’s future. But I still see good times ahead.
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 new book is the revised and updated, The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. His prior books include Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. 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.
