Day 270 at the 16th Street Plaza: It's all about the nights

"For months, vendors selling everything from shampoo to jeans and pistachios have been congregating during the late afternoon near the northeast 16th Street BART Plaza. Over the last month, however, the San Francisco Police Department and BART police have been more present. BART police in an SUV are often there in the afternoon and early evenings and then an SFPD SUV arrives anywhere between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. The SFPD SUV generally parks with its headlights facing north, where the vendors congregate."

"On Saturday, Day 270 of Mayor Lurie's crackdown, the plazas and nearby side streets remained mostly clear but again by 5 p.m., drug activity and vending took hold on the east side of Mission Street as it has nearly every night I've checked on it in the last month. As I've witnessed over the past month, the SFPD arrived again on Saturday at 9 p.m. to clear the group of vendors, drug users and others from the area."

"Officer Knoble walked with another officer and someone from the Department of Public Works through the crowd of people lined up along the wall of the former Walgreens. They stood by, waiting for people to pick up their belongings. How long would it take before the place cleared? Some people just don't have a place to go, Knoble said. "This fentanyl, we've just never seen anything like it," he added."

Vendors gather each late afternoon near the northeast 16th Street BART Plaza and drug activity often intensifies by evening. BART police and SFPD presence has increased over the past month, with BART SUVs in the afternoons and SFPD SUVs arriving between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., parking near the vendor area and sometimes remaining overnight. Police operations have regularly cleared vendors, drug users and others while officers wait as people collect belongings. Officers report pervasive fentanyl use and note that some people have nowhere else to go. The SFPD has not confirmed the exact start or frequency of the operations.

Read at Mission Local