Homeless Couple Destroys Young Trees At SF’s Jefferson Square Park

A Stroll In The Park

Jefferson Square Park is a beautiful park across the street from the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (DEM) headquarters. It’s the park where the surrounding residents take their dogs to play, lay out in the sun, have a picnic, and go to exercise.

For the nearby Western Park Apartments, life services for seniors by Sequoia Living, the park is the place where senior citizens socialize and do Tai Chi in the morning. On a recent visit to the park, I noticed several of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks’ young trees in the park were chopped off.

I notified Phil Ginsburg, the general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks about it.

3 of the young trees that Friends of the Urban Forest recently planted on the sidewalk along the park on Eddy Street between Gough and Laguna Streets were also chopped off. I don’t think they can still be saved.

The Homeless Couple Who Has Been Destroying Plants And Trees in Cathedral Hill

By examining how the trees in Jefferson Square Park were chopped off, I had a particular suspect in mind. During my visit to the park, I saw the San Francisco Recreation and Parks’ gardener who goes by his nickname, Paco. I asked him if he knew who destroyed the trees in the park. He showed me the photos and the videos of the homeless couple who had been destroying trees and flowers, digging holes, and the irrigation system in the park which he had been documenting for the City.

Then, he pointed to the homeless couple, who happened to be in the park on that day, whom I was very familiar with. I showed Paco the photos and the videos of the couple vandalizing plants and digging holes that residents and property owners in Cathedral Hill had been sending me for more than 4 years.

Neighbors, the Healthy Streets Operation Center, and the Northern District Police Station know them by their first names as “Maria and Nacho.”

Maria

Maria is from Modesto according to Paco. She also has been destroying plants in the planters and digging up holes on Larch Street between Franklin Street and Van Ness Avenue.

A property owner on Larch Street told the SF Standard that “One disruptive occupant had been starting fires and digging up sensor wiring outside the building’s garage.” The property owner filed a stay-away order to keep her away from their properties after she caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to their properties.

On July 25, shortly before Governor Gavin Newsom announced his executive order to sweep encampments in the State of California, I received an email with photos from a resident of Larch Street that Maria was just on Larch Street pulling out succulents and a Pumpkin Vine with her male friend who started a fire in the planters.

The email said:

“These pictures show how hard the owners & residents try to improve the environment with nice plants & here are the homeless with nothing better to do than destroy the plants & start a fire in the planters for no reason other than to be destructive & pull out the plants. Nothing but evil intentions on their part.”

Nacho

While his girlfriend, Maria digs up holes and pulls out plants, Nacho’s bad habit is chopping off young trees with his machete and uses them as a walking stick. Before he and Maria relocated to Jefferson Square Park, a resident of Larch Street filed a restraining order against him after he threatened to kill him and his wife with his machete on Larch Street.

Paco has been talking to Nacho’s brother who visits him often in the park. According to Nacho’s brother, Nacho was a cook and lived with him in Oakland. He got hooked on drugs, became homeless, and lived in an encampment on Larch Street for about 4 years before he got served with the restraining order.

He sold drugs and operated a bicycle chop shop on Larch Street according to the neighbors. His brother has been persuading him to go back to and live with him in Oakland. He hasn’t had any luck so far.

I asked Maria and Nacho while they were in the park why they destroyed beautiful and healthy trees and plants. Maria just said, “Okay…okay…sorry” while Nacho didn’t respond.

Compassion Has Turned Into Frustration

Several Jefferson Square Park frequent park-goers I talk to who often see Maria and Nacho destroying the park are frustrated that the City hasn’t been able to give Maria and Nacho the help they need and keep them away from the neighborhood. They have been arrested and released many times but keep coming back to the park, like homing pigeons they said.

Anna who lives across the street from the park and declined to give her last name said, “How many trees and plants do they have to destroy before someone does something? Since the Mayor’s order to aggressively sweep homeless encampments, the homeless have been moving in and around the park. The City needs to protect its public park. The community also needs to be proactive in protecting their park.”

When I asked her if the City should offer the homeless a “Journey Home”, she said, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

The solution to this problem is not as easy as a walk in the park.

Originally published by BeyondChron.org.