{"id":30235,"date":"2023-11-29T13:14:33","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T21:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30235"},"modified":"2023-11-29T13:14:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T21:14:34","slug":"sfs-pre-apec-drug-markets-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/11\/29\/sfs-pre-apec-drug-markets-return\/","title":{"rendered":"SF\u2019S PRE-APEC DRUG MARKETS RETURN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Randy Shaw<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0November 27, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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

7th and McAllister: SF’s largest open air drug market<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses Upset Over Dealers, Users<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many tents, drug dealers and drug users have returned to their San Francisco sidewalks. While some areas remain improved during the day (most notably the Pelosi Federal Building) the drug hot spots on Willow Alley, 300 Hyde, the 700 block of Ellis and 600 Eddy remain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evening drug markets are thriving. The 100 block of Hyde now rivals 7th and McAllister (photo above) for the city\u2019s largest. Last Saturday morning around 4am saw multiple shootings (one fatal) in the area. Bullets once again entered the new UC College of the Law, SF and Allstar donuts on the corners of Golden Gate and Hyde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those claiming that the media inflates the city\u2019s drug problems need to watch the video of the police removing bullets from the windows of the immigrant-owned Allstar Donuts. Bullets have invaded the space multiple times yet the SFPD remains incapable of shutting down the huge evening drug market nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor does the SFPD add extra protection to areas that had shootings. This was long customary in the Tenderloin. The failure to post such protection may have paved the way for a related shooting later that Saturday night at Turk and Hyde, just down the block from the day\u2019s early morning murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APEC has clearly failed to build momentum for permanently closing open air drug markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police officers worked fourteen hour days throughout APEC so last week clearly had fewer law enforcement personnel available  But I heard from many small businesses who didn\u2019t expect the city to regress so quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is SF\u2019s Strategy for Drug Users?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why has City Hall been unable to stop people from shooting up drugs on public sidewalks? In both residential and commercial neighborhoods?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t see this in the vast majority of cities. And we didn\u2019t see it across San Francisco before COVID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police officers tell me their hands are tied. An officer smirked when I told one that the Chief himself assured me that they will arrest people for openly shooting up drugs. It\u2019s no secret that rank and file officers feel a lack of direction and strategy behind Chief Scott\u2019s approach to closing drug markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Breed was attacked when she announced that she supported arresting open air drug users. Critics claimed users need treatment, not incarceration. But many of these critics oppose requiring treatment. We hear about insufficient treatment slots but too many ignore the large number of public users refusing treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should open air drug users be allowed to wreck neighborhood businesses? And continue causing safety fears among low-income and working-class families?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your answer to both those questions is No,  then why has San Francisco allowed this to continue for years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those pushing for answers to these questions are often criticized for promoting a \u201cdoom loop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is SF\u2019s Strategy for Permanently Clearing Tents?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses are hurt by sidewalk tents that become venues for drug use, dealing, and trash. Customers do not like walking by such areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the city still lacks an effective tent removal strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I recently wrote<\/a>, \u201conce tents are cleared there\u2019s nobody from SFPD checking whether they return the next day. Or the day after. So we have a Sisyphus-like situation where huge city efforts go into clearing the 600 block of Ellis or 400 block of Leavenworth only to have the tents and drug users soon return.\u201d (the latter block has stayed clear for over a week, knock on wood).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal injunction no longer justifies the city allowing tents on sidewalks. Over 90% of tent dwellers refuse shelter or housing; they have no legal right to camp on San Francisco sidewalks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep sidewalks clear of tents and dealers and users will be gone. Shouldn\u2019t City Hall make effective tent clearance a top priority?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is There Hope?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Breed constantly promotes the need to increase public safety but voters in November 2024 will want to see results.  The mayor blames the Police Commission or Board of Supervisors for blocking progress but most voters are going to feel the buck stops with the mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if you are wondering whether there\u2019s still hope for San Francisco to permanently close its open air drug markets, the upcoming November mayoral election offers a deadline. Nobody I have talked to  thinks London Breed can win re-election if voters feel public safety remains a major problem approaching Election Day.<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Randy Shaw\u00a0on\u00a0November 27, 2023 (BeyondChron.org) 7th and McAllister: SF’s largest open air drug market Businesses Upset Over Dealers, Users Many tents, drug dealers and drug users have returned to their San Francisco sidewalks. While some areas remain improved during the day (most notably the Pelosi Federal Building) the drug hot… 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":[1005],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30235"}],"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=30235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30236,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30235\/revisions\/30236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}