San Francisco is winning on paper. The infrastructure underneath is a different story.
San Francisco is winning on paper. The infrastructure underneath is a different story.
Property crime is at a two-year low. Graffiti is down. Housing approvals jumped. On the surface, March looked like a good month.
But 911 response times are getting worse. Drug calls keep going unanswered. And a homicide uptick is small enough to dismiss — until it isn't.
The data this week tells two stories at once. Here's what's actually in the numbers.
More 911 Calls. Slower Responses. SF's Emergency System Is Getting Stretched.
911 is slower when you need it most
Total 911 calls are up 7.5% year-over-year — and the system isn't keeping up. Non-life-threatening calls now average nearly 2 hours for a response.
That's not a rounding error. That's a neighbor waiting two hours for help with something real.
Fewer Overdose Calls. More Narcan. More Drug Crime. Pick Your Narrative.
Drug crisis: three metrics, three directions
Overdose 911 calls are down 13.8%. That sounds like progress. But drug crime incidents are up 30.8% — and SFPD is deploying Narcan 26.9% more often.
Less dying doesn't mean less crisis. It may mean the crisis is just moving around.
223 New Housing Units Approved in March. Contracts Hit $1.4B.
Housing approvals finally had a real month
SF approved 223 net new housing units in March — up 119% from February and the highest monthly total in months. That's actual units people can live in, not proposals.
One good month doesn't fix a housing shortage. But it's the kind of number the city needs to string together consistently.
Property Crime Fell to a Two-Year Low. Contracts Hit $1.3B in March.
Property crime hit a genuine two-year low
March logged just 1,127 property crime incidents — down 67% from the July 2024 peak of 3,521. That's not a blip. It's a sustained decline over nearly two years.
If you've felt safer leaving your car parked, the data backs you up. The question is whether it holds.
March Had 5 Homicides. March 2025 Had 2. The Numbers Are Still Small.
Five homicides in March. Worth watching.
SF recorded 5 homicides in March, up from 2 in March 2025. The two-year monthly average is about 3 — so this is above trend, not off the charts.
Small numbers are volatile. But two months of elevated homicides would be a different conversation. Keep an eye on April.
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