David Sjostedt

Staff Writer at The San Francisco Standard

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Articles

San Francisco cop tells homeless to move to take ‘pretty’ photo for mayor

3 weeks 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.
‘Downtown is for drug users’ activist dead of overdose

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.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie's 100-day progress report

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.
San Francisco's new overdose hotspot is on the Embarcadero

1 month 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.
'Moronic': Nonprofit slams Lurie's new rule on free drug supplies

1 month 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.
San Francisco is done being soft on drug users

1 month 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.
This classic diner has new owners. But the green salsa is still gone by noon

1 month 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.
Homeless camp complaints: Response time depends on where you live

1 month 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.
Few drug dealing arrests in high-profile police park raid

2 months ago | sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt

The night-time operation marked a major shift in how the city responds to its continually evolving open-air drug markets. Cops stormed Jefferson Square Park last week with motorbikes, drones, floodlights, zip ties, and a jail bus to make more than 80 arrests at San Francisco’s latest drug hot spot.
At another new drug market, fentanyl is traded for candy

2 months ago | sfstandard.com | David Sjostedt

Jefferson Square Park is a small haven in the Western Addition. During the day, residents walk their dogs among the foliage. Students pass to and from school. And a relative quiet falls over the green space just two blocks from one of the city’s most busy thoroughfares, Van Ness Avenue. But when The Standard visited Monday night, drug dealers hid in the bushes. A park ranger shuffled groups of users and illegal vendors around the block. People lay slumped in nearby doorways.