Crime is so bad near S.F. Federal building employees are told to work from home

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advised hundreds of employees in San Francisco to work remotely for the foreseeable future due to public safety concerns outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street.

The imposing, 18-story tower on the corner of Seventh and Mission streets houses various federal agencies, including HHS, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the office of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. The area is also home to one of the city’s most brazen open-air drug markets, where dozens of dealers and users congregate on a daily basis.

SNIP

The building has long been a locus of some of the city’s most intractable problems.

Dozens of dealers routinely plant themselves on, next to or across the street from the property, operating in shifts as users smoke, snort or shoot up their recent purchases. The property’s concrete benches are an especially popular site for users to get high, socialize or pass out.

Link (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/drugs-crime-nancy-pelosi-federal-building-18292237.php

Highlights from the link:

• HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration Cheryl R. Campbell issued the stay-home recommendation in an Aug. 4 memo

• Apparently, the GSA has recently implemented a number of new security measures to address safety concerns. This includes:

-- pulling Federal Protective Service personnel from other nearby properties;

-- a pending vote on funds for an additional “roving” guard dedicated to the property;

-- creating a “BART Buddies” program of on-call escorts

----------------

Wow

[mopinko]

1. when everyone knows where the drug market is,

and it operates openly, someone’s palms r getting greased.
start there.

[MichMan]

3. Who would be bribing them?

And to whom would the bribes be given?

[mopinko]

4. dealers pay the cops.

sometimes judges. this is murika, man.

[hunter]

17. It doesn't have to be bribes up front.

If you let a place go completely to shit developers can buy it up for cheap and pay the bribes, fees, whatever, on the back end as they rebuild.

This building is a failure on many levels and I suspect some in the Federal Government simply want to get rid of it. They just need an excuse.

It's a white elephant.

Monumental architecture is always a crap shoot. People are generally more comfortable in places that have grown organically. They don't need high profile architects telling them how to live and work.

The federal and city governments could easily take back the plaza. It's telling that they don't.

Looking around the city there are several buildings that could easily be repurposed as federal offices and it seems to me that's the unspoken plan.

[NBachers]

2. I had to wait at the 7th & Mission MUNI stop directly in front of the Federal Building. It was scary

I've got a long history of working in Tenderloin buildings; I visit Vietnamese and other favorite little restaurants in the neighborhood. I can go pretty much anywhere and not feel in danger or intimidated. But I'll do whatever I can to avoid using that bus stop again. It was a revolting experience.

Maybe - maybe - a "protective zone" or "impact zone" could be established around the Federal properties where criminal activity is elevated to a Federal offense. The City itself seems paralyzed to do anything effective about these problems.

I've been re-assessing my empathetic liberal views in the face of the devastation that's being wrought downtown.

[demosincebirth]

9. I've already re-assessed my liberal views. I also live in the Bay Area.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

5. A snapshot of the great American drug consumer driving the profits and death of the drug cartels.

[Fullduplexxx]

6. Why is this allowed?

[dem4decades]

7. Crime is going to be a big problem for the Democrats, it's everywhere and the GOP will

try to tie it around Democrats necks.

[demosincebirth]

10. Very true! Homelessness and crime are tied together.

[dem4decades]

11. Yes but the crime spree I'm talking about is inner city youths and gangs. Big problem around

here and everyone is affected. Car break ins, cars stolen, the young drivers driving the stolen cars dangerously, crashing them and then running away. Just last week a gun fight spilled out from a city street onto the local interstate shutting down the highway for hours. That shit is on the news all the time, (you know the old, if it bleeds it leads). Republicans love to blame the Democrats for that and with it just might stick.

[demosincebirth]

16. The "defund the police" movement, I think may have cost us the House

this last election

[NBachers]

12. If you see Kamala or Gavin running, it'll be California homeless & drug casualties 24/7.

"This is Kamala's (or Gavin's) plan for America. Vote Republican"

[dem4decades]

13. I'd rather see Gavin run, he seems like he could turn the table on weak attacks better.

[Auggie]

8. I agree

[lambchopp59]

15. Don't forget what the news team uncovered decades ago:

Asking derelict looking disembarkers at SF Greyhound:
"How did you get the ticket here?"
"Uh... duh... well... they gave me ten dollars and the tickets when I got out of jail in Frozen Dog, Idaho."
The likes from far too many of the sort.

[lambchopp59]

14. Regular trips into the city

I don't even think about disembarking 7th and Mission for decades now. It was already getting bad news in the 80's living nearby. But we still went there for Taqueria Pancho Villa. It's a damn shame now, and gone are the days I'll stay overnight re: break-ins.
That said, using good street smarts outside of that zone I immensely enjoy my junkets there and plan on doing some Castro, Japantown or the beach aside from business while there: odd perk with climate change... sunny summer days near Sutro Baths.

[CountAllVotes]

18. I worked at 450 Golden Gate Ave. for several years

I was there when Moscone/Milk were assassinated.

The building was put on lock-down, I remember that much.

It was a hazardous place to work due to asbestos.

I was so glad when I found a different job in a different part of the City.

Wow did that place ever suck and that was in 1978!

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

19. videos just show a lot of drugged up looking people hanging about