The Tenderloin is still a mess. Why?

Spoiler alert: It's the drugs

Soon after I moved to San Francisco, over 40 years ago, my parents wanted to come out for a visit.

I picked them up at the airport one evening and returned by such a circuitous route that even my dad, who’d only been to SF once said, “Isn’t there a quicker way?”

Nope. Not if you didn’t want to take the Sixth Street exit, and drive my parents down one of the grimiest, creepiest streets in the city at night. And from there to roll through the Tenderloin, which even my Colorado parents would have recognized as a dicey neighborhood. I didn’t want that to be their welcome to San Francisco.

Truth is, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed to show them that neighborhood, right in the center of my new home town.

That was in 1980. A lot has happened. My parents passed away. I got married and helped raise a family. I worked at the same place for 36 years, then retired.

But the Tenderloin is still there. Undefeated. Uncontrolled. Unchanged.

Why is that?

The Tenderloin could be an important answer to San Francisco housing problems. It should be the entry portal to the city. Modest, low-cost housing that is close to the center of town and public transit.

If only it were safe.

One of the things I always think when someone mentions the Tenderloin is the teacher who told me how many kids — young kids — live in the TL. And how the neighborhood — to its credit — set up a “Safe Passage” program, which escorted kids to school through sidewalk drug dealers.

It isn’t a mystery what’s wrong with the Tenderloin. It’s drugs. If you read a story about the Tenderloin and the term “open air drug market” doesn’t come up, somebody didn’t do their research. Although I lack formal police training, I believe I can recognize a drug deal when I see one.

So can everybody. They see guys obviously dealing on the street and they wonder why they haven’t been arrested.

What I was told a few years ago was that the decision has been made that the lower level guys are not worth the hassle. They get their stash from outside dealers, only have a little to sell and may be users themselves, who are getting paid in product.

Which is when, on TV, somebody puts together a big drug bust master plan that nets the Big Guys instead of the small fry. And you say, a-ha, this SFPD release proves that cops are cracking down, announcing back in September they’d made 267 TL drug arrests in three months.

Yeah, but then you read Heather Knight's column and you see the city is averaging two drug overdoses a day. And, she says, “70 percent” died “in the heart of the city,” which I am going to say is the Tenderloin and surrounding areas.

Advocates for the Tenderloin have long said that the city has made the decision that it can be a “containment zone” for the city’s problems. It is an old argument that has probably lost some of its steam.

But I’m at a loss to say why it isn’t true.

In many SF neighborhoods, including ours, tents for the homeless rarely stay on the sidewalk for more than a week. In the Tenderloin, a tent-city became so dug in that Hastings Law College had to sue the city to get some help.

C’mon, give those people someplace to live, whether it is a Navigation Center or a designated tent area.

And OK, I understand I’d get some blowback from the homeless advocates on the tents. I get that. The discussion continues.

But not the drugs. There isn’t a Drug Advocacy Coalition. Nobody wants the drugs. It’s addiction, violence and death. It is ruining this neighborhood and has for years.

These are tough times. People are on edge. Bad behavior begets more bad behavior. D6 Supervisor Matt Haney, who lives in the Tenderloin, told Knight he was “floored” by the increase in use and deaths in the Tenderloin during the pandemic.

And I know there are lots of problems and areas of concern. But it would be great if the police could keep it up on the drug busts in the TL. And really commit to drugs as a number one priority. Even small fry contribute to the problem.

Because the people of the Tenderloin deserve it. They’ve been waiting for decades.

Oh, so now everyone is going on Substack? Now it’s trendy? Well, let’s just remember who was here first — the old guy. And, by the way, if you like to subscribe to the old guy, for free, click here”

Football has a Coronavirus problem. Now what to do about it?

When the NFL, and then colleges, began to play football again, they assured us that they would be taking every precaution against spreading COVID-19

And sure enough, they put in a rigorous series of protocols that all made perfect sense. So far there’s just been one problem.

It isn’t working, as I wrote in this week's Santa Rosa Press Democrat column.

Outbreaks have occurred at such a rate that at any given time in the last few weeks half of the teams in the NFL had a player or staffer who tested positive. Miami played last Sunday’s game without five assistant coaches, who were all in quarantine.

But there’s a troubling disconnect between the colleges and professional football. When an NFL player tests positive for the virus, he is isolated, sometimes along with teammates who have been in direct contact with him.

But the games go on. We saw that for Thursday night’s 49ers’ game where the Niners had four starters quarantined (one was injured and couldn’t have played). And, the opponent, Green Bay also had a positive test on its roster. Never mind, the league said, you play as scheduled.

By and large college football leagues have taken the virus more seriously. Cal only had one positive test, but the Berkeley Public Health Department designated so many players for quarantine that the Bears had to cancel their first game.

There has to be a compromise here. Somewhere between cancelling a game after one positive test and the NFL’s nothing-to-see-here policy.

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The 49ers have a bye week. Here’s what they should do

The season clearly hasn’t gone the way the 49ers expected this year. Nor for a lot of people.

I was just remembering that some bonehead predicted a championship season before it started.

Yeah, that was me.

Oh sure, I suppose all your predictions come true.

Anyhow, if there was ever a team in need of re-grouping and ever a time to do it, this bye-week is it.

Unfortunately, they won’t be able to magically heal the laundry list of players with season-ending injuries. But there are some things they can do. Re-store a little confidence, rest and heal and get motivated for a (unlikely) run at the playoffs.

But as I wrote in this week's "Inside the 49ers" what they really need to do is fix their offensive line. And yes, we understand that the line has lost not one, but two starting centers, and they’ve been shuffling people in and out all year.

But still, it is pretty hard to look at the numbers and not think the offensive line is a big part of why 49ers quarterbacks struggle. And I say in the post, it all goes back to the Seattle game, when a team with one of the worst pass defenses in the league decided to go for broke and blitz San Francisco’s O-line like crazy.

It worked to perfection. And the next two teams, Green Bay and New Orleans, did the same. So the word is out, San Francisco can’t handle the blitz.

So what are the 49ers going to do about it?

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Suggestions and compliments gladly accepted. Criticism not so much. Twitter: @cwnevius