One day after San Francisco Mayor London Breed pledge to clean up the Tenderloin, she came to the area to help light a Christmas tree and repeat that promise in person.
After a community holiday celebration at Boedekker Park in the Tenderloin, families faced what they call a worrisome walk home.
“I see lots of homeless people. People sleeping on the ground poop everywhere,” Terrance Matthews.
Breed told the community on Wednesday night that she plans to make the neighborhood safer, directing police to arrest drug dealers and to no longer allow people suffering with drug addiction to refuse services
“We're going to enforce every single law at our disposal to get people into treat or sadly the alternative is jail that's just what it is,” she said.
The mayor said that it's a long-term effort that has already started.
“I’ve been in the Tenderloin several times. I’m not saying we've changed it overnight but I’ve seen blocks that had large encampments that were dirty and they are not anymore. We can't let up,” she said.
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Families NBC Bay Area's Jean Elle talked to said they hope something will change and they want to feel safe in their neighborhood.
“I could finally walk to school and not worrying about it,” Matthews said.
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