6th and Market Drug Scene Shifts to Little Saigon.
Last week sent radically different messages about the future of the Tenderloin’s Little Saigon neighborhood. On the morning of February 9, Mayor Lurie celebrated Chris Larsen’s donation of $5 million to the Tenderloin Community Benefit District for the Larkin Street Revival Project.
Larsen’s donation, and his and Mayor Lurie’s positive words about Little Saigon’s future, sent a strong message about the city’s commitment to reviving Larkin Street.
But only a few hours later, open-air drug activities proliferated on Larkin between O’Farrell and Ellis. The drug market has been thriving there for weeks. At 5:30 am on February 11, only days after the Larkin Street ribbon cutting, an open air drug market spanned much of Little Saigon.
JJ Smith took a video of the scene. His video at 7:15am on February 13 shows drug users sprawled out on trash-filled sidewalks for blocks.
Smith has made many videos of the early morning 6th and Market drug scene. He feels that police crackdowns in that area shifted the drug crowd to Little Saigon. Support for his assessment subsequently appeared in his 2:30 video of Larkin Street on February 13—it shows open air drug use and dealing when Little Saigon businesses are open and trying to attract customers.
City Hall must stop this expansion of public drug use in its tracks. Little Saigon must be a drug-free zone.
New Resources Coming to Little Saigon.
I have been writing about City Hall’s wrecking of Little Saigon for some time . Here’s how I began my November 2023 story, “While City Fiddles, Little Saigon Falls”:
I counted eighteen vacant storefronts last week in the two block stretch of Larkin between Eddy and O’Farrell. The area known as Little Saigon. The vacant storefronts in Little Saigon are not like those in other neighborhoods. Most are boarded up. Nearly all need major repairs before re-occupancy.
There are still over 18 vacant storefronts needing major repairs in Little Saigon.
That’s what makes a positive revival program spawned by the Mayor’s Office of Workforce and Economic Development and by philanthropist Chris Larsen so important. If not blocked by sidewalk drug use this program will make a huge difference.
Last week’s ribbon cutting event was inspiring. Adding to Larkin Street’s positive momentum was the report that Outta Sight Pizza, the site of the ribbon-cutting, is expanding to the corner bar at Larkin and Turk. This gives Larkin Street the destination restaurant it has lacked since the closing of Turtle Tower.
Outta Sight’s owners are naming their place Reggie and Maude’s, after Tenderloin madams Reggie Gamble and Maude Spencer. Their effort in 1917 to stop the neighborhood’s closure is highlighted in my book on the Tenderloin.
The Police Need More Help
Larkin Street between O’Farrell and Geary has been bad for a while as other parts of the Tenderloin improved.
But what JJ Smith showed happening at 5:30 am was off the charts. Watch the video to see for yourself. Particularly troubling is that the drug market covered almost the entire east side of Little Saigon. Places where it had been cleared for over a year.
Captain Matt Sullivan of Tenderloin Station is doing a tremendous job. His creative strategies are clearing drug markets on long troubled blocks in the Tenderloin.
But he is limited by the SFPD’s officer shortage. The RESET Center will keep more officers on the streets but is not slated to start until April. The new Tenderloin Station district boundaries will bring higher police visibility to the Tenderloin neighborhood but this will not take effect until July.
Actions to revive Little Saigon will precede these changes. It’s essential that people willing to give the area a new chance are not confronted by open air drug use.
I know the city has a huge budget deficit. But getting Urban Alchemy to act as stewards of Little Saigon until the RESET Center opens will keep the area’s progress going.
The city is currently funding ambassadors from Glide to clear problems in the area where they are occurring. I saw multiple Glide ambassadors watching the open-air drug market across from McCauley Park and doing nothing to stop it. Glide ambassadors walked by as drug users sat on Cedar Alley outside Jane’s on Larkin. It’s not clear what funding these ambassadors is accomplishing for the community.
That doesn’t happen with Urban Alchemy. It clears drug users off sidewalks.
Not all ambassador programs are equally effective. There needs to be accountability.
City Hall Must Avoid Repeating Past Mistakes
The Breed Administration helped wreck Little Saigon by converting three tourist hotels in the area to shelters. City Hall then ignored the resulting drug activities that took over the area. Now that Chris Larsen’s donation has given the area new hope, City Hall must prevent drug markets from deterring customers.
Drug activities kill economic revival. San Francisco learned this from the closure of Whole Foods at 8th and Market, the shutdown of the San Francisco (formerly Westfield) Centre and the challenges attracting retail in Mid-Market, the Tenderloin, Downtown and other areas.
People don’t want to come to areas where sidewalk drug use and dealing is openly present. I cannot say it often enough: Larkin Street and Little Saigon must be a drug-free zone.
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s new book is the revised and updated, The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. His prior books include Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. 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.