Lydia Chávez

2 weeks ago | missionlocal.org | Lydia Chávez

In sharp contrast to Saturday’s success in keeping Mission Street clear for pedestrians, on Sunday, vendors and later drug users controlled Mission Street from 16th to nearly 14th Street. At noon Sunday, unpermitted vendors flooded the west side blocks of Mission Street. By 6 p.m some of the vendors remained, but pipes and other drug paraphenalia were nearly as common as the toothpaste, electronics and the shoes for sale.

2 weeks ago | missionlocal.org | Lydia Chávez

See all of our posts on 16th Street here. Saturday’s operation involving the San Francisco Police Department and the Department of Public Works demonstrated that it is possible to keep Mission Street from 16th to 15th streets clear of unpermitted vending and open drug use. At 8:30 a.m. Saturday, vendors were already out on the block, and it looked like another weekend market frenzy was set to take off – one that had devolved last weekend to a lot of open drug use.

3 weeks ago | missionlocal.org | Lydia Chávez

All of the 16th Street posts can be found here. Workers from the Department of Public Works, public health and elsewhere walked and worked in the 16th Street area this morning and much of the area west of Mission Street looked cleaner. “You will soon be seeing a difference on the weekend,” said Santiago Lerma, the captain of the Mission Street Team, who met this morning with 15 of his workers at Julian Avenue and 15th Street.

3 weeks ago | missionlocal.org | Lydia Chávez

You can see all 16th Street posts here. The equation would seem simple here. If a huge number of people descend on a major commercial corridor, a fair amount of trash will be left behind. Minus trash bins, it will land on the sidewalk. That is what happens on the weekend —  but, really, weekdays too —   along the Mission Street corridor. That’s especially so on the west side from 14th to 16th streets, where more than three dozen unpermitted vendors often sell their wares on Saturday and Sunday.

3 weeks ago | missionlocal.org | Lydia Chávez

For the first time in five consecutive days of visiting the northeast plaza, the nook between the former home of Walgreens and the plaza entrance was clear and getting clean, thanks to a BART worker. The BART employee, who declined to give his name, said he has a working relationship with the regulars. He asks them to clear out while he cleans and they go willingly; sometimes a few even help him, he said.