Vol. I, No. 56 · San Francisco — Wednesday, October 28, 2026 · Price: ten minutes of airtime
BY MAXINE DOLAN, CITY DESK
San Francisco police have flown a drone over the corner of 16th and Mission Streets, outside the 16th Street BART station, more often than over any other corner in the city. They flew one there 104 times between January 9, 2025, and September 30 of this year.
This September, officers launched 1,115 drone flights, not counting training, against 344 a year earlier and 54 the September before that. The Mission drew 188 of them, more than any other neighborhood and up from 64 a year earlier, though flights grew faster in the rest of the city. A camera now goes up over the neighborhood’s streets on about one in eight of its most urgent police calls, near the city’s rate of one in nine.
Proposition E passed on March 5, 2024, with 54 percent of the vote. It let the department “use drones and install public surveillance cameras without further approval.” The first flight in the department’s log is dated May 16, 2024. The desk set aside 1,060 of the log’s 10,010 flights through September, marked as training or tests, and counted the other 8,950.
Flights jumped in mid-September, from about 27 a day before the 13th to 44 after. The log does not say why. South of Market’s pace tripled, closing most of its gap with the Mission. A year earlier flights had also jumped, from 119 in August to 344.
Since the program began, the Mission has produced 12.0 percent of the city’s dispatched police calls, just ahead of the Tenderloin. It has drawn 15.3 percent of the drone flights. That is 10.9 flights per 1,000 police calls, against 8.5 citywide. The Tenderloin, with nearly as many calls, has drawn a quarter fewer flights, 1,024. The desk does not know why.
Matching case numbers, the desk found a police call for 812 of September’s 864 drone cases. The city codes its most urgent calls “priority A”: a present or imminent danger to life, or a suspect in a crime of serious bodily harm who may still be caught nearby. A drone flew on 75 of the Mission’s 616 such calls in September, 12.2 percent.
The share was 13.9 percent in South of Market, 12.9 percent in the Bayview and 10.2 percent in the Tenderloin. Citywide it was 562 of 5,245, or 10.7 percent. The Mission leads in flights mostly because it leads in urgent calls. Since the program began, the Mission and South of Market have each drawn about 85 flights per 1,000 priority-A calls, against 69 in the Tenderloin. It has more of those calls: 16,314.
About three in ten of the calls a drone flew on in September were lower priority. Calls about a wanted vehicle drew 137 Mission flights and calls about a suspicious person 113, the two commonest types listed. A suspicious vehicle drew 108 and a person with a gun 90.
The desk holds the counts with high confidence as a record of the flights the department logged, and cannot check for unlogged ones. The neighborhood shares are floors, because 685 of the 8,950 flights carry no neighborhood, and neither do 42,320 of the police calls. The log does not record what a camera saw or whether a flight led to an arrest. Footage found to have no value as evidence “may be deleted within 30 days,” the department says.
Chinatown shops hold 84 of San Francisco’s 200 registered sidewalk displays
The city stopped charging for sidewalk tables and displays in August 2025. Of the 707 setups now on its list, Chinatown’s are mostly goods on display and the Marina’s mostly tables.
BY INES CALLOWAY, TRANSIT DESK
Thirty-four businesses on Stockton Street have told the city they put their goods out on the sidewalk, more than on any other street in San Francisco. Thirty-three are in Chinatown, from the 800 block to the 1400 block: grocers, produce markets, a meat shop, a ginseng store.
Since August 16, 2025, a small business in San Francisco has needed no permit or fee to put tables, chairs or a merchandise display on the sidewalk outside its door. It registers online with Public Works instead. The mayor’s office said the old permits could cost $300 to $2,500 a year. The 707 registrations show what each neighborhood has told the city it puts on its sidewalks, not counting parklets in the parking lane. A shop can set out a crate without registering, and a registered one can set out nothing, so the desk is sure of the counts and less sure how closely they match the sidewalks. Chinatown has 84 of the 200 merchandise displays, or 42 percent, and 23 of the 507 table setups.
