The Standard’s photo team spent hours last month in and around Seventh and Market streets, perhaps the most troubled corner in San Francisco.
As part of an in-depth story on the intersection, our photojournalists captured the open-air drug trade, the black market for merchandise and hapless tourists wandering through it all. The Standard found that since June, city, state and federal authorities have poured resources into the area in an attempt to stamp out growing lawlessness, which has become a focus of the city’s current political battles.
Despite such efforts, the city is on track to set a record for fatal drug overdoses this year, and 20% of reported drug crimes in 2023 have been logged within a block of the intersection.
At least eight government agencies have put manpower into the effort, which also includes park rangers, Public Works employees and nonprofit Urban Alchemy workers.
Here’s a look at the conditions in and around this high-profile corner, just a short walk from City Hall:
The San Francisco Police Department argues that the problems of open-air drug trafficking and illegal sales at Seventh and Market and in many other locations did not arise overnight and will not be solved in a day or a week.
In June, the city opened its multiagency Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, which aimed to coordinate enforcement and reduce the number of open-air drug markets in the area.
City park rangers, who have been tasked with enforcing park rules at U.N. Plaza, have issued 74 citations since Feb. 1.
The city says it has also cracked down on illegal vending but that enforcement has come almost entirely in the form of verbal warnings.
Some of those who live or work in the neighborhood argue that it consists of more than just “people doing drugs.” John McCormick, 30, who works for a nonprofit in the neighborhood, argued that it’s a vibrant, multicultural area filled with law students, business people and families.
McCormick isn’t happy with the city’s recent crackdown. He echoed the oft-repeated criticism that such efforts just push the problems elsewhere.
Chris Smith, 53, a methamphetamine user who gets around in a wheelchair, agreed that stepped-up arrests in the area won’t solve much.
“It ain’t gonna change. There’s too many people,” he said. “They can’t keep up with us.”