Change just around the corner on Tenderloin’s Pill Hill

The intersection of Golden Gate Avenue and Jones Street is usually infested with drug dealers and addicts. [...] when social worker Regina Santa Maria of St. Anthony Dining Room showed up in a turkey costume, all nefarious doings disappeared. Across the street were two robed friars from St. Boniface Church standing next to a man dressed in a plush pony costume. “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 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. [...] 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.