THIS WEEK AT THE VOICE FOR THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2026
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by Mike Ege
Editor in chief, The Voice of San Francisco
This week’s Board of Supervisors meeting tackled significant policy issues ranging from drug treatment to affordable housing, but the monthly “Question Time” session with Mayor Daniel Lurie first highlighted a sharper clash between his and District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder’s vision of success in dealing with the squalor on Mission Street. They spent nearly 10 minutes discussing issues surrounding the Mission’s 16th and 24th Street BART plazas. Both agreed that the conditions remain unacceptable but had different ideas about what success should look like.
“I am still getting complaints from constituents and from small businesses, and seeing for myself, with my own eyes, every day,” Fielder said. She described people “suffering on the street with substance use disorder, who need treatment,” unhoused residents “who need housing,” and vendors operating within what she called “chaotic and unpredictable enforcement and permitting systems.”
“It is not controversial to say that the conditions at 16th Street and 24th Street BART plazas have been unacceptable for far too long,” the mayor conceded. “We must do better for the residents, commuters, workers, families, and businesses who rely on these plazas every single day.”
The conversation became an exercise in competing frameworks. Fielder argued that Lurie’s measure of success missed the point. Lurie argued that his metrics showed progress.
“What strategies, metrics, or benchmarks does your office use to measure the success of the new 90-day effort?” Fielder asked. “According to these metrics, are your administration’s interventions making a meaningful difference?”
Lurie’s answer was a steady stream of numbers, though — as we’ve documented elsewhere — whether crime numbers represent real progress depends on how you present them.
Police patrols are up 56 percent around the 16th Street BART station and 36 percent around 24th Street, Lurie said. Narcotics enforcement has increased. Felony arrests are up. Mental health and homelessness-related calls are down. Property crime declined in the area around 24th Street. Encampment reports have fallen 8 percent around 16th Street and 30 percent around 24th Street.
A program coordinated by Lurie’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) has also installed more lighting and security cameras, expanded enforcement against fencing stolen goods, increased street cleaning, and deployed Department of Public Health outreach teams to engage people with behavioral health issues.
“We’re not just increasing our presence,” Lurie said. “We’re giving every department real-time visibility into who is deployed, where they are deployed, and what role they are fulfilling.”
The best-practices talk wasn’t quite the answer Fielder was seeking. After Lurie’s initial response, she used her only follow-up question to ask him again to “elucidate more” about the administration’s metrics.
The exchange also highlighted an awkward reality for Fielder, one of the city’s strongest critics of policing as a means of solving social problems. Yet during Tuesday’s hearing, she stopped well short of challenging Lurie’s enforcement-heavy strategy. Instead, she focused on whether outreach, treatment, and housing efforts were keeping pace. The result was a discussion that questioned the administration’s scorecard more than its broader approach.
To his credit, Lurie didn’t oversell.
“These are just early results,” he acknowledged. “The work is far from finished.” He conceded that “conditions still get worse at night when resources are limited,” adding that “nearly three-quarters of service offers are still declined by people struggling on our streets.”
“Our work will not be done,” he concluded, “until residents, workers, merchants, and families feel safe — and are safe — and the plazas are once again places where the community can gather.”
The hearing also underscored a political reality beyond the Mission Street debate. Tuesday marked one of Fielder’s first extended public appearances before the board after a weeks-long absence from City Hall while she took medical leave to address what her office described as a mental health condition. Her leave followed controversy surrounding a city attorney investigation into the leak of a confidential legal memo concerning the proposed RESET sobering center; Fielder’s office has denied any involvement in the leak.
For Mission Street residents and merchants, the debate probably feels academic. They are less interested in whether City Hall has developed better dashboards than in whether the sidewalks outside their businesses and transit stations feel safer, cleaner, and more usable.
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Quote of the week
“What the crowd was experiencing — the ecstasy, the collective effervescence, the sense of righteous participation — was all the reward loop Dr. Orli Peter’s research describes. The moral intoxication was the point. Wiener was simply the object of it.
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EVENTS
Out and about July 16–22, 2025
What to do this weekend and beyond.
By Lynette Majer
Managing Editor, The Voice of San Francisco
The summer festival season continues, with films, music, cultural celebrations, the yearly AIDS Walk, and more. Here are my picks for the next few days for all of us staycationers and others.
Thursday, July 16
Join the opening night party of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 46 after a screening of Tell Me Everything, a “poignant and beautifully acted family drama,” where young Boaz discovers his father’s secret life, which causes the boy “confusion, rage and shame.” Director Moshe Rosenthal is expected to attend. 6:30 p.m. at the Herbst Theatre. Tickets from $45.
Enjoy Folklórico dance and new exhibitions, Feel the Beat: Dance in Photographs and Graciela Iturbide: Between Two Worlds at Rooftop Radio: Noise Pop 6 to 9 p.m. at SFMOMA. Tickets (limited): $35 on sale on site starting a 3 p.m.
Friday, July 17
The World of Black Film: Compensation is a book signing and film screening. The book, The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films is a survey of important Black films spanning 100-plus years from 30 countries. The film is a poignant portrait of deaf African Americans and the “complexities of love,” telling the story of one couple at the beginning of the 20th century and another 80 years later. The book’s author and the film’s director will be in conversation after the film. 6 p.m. in YBCA’s screening room. Tickets from $7.50.
Saturday, July 18
If you weren’t able to celebrate Bastille Day on Belden earlier in the week, pull out that Breton-striped shirt and head to the Bastille Day S.F. Festival, now in its seventh year. You’ll find all things French from food and drink to Pétanque games, performances, vendors, and more. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Embarcadero Plaza. Free admission.
It’s the 40th anniversary of the AIDS Walk San Francisco, the annual 5K that raises funds for HIV and AIDS prevention and programs that support those affected by these diseases. The walk is followed by a picnic featuring Queen Manil Luzon from RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars and San Francisco’s Bobby Friday. 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Robin Williams Meadow in Golden Gate Park. Free admission.
See more weekend events online.
Listen to our podcasts
- The incredible Sacha Boutros: After Dark In San Francisco
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- Treasure Island affordable housing is no longer affordable, proof that the City is getting more expensive, Gavin Newsom and more
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