A group of Inner Mission residents and business owners is suing the city for allegedly allowing prostitution, public intoxication, and other ills to run rampant in their neighborhood.
The suit, filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court, describes unrelenting public and private nuisances along Shotwell Street between 19th and 21st, including in Jose Coronado Playground.
The lawsuit says sex workers proposition and threaten residents, while johns prowl the streets and intoxicated people urinate freely outdoors and cause collisions while driving. The problems seems to have shifted to Shotwell Street after officials last year installed barriers on nearby Capp Street to tamp down on prostitution there, the plaintiffs said.
“San Francisco’s government has failed to respond to this crisis and failed to enforce its laws against sex trafficking and prostitution, as well as other laws against public disorder,” the lawsuit claims.
The plaintiffs plan to hold a press conference Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the playground.
Lead plaintiff Ayman Farahat, a Shotwell Street resident, said the group has met for years with city representatives about the brazen sex trade and other complaints, but a lack of meaningful action forced them to sue.
In the complaint, Farahat said his family members have been propositioned in front of their home, and a sex worker recently threatened to have her pimp shoot his wife.
Traffic accidents have increased, and there’s a scourge of sexual paraphernalia, including discarded condoms, littering the neighborhood, Farahat claimed. The playground is overrun by people drinking, doing drugs, and blaring music, the suit says.
Harshil Ved, who has lived nearby since 2020, saw his parked car totaled in front of his home when it was struck by a driver who was allegedly seeking a sex worker. The same parked car was sideswiped and damaged in July, but police told Ved they would not investigate, “and any formal complaint would be solely for purposes of obtaining an insurance payout,” he said.
Other plaintiffs, including Shotwell Street bar owner David Hall and 33-year resident David Quinby, described violent encounters with sex workers and pimps. Quinby stated that he was attacked with a brick and left scarred.
Hall, who has begun to close his bar at midnight to protect his customers, said sex work along Shotwell “has gotten progressively worse over the last nine years or so, with a brief respite during the pandemic.”
He said he received “at least five death threats from prostitutes and pimps over the last several years” and reported them to police, who told him they could do nothing “because ‘nothing has happened yet.’”
In the complaint, Quinby said Shotwell’s quality of life “deteriorated significantly” when city staff set up metal barriers along Capp Street, “which now make it difficult to drive and solicit sex.”
He claims he has been unable to rent two vacant units in the Shotwell building where he lives “despite showing the units to dozens of individuals,” and leased out one “at a significantly reduced rent.”
The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to The Standard’s inquiries about the lawsuit.
City to install barriers
But in a statement to The Standard, a spokesperson for Mayor London Breed’s office said police were “adopting new enforcement efforts and strategies” against illegal sex work, with officers making 72 arrests along Shotwell within the last four months, with more citations and arrests to follow.
Acknowledging that barriers installed along Capp “led to more activity along Shotwell Street,” the spokesperson said city agencies would install and improve similar barriers along Shotwell, and follow through on posting signs and cameras to deter would-be patrons and capture evidence. The city will also start sending out “Dear John” and encouraging community members to submit tips about people engaging in solicitation or other prostitution
“Based on the circumstances, a warning letter will then be sent to the registered owner of the vehicle, indicating that it was seen in a known area for prostitution activity,” a press release from the mayor’s office said.
“My office has given these neighbors and this issue a great deal of attention, and we have been working with city departments to come up with meaningful solutions, including outreach to sex workers to get them support and protections, and ultimately off the streets,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen said in a statement. “Real solutions require collaboration and creative thinking to tackle this age-old issue, not frivolous legal action.”
When The Standard asked the city attorney’s office for comment, deputy press secretary Alex Barrett-Shorter said that “once we are served with the lawsuit, we will review the complaint and respond appropriately.”