San Rafael Biz Owners: No Tolerance for Unruly Street Behavior

More than 30 local business owners gathered last night at a San Rafael Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) special meeting to hear community members, including San Rafael Police lieutenants, address unruly people living on the city’s streets and other “quality of life” issues involving homelessness.

“There’s a lot of frustration in the San Rafael business community right now,” said André Sisneros, owner of Gamescape on Fourth Street. Sisneros, said there has been several incidents where aggressive people on the street have left his late-night gaming regulars unsettled.

And the problems aren’t just happening late at night.

Even Decota, with Salon Decota on Fourth Street near the West End, said they have had an increasing amount of incidents where salon employees had to call the police because of unwanted individuals coming into their business and harassing their clients.

“What happened in the last two years?” Decota asked the group at the San Rafael Town Center leasing office conference room. “What did we do to bring all these transients here?”

But instead of spending an hour sharing stories of undesirable confrontations on the street, the Wednesday night meeting focused on available services and work underway to address the challenges.

A 'ZERO TOLERANCE'

Many local officials, including those with BID and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, have adopted a “zero tolerance” policy if people are being aggressive, inebriated or causing other scenes in the street.

“This is the first meeting we’ve had addressing issues of safety, transients and the impact on downtown,” Carol Thompson, BID director, told the group.  “As business owners and residents, we don’t need to tolerate behavior that has a negative impact on your business.”

The owners of downtown businesses including Aroma Cafe, Sol Food, Theresa and Johnny’s and Marin Filmworks, listened to San Rafael Police Lieutenant Ralph Pata explain — at times in great detail — the police department’s multi-pronged approach to combating an increasing amount of transients. 

“I just ask you to understand things are happening and its going to take some time for things to get better," Pata said. "It took a while for it to get messed up.”

Efforts underway to address the situation include:

• Hiring a mental health officer to work in the San Rafael Police Department
• Increasing fire protection on the hillsides with the return of an open space ranger
• Better coordination with other agencies in the county who offer services for the county's homeless and low-income populations
• Putting some of the homeless to work 
• Increasing police foot patrol downtown

THE ROAD WARRIORS AND THE OTHERS

Pata, who has cooked dinner for some of the homeless in San Rafael, spoke about how the city’s street population has groups and subsets. “What I’m hearing is that the 18 to 25-year-old group of guy and gals are robbing some of the less fortunate people on our streets," he said. 

San Rafael Economic Development Manager Stephanie Lovette said she’s heard from state officials that a transient group of roughly 18 to 24-year olds with a “nasty attitude,” referred to as road warriors, are causing problems in several communities.

“They are traveling up and down the coast,” Lovette said. “They come through and six months later they are gone, but leave behind trauma in a community.”

But, “road warriors” aside, there are others on the street who need help, Pata said. 

“There are people on our streets who are mentally ill, there are people who have substance abuse problems,” he said. “We are doing more and more social work now.”

TRYING TO BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR

At the end of the meeting, San Rafael Police Lieutenant Dan Fink and representatives from the city of San Rafael, Ritter Center, St. Vincent de Paul Society and Community Action Marin answered questions about their services.

St. Vincent de Paul Society Executive Director Blase Bova said the organization is trying to be a good neighbor. “We recently hired a security guard, which we can barely afford. We’re trying to pay for him seven days a week,” Bova said. “He is tasked with encouraging a zero tolerance policy” that includes stopping people from littering, smoking and congregating on the street, he said. 

Bova said they are hoping to use information from their security guard's reports to work with the police and Ritter Center to identify certain “chronic offenders” who cause trouble in the city. 

Thompson said BID is looking at creating a safety committee to continue to address transient and safety-related concerns downtown.

Fink told the group of business owners to not hesitate to make a call to the police about downtown incidents, either by calling 911 for an emergency or the police non-emergency line at 485-3000. He said it's for the safety of the community and to help the police have accurate data on downtown crime. 

San Rafael Mayor Gary Phillips has said publically that addressing homelessness is a top priority for the council right now. 

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Resources and hotlines

Police emergency 911

Police non-emergency 485-3000

Homeless mental health crisis and care team 847-1266

Psychiatric emergency services 473-6666

Dog control and animal abuse 883-4621

Homelessness hotline 459-5009

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