When Ryen Motzek first moved to the Mission in the early 2000s, it was the place to be.
The neighborhood was alive with music and youthful energy that made it a magnet for newcomers in San Francisco. There were crowds, late-night bar crawls, restaurants with lines out the door and a lively street scene with food vendors and buskers that made Mission Street feel like San Francisco’s second downtown.
But the Mission today is different, he said.
High rents have squeezed out businesses and residents. Storefronts now sit empty. Motzek and others worry about the rise in tents, drug dealing, illegal vending and dirty streets. The challenges facing the Mission are central to the upcoming supervisor race for District 9, which also includes Bernal Heights and the Portola. Residents and business owners hope whoever is elected can revive the neighborhood and clean up the streets.
“The levels of neglect are unconscionable,” said Motzek, the president of the Mission Merchants Association. “Whatever supervisor steps in needs to help get the neighborhood back to a good baseline — and listen.”
Four major candidates are running to replace Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who is termed out after eight years representing the district. Former state Senate candidate and climate nonprofit director Jackie Fielder and journalist Stephen Torres are running as progressives, while community organizer Roberto Hernandez and teacher Trevor Chandler lean moderate.
Whoever replaces Ronen will have to speak to a neighborhood worried about its future and craft a platform that addresses the area’s problems.
Those problems include rampant illegal vending at its two BART plazas that continues despite city officials shutting down one of the plazas, flooding the area with city workers to enforce a ban on the illicit sales and other tactics.
At the same time, homelessness and open drug dealing and use have become more visible in the neighborhood since the pandemic, residents and merchants said. Though the number of tent encampments in the neighborhood is down, the number of people living in vehicles is up.
And despite property and violent crime continuing to go down in the Mission, it’s still a concern.
Blighted buildings and a rise in open sex work — which prompted a lawsuit against the city last week — also have contributed to the sense that the neighborhood is in decay, though longtime residents say these issues have always plagued the area.
A redesign of a bike lane on Valencia Street incensed local residents and business owners, one of whom started a hunger strike in protest.
Still, the issues that energized the neighborhood before the pandemic remain, including gentrification, the high cost of living and the loss of its Latino residents. In 2000, Latinos made up 60% of the neighborhood’s population, while they now make up about 37%, according to 2020 census data.
San Francisco State University professor Jason McDaniel told the Chronicle the Mission has historically been a “stronghold of support for progressive candidates and progressive issues” and that he doesn’t see that changing in November’s election.
So far, Fielder has raised the most money, with $392,000 coming from donors and public matching funds. Chandler is close behind her with $308,000 raised from donors and public funds, while an independent expenditure committee has raised $52,500 to back his bid. Hernandez and Torres have raised less.
Voters in the Portola, which is more moderate, and Bernal Heights, which leans progressive, will influence the race’s outcome, McDaniel said, but Mission voters will carry more weight.
McDaniel said many Mission voters blame Mayor London Breed and San Francisco’s government dysfunction for the neighborhood’s problems, which means moderate candidates allied with Breed might have a tougher road.
Case in point: Mission voters rejected two winning ballot measures supported by moderates and Breed in March, one of which gave police more powers and the other that required city welfare recipients to be screened for drug use.
Still, Motzek — who lives in Bernal Heights — said “there are a lot of perspectives in the neighborhood and people who live and work here who feel their voice isn’t heard.”
La Corneta Taqueria owner and Mission resident Miguel Garcia said he wants the next supervisor to focus on helping small businesses and dealing with the rampant illegal vending, homelessness and drug dealing outside his restaurant.
He recently saw a 30% drop in sales since the pandemic, which he attributes to customers staying away because of safety concerns and to street vendors nearby offering food that compete with his restaurant.
Garcia added that taqueria owners in the Mission meet regularly to discuss the business — and many are suffering.
“We’re fighting to survive,” said Garcia, who is supporting Hernandez as supervisor because he’s a Latino community leader. “People don’t feel safe to come eat. Now we’re all suffering because of it.”
Chandler said that frustration around public safety is powering his campaign. He wants to ensure that San Francisco has “an accountable, responsive and fully staffed police department.” He questioned the notion that he can’t win because he’s a moderate candidate in a progressive district.
The district, he said, “is just as progressive as we’ve always been, but people just want results,” he said. “They’re tired of progressive words and not seeing progressive results.”
Hernandez also said people in the neighborhood tell him they’re worried about public safety and want more police. He would push for more foot patrols and street ambassadors if he’s elected.
“The number one issue is safety,” Hernandez said. “People have shared horror stories about car break-ins, garage break-ins, people getting homes broken into, robberies. … It’s heartbreaking.”
Fielder said she wants to increase the number of foot patrols in the Mission but to do so by getting officers out of their vehicles and walking beats. She also wants to triple the number of neighborhood ambassadors and to hire more emergency room nurses, paramedics, social workers, as well as add more drug and mental health treatment beds.
“Everyone is tired of the doom and gloom,” Fielder said. “We have public safety issues, but they’re not being met with optimism grounded in bold innovative approaches. We need more than just the police.”
Santiago Lerma, who lives in the Mission, said Mission Street “does feel a little more chaotic.”
Lerma, a former Ronen aide, said what the Mission needs is experience — which he said is lacking among the current candidates.
A successful future supervisor will have to learn how to pull the levers of power and come to terms with the limits of the role, he said. Lerma said he intended to run for Ronen’s seat but told the Chronicle he is choosing to spend time with his newborn child and family. He said he isn’t endorsing anyone.
Ronen has endorsed Fielder and Torres.
“We have limited resources. A supervisor has to manage the departments and their limitations and work with them to improve outcomes,” Lerma said. “A lot of what I hear on the campaign trail just doesn’t reflect the reality of being a supervisor.”
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