It’s not a new idea but it is one that the city of San Francisco is willing to tolerate. Neighborhood residents of Harrison street raised money on GoFundMe to place about 30 large metal planters along the street. The planters are strategically placed to leave less space for tent encampments to take over the sidewalks.

The Harrison Neighbors GoFundMe page, which raised most of the money for the planters, makes no mention of the encampment. It describes the planters as a “beautification project” endorsed by district Supervisor Hillary Ronen’s office as “the ‘best’ solution because ‘they are too heavy to move and they compliment the streetscape.’ ”…

Neighbors involved in the project said the long stretch of Harrison Street had been blighted in recent years by the encampment, whose occupants allegedly threatened passersby and ran an operation selling parts from stolen bicycles.

This wasn’t a rogue operation. Residents went to their district supervisor to get permission for the project. As it happened, the legislative aide they met with was very familiar with the problem along Harrison street. He had once been threatened with a screwdriver by someone living in the camp. So the planters were an official suggestion. They weigh 1,400 pounds when full so, once in place, they are very difficult to move.

Residents raised money and timed the arrival of the planters for a moment when they knew the street would be clear.

The Harrison Street Neighbors managed to raise the funds by the time of Carnaval, when Public Works and the Healthy Streets center were planning to clean the streets for the Mission District festival. When cleaning crews arrived, they gave the chop shop operators the option to move, which they did to a nearby corner.

After the street was clear, the Harrison Street neighbors worked with a local landscaping company to install the planters, and volunteers came through to fill them with dirt and rocks, said Lerma.

Rachel Gordon, a spokesperson for San Francisco Public Works, said the city issued a special order making it easier for residents to install planters on the sidewalk so long as they ensure safe and accessible paths of travel. Organizers and city officials said the planters along Harrison Street did not require permits, and Gordon said they seem to comply with city codes.

Basically, as long as the planters don’t look bad and don’t block the ability of pedestrians to walk down the sidewalk, the city will allow them. In short, the standard for the planters is much higher than the standard for the tend camps. The catch, of course, is that the city won’t pay for the planters. In San Francisco, residents are on their own dealing with the homeless.

Naturally, the local Coalition for the Homeless spokesperson didn’t like the results. “I think it’s a tremendous waste of energy,” Jennifer Friedenbach told the Chronicle. She added that efforts to “get homeless people to disappear” don’t work. But neighbors say what didn’t work was trying to get the city to do something about the disruptive, violent people in the tent camp. At least this way the sidewalks are clear for now. But it’s true that this won’t solve the problem. It’s hard to see what could solve all of SF’s problems at this point but residents deserve credit for trying, even if the city doesn’t offer much help.

Here’s a local news story about the planters. This is how you restore sanity to a failing city, one block at a time.