The streets at or around the intersection of 16th and Mission were fairly clear all Sunday, until the evening, and then the east side of Mission Street became a crowded knot of vendors, adventurers, and open drug users.
But elsewhere, when I went out at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., few drug users or homeless residents could be found.
On some days when I’m out photographing the streets, different songs go through my head. For weeks, it was Billy Joel’s lyrics from Goodnight Saigon: the cat and mouse game played between American soldiers and the Vietcong. That, sometimes, is what the dynamic can feel like on the street as city workers and police try to help, scatter or move the homeless, vendors and addicts. All of the latter leave when there is a heavy official presence, but return after dark. “They ruled the night.” That is true on the east side of Mission Street. They rule the night…