San Francisco's 16th st. bart plaza: a traditional, open-air hub of crime, 24/7

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From: Mission Local <info@missionlocal.com>

To: "add1dda@aol.com" <add1dda@aol.com>

Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 08:32:38 PM EDT

Subject: 16th St. BART plaza: Vendors, drugs, and a SFPD mobile command unit

Good afternoon! Here's the latest: Great reporting from Oscar Palma on what really happens, hour by hour, at the chaotic 16th St. BART plaza. Plenty of vendors selling cigarettes, steaks, Ensure, or hatchets; plenty of threats, cops, ambulances, and drugs—plus a surprise visit from Mayor Daniel Lurie. Read it all. Then this afternoon, the SFPD set up its bus-sized Mobile…

Good afternoon! Here's the latest:

Great reporting from Oscar Palma on what really happens, hour by hour, at the chaotic 16th St. BART plaza. Plenty of vendors selling cigarettes, steaks, Ensure, or hatchets; plenty of threats, cops, ambulances, and drugs—plus a surprise visit from Mayor Daniel Lurie. Read it all.

Then this afternoon, the SFPD set up its bus-sized Mobile Command Unit #2 on the plaza, in the pouring rain. Police sources compared their strategy to a shell game: "You are moving the cups and trying to keep up."

For a glimpse of what the plaza looked like in 2008—with its drug dealers, sex workers [English translation: prostitutes], and drunken hipsters—see our back story.

And for a very different portrait of the Mission in the 1970s, don't miss Mission Love Presents: Visions of Mission Mediarts, at the Roxie on March 15. Newly digitized footage from filmmaker Ray Balberan documents art, politics, and just plain wonderful life in the neighborhood.

More soon,

Sara

Latest News

SFPD deploys 'mobile command unit' to 16th St. BART plaza "This game that the dealers have been playing, it's coming to an end."

Steaks, baby food, threats, and the mayor: Ten hours at the 16th St. BART plaza "Shit. Mayor. I need help!"

At the Roxie, a love letter to the Mission District of the '70s "I love when I see hippie Latinos with long hair."

Back Story

16th and Mission After Dark "Hey, do you have two dollars I can get to buy a crack pipe?"

SNAP

Duh

by Aife Murray

Events

All Events

Today: Kelsey Kindall with Liv Belda, Tyler Reese, at the Brick & Mortar Music Hall, March 12, 8-10PM

Tomorrow: Graphic Novel Club Meetup, Mission Comics & Art, March 13, 7-9PM

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