Date: 08/17/2007

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » SFist · Writing  » Topic  » misc

View article as originally published

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Update: See Paul's comment below about why they had to do what they did, and what they're doing about it.

Are there quiet, law-abiding people on Sixth Street? Sure, but it's hard to stand out when your neighborhood looks like something out of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome -- take a walk down 6th, especially at night, and you'll find yourself surrounded by brawls, the mentally ill, drug deals, screaming gibberish, glazed-over eyes, and people lurching unpredictably or just leaning against whatever they can find, waiting around for who knows what.

Sixth is a magnet for the unlucky poor. Some of them might benefit from rehab and job training, but many would not -- their damage is permanent, the result of brain-corroding drug addition or mental illness, and often both. In a perfect world, someone would pay for them to be institutionalized; but for these folks, the money isn't there. And even if it was, you can't lock up someone who wants to be free; and besides, the state's too busy buying unworn suits to pay for lifelong inpatient care. So until they pass away, they've got to go somewhere.

Organizations like The Tenderloin Housing Clinic cluster on 6th, serving as containment for many of these folks. On 6th, the THC is distant from most citizens' daily destinations -- so people who can't take care of themselves have a place to loiter, and most San Franciscans never even see them.

Until a year ago, when a guy named Jeff set out to raise up 6th Street's visibility. His jarring footage was drawing lots of eyes -- but now the THC has set out to stop him.

On his blog, Jeff posts video that he's shot of 6th Street, including a live webcam and surveillance footage from the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. He's lived in the THC building for years, having moved in when it was just a hotel. When the THC took over, he stayed, taking advantage of rent control; and his position inside the container that is the THC gives him a unique view into all of the screaming, attempted larceny, fighting, drug use, weird alleged THC staffers, and regular visits from police. On occasion, he says, the THC itself has requested his footage when their own security cameras failed to catch a crime.

None of this footage is surprising, of course -- when you live on a street designed to hold crazy people who can't afford or don't want to be institutionalized, life's bound to be messy. It can a little hard to watch -- so maybe that's why the THC threatened last week that unless Jeff stops making his documentaries, they'll evict him.

This eviction threat seems shady to Jeff. The THC says that videotaping inside its halls is a violation of a clause in the lease about "respect for private and community property." Jeff's response is that he's documenting far more egregious violations of that problem -- why go after the messenger? Oh, and also, he says, he never signed that lease.

We wrote to friends who work at the THC; they either declined to comment or didn't have access to info about the clinic's decision to go after Jeff's cameras. (Although one source suggested that the clinic's been trying to decide how to deal with the videos for a long time.) So what's next? It's like a game of legal chicken now. Who'll flinch first? And will it make any difference at all to the unfortunate folks who've wound up on 6th?