San Francisco must BARRIC McDonald’s after homeless people and vendors crowd the sidewalk

San Francisco has been forced to erect metal barricades outside a McDonald’s after vagrants and illegal vendors crowd the sidewalk outside – as the city continues to grapple with its crime and homelessness crises.

Local police have placed what they called “event fencing” around the perimeter of the Mickey D’s next to a stop on the city’s BART transit line on 24th Street.

The barricades have been set up since at least Sunday to try and force illegal street vendors to stop collecting in the area.

Fences have been erected at the BART station itself for the past 10 months as part of a city-led effort to get rid of the illegal vendors – but they’ve instead set up across the street in front of McDonald’s.

A door of the fast food giant with a ‘come in’ sign has become unusable due to the new blockades.

The original fencing around the BART station didn’t fare well: Protesters tore it up about a month after it was installed, according to SFist. The whole ordeal led to a licensing system and increased police presence at the station.

In a statement, the San Francisco Police Department said the new barriers were placed outside the fast food chain to make it easier to walk around the neighborhood.

“The event fencing erected in the 24th and Mission Streets area was done in collaboration with local businesses, residents and community stakeholders to facilitate the flow of foot traffic in the neighborhood while ensuring ADA compliance .’

They did not say how long the barriers would remain.

DailyMail.com has contacted McDonald’s for comment.

San Francisco has had numerous problems with homelessness and crime since the start of the pandemic, leading to a mass desertion of the city.

Researchers tracked smartphone use in 63 cities and found that San Francisco, which has been battling waves of crime and homeless addicts on the streets, has just 32 percent of the activity recorded before the pandemic.

a A disturbing report found that 95 downtown retailers — more than half of the total — have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic.

Local police have placed what they called “event fences” around the perimeter of the Mickey D’s next to a stop on the city’s BART transit line on 24th Street

In a statement, the San Francisco Police Department said this was being done in conjunction with the people of the area to make it easier to get around

The location is often the site of homeless people as well as illegal vendors

At least one more is scheduled, with Williams-Sonoma announcing they will close in 2024.

Of the 203 retailers that opened in the city’s Union Square area in 2019, only 107 are still operating, a 47 percent drop in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.

Among the heavy hitters, Brooks Brothers, Ray Ban, Christian Louboutin, Lululemon and Marmot wrapped it all up.

An additional 12 new retailers have opened in the area since the pandemic began in 2020, but two have already closed or are planning to close.

San Francisco’s decline is once again thrown into the spotlight by a sharp rise in overdose deaths among the city’s homeless population.

The city saw a staggering 41 percent increase in drug-related deaths in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same time last year, when fentanyl ravaged the city’s homeless population.

In the California coastal hub, 200 people died from drug overdoses between January and March, compared to 142 deaths in 2022, according to recent data from the city’s coroner.

That equates to one overdose death every 10 hours in a city that has seen its reputation as a seaside gem destroyed by rising crime, drugs and homelessness, even as it remains home to tech billionaires.

The overdose victims were disproportionately black and Latino men, and often lived in the Tenderloin area, a rough downtown neighborhood, where a drug treatment center closed in December.

San Francisco saw a staggering 41 percent increase in drug-related deaths in the first quarter of 2023

Addicts openly smoke drugs on the sidewalk of San Francisco’s Tenderloin area, where overdose deaths have skyrocketed in recent months

Those living on the streets were particularly hard hit – the number of homeless people who died of drug overdoses doubled.

Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid often trafficked from Mexico that can be deadly even in small amounts, was detected in 159 of the deaths.

The drug is 50-100 times stronger than morphine.

It’s cheap, packs small, relatively easy to smuggle into the US, and is mixed with pills that then claim the lives of users, often unaware they’re taking something so potent.

Methamphetamine and cocaine were also present, albeit to a lesser extent.

The surge in deaths began in December and continued into a record-breaking January.

This followed the closure of the Tenderloin Center, where addicts were allowed to use drugs and where the overdose treatment, Narcan, was available to those who had overused.