Edited by author 07-01-2002 02:50 PM
Six: You deserve Dallas, you sad coward. 3rd and C is clean now, because the residents demanded it and the NYPD's Manhattan South Narcotics Command cleaned it up. My best friend was one of the cops doing the busting, and if you had helped them build a couple of cases instead of tipping off the dealers on your stoop, you could be living in a cool safe neighborhood with a lot of really interesting people.

Cory: That letter to the DA is a good start, but go to your local police and file a report. The cops will keep your community as safe as your community demands to be kept, and the statistical measure of that demand is reported crime.

Someone's been complaining, though: the Mission got a new police capitain, Greg Corrales, in January, and he's promised a crackdown (pun not intended) on street crime. In February, they made 238 arrests for sales of crack and heroin.

Here's an article from the Examiner that makes a couple of interesting points:

1. You may pay a lot of taxes, but your courts are underfunded. The SF courts' budget is based on local resident population, not local crime rates - and most of these dealers take the subway in from Oakland.

2. San Francisco is a liberal community that values civil rights over civility. In November, the BART cops brought in a drug-sniffing dog. NORML protested, and the dog was fired after 11 hours on the job.

3. The cops will do what they can, when the community demands, if the community doesn't then prevent them, and if the DA will prosecute, and if the courts will convict, and if the judges will sentence.

So what should you do? File that report, and start bitching forcefully and publicly about this in an organized way. The East Mission Improvement Association was quoted in the article - maybe you can help them agitate for more enforcement, or maybe there's a neighborhood watch you can join. If not, start one!

You might also try voting for a Republican mayor. I'm a carry-me-out-in-a-box Dem at the federal level, but Giuliani and Bratton cleaned New York up real nice. Think Democrat globally, act Republican locally.

Edited by author 07-01-2002 02:46 PM
There's more to San Francisco than the Mission, Cory. I hate it when people bash an entire city (calling it the worst in the nation, if not all of Europe!) based on a bad experience in one neighborhood.

I say this with love, Cory: Move. The Castro is awesome. Haight is still funky, just not rob-you-for-your-sunglesses funky. My neighborhood, Cole Valley, is a geek nirvana of coffee houses packed with people and laptops every afternoon.

I am sorry for your bad experience. That shouldn't happen to anyone. Just don't let it sour you on a great city. The best city in the nation, if not all of Europe, if you ask me.

Cory: If you thought you were about to get beaten for your goggles, then you did the right thing handing them over. But street-level drug dealers are businessmen. Are these guys beating and killing people with any regularity? No, because then they'd be locked up. Will they take what they can get with intimidation? Sure, from people who underestimate their intelligence, and they'll have a good laugh about it too.

Note that your new police captain's anti-street-crime program seems to be getting results: reported robberies in the Mission are down much more than in the city overall.

1. Let me introduce you to my "you ain't talking to me policy". Having lived in the Mission and the Tenderloin I've have more than my fair share of threats, panhandles and attempted conversions. How do I respond? Eyes forward, keep moving, repeating the mantra; "you ain't talking to me". Works everytime.
2. HA-HA, being strong-armed of your cool new goggles, purchased in Londan no less, borders on cliche. As I mentioned above I lived in the Mission until I was owner evicted by a couple of hipsters and your story fills me with the warmth of natural justice. Frankly, I prefer the drug dealers to the scrubbed up gentrification of the dot.condo and gourmet sushi houses.

Edited by author 07-01-2002 03:02 PM
you could be living in a cool safe neighborhood with a lot of really interesting people.

nic, i'm six's fiance, and while i don't agree with the way he handled the situation, i wasn't there and don't know what the options were. i do know that it was 14 years ago and he was working 4 jobs to support himself as an art student. he has said that the residents of that neighborhood at the time certainly did not assist the police with the clean-up because 90% of them were committing the crimes. i would assume "the residents" were people in other parts of the city that wanted the area for their own. the really cool interesting people that live there now are probably paying 4 to 5 times (even allowing for inflation) the rent he was paying. it's called gentrification. and, in some other part of the city, some scared 20 year old trying to get an education is paying for his safety in the form of tip-offs and 40's. he did the best he could. personally, i'm not courageous enough to risk my personal safety to help the police "make a couple of cases". it would be like cutting off your finger to help plug a hole in a dam.

as far as deserving dallas, we live in a gorgeous 1500 sq. ft. loft that we pay $1400/mo. for. we live in a "cool, safe neighborhood with lots of interesting people". culturally, no, there is not a lot here but the decent job market and low cost of living affords us the opportunity to travel extensively. i've had friends that lived in new york and san francisco that spent so much time trying to make ends meet that they enjoyed their cities less in a year than we do in the weeks we visit those places.

1. Walk on Valencia St. for a while - a much safer place and only one block away. Typical of cities. Avoid the Syc/Mission intersection for a while. You wont run into him again and when/if you do he wont remember you. As important as this felt for you, this was nothing for him.

2. Try to not walk around alone especially at night. I say this more for your mental health than for safety. After I had a (much, much more) traumatic experience many years back I had nightmares constantly and was afraid of nightfall itself. Believe me that the feeling of paranoia will go away.

3. Try talking to Gonzalez. He's very approachable and hangs out in the Mission often. He's the most liberal of the city supervisors so... if you can get him to admit its a problem. Also, since he lived on that block, you wont have much explaining to do.

