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3 weeks ago | 
sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt
Two men circled each other with their fists raised, screaming unintelligibly. Jaw flexed, tongue hanging out, and hair falling over his face, one taunted the other before slamming a kick to his gut. Bystanders egged them on, smirking as they recorded the brawl. The group of roughly 50 people — some smoking, others hawking stolen goods — clogged the sidewalk of United Nations Plaza.
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3 weeks ago | 
sfstandard.com | Noah Baustin |David Sjostedt
Something strange is happening in the Mission. Public drug use and intoxication have surged in recent months, infuriating neighbors and generating splashy news coverage. The neighborhood, especially surrounding the 16th Street BART transit hub, is awash in scenes of people lighting up pipes, passing around suspicious baggies, and stumbling down sidewalks. Residents perceive lawlessness and danger all around. But the data tells a totally different story.
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1 month ago | 
sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt
A video captured of the incident is prompting criticism that the mayor is focused on optics, rather than outcomes. Calls for help in the Bayview often lead nowhere. The neighborhood with the largest share of RV encampments also has the city’s slowest response time to complaints about the issue. So when Mayor Daniel Lurie visited the site of a persistent encampment on Gilman Avenue last week, many residents felt it was a promising development.
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1 month ago | 
sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt
By David SjostedtPublished Apr. 15, 2025 • 6:00amSan Francisco was in the middle of a political dogfight over the deadly fentanyl epidemic when drug activist Nova Schultz entered the public eye in the summer of 2023. People were dying of overdoses at a record rate. Drug markets engulfed many downtown sidewalks. And for the first time in years, police were arresting people for using drugs after a crackdown began in the spring. By Aug.
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1 month ago | 
sfstandard.com | Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez |David Sjostedt |Jonah Owen Lamb |Kevin Truong
By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, David Sjostedt, Jonah Owen Lamb, Kevin Truong, and Han LiPublished Apr. 14, 2025 • 6:00amIn politics, 100 days can seem like an eternity — has it really been only three months since Trump took office again? — or a blink. Assessing a mayor’s — or president’s — tenure at the 100-day mark is a convention, but an imperfect one, an exercise in judging beginnings without knowledge of the endings.
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2 months ago | 
sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt
The surge in drug use on the city's waterfront coincides with an influx of shelter clients, the city says. George Smyth lay dead in a blue planter when staff from his homeless shelter found him. His hand clutched a plastic straw he’d used to smoke drugs. A small bag filled with the meth and fentanyl that killed him was within reach. Even four doses of Narcan, an overdose antidote, weren’t enough to save him, the death report states.
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2 months ago | 
sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt
By May 30, all programs must move drug paraphernalia distribution indoors or to controlled spaces. City-funded public health programs will no longer distribute drug use supplies without providing counseling sessions or connecting recipients to services, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Wednesday. The policy shift, effective April 30, applies to all city programs distributing sterile syringes and smoking kits and prohibits the distribution of smoking supplies in public spaces.
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2 months ago | 
sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt |Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez
A strategy developed during the AIDS crisis has fallen out of favor during the fentanyl epidemic. Its advocates say people will die. “Stop using drugs,” read the usual note that overdose victims were handed as they left the hospital during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Arms covered in track marks. Dragged in against their will. Spoiling for a fight with staff. Almost always on death’s door.
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2 months ago | 
sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt
For more than 30 years, Jim’s Restaurant has been the Mission’s destination for pancakes and chicken-fried steak. Now it’s entering a new era. Jim’s Restaurant — the greasy spoon that’s stood vigil on its shifting stretch of Mission Street for decades — has thus far resisted the never-ending march toward modernity. The bold WordArt-style lettering on its signage, the extended accordion awning, and the wood-planked facade all feel delightfully unmarred by a focus group.
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2 months ago | 
sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt |Noah Baustin
One neighborhood received different treatment than the rest of the city, an investigation by The Standard found. Timothy Simon’s view was almost perfect. From his Bayview hilltop balcony, he could see the downtown skyline, the glistening bay, and the Oakland hills in the distance. But in the foreground, for much of the last five years, was a line of RVs. He tried everything to have the persistent homeless encampment removed. He pestered cops, filed 311 reports, and lobbied City Hall.
