A group of fed-up Shotwell Street residents has dropped their lawsuit against the city for not doing enough to clean up the street-level sex trade, but they still say the city is not doing enough to clean up the street-level sex trade.

If you saw this weekend’s Chronicle’s headline declaring that “SF residents say sex work has ‘spiraled out of control’ in this neighborhood,” you probably could have guessed exactly what neighborhood they’re talking about. That is of course the Capp Street/Shotwell Street area of the Mission District, which has been a hotbed of street-level sex trade for nearly 30 years.

Capp Street got some street barriers in 2023, which may have had some positive impact, but also just moved the sex work over to Shotwell Street — something neighbors correctly predicted would happen. City officials have since put up similar barriers on Shotwell too, but residents say the sidewalk-level sex trade is still menacing the street nightly from 8 pm through the morning.

“I would be concerned if I had kids walking around,” resident Camilla Torrens told KPIX. “Going to work very early when you leave, you might see someone having sex. Like out in the street, just like that.”

The Chronicle says that residents are now asking for a “handful of improvements,” like more cameras, police presence, and street lighting, But the Chronicle also has the news that residents who had sued the city over the prevalence of sex work there have since dropped that lawsuit, but they’re still leaning on SFPD to do more.

Specifically, they're calling for an audit of the “Dear John” letter program, where they let people know that SFPD saw them soliciting sex with the sex workers, with a letter saying “it is illegal to engage in or solicit prostitution.” The Chronicle reports that SFPD has sent only 57 of those letters in the last eight months, which works out to only about seven letters each month. KPIX also asked SFPD about that effort, but that station says they “got no response in time for our broadcast."

The sex workers themselves say the barriers are not going to stop them.

“Honestly it’s probably just fucking up the morning commute more than it is affecting our business,” one sex worker named Kim told the Chronicle. “You can see the girls are still out here working and people still find a way to maneuver around to get to us.”

Complicating matters for SFPD, anyone arrested for either buying or selling sex is probably only going to be charged with a misdemeanor, and would likely be back on the street in no time.

Related: Those ‘Anti-Sex Work’ Barriers Have Come to Shotwell Street, Some Residents Say They Create Extra Hassles [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

The barriers hoping to prevent bumper-to-bumper traffic caused by street-level sex workers and their johns just went up on Shotwell Street, but some residents complain they’re causing chaos for Waymo cars and delivery trucks, and have people driving on sidewalks.

When barriers were placed on Capp Street in early 2024 to deter the street-level sex work happening there, and the chaos and traffic that so-called pimps and johns were causing, residents seemed to feel they worked and the barriers were made permanent. But over on Shotwell Street just two streets over, residents complained that those barriers just pushed the sex work scene over to their street.

So it was announced in early October that Shotwell Street would get the barriers too, KTVU reports they were installed “a week ago.”

Now here come the unintended consequences, as KGO reports that neighbors are complaining the temporary barriers create a hassle for drivers and delivery vehicles, and make robotaxis engage in strange behaviors. The new Shotwell Street barriers are the bollards, rubber curbs, and concrete slabs seen below, and they’re now placed on Shotwell between 19th and 21st streets.  

"I think they suck, and they are inconvenient. This sucks," Shotwell resident Shawn Demmons very bluntly told KGO. Other residents complain that the barriers cause confused drivers to make unsafe U-turns, and that in one such circumstance, two bicyclists were nearly hit by a car.

And per KTVU, they’re causing another unanticipated and very San Francisco problem. “A Waymo vehicle backed up after being stopped by a street barrier installed on Shotwell Street between 20th and 21st Streets,” that station reports. “After it encountered a barrier, the Waymo vehicle can be heard saying, ‘Need more space. Please stand back.'"

These are not the same barriers as have been placed on Capp Street, whose barriers are seen above. The SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) says the Shotwell barriers seen below are specifically designed to allow easy access for emergency vehicles.

But KGO says they saw an ambulance hindered by the barriers, with EMTs forced to transport a patient on a gurney because they couldn't access the street. That station adds that some drivers are just driving on the sidewalk to avoid those barriers, and that “we caught two San Francisco traffic enforcement officers driving their vehicles on the sidewalk to avoid the barriers on the middle of the street.”