4. The Mayor is Democrat, true, but one who is pro-business and anti-crime already. Its the supervisors that have his hands tied (see 3)

5. If you enjoy the Mission and all it has to offer (I do), the vibrant artistic community, the nightlife, the funky, diverse, and intelligent people then dont leave unless that is what you were planning anyway. If everyone moves to yuppie enclaves like Cole Valley, the Mission will suffer.

6. That said, there are safer streets in the Mission only blocks away. Valencia or Guerrero streets, for example. You live on one of the more dangerous areas right now.

Jaso, I think you've mistaken me for some other straw man. I work for a non-profit for very modest wages, live in an apartment that the previous tenant broke the lease on when she moved out of SF, forcing the landlords to give a rent-break. My trip to London was paid for by a technical conference where I'd been sent to talk about civil liberties; I bought them because a) I like how they look and b) I can't afford to get up-to-date prescription sunglasses and these fit over my regular glasses.

Finally, I think you'll find that Country Station Sushi is far from gourmet or exclusive, and has been on that corner for a long, long time.

Frankly, I prefer the drug dealers to the scrubbed up gentrification of the dot.condo and gourmet sushi houses.

The Yuppie Eradication project is over, jaso. Go home. The rest of us here in the Mission are trying to build an inclusive community one which doesnt extend to drug dealers. You sound like a bitter, poor artist who was displaced by a richer, more talented artist. Eres un nativo, eh? No, I didnt think so.

As someone who's lived three blocks from the 16th st BART for a few years, I know where you are coming from. One paticular crack whore who lived nearby was paticularly frustrating, as the cops said flat out it didnt matter if he really was breaking car windows at least weekly to snatch and grab stuff, it wasn't 'important' enough to deal with.

The counter tho is that violent crime in SF is very low; I wasn't there, but I strongly suspect he wouldnt have done more than verbally hassle you if you had not let him 'try on' your glasses. My building has a number of young women, some of whom work late night jobs. It's not reccomended by any means, but none of them have ever been more than verbally threatened. Small comfort indeed, bu thte main thing is, most of what you'll meet in drug markets like 16th and mission are scavengers, not predators- a little attitude thrown back at them goes an awful long way.

Your milage may vary, tho.

BTW; try out that Italian joint down on 16th just East of Potrero. They got a new chef, and his cooking is aces...

Cory,
Certainly what happened to you was not fair, having been robbed at gunpoint while working at an ice cream store on Fillmore, in Pacific Heights no less, I can sympathize. Obviously, SF police have chosen a policy of containment near the Bart trains, so don't expect any relief soon. My comment was to the cliche, obviously outdated, nature of the event. No disrespect intended.


vacapinta,
Good to know that peculiar SF liberal elitism is alive and well, to answer your questions-
No I was not, but I didn't drive rents & housing costs by 500% or evict families to get my apartment.
No, I was not an artist, I was finishing my masters. I was evicted by two attorneys, but I'm sure they're very inclusive, whatever that means.

Cory,

I'm sorry to hear about what happened. I don't live in SF but I visited for JavaOne in March.

Keep your chin up.

Pranks work.

You might consider creative spending as post-trauma therapy. A quick search for roundtrip airfare to London from SFO returns a whopping $800+. You could factor in expenses like a hotel, car, food, and you find yourself well over a grand easy. Then there’s the whole bully problem. If it gets worse you can see yourself spending thousands on a shrink, a move across town, work performance issues, etc.

That guy took more than just your goggles.

Your situation is a very interesting problem space. I’m sure a budget of a couple of thousand will allow for variety in your retribution.

Sure, you could hire a couple of crackhedz to take him out. But what’s the fun in that. Use some of that money to find out who he is and who he works for. Fund a miniature smear campaign. Dealers rely on word-of-mouth.

Ok, hire a couple of crackhedz. I’m not suggesting that violence is the answer, but slipping a bum a half a note to bug the guy doesn’t hurt. Bums can do some pretty sick shit.

Start a fan site. I’m sure mypetdrugdealer.com is available.

Have some fun with it.

Cory, I don't blame you for feeling shook-up and violated. I think you did exactly the right thing under the circumstances. It isn't worth getting injured or killed just to save your goggles or some bullshit need to "stand up" to an asshole with nothing to lose.

Cory,

I used to believe that living well was the best revenge. When someone accosted me I thought about them when I next went to the park, or ate a nice meal. It helped, but I found that finding a way, however small, to contribute positively to the 'big problem,' i.e. drug abuse, homelessness, etc., was even more helpful. May I suggest that you consider making a donation to a drug abuse prevention or treatment center? It may sound crazy, but it may also give you the courage to hold your head up when you pass this guy. Even if it's (wisely) from a block or two away. :)

That kind of thing always, to put it bluntly, sucks. And there isn't much more to it.

Living right down the street from you in Soma as I do right now, I see and deal with the same sort of things on a daily basis. It's tough to get one's mind around, if that mind doesn't happen to be a reactionary one intent on avoid complex thought about complex issues. I don't want to continue dealing with these things, but I don't want any of the people (directly) responsible jailed or what-have-you. Hell, their lives are already a lot worse than mine, no matter how many bottles of Urine 45 they leave for me.

Downtown (and downtownish) SF strikes me as a great microcosm for studying how economics in this country *really* work.

Once, walking down Mission, 20 feet from where a dealer had hassled me (Did I want some rock), I jaywalked. The street was almost empty, no big deal. A cop walks toward me; I'm about to just walk past him when I notice he's actually looking right at me, and walking into my path. I stop. "Next time use the crosswalk." I was so flumoxxed it didn't even occur to me that I'd be hassled just 30 seconds before.

I still don't get it.