![\"A](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screen-Shot-2024-10-23-at-10.40.34-AM.png\")
by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/strong> FEBRUARY 10, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/e74-1200x800.jpg\")
![\"A](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/ML-Fundraising-Cartoon-5-930x620.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAre you a regular Joe Eskenazi reader?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Mission Local is home to San Francisco\u2019s premier political reporter<\/strong>, serving up analysis you can\u2019t get elsewhere. If you agree, help feed the city\u2019s news appetite \u2014 donate below<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donate today!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Man, I do miss Wilderness Exchange<\/a>. Rather than spending a fortune on chic new camping equipment, you could buy second-hand gear, ranging from like-new to humorously antiquated \u201cSwiss Family Robinson<\/a>\u201d-era stuff. You could even buy the second-hand pocket knives seized at the airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was, in its way, a magical place. But it didn\u2019t sell magical equipment. Too bad for San Francisco: We need<\/em> magical equipment. All too often, this city attempts to address its most intractable problems \u2026 with a tent. As we noted back in 2023: \u201cToo many disturbingly impromptu city plans seem to start with someone saying, \u2018Hey! Let\u2019s get a tent! A big tent!<\/a>\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By late last week, a number of tents had sprouted in the fenced-off area of a former Nordstrom parking lot at Sixth and Jesse streets in SoMa, stumbling distance from one of the city\u2019s most notorious drug bazaars. Neighbors told us that both fences and tents had been blowing over in the wind. This city is just a sucker for symbolism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And that goes for the overall site, too: The parking lot where, in headier times, San Francisco officials argued<\/a> that a massive housing development would serve as a gentrification bomb is now being converted<\/a> into a one-stop shop to arrest the city\u2019s most down-and-out drug users or coerce them into treatment or a bus out of town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, there isn\u2019t a big tent, but, instead, a series of \u201clittle pop tents<\/a> with the four legs, that you see at, like, a street fair.\u201d Let no one say that San Francisco cannot evolve and adapt in its thinking and approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week,<\/a> San Francisco Police Department officials addressed community members living and working in the city\u2019s put-upon Sixth Street corridor. It was a remarkable meeting: It is difficult to simultaneously offer so few details and so many contradictions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n City officials we spoke with had been led to believe this would be \u201ca public-safety tent\u201d in which cops would merely expedite the onerous procedure of booking and processing arrested drug-users. They were surprised to hear the police say that the \u201ctriage center\u201d would also be a place for treatment referrals or the \u201cJourney Home\u201d<\/a> program to bus homeless drug users elsewhere. Similarly, SFPD-announced co-management roles at the site for the Department of Emergency Management and Department of Public Health also came as a surprise to many in city government, who had been led to believe this was a police affair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This level of amorphousness and evident lack of intergovernmental communication doesn\u2019t bode well. That\u2019d be the case if the city was trying to build a playground, let alone tackle decades-long problems in San Francisco\u2019s most desperate neighborhood. Cracking down on public drug use and offering people the choice of a bus ticket<\/a>, treatment or a trip to San Francisco\u2019s increasingly crowded and chaotic jails<\/a> is not cutting-edge material. It\u2019s ostensibly what we were already doing. It\u2019s the \u201cround up the usual suspects<\/a>\u201d of municipal policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But now, there are tents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Separate and apart from whether it\u2019s good and efficacious policy, let\u2019s assume that San Francisco wants to speed up arresting and processing people doing drugs in public. The logistics and paperwork required to deal with a single person smoking fentanyl on the stoop can pull officers off the street for hours (That\u2019s why, a decade ago, cops told me<\/a> they simply took away drugs and crushed users\u2019 drug paraphernalia; they called this \u201cThe San Francisco Way\u201d). <\/p>\n\n\n\n But if your goal is to speed up arrests, the tent site at Sixth and Jesse streets might be useful. Adam Smith<\/a> could tell you a bit about the expediency of separation of labor; dropping off suspects at a processing site akin to a factory line would allow cops to head back out and do more work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But at last week\u2019s community meeting, police announced the site would be doing more. It\u2019d be doing everything, in fact. Arrests! Treatment! Busing! On Friday<\/a>, they were pouring free cups of coffee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This, too, is a San Francisco tic: In an attempt to do everything, the city makes it difficult to do anything. <\/em>We too often strive to put everything in one place, without having proven we can do one thing well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, more fundamentally, are get-tough solutions for fentanyl users helpful? That depends on what the goal is. This study<\/a>, from public-health researchers at Yale University and the University of Colorado, found that get-tough solutions lead to massive spikes in both incarcerations and overdose deaths. It\u2019s not hard to find studies like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But only if you care. Or look. Or care to look. So, it\u2019s understandable why this city and so many of its exhausted inhabitants are pushing the jail-or-treatment line. San Franciscans have lost patience with drug-induced street disorder: Last year, 58 percent of voters approved <\/a>a measure to drug-screen welfare recipients, the milder version of a policy<\/a> endorsed by former MAGA Rep. Matt Gaetz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n San Franciscans are clearly fed up with visible chaos and misery. So are the folks who choose where to hold conventions. And street conditions and the ongoing failure of downtown retail continue to be catnip for national and international media. The city is ready to tell drug-using street dwellers to \u201cshape up or ship out;\u201d this is, literally, the deal being offered to someone weighing jail or a bus ticket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is the city\u2019s approach useful for getting people out of sight and off the street, thereby improving the curb appeal of Sixth Street? It\u2019s a possibility. Will it reduce addictions and save lives? If you follow the science, that\u2019s more doubtful: See here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, what manner of treatment<\/a> will be offered? And what, exactly, does \u201caccepting treatment\u201d entail? If a drug user chooses treatment to avoid arrest and attends a session or two \u2014 or none<\/em> \u2014 then what? What kind of follow-up and monitoring will there be? Or do cops simply say \u201cthat person accepted treatment\u201d and check a box? <\/p>\n\n\n\n But San Francisco isn\u2019t running a science experiment here. And there\u2019s more than one way to gauge \u201csuccess.