Merchant groups in the Mission are seeking a moratorium on new restaurant construction. According to the president of the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association, new dining establishments are tripling rents and creating daytime dead zones that are at odds with the independent identity of the neighborhood.
The VCMA is seeking to enlist the Planning Department’s special use permitting process to enforce its plan. Apparently, merchants on 24th Street are following suit. Good planning strategy or NIMBY politics? You decide.