San Francisco’s District Attorney hit the street of the Mission District on Tuesday, along with the area’s new police captain. Thom Jensen reports.
San Francisco’s District Attorney hit the street of the Mission District on Tuesday, along with the area's new police captain.
Their goal was to find the districts problems and talk about solutions in one the city's most diverse areas.
It’s not every day that residents and businesses get a chance to meet San Francisco’s DA face-to-face.
When San Francisco’s Hispanic Chambers of Commerce asked Jenkins to do just that, both the DA and the often troubled district jumped at it.
“It’s vitally important that the mission district understands that they are seen and heard by their elected officials and by their law enforcement agencies,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
At her side was the Liza Johansen, the newest captain at SFPD’s mission division.
“We’re out here to make sure people feel supported. You know, people who own businesses here, they’ve invested their lives, their families and it’s important for them to feel like they have a team behind them,” she said.
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Merchants said they appreciate it too. More than half of the 200,000 people who live and work in the Mission are Hispanic.
“It means a lot, because it means they care about the issues or the needs in our neighborhood,” said business owner Andrea Paz.
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The owner of this business told the visitors her store was burglarized before. But not since she installed steel bars over her front windows. She’s a skiing for help addressing other ongoing issues, like tagging, cleaning up messes left by the unhoused population and the serious lack of available parking in the mission. A problem she says is driving customers away.
The captain, the DA and their staff asked lots of questions and took a lot of notes.
The DA’s Office, SFPD and the Hispanic Chambers of San Francisco will take what they learned today and put together a plan to address the merchants’ concerns.
