At 8 a.m. this morning, Juan, who works in maintenance for La Fenix at 1950 Mission St. had his blower blasting an impressive amount of garbage from the sidewalk and onto the street. There are no trash cans on Mission Street between 16th and 15th Streets, so the block is dependent on the street sweepers who come by.
Over the weekend, the vendors packed the sidewalk on Saturday and Sunday, but at some point each afternoon, drug users became dominant or nearly so. By Monday morning, only a small group of people remained – four with pipes and one active user. Others were across at the northeast plaza.
This is no surprise to Santiago Lerma, the street team lead for the Mission District…