SAN FRANCISCO — There is a growing demand from business owners in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District that the city refund their tax dollars.
They say the city has failed to keep their neighborhood safe, leaving their source of income on the brink of collapse.
Small business owner Eman Diab and about 150 business and property owners signed a petition seeking a refund of their sales and property taxes.
Diab, a Palestinian immigrant, opened her cafe and sandwich shop in 2013 with excitement, love and hope.
“I was very happy because this is what I love,” said Diab who owns Da Hot Spot Cafe at the corner of Turk and Jones streets.
Nine years later, conditions in the Tenderloin have drained much of that passion from her.
“Of course, I regret it, I regret it (from the bottom of my heart), but the thing is that I have made a lot of investments (already) so I can’t stop,” Diab said.
She has remodeled the interior of the business twice and changed her menu twice, but during Friday’s lunch hour, few customers showed up.
Her problems are not internal. They are external. Street drug deals and sidewalk dirt.
“We’re not making any — not just profit — we’re not making any (money) here,” Diab said. “Sometimes, we can’t even open the doors because the traffic of homeless (people), needles. They shoot (up), so you can’t even talk to them (because they’re up). We have to physically move them .”
It was a year ago that San Francisco Mayor London Breed, talking tough, declared a state of emergency and vowed to crack down on the open drug market.
“Be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with changes to our policies and less tolerant of all the bulls**t that have destroyed our city,” Breed said at City Hall on Dec. 14, 2021.
A year after that press conference, those who live and work in the Tenderloin say little has changed in their neighborhood. Some think conditions have worsened.
“The tourists are starting to come back, but they just look and get bored,” said James Inglis, a longtime Tenderloin resident.
In addition to refunding tax dollars, the newly formed Tenderloin Business Coalition urged the city to crack down on drug trafficking.
London Breed’s office said the mayor met with officers in the district earlier this week to remind officers they have support from the city to arrest drug dealers.
Eman hopes that this time there will be real action and not just empty words.
“We need more support from the police,” Diab said.
The Tenderloin Business Coalition said they heard from the mayor’s office and plan to meet with him in January. They want the city to come up with a plan to restore safety so people feel safe to live, shop and work in the Tenderloin.
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