Chinn, The Chronicle

Graffiti covers the site of the Tu Lan Vietnamese restaurant on...

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A man sleeps on the sidewalk on Sixth Street in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

A man sleeps on the sidewalk on Sixth Street in San Francisco,...

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A broken stroller is abandoned on Sixth Street in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013.

Correllas Johnson tries to stay warm during a cold day on Sixth Street in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. Johnson has been living on Sixth Street since Christmas after he was evicted from his hotel room.

As a metaphor for the ongoing problems of Sixth Street, this is perfect. A new police substation is supposed to calm the raucous, sketchystreet scene along the two-block corridor south of Market.

On Wednesday, there was broken glass in front of the storefront where the substation is supposed to open in two weeks. The shattered window was on a Department of Public Works pickup.

That's right, at 11:30 a.m., city workers building the police substation had their truck window jacked.

"That says it all," said Kurt Abney, owner of Dottie's True Blue Cafe, a few doors up the street. "It happened to a car right in front of the restaurant last week."

In other words, things are status quo on Sixth. A little more than a year ago, the mantra was that getting some thriving businesses in the Mid-Market tech boom would begin to transform the neighborhood.

Well, the techies are there. Mayor Ed Lee says