The tables cluster elsewhere. The Marina, which on the city’s map takes in Union Street in Cow Hollow, has the most, 70: 26 on Chestnut and 21 on Union. Hayes Valley’s 33 registrations are all tables. The Mission does both, with 55 table setups led by Valencia and 24th Streets and 36 displays, half of them on Mission Street.
The mayor’s office quoted Rich Lee, a co-founder and owner of SPRO Coffee Lab, when Mayor Daniel Lurie signed the change on July 17, 2025. The permits, insurance and designer drawings he was told to pay for before putting tables outside “added up to thousands of dollars I just couldn’t afford,” he said. His company’s café at 500 Church Street, registered as SPRO Mission Dolores, is on the list for tables.
The mayor’s office said more than 500 businesses a year applied for the old permits. The list cannot be set beside that number. Public Works’ older system kept no dates, and 424 registrations came through it; the 283 dated ones all arrived on or after August 15, 2025. So the file cannot say how many businesses signed up because the fee ended.
The rules stayed when the fee went. A setup must still leave at least six feet of sidewalk clear for people walking and keep entrances, fire hydrants, ramps and corners open. The business must carry its own insurance, one of the costs Lee named.
ON THE CALENDAR
Codex Community Meetup San Francisco #11. An evening of talks and demos about Codex, a coding agent; the page says no coding background is needed. By 1:46 a.m. Tuesday, 485 people had registered, up from 3 when the desk’s calendar first saw the page on September 6, and 514 spots remained. That is more than twice the next-largest gathering on the desk’s shortlist, at 205.
Thursday, October 29, 5:30 p.m. · Sports Basement, Bryant Street, Mission District · free · lu.ma/tyjq8g49
From the desk’s calendar: public Luma pages, counts as of 1:46 a.m. October 27. Tell the desk about the gathering it missed.
SOURCES & RECEIPTS
1. San Francisco Police Department, Drone Flight Logs, DataSF giw5-ttjs, queried October 28, 2026 (data as of October 22): 10,010 flights, May 16, 2024 to September 30, 2026; 1,060 “Training / Test.” Of the other 8,950: Mission 1,370 (188 in September 2026, on 141 cases); South of Market 1,236 (135 on 125); Tenderloin 1,024; no neighborhood 685. September 2026: 326 flights on the 1st to 12th (Mission 58, South of Market 24), 789 after (130, 111). Quote from the dataset page; station, bart.gov. 2. Department of Emergency Management, Dispatched Calls for Service, DataSF 2zdj-bwza, police, received May 16, 2024 to September 30, 2026: 1,054,488 calls, 42,320 with no neighborhood; Tenderloin 125,393; priority A, Mission 16,314, South of Market 14,548, Tenderloin 14,907. September 2026 priority A with a drone: Mission 75 of 616, South of Market 74 of 534, Bayview 36 of 278, Tenderloin 51 of 499, city 562 of 5,245; 812 of 864 case numbers matched a police call, 562 of them priority A. 3. SFPL ballot propositions, DataSF 88s2-6ua9: Proposition E, March 5, 2024, 120,435 to 102,217. 4. DataSF explainer for dispatched calls, quoting the Controller’s Office, December 3, 2019. Queries in receipts.json.
2. San Francisco Public Works, Table and Chairs and Display Merchandise Registrations, DataSF dpch-7nr4, queried October 28, 2026: 707 registrations, 507 tables and chairs, 200 merchandise displays. Stockton Street displays: 34, 33 in Chinatown (832 to 1401 Stockton). Mission Street: 18 of the Mission’s 36 displays. SPRO Mission Dolores, LLC, 500 Church Street: tables. No date on 424 rows (legacy system); 283 dated August 15, 2025 to October 10, 2026. 6. sf.gov, “Get permission to place tables and chairs on the sidewalk for your business,” visited October 28, 2026. 7. Office of the Mayor, “Mayor Lurie Signs PermitSF Legislation,” July 17, 2025, sf.gov; effective August 16, 2025. 8. Hoodline, May 5, 2021: Rich Lee’s Spro Coffee Lab opening at 500 Church St. Queries in receipts.json.
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