SF is winning on metrics and losing on the streets
SF is winning on metrics and losing on the streets
San Francisco loves a good dashboard. Record Muni satisfaction. Improved 911 response times. Drug arrests up 28%.
But drug 911 calls have more than doubled since last year. The city's most violent week in three months just happened. And Muni riders are filing pass-up complaints faster than ever.
The gap between what the city is measuring and what residents are living is the story right now.
Muni Says Riders Love It. Bayview and North Beach Riders Are Filing Pass-Up Complaints.
Muni is celebrating. Riders are complaining.
The city announced record Muni satisfaction scores in early 2026. Then 323 pass-up complaints hit the 311 system in the first 8 days of April alone.
Pass-ups mean your bus showed up — and kept going. That's not a satisfaction survey problem. That's a you-were-late-to-work problem.
Bayview and North Beach riders are filing the most complaints. These are not neighborhoods with easy backup options.
Drug 911 Calls Have More Than Doubled Since 2024. The Tenderloin Isn't the Only Story.
Drug crisis calls have doubled. Citywide.
SF logged 2,937 drug-related 911 calls through April 9, 2026 — up 37% from the same stretch last year. Monthly totals have roughly doubled from around 400 calls per month.
The Tenderloin gets the headlines. But this is spreading. The call volume tells you where people are seeing crises that feel like emergencies.
More 911 calls means more strain on a system that already had response-time problems not long ago.
The Mission Had 39 Violent Incidents in One Week This March
The Mission had its worst week in months.
The week of March 16–22 was San Francisco's most violent in three months — 191 incidents citywide, up 34% from the 12-week average.
The Mission led all neighborhoods with 39 violent incidents in seven days. The Tenderloin came in second at 34.
One bad week doesn't make a trend. But it's a reminder that the city's violence numbers can move fast, and the Mission is consistently near the top.
SF's Emergency System Had Its Best March in Two Years. Here's the Catch.
Emergency response improved. Here's the catch.
Priority A 911 calls — life-threatening emergencies — hit their lowest monthly total in over two years this March. Paramedic response times improved to 4.95 minutes.
That's genuinely good news. But lower call volume can mean better response times without any actual improvement in capacity.
If drug 911 calls are doubling elsewhere in the system, the question is whether this improvement holds when volume climbs back up.
The Compliment Hotline Nobody Knew About
Someone built a compliment hotline. People use it.
Buried in SF's 311 system is a category called "Muni Employee Feedback: praise_employee." It is exactly what it sounds like — a place to compliment a bus driver.
It exists between noise complaints and sewer reports. Almost nobody knows about it. People still use it.
In a week full of pass-up complaints and satisfaction-score spin, it's worth knowing the city also built a place to say thank you — and some riders do.
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