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked if the concepts of a plan that police espoused to Sixth Street denizens about the \u201ctriage site\u201d could work, Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, a University of California, San Francisco addiction specialist, said they could<\/em>. But that depends on what your desired outcome is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs it fewer civilian complaints about public drug-use? You might be successful. Is it a lower number of people in San Francisco who are some combination of homeless plus drug-using because you\u2019ve bused them out of town? You might be successful there, too,\u201d says the doctor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut if you\u2019re asking me as a public health advocate: It\u2019s a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n San Francisco, like so many cities, arrested scads of drug users in decades past. \u201cWith some outcomes, you do see short-term benefits,\u201d says Ciccarone. \u201cVisibility, crime issues; those may go down. As far as reducing overdoses and saving lives, you can\u2019t find that study.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And there is no chance of real success if city agencies don\u2019t work cooperatively and stay on the same page. \u201cBut that,\u201d Ciccarone says with a laugh, \u201cis a bit of a pipe dream.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do the liberal European enclaves touted by San Francisco progressives arrest the hell out of folks using drugs in public? You bet they do. But they also have robust treatment options and supervised consumption sites that a drug user in a public space would have willfully spurned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t have those here. There is nowhere near enough treatment for drug users who desire it, let alone for those who don\u2019t. Yes, there are slots in outpatient programs where people can get medications like buprenorphine<\/a>. But then they\u2019re back out on Sixth Street, and surrounded by lunacy and temptation. Inpatient facilities are in demand, and nearly full. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the Journey Home<\/a> busing program, Mission Local<\/em> reported last year that a number of the guardrails in earlier homeless-busing programs have been eliminated. A key component of the Homeward Bound program, which moved<\/a> more than 11,000 homeless people out of town between January 2005 and June 2023, was checking to ensure that friends or family would be receiving a homeless person when he or she stepped off the bus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re not doing that anymore. City officials told us that they have made the program \u201clow-barrier,\u201d so someone in the midst of a drug crisis can have an epiphany and be bundled onto a bus within relatively short order. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To reiterate: We are making it easier for someone with no resources and in withdrawal to get on a bus and be sent to a place where they may have no connections and nobody is looking out for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SoMa workers and residents who attended last week\u2019s meeting with the cops certainly hope for the best. But they expect the worst. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark Sackett, a SoMa event space owner and entrepreneur, said he voted for Daniel Lurie and is grateful that the mayor and the police are turning their attention to the neighborhood. But he likened the approach so far to \u201ckicking an ant hill.\u201d Joe Wilson, a formerly homeless man who is now the executive director of homeless services nonprofit Hospitality House, said that \u201cefforts like this are largely focused on what the neighborhood looks like, rather than permanent solutions, so they\u2019re bound to fail.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the situation on Sixth Street, always dire, has devolved. Something must be done. And this is definitely something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve been in the neighborhood for 38 years, and I ain\u2019t never seen anything like this. This has got to be a movie. It cannot be real,\u201d says Del Seymour, a former drug dealer and addict who now leads the jobs training nonprofit Code Tenderloin. \u201cIt is so far out of the realm of normalcy. I can\u2019t take it no more. People are killing themselves and we are letting them do that. What kind of folks are we? We can\u2019t let them do that no more, and I am willing to try anything right now. Anything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And this is definitely anything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sixth Street has, for generations, evaded solutions, and has been the most distressed corridor in San Francisco. For Lurie to stake his early reputation on cleaning it up could be a nigh-insurmountable challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n San Francisco\u2019s crime rates<\/a> are at near-historic lows. But residents have voted as if the city is undergoing a 1970s-era crime wave, in large part because of disorder, chaos and overt misery on the streets. So it will be interesting to see if deftly applied statistics, even accurate statistics, convince people that things are improving on Sixth Street, where disorder, chaos and overt misery are generational conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because, in the end, there is no magical tent. Only magical thinking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Additional reporting by Abigail V\u00e2n Neely<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re a small, independent, nonprofit newsroom<\/strong> that works hard to bring you news you can’t get elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n getbackjoejoe@gmail.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Managing Editor\/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYour humble narrator\u201d was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.More by Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018If you\u2019re asking me as a public health advocate: It\u2019s a disaster,\u2019 says UCSF doctor by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI FEBRUARY 10, 2025 (MissionLocal.org) Are you a regular Joe Eskenazi reader? Mission Local is home to San Francisco\u2019s premier political reporter, serving up analysis you can\u2019t get elsewhere. If you agree, help feed the… Continue reading ![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Three](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/e65-930x620.jpg\")
![\"Vintage](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screen-Shot-2025-02-10-at-12.23.44-AM-872x640.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/e61-827x640.jpg\")
LATEST NEWS<\/mark><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"With](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Sameer-Gupta_photo_by_Rebecca_Meek-1-1200x900.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWith Raga Fest, classical Indian music takes root in a surprising venue<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Live](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-10-at-4.02.21%E2%80%AFPM-800x600.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLive updates: Daniel Lurie\u2019s City Hall: Who\u2019s coming and who\u2019s going?<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_8042-1200x900.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMayor Lurie taps former Medicaid chief as new Dept. of Public Health head<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Support the Mission Local team<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/dolores2-edit-930x623.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nJOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n