SFMTA director of streets Victoria Weiss told KGO, “In respect to the paramedic that stopped before the rubber curb, we will communicate with our emergency responders and let them know that we tested the vehicles in the field and that they can go over the barrier."

"Paramedic trucks or fire engines, they can very easily go over the rubber barrier when they are taking it at 90 degree angle like straight on,” she added. “But if you put it at the end of the street and let's say they were making a left turn or a right turn, they would have a hard time getting their wheels over the rubber barrier and that is why we put it in the middle of the road."

KGO also notes that “We also found a QR code on the barriers and when you scan it takes you directly to a neighborhood petition against these barriers.” SFist observed the same.

But this SFist correspondent actually clicked on said QR code, and it merely took us to some website called “QR.link,” (seen belowa) and asked us to sign up for some $35 a month plan. There was no petition to be signed.

We should note that a common thread is that some neighbors actually love the new barriers, and say they are enjoying the newfound nighttime peace and quiet. Some say it has absolutely decreased the sex work mayhem, and on SFist’s trip there, we saw numerous pedestrians and bicyclists making use of the street with much less vehicle traffic. (That part of Shotwell was already a designated Slow Street.)

The SFMTA insists this is just a temporary pilot program, for now. "This is not a done deal in the sense that this is a pilot program that we approved for 18 months, and we are learning from it,” Weiss told KGO. “This is a first of its kind treatment that we have done on the street that we are seeing how it's going to work,"

So, much like the center-running Valencia Street bike lanes, these barriers are a work in progress that may or may not last their 18-month pilot.

Related: Those ‘Anti-Sex Work’ Barriers Are Now Coming to Shotwell Street [SFist]

Images: Joe Kukura, SFist

After street bollards and barriers chased the sex work scene off of Capp Street, but merely moved that activity over to Shotwell Street, the SFMTA has voted to bring the barriers to Shotwell Street too.

There’s been a street-level sex work scene on Capp Street for many decades, but things got so out of control in early 2024 that street barriers were placed on Capp Street. These went through a few designs, until the city finally settled on barriers they felt worked, and made them permanent. But wouldn’t you know, that just drove all the sex workers, pimps, and johns over to Shotwell Street, and now Shotwell residents are suing the city for allowing such a booming sex trade on their street.

So on Tuesday, KRON4 reports that the SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) board of directors voted to put up street barriers on Shotwell Street too, to combat what SFMTA senior traffic engineer Bryant Woo diplomatically called “sex worker illegal activity and quality of life issues.”

Shotwell residents describe it a little differently. “It’s not safe to leave your place after dark around here,” resident Ira Woodhead told KRON4, complaining of “the altercations, the cackling, the screaming, the stabbings, the shootings. The noise is every night.”

Shotwell's Bar co-owner David Hall spoke at the SFMTA meeting. “On a nightly basis, I watch the craziness that takes place on that corner,” Hall told the board. “I shut down at midnight now. I have a 2 am [permit], but I shut down at midnight because of the craziness.”

The above map shows the locations of the current Capp Street barriers, which are bollards, plus the locations of the new barriers that will be coming to Shotwell Street. On Shotwell, there will be “midblock dead ends” in the middle of two blocks, and “temporary intersection diverters” at two Shotwell Street intersections.

These are the “midblock dead ends,” which are coming to the middle of the street on Shotwell between 19th and 20th streets, and between 20th and 21st streets. They’re meant to allow local driver access, but discourage through-traffic, while allowing free movement for bicycles and emergency vehicles.

And here are the “intersection diverters” coming to the intersections of Shotwell and 19th and at 21st streets. These are meant to prohibit left-hand turns onto Shotwell from those two streets.

SFPD says they will also enhance the use of surveillance cameras, “Dear John” letters, and undercover officers posing as sex workers.

So will this work? The Shotwell Street barriers were approved for an 18-month duration, so the SFMTA (and law enforcement) are clearly determined to tinker in hopes of finding effective solutions. But considering they’re trying to deter “the world’s oldest profession,” they’re up against sex workers and sex customers who’ve always found ways around deterrents.    

Related: Prankster Adds Sex Workers to Slow Streets Signs on Shotwell [SFist]

Image via SFMTA

There’s pushback against the sex worker situation on both sides of the Bay, as the new Oakland Police chief is promising a coming crackdown on International Boulevard, while Shotwell Street residents have sued SF over sex work on that street.

