Make California Post a Preferred Source Nearly 1,400 discarded needles have been collected around a pair of plazas in San Francisco’s Mission District as the city seeks to clean its streets and stave off drug overdoses.
Supervisor Jackie Fielder, whose district includes the two BART plazas, told Mission Local that since January, community ambassadors have handled as many as 1,538 hostile street situations.
The ambassadors — street workers who respond to certain emergency calls — also reversed 15 drug overdoses and collected 1,390 needles, she said.
“This shouldn’t be a statistic that we’re proud of because of just how large it is,” Fielder said. “But they collected 1,390 needles off the street.”
Addressing open-air drug use, illegal street vending and other problems around the Mission’s BART stations has been an ongoing effort involving Fielder, Mayor Daniel Lurie and other city officials.
In March 2025, after Lurie pledged to crack down on drug dealing and illegal fencing, the two stations saw an increased police presence and later hosted community pop-ups aimed at turning the plazas into more welcoming, family-friendly public spaces.
Fielder pushed for additional resources in July, sending Lurie a letter requesting 24/7 community ambassadors at the 16th and 24th Street BART stations.
Lurie’s office rejected the request, citing the cost, according to the Mission Local.
The same letter also called on multiple city agencies to provide data that could be used to measure the progress of Lurie’s 90-day effort to improve conditions around the stations.
Fielder said she now plans to send another letter to the mayor’s office seeking additional ambassadors, more street cleaning, police foot patrols and better data on visible drug use that does not rely solely on 911 calls.
“My long-term hope is that street conditions are acceptable to visitors and residents alike,” Fielder said, according to Mission Local. “We’ll know that we got there when people are not complaining about Mission Street conditions in my inbox.”
Fielder also announced on Instagram the launch of the city’s “16th and 24th Street BART Plazas Activation Dashboard,” which appears to address calls to measure whether street conditions are improving.
The dashboard brings together data on illegal fencing, drug activity, 911 calls, street-cleaning requests and other conditions around both plazas.
City officials expect to update the dashboard monthly using information collected by several agencies.
The data begins in March 2026 and covers the period surrounding Lurie’s 90-day push, announced in June, to address conditions around the Mission BART stations.
According to the dashboard, drug-related 911 calls increased from 19 in March to 35 in May before falling to 17 in August. Calls to the city 311 hotline regarding trash rose from 88 in March to 113 in August, and street-cleaning requests within one block of the BART plazas fell from 420 in March to 316 in August.
Fielder has said that eliminating street-cleaning complaints altogether is likely unrealistic.
It is “probably not feasible to get to zero street-cleaning requests in the Mission. But, I would like to see us get much fewer 311 cleaning requests,” she told the Mission Local.
California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, XCalifornia Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!California Post App: Download here!Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!
