The San Fransisco Times, May 2025
A strange new reality has taken hold of San Francisco’s Mission District. Public drug use and intoxication have surged in recent months, infuriating neighbors and generating splashy news coverage. The neighborhood, especially surrounding the 16th Street BART transit hub, is awash in scenes of people lighting up pipes, passing around suspicious baggies, and stumbling down sidewalks. Residents perceive lawlessness and danger all around.
But the data tells a different story. According to figures in the major violent and nonviolent crime categories tracked by the San Francisco Police Department, the Mission appears to be the site of a remarkable cleanup, not the center of the city’s latest controversy about street conditions. Larcenies, aggravated assaults, motor vehicle thefts, and most other primary crime types were down significantly from Jan. 1 through April when compared with the same period last year.
