Mayor Daniel Lurie has made the 16th Street BART Plaza one of his targets to illustrate how the city can make a difference. For years, the plaza has been a place of violence, drug use and mayhem. Recently, unpermitted vending has made it more chaotic. On quieter days – and during earlier crackdowns – it is also a place where local men and women who live in the city’s SROs can hang out and get some fresh air.

Lurie’s efforts have raised the question: Is this serious or just a temporary game of whack-a-mole that will move the problem to another part of the city to return once the attention has dissipated?

To answer that question, we will be photographing the BART Plaza, Wiese Street and other nearby streets daily. If you would like to participate in holding the city accountable , send us photos with the date to [email protected] with the subject heading 16th Street. We will try to use as many as possible. If you do not want your byline on the photo, let us know.

Saturday, March 15, 2025. These are photos from both 16th Street Plazas, Wiese Street, which is across from the SW Plaza, and Julian Street, which is a half block west of Wiese Street. Both are places where folks hang out and are generally littered with trash. Wiese Street has been better since the crackdown. The two photos show how it looked at 8:52 a.m. today and then better a few hours later at 10:28 a.m. One major problem: There is no garbage can on Wiese or Julian streets. Anyone wanting to toss trash in a can must walk at least a block to do so.

A new command unit is deployed to the SW BART Plaza at16th Street.

The day before police moved in, Mission Local spent 10 hours over two days documenting the cat and mouse game with police and staffers from the Department of Public Works. On the 11th, Mayor Daniel Lurie stopped by.

Mayor Lurie calls for a raid at 16th Street and police nets one ounce of drugs. The San Francisco Police Department declines to say wha t kind of drugs were confiscated.

The raid came a day after a post on X in which the mayor filmed himself at the 16th Street Plaza. “I see what you see,” he wrote on X. “All San Franciscans deserve safe and clean streets—whether that’s on 6th Street, in Western Addition or the Mission. My administration is actively working on how we deploy our street teams. And if you are dealing drugs in this city, we are coming after you.”

See X video here .

16th Street has long been documented to be a high crime area. Rampant vending has been going on for at least two years.

We will be posting earlier stories here and a timeline.