{"id":25102,"date":"2023-02-08T11:11:56","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T19:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=25102"},"modified":"2023-02-08T11:11:58","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T19:11:58","slug":"mayor-to-meet-tenderloin-businesses-take-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/02\/08\/mayor-to-meet-tenderloin-businesses-take-two\/","title":{"rendered":"MAYOR TO MEET TENDERLOIN BUSINESSES\u2014TAKE TWO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Randy Shaw<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0February 6, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 200 people at TogetherSF Action Feb 1 meeting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing Citywide Movement to Close Drug Markets<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 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!\u201d\u2014<\/em>Tweet on Feb. 1 TogetherSF Action meeting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tenderloin Business Coalition<\/a> (TBC) has its rescheduled meeting with Mayor Breed on February 7 at 2:30 pm.  Its January 24 meeting<\/a> was delayed after the mayor expressed dissatisfaction with SFPD\u2019s plans for closing Tenderloin open air drug markets. She wanted to make sure SFPD offered the TBC  a strategy that would work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will SFPD\u2019s new plans pass the mayor\u2019s muster? Has anything changed in regard to Tenderloin drug markets in the last two weeks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answers are Yes and Yes and No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SFPD\u2019s Disruption Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 26 Tenderloin Police Captain Sergio Chin told the TBC\u2019s leadership meeting that he was starting a new \u201cdisruption\u201d strategy for closing drug markets. The plan would do exactly what it sounds like\u2014use beat officers to disrupt drug markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Breed has long promoted this disruption strategy. But it never got implemented. When drug markets overflowed early last week it seemed the \u201cdisruption\u201d was the latest broken promise to the Tenderloin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But something happened on the night of February 1 that is a potential game-changer for the Tenderloin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProbably the most honest, realistic and informed civic meeting I\u2019ve ever witnessed. Keep beating this drum<\/em>.\u201d\u2014Tweet about Feb. 1 meeting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a citywide meeting of nearly 200 people convened by TogetherSF Action<\/a>, 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\u2019s plan on the NBC Bay Area coverage<\/a> of the event (among the many excellent television news stories on the meeting. The SF Chronicle<\/em> ignored it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, never before has the Tenderloin had a growing citywide organization like TogetherSF Action in its corner. TogetherSF Action\u2019s involvement sends a message that closing open drug markets is a top city<\/em> priority, not just a  problem for those working or living near the dealers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial Signs of Progress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day after TogetherSF Action\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A coincidence? Or the city\u2019s desire to quickly show a broader public that it is listening?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2014the day before the TogetherSF Action meeting\u2014 that the entire sidewalk was blocked. Dealers had no choice but to move to other blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Measuring Success<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s only one way to measure the new strategy\u2019s success: is there a visible reduction<\/em> of open air drug dealers in the Tenderloin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s why the TBC and other Tenderloin activists have always called for the sidewalks to be cleared without regard to arrests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t want to deal with the drug scene that Tenderloin children, seniors, and other residents and workers face every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TBC\u2019s 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\u2019s approach to Tenderloin drug markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open drug markets damage San Francisco\u2019s present and future. Please email<\/a> the mayor and supervisors to demand their closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco\u2019s 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<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Posts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Randy Shaw\u00a0on\u00a0February 6, 2023 (BeyondChron.org) Nearly 200 people at TogetherSF Action Feb 1 meeting Growing Citywide Movement to Close Drug Markets \u201cThe 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!\u201d\u2014Tweet on… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25103,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25102\/revisions\/25103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}