OPINION: 'The Tenderloin has vexed generations of California’s best politicians. If Feinstein, Brown, Newsom and Harris couldn’t fix it with crackdowns, what makes anyone think rank amateurs like Breed and Jenkins will have better luck?'
The plan: Flood the zone with police and make as many arrests necessary to end the open-air drug scenes. Kowalski described it as a block-by-block war, with 60 officers — more cops per square foot than any other neighborhood — dedicated to the task.
I found Kowalksi’s quote in a story headlined “Tenderloin: Deeper into the nightmare.” Except for the fact that people were smoking crack instead of fentanyl in 1992, it could have been written today. Columnist Stephanie Salter detailed all the same problems police are struggling with in 2022. In 1979, Mayor Dianne Feinstein crowed about a “dramatic” 29% reduction in Tenderloin crime between April and June, ostensibly the result of aggressive policing. But the boast proved short-lived when The Examiner learned that serious crime had increased by 25% during the month of July.“We’re going to help you get rid of it,” said SFPD Chief Charles Gain.
“The streets of the Tenderloin are our living room,” said Leroy Looper, who helped organize the march. “People live in the streets, and things happen there like no other place in The City. Crime is more visible to us, and we need to begin to control it.”“The present jails are filled to capacity, and the courts threaten contempt proceedings if there is overcrowding,” wrote Feinstein at the end of a decade during which California’s prison population increased by 263%.
“We’re building a new image for the Tenderloin,” he said in 1998. “We want the Tenderloin to be known as a family-friendly place.”“An overwhelming number of alleged drug dealers arrested during a recent six-day sweep of San Francisco came from out of town,” wrote The Examiner on Oct. 23, 2007. That year’s crackdown, under SFPD Chief George Gascón, emphasized felony charges and enhanced penalties for dealing drugs near schools. It stuffed the jail, clogged the courts and, ultimately, failed.
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