Change just around the corner on Tenderloin’s Pill Hill

Dressed as a turkey during the first ever 4 Corner Friday, Regina Santa Maria, a social worker at St. Anthony's, holds her ground at the corner of Golden Gate Ave. and Jones Street on Friday on Nov. 14, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. less Dressed as a turkey during the first ever 4 Corner Friday, Regina Santa Maria, a social worker at St. Anthony's, holds her ground at the corner of Golden Gate Ave. and Jones Street on Friday on Nov. 14, 2014 in ... more Photo: Mike Kepka / The Chronicle Photo: Mike Kepka / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Change just around the corner on Tenderloin’s Pill Hill 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

A recent Friday, 4:52 p.m.: The intersection of Golden Gate Avenue and Jones Street is usually infested with drug dealers and addicts. But when social worker Regina Santa Maria of St. Anthony Dining Room showed up in a turkey costume, all nefarious doings disappeared.

The turkey wasn’t alone. Across the street were two robed friars from St. Boniface Church standing next to a man dressed in a plush pony costume. Taped to a building above them was a sign that read “Selfie Station.” Their job was to oblige anyone who wanted pictures with them.

“Nothing makes total sense, and that’s the way we wanted it,” Karl Robillard, senior manager of communications at St. Anthony’s, said as he watched the turkey, friars and the horse in action on the first 4 Corner Friday in the Tenderloin.

The idea is to “activate” a Tenderloin corner from 3 to 5 p.m. with actions that promote a sense of community and health. The organizers choose corners known for drug dealing and violence, and they have a personal stake in seeing the effort succeed — they live and work there, too.

On the corner of Golden Gate and Leavenworth Street, a group from Unite Here Local 2 blew bubbles into the street. Across the way, sixth- and seventh-graders from De Marillac Academy passed out packets of sweet pea and winter squash seeds to people walking by. From the looks on their faces, these were people who weren’t used to getting smiles from children, let alone seeds they could plant and watch grow.

“Normally on a Friday afternoon here, standing on the corner of Pill Hill, there is a lot of open-air drug dealing. But there are also a lot of good things happening here,” said Michael Anderer, vice president for mission advancement at De Marillac. “We want the kids to know that it’s our sidewalk, too.”

Similar efforts in recent months didn’t have much effect. So the lead organizers from St. Anthony’s, St. Boniface Church, the Gubbio Project, the 100 block of Golden Gate safety committee and De Marillac Academy decided to try something different.

“What we noticed was when you take over one corner, people move to the other corner,” said Lydia Branston, security manager at St. Anthony’s. “So it was a question of what could we do to take over all four corners, and 4 Corner Friday was born.”

When the turkey took off her suit and twilight fell on Pill Hill, the usual suspects moved back to their corners. But Branston still considered the event a success, and said the group would be back out there on the second Friday in December. With a marching band on the ticket, they plan to be even bigger and louder.

“Displacement really affects people, so whether you move someone for five minutes or 10 minutes or an hour, you’re saying this piece of land belongs to all of us,” Branston said. “It’s a multiuse corner. No one gets to own this corner. We all use this corner. It’s about a message.”

To see a multimedia production of this piece, go to http://blog.sfgate.com/cityexposed. If you have ideas for the City Exposed, e-mail Mike Kepka at mkepka@sfchronicle.com.