Complaints of syringes and feces rise dramatically in SF

Complaints of syringes and feces rise dramatically in SF

 

Lizzie Johnson | on November 1, 2016

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More and more, it seems, San Franciscans need to watch where they step. And they’re not imagining things: There’s been an explosion in complaints about needles and feces on the streets and sidewalks.

 

Reports of improperly discarded syringes have jumped 41 percent since last fiscal year, according to a recent city controller’s report. Complaints about feces have increased by 39 percent, with every district seeing a rise in the calls.

And, in a trend that must be disturbing to residents who don’t live near the Tenderloin or SoMa, long perceived as epicenters of filth, there were big increases in complaints about the outlying neighborhoods to the city’s 311 service portal for fiscal year 2015-16.

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Complaints about needles have surged 73 percent in supervisorial District Two — the Marina and Cow Hollow. They were up even more — 77 percent — in District 10, the Bayview. District Four — the Sunset — saw a 58 percent increase. District Six — downtown, the Tenderloin and SoMa — had an increase of 49 percent. There was good news in District Seven — Lake Merced and West of Twin Peaks, which saw a decline of 39 percent.

 

The numbers on feces told a similar story. In District One — the Richmond — complaints increased 72 percent. The Bayview was hit hard again with an increase of 140 percent. Needle-clean District Seven was up 67 percent, and the Sunset jumped 96 percent. District Six had a relatively modest increase of 29 percent.

Streets are actually cleaner now than last year, with less excess litter, grime and illegal dumping along commercial arteries, the report shows. Twice as many roadways were cleaned of excess litter compared with last year, and there was less broken glass, too. Scores for landscaping also improved. But some complaints continue to skyrocket. The percentage uptick in calls about syringes and feces far surpassed the 25 percent growth rate in all calls to 311.

“There’s a lot more people that need services coming to San Francisco,” said Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who oversees cleaning of 90 percent of city streets and sidewalks. The department cleans up about 1,000 syringes a month and added two cleaning teams this year to the three it had.

“The city has a huge challenge ahead of us,” Nuru said. “We need to figure out how to deal with these quality-of-life issues. A lot of them are from people who are living on the streets. That’s a fact.”

The increase in complaints about needles was actually less than the increase in fiscal year 2014-15, when calls doubled. And data from individual districts illustrate how the hot spots for discarded needles are within Districts Six and Nine.

They included the intersection of Leavenworth Street and Golden Gate Avenue, Minna Street between Seventh and Ninth streets, the area around 14th and Harrison streets, and west of Van Ness Avenue and Mission Street between Market and Otis streets.

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