What is BCNA doing about Safety?

You’ve told us that safety is an urgent priority…with assaults, violence, theft, and illegal drug use on the rise in our neighborhood. We have some recent actions and plans to share with you in this post:

• • Neighborhood meeting—Actions and Results
  • Coffee with the Captain
  • What’s Next
  • What you can do

July 27^th—Our first neighborhood-wide meeting on threats to personal safety

As a kick-off, we convened neighborhood leaders and stakeholders on July 27^th.  This was a hybrid live/Zoom meeting with Supervisor Aaron Peskin, Central Station SFPD Captain Doug Farmer, SFSafe Executive Director Kyra Worthy, and Downtown Community Benefit District Executive Director Robbie Silver.

What the 45+ attendees representing residential groups (homeowner and tenant associations, property managers), commercial property managers, merchant groups, and security teams had to say was shocking. For the first time, neighbors from across the Barbary Coast neighborhood heard from one another about the increasing violence and crime experienced by people living and working in one of the densest areas of San Francisco (almost 6,000 apartment and condo residents).

Actions from the July 27^th meeting

• Supervisor Peskin and Captain Farmer promised to help with accessing Community Ambassadors (SF City program) and the SFPD Ambassador Program through Capt. Farmer.
• Schedule meetings with Kyra Worthy of SFSafe Programs to engage with their City Camera Program, Neighborhood Watch Program, and other personal safety programs.
• Plan regular meetings in the Barbary Coast Neighborhood with SFPD—the first meeting occurred on Wednesday, August 10^th for “Coffee with the Captain” to focus on the problems faced by Starbucks and Safeway employees and patrons and what we can do to improve the situation. We don’t want these important neighborhood-serving businesses to close.

Quick Results from the July 27^th meeting:

• We have seen more police presence and Capt. Farmer has promised 1-2 Central Station foot patrol officers in the Gateway/Jackson Square area soon. And we have had a better response from Central Station for 911 calls.
• Farmer has already redirected his officers to not only ‘drive-by’ the neighborhood, but to do a walk-around.😉 Starbucks’ staff is very appreciative of having them stop by the store…thank you Officer Archini!
• Capt. Farmer encouraged us to say hello or give a ‘high 5’ to Police Officers, introduce yourself and let them know our appreciation for spending time in our neighborhood. Capt. Farmer also wants to know if an Officer ever says, “there’s nothing I can do” or “the DA’s not going to prosecute, so why bother”, because he never wants Officers saying that. It’s important to call 911 for immediate help, i.e., even if it’s only craziness walking away from you, to enable intervention.
• Sometimes the SFPD will do “death ponding”, with an Officer just stationed there in case something’s going to happen. Community people should say hello, give a smile, or chat them up to let the officer know we value their work in our neighborhood.

A Focus on Neighborhood Hotspots: Coffee with Captain Farmer in Sydney Walton Park

On August 10^th, BCNA coordinated a meeting with SFPD, Supervisor Peskin, and SFSafe to focus on the immediate safety threats in the southern end of the Barbary Coast, particularly the residents and businesses around and in Sydney Walton Park. The “Coffee with a Cop” program (in this case, coffee with Captain Farmer) brings neighbors, police, and public officials together to address neighborhood-specific concerns.

What’s Next?

The BCNA Board and our partners across the Barbary Coast neighborhood remain committed to action to improve safety in our neighborhood.

• Thanks to the Gateway Tenants Association (representing the 1250 units in the Gateway resident buildings) for organizing Meet and Greets in their public plazas and Sydney Walton Park.
• Schedule meetings with Kyra Worthy of SFSafe Programs to engage with their City Camera Program, Neighborhood Watch Program, and personal safety trainings.
• Meet with the Downtown Community Benefit District and North Beach Citizens about their “Clean and Safe Streets” programs and how they might be expanded to our neighborhood.
• The BCNA Safety Committee (chaired by Paul Liao from Telegraph Landing and Rex Hesner from Gateway Commons II) will continue their work in both the northern and southern parts of the neighborhood to identify safety concerns, hotspots, and community solutions.
• BCNA will continue to represent the neighborhood on the SFPD and Port advisory committees.

What you can do

• Be our eyes and ears—If you see something, say something, and please share with us any concerns and especially threats to personal safety. If not an active emergency (call 911 if it is), send an email to the BCNA (dianataylor50@gmail.com) describing the incident (time, date, details) and with a photo if you feel comfortable. She will send these incidents to Capt. Farmer. Or you can text, call or email the anonymous SFPD tip line. Non-emergency issues can be reported to the SFPD via the 311 app or 415-534-0123.
• Join Us: as the only neighborhood association in the northern waterfront, we represent and extend the efforts of neighborhood residents, businesses, and their representative organizations to keep our community safe. We are an all-volunteer organization, and we have a much louder and more effective voice for your interests with all of us on board. Please consider joining the BCNA. Here’s how: https://www.bcnasf.org/membership/

Thank you —It takes a village!

Mark your calendars for the Annual BCNA Members meeting Tuesday, September 13 from 5-6:30 pm on Zoom.

Mayor London Breed and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins will be joining us.