Why Mayor Breed’s Tenderloin Curfew Will Backfire

Liquor stores are exempt from Mayor Breed’s new curfew. Mayor Breed’s curfew zone includes the intersection of Geary & Larkin, photographed here circa 1991. Courtesy Flickr user Sushipumpum.

I, a Tenderloin resident, believe drug abuse and homelessness persist here because they make certain folks at City Hall very rich. 

It’s the last reasonable explanation I can think of, since logistic operations at San Francisco City Hall unfailingly exacerbate them. If the humanitarian crises at the heart of SF were not profitable to one or more major lawmakers, no municipal government would allow this to continue. When you ask who’s profiting off the effects of this substance abuse epidemic in the Tenderloin, ask yourself who’s charging storeowners a $1,000-per-hour fine for staying open past midnight for its residents. 

The Curfew gets SFPD off the hook for patrolling the TL and earning the city revenue.

Many times, San Francisco has left the Tenderloin to die. It is the butt of jokes by city residents and tourists alike. “I’d rather walk barefoot through the Tenderloin than…” It’s a magnet for hate and controversy, this loud, immigrant-heavy neighborhood west of downtown. The Tenderloin is a lost cause, a cesspool, a crater made by the impacts of one terrible policy after another. 

That’s the message Mayor Breed’s curfew really sends. Forcing corner stores to close between 12–5 AM punishes the wrong people for the very troubles City Hall allows to continue. It tells its ~25,000 Tenderloin constituents, “We couldn’t care less about you.” Probes into the reasoning for Mayor Breed’s extreme rationale meet deflection even within her cabinet. Last year, when Supervisor Dean Preston questioned London Breed’s ethics regarding racial profiling in the TL, Breed shot back, “Here we go—another white man who’s talking about Black and brown people as if you’re the savior of those people and you speak for them.” 

If you removed an average night on Turk & Leavenworth to let’s say, Chestnut & Buchanan, the cops would arrest every dealer and sex worker on sight. Imagine if instead, they ignored all that to ticket the Food Mart on Lombard for being open. It sounds ludicrous because the Marina isn’t coded like the Tenderloin. The former is, in our minds, the home of tech bros and yoga-pantsed female joggers—in other words, rich people. The latter, a notorious den of sin, is supposed to be violent and frightening, so when shootings and overdoses occur there, it only makes sense. 

Mayor Breed’s Curfew Won’t Work…

The Tenderloin curfew is yet another example of ineffectual policy disguised as legitimate action. As far as doing any favors for London Breed, this policy will sway a handful of undecided voters and nothing more. The policy itself readily falls apart in your hands. Since Breed introduced the bill in April, subsequent amendments have exempted liquor stores from curfew. The exemption quietly screams the curfew’s redundancy. What’s to stop dealers from conducting their business under the lights of a liquor store? 

If Mayor Breed truly wants to make the Tenderloin safer, this is the wrong way to do it. 

Even as a kid I knew it wasn’t the dark people fear, but whatever lurks within. All Mayor Breed’s curfew will do is leave thousands of TL residents in the dark, including me. Nights at my bar run late. Sometimes my shifts drag past 3 AM. Often I haven’t eaten. Whether for safety, snacks or toiletries, I rely on my corner store guys, people I know on a first-name basis. They look out for me. Mayor Breed’s curfew is tearing down a vital safety net. 

…In Fact, It Will Backfire.

Transforming the Tenderloin into a blind spot after midnight is inviting violent crime to skyrocket. The darkened storefronts and street corners will still be hubs for illicit activity, only now it will be worse. Darkness conceals everything, making it easier to get away with anything. Mayor Breed has to know that.

It moves the goalpost when politicians play dumb and keep trying methods that simply will not work. Ever had a job where you’ve feigned naivete to get away with murder? Ineffectual actions are actions nonetheless, meaning people like Mayor Breed can say they’ve done their jobs, but only technically. Ever had a coworker do whatever they want because they know they won’t get fired? That’s City Hall. 

London Breed’s Tenderloin curfew will likely go down as yet another stunning failure in her destructive mayoral career. For now the Tenderloin is at her disposal, and it sure feels like it. San Francisco policymakers are not in the business of running a city, they want to run the city like a business, and they’re running it into the ground.