'Disturbing' photos highlight drug, homelessness issues in San Francisco's SoMa

Adam Mesnick, owner of San Francisco's Deli Board, has been posting photos from around San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood, many with pointed messages targeted at SF Mayor Ed Lee. Adam Mesnick, owner of San Francisco's Deli Board, has been posting photos from around San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood, many with pointed messages targeted at SF Mayor Ed Lee. Photo: Courtesy Adam Mesnick Photo: Courtesy Adam Mesnick Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close 'Disturbing' photos highlight drug, homelessness issues in San Francisco's SoMa 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

On a Sunday when most folks in San Francisco were posting images of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to social media, Adam Mesnick instead posted a photo from his SoMa neighborhood.

In it, a man is seen apparently helping another man shoot heroin in broad daylight, right near the corner of Russ and Howard streets.

Mesnick is the owner of local sandwich shop Deli Board and its smaller counterpart, Rye Project. He runs the Twitter account for Deli Board and posts photos of the drug abuse and homeless problems outside of his business, alongside images of his sandwiches.

It's not what you'd expect from a deli, but for Mesnick the account has become a venting outlet. Not only has he been a business owner and resident of the area for the past seven years, he has also taken on the role of being a photojournalist of sorts. He keeps a depressing record of what he feels is the downturn of his neighborhood.

"It's hard to thrive and cook and do something that you're completely passionate about and love, when you're sort of watching a little bit of an urban decay," Mesnick said Sunday.

MORE: View photos of SoMa through Deli Board's Twitter feed

While some would say the problems have always been around in SoMa, Mesnick argues that the area has gotten worse. The Cleveland transplant said that he hasn't always felt unsafe in the neighborhood, but recent drug-laced and violent incidents — including people with bats and weapons at times — has him worried about SoMa.

"A lot of photos that I post are hauntingly disturbing, for me included," Mesnick said of his pictures of homeless people in his neighborhood. "I mean, (Sunday's photo) ruined my day: Taking a photo like that and sharing it with the world, that ruined my day. Period."

"You can read through my Twitter files and see the activity within striking distance of the eyes of so many people," he later adds. "In regard to me sharing the photos, I'm really sorta awestruck when I take some of those photos and I'm completely shocked by what's going on around me."

Mesnick spoke about various messages he's received on social media about his activism, and while some feel that he is anti-homeless, he insists he's not. He continues to challenge government officials such as Mayor Ed Lee — who Mesnick mentions often in his posted photos of the area — to help residents improve the area. The local issues for Mesnick aren't new ones, and he spoke at length about the neighborhood last year with the Chronicle's C.W. Nevius.

But since that interview Mesnick has moved forward with creating a neighborhood group "Better SoMa."

The group is still in its infancy and held its first meeting in early August, but already Mesnick feels that the group is easing some of the pain locals feel. Despite the warehouse-y appearance of the area, Mesnick and others call SoMa home and are often challenged by the difficulties of living or owning a business in the neighborhood.

"The tone has changed," Mesnick said of his customers' feelings toward the neighborhood's problems. "The tone is not empathetic, nor sympathetic, from my customers. The tone is simply, 'Are you kidding me?' It's not normal, it's really not normal."

Better SoMa is still finding its footing and its mission in the neighborhood, and is joining up with other groups to figure out how to make the neighborhood safer for residents, businesses and its employees. The group is meeting on Tuesday with Western SoMa Voice to discuss local issues.

"Better SoMa is not about squawking, it's really truly about solutions and it's about everybody as a community coming together to find a way to help," Mesnick said.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story showed photos of apparent drug use. They have since been removed.