A Tuesday night report from KTVU details a burgeoning sex work scene on the sidewalks of Oakland’s International Bouleveard, and residents of the East Oakland neighborhood of San Antonio complaining of what they say is complete indifference from the police. “Police passing by, they don’t do anything,” one neighborhood resident who identified himself only as Terrance told KTVU.

But that station adds that new Oakland police chief Floyd Mitchell is vowing a sex work crackdown on that area.

“You’re going to see a huge surge down there on International Blvd within the coming weeks to address these issues," Mitchell told residents at a recent public safety meeting, per KTVU. "We’re going to hold these individuals that are promoting sex trafficking on our boulevards accountable to federal crimes.”

There were not many details provided about how this "huge surge" will be handled. Though KTVU notes that the Oakland Police Department plans to devote “a lot of overtime money on targeting sex trafficking,” and there would be involvement from federal agencies, though Mitchell did not say which agencies.

The above KPIX report is from late April, but describes a common issue in the law enforcement fight against streets being overrun by illegal sex work trade. Oakland added barricades on East 15th Street, which worked, but residents say it merely pushed that trade over to International Boulevard.

That probably sounds familiar to San Francisco Mission District residents, who will recall that the barricades and bollards were put up on Capp Street last year to deter the sex trade there. And that apparently worked, too, though it seems to have just moved the sex work over to Shotwell Street, where pranksters have done some satirical work with the Slow Streets signs.

But Shotwell Street residents are largely not amused. In fact, they’re angry enough that they’ve filed a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco, according to the Chronicle, alleging that the city has complacently allowed conditions where sex acts are being performed in public, and other nuisances that come with johns cruising streets at low speeds.

“Instead of solving the problem, the city simply moved the nuisance to Shotwell between 19th and 21st streets,” the lawsuit alleges.

That part of the Mission District has attracted sidewalk sex work for decades; it is easily accessible from US 101, and the residential nature of the streets allows for that low-speed cruising. But the Chronicle made multiple visits to Shotwell Street after dark and observes that “business has picked up” recently, and the spot has become more attractive to street-level sex workers.

“I’ve got two kids to support, and I can make $1,000 a night here,” one woman named Rene told the Chronicle. “A regular job don’t pay that.”

Mayor London Breed’s office told the Chronicle they’re meeting with Shotwell area residents on Wednesday to discuss new sex-work deterrence plans. Per the Chron, these plans include “‘pan basher’ traffic barriers to block off the street, which could gut the bottom of any vehicle that drives over them; security cameras to monitor the roads and sidewalks; and ‘Dear John’ letters to be sent to motorists suspected of cruising for or purchasing sex.”

But in both Oakland and San Francisco, these are the umpteenth so-called crackdowns on a problem that has never gone away, and it’s debatable whether either city has ever made a dent in it. Law enforcement efforts seem to merely move the problem somewhere else, and have never really eliminated the presence of sex work. After all, they call it the “world’s oldest profession” for a reason.

Related: The SFPD Brags About Busting Johns Seeking Sex Workers on Capp Street [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

Please welcome Ryan Robles. He'll be writing Bag Lady, which will be cover local boutiques, shops, stores, and other retail oddities that deserve a megawatt spotlight shined on them. He'll also interview small business owners, operated by folks just like you. More or less, anyway.

Take it away, Ryan

Here at SFist we love a good find, and we adore nice things. Naturally. We also love to drape ourselves in fun jewelry, and wear clothes not everyone will be rocking while out on the scene.

Two years ago, we happened on this rare downtown standout called Shotwell. Our first visit made us (literally) squee with joy, because not only did they have fantastic vintage pieces, but also carried a bevy of local designers, like Rebecca Beeson and Gytha Mander. Bag Lady hearts local designers, very much so.

Formerly on Geary Street, Shotwell recently expanded their collection, in tandem, with a move to their current digs at 320 Grant. An exceptional idea, because the new location leaves very little to be desired. With living plant walls leading up the entrance stairs, to Holly and Michael Weaver’s brilliant design sense, which uses gorgeous antique pieces to create an aesthetic anyone with a nominal sense of style and design would be truly content to live in. Our personal fave: a slightly unfinished fluorescent light installation that adds another dimension of brightness to the already sun-drenched window-walled second floor (Bag Lady is, alas, a whore for fluoro lights).