Here are some notes from yesterday's community safety meeting at 535 Page Street, addressing the recent incidents of crime in the neighborhood.
Note: Due to scheduling conflicts we weren't able to attend the meeting, so these notes were provided to us by Thea Selby, president of the Lower Haight Merchants and Neighbors Association. If anyone who attended would like to add more details or impressions, please do so in the comments.
The meeting was mostly a forum for expressing what you knew about the incident and how you felt. Most of the attendees, but not all, lived on Page Street. Selby took notes on each neighbor's comments.
Note: Due to scheduling conflicts we weren't able to attend the meeting, so these notes were provided to us by Thea Selby, president of the Lower Haight Merchants and Neighbors Association. If anyone who attended would like to add more details or impressions, please do so in the comments.
The meeting was mostly a forum for expressing what you knew about the incident and how you felt. Most of the attendees, but not all, lived on Page Street. Selby took notes on each neighbor's comments.
- A couple who lived across the street said that they had grown more scared recently due to crimes in the area.
- A Haight Street resident said he was most concerned about seeing Friday's beating/stabbing as part of an uptick in violence. He also noted seeing an uptick on Haight Street.
- Another Haight Street resident agreed about having seen more activity on Haight street. He claimed to have seen 5 guys hanging out at Two Jacks before they robbed SF Collection in December.
- A neighbor who lives on Page Street said he was not worried, and that Friday's violence was an isolated incident.
- Another neighbor said that she was not threatened or frightened.
- A resident who has lived here since 1988 said that things were so much better now than when she first moved here. However, she also noted that she saw the victim dying on Friday, and that she's pretty upset about it.
- A resident who lives two doors down after moving from Waller said that he saw some of the incident, including two men and one woman.
- Two residents said that they believed that Friday sounded like an isolated incident, but that they were glad everyone was having this meeting.
- A female resident said she was traumatized and upset.
- A resident said he intentionally doesn't walk down Webster. The other three sides of the block, yes, but not Webster. "Too many crackheads."
- The last speaker's girlfriend said she doesn't feel safe walking down Page at night. Sometimes men follow her in cars and yell at her; sometimes there are strangers hanging out on her boyfriend's steps.
- A neighbor who has lived at 530 Page for 5 years felt that there has been more "riff raff" around lately. Although she noted that the cops come around really quickly, she added that it's "unpredictable."
- A resident who has lived here 12 years after moving from Germany says there seems to be more theft recently. He noted that he himself had a computer stolen.
- An 8-year resident of 569 Page had his car broken into, and installed a security gate at his home.
- A couple claimed "socioeconomic stuff" going on here. They said there's a house on the corner of Page and Webster that appears to be dealing drugs. This was met with lots of consensus from other attendees.
- Another neighbor said that the Lower Haight used to have beat cops, but now doesn't. We have to document activity. If we do, we can get action -- maybe even beat cops. We can ask for stay-away orders. She also noted that people in public housing are probably as scared by this violence/crime as everyone else.
- A resident seconded that, saying that folks need to call the police if they are the victims of a crime. Police calls are used to determine where crime is happening, which is what determines how cops are distributed to different areas.
- A neighbor questioned: If I know who the crack dealers are, why don't the cops?
- Another speaker responded that drug dealers are alerted when cops are around, so they hid their drugs. We need to help by documenting this and calling the police.
- One neighbor suggested starting a shared Google document to track the activity. Everyone agreed that this was a great idea.
- Finally, there will be a Neighborhood Watch meeting for the 500 block of Page in the next month or so. There's one set for the 400 block of Haight Street for February 15th. There will be a larger community meeting for the Lower Haight in general in the next few weeks.
