‘It’s always a risk parking there’
Upscale restaurants, wine bars and artist studios mix with the aging warehouses and blue-collar workshops along Third Street in the city’s fastest-growing neighborhood.
Thieves have also discovered Dogpatch’s allure and have been exploiting one square block in particular between Illinois Street and Third Street, to the tune of 195 vehicle breakins last year. Police reported making arrests in two of those cases.
Unlike so many of the worst-hit areas in the city, the 1000 block of Illinois doesn’t boast any city landmarks or famed tourist magnets. Rather, the industrial backstreet runs beside a row of warehouses near a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. yard.
But Third Street, one block away, has become a popular nightlife destination with an influx of new restaurants and bars.
What puts this spot in the crosshairs of the burglary epidemic, said neighborhood workers, is the ample street parking, as one of the last places in the city with free spots all day. And for those who don’t nab a spot on Illinois Street, a private lot offers more than 100 spaces for less than $20 a day.
“The parking lot has a pretty bad reputation,” said Paul Bougare, 25, who manages La Fromagerie cheese shop on Third Street. “It’s always a risk parking there.”
Bougare rides his bike from his South of Market home, knowing cars are easy targets, especially at night.
During the day, the block of Illinois bustles with trucks pulling into warehouses and visitors coming and going from nearby businesses. Come nightfall, the street goes dark and quiet, and vehicles turn prey.
“There’s not nearly anyone watching,” said 25-year-old Dave Johnson, who works at a warehouse that stores art for hotels. “It’s a pretty good smashand-grab spot for thieves. Third is happening, but back here it’s empty.”
A security guard at the parking lot, who declined to give his name, said he was recently hired to patrol it, and believes the change is making a difference. Officials with Impark, the lot operator, did not return messages.
At any rate, people who need affordable parking haven’t stopped coming, even though a broken window costs more than $350 a pop.