The city is doing more. Whether it's working depends on where you live.
The city is doing more. Whether it's working depends on where you live.
Downtown SF got slammed with graffiti last month — nearly 9x the normal weekly rate. Meanwhile, 911 response times are slipping and drug calls keep climbing.
There's also a rare piece of good news: property crime hit a two-year low and housing approvals nearly doubled. But the drug numbers complicate any clean story.
Downtown SF Got 115 Graffiti Reports in One Week. The Norm Is 13.
Graffiti flooded District 3 last month
The week of March 27, District 3 — Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach — logged 115 graffiti 311 requests. The 12-week average is 13. That's not a blip; it's a wall.
If you walk these neighborhoods, you saw it. The question is whether the cleanup response matched the spike — or whether those requests are still sitting in a queue.
More 911 Calls. Slower Responses. SF's Emergency System Is Getting Stretched.
911 is slower when it's not life-threatening
Total 911 calls are up 7.5% year-over-year through March 2026. The system is absorbing more volume — and lower-priority calls are paying the price.
Priority C calls now average nearly 2 hours for a response. That covers things like noise complaints, minor incidents, and quality-of-life calls. The stuff that makes a neighborhood feel safe or not.
223 New Housing Units Approved in March. Contracts Hit $1.4B.
Housing approvals finally had a good month
SF approved 223 net new housing units in March via final occupancy — up 119% from February and the highest monthly total since September. That's a real number, not a projection.
One month doesn't fix a housing crisis. But it's the kind of output the city needs to string together consistently, and March actually delivered.
Fewer Overdose Calls. More Narcan. More Drug Crime. Pick Your Narrative.
Drug data is pointing in three directions at once
Overdose 911 calls are down 13.8%. Narcan deployments by SFPD are up 26.9%. Drug crime incidents are up 30.8%. These numbers don't cancel each other out — they describe a system under pressure from multiple angles.
Fewer overdose calls could mean fewer overdoses, or fewer people calling. More Narcan use means officers are still finding people in crisis. More drug crime means the underlying problem isn't shrinking.
Property Crime Fell to a Two-Year Low. Contracts Hit $1.3B in March.
Property crime hit its lowest point in two years
March 2026 logged just 1,127 property crime incidents citywide — down 67% from the July 2024 peak of roughly 3,400. That's a sustained decline, not a one-month fluke.
For residents who changed their routines around car break-ins and retail theft, this is the number that matters most. It's moving in the right direction — and has been for a while.
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