The city erected new fences with police insignia around the Mission District McDonald’s late last week, in an apparent effort to push street vendors and unhoused residents out of the area altogether.
In recent months, unlicensed vendors have proliferated at the 24th and Mission BART plazas and spilled over onto nearby blocks.
The new barriers flank the sidewalk on Mission Street adjacent to the McDonald’s. One set of metal grates sits in front of the restaurant, leaving a narrow walkway for people to exit the restaurant, and another set runs along the curb, narrowing the sidewalk for pedestrians.
After police and Department of Public Works employees ramped up checks on vendor permits at the BART plazas over the past year, those seeking a stretch of sidewalk to sell goods — or simply sit or lie down — have, in recent months, crossed the street from the plazas to the area in front of McDonald’s.
That created problems for the restaurant.
We “called the police all the time,” said Clementina, a manager at McDonald’s, who said customers complained frequently. “Now the customers say it’s very good, because it’s cleaner.”
“Maybe people will bring more business”
Sua, who works with the nonprofit SF Safe as a community ambassador and has been stationed at the plaza for a few weeks, said the new barriers are a tactic from the Police Department and Public Works.
He originally had doubts about their efficacy, because he’s seen the cat-and-mouse nature of policing the plazas, but said they seemed to be working.
“They did exactly what I didn’t think they were capable of,” Sua said on Monday afternoon, noting it was a relatively calm day.
“It looks clean,” said Celso, who works at Ariel’s restaurant, a couple of doors down from McDonald’s, in Spanish. “If they keep it this way, maybe people will bring more business.”
Celso said that customers hoping to enter his restaurant didn’t like to walk through the dense crowd of vendors and buyers that often congregated in front of the McDonald’s building.
But, he said, it was clear that the vendors had just moved down the block in either direction, setting up shop further north or south on Mission Street.
Shuffled down the block
Just a couple feet away from Ariel’s, a woman named Maria packed up shoes and a random assortment of pharmacy items, like toothpaste and deodorant, into a suitcase.
Since she got pushed from the plaza and the area by McDonald’s, she said she has just moved down the street. That shuffling, she said, made business harder because there is more pedestrian traffic at the BART plazas.
“It’s hard, because the people are more over there,” Maria said in Spanish, looking over at the plaza, where permitted vendors with tents and tables had set up. A police car with flashing lights, a typical fixture at the northeast plaza for the past few months, stood guard on the plaza.
Another woman, Reyna, has a permit to sell jewelry outside of Chava’s restaurant on Mission, about halfway down the block from McDonald’s, but with the new fences at McDonald’s pushing people onto her turf, “it’s really stressful,” she said in Spanish. “When the police chase them from there, they come here.”
Other vendors even have permits to sell goods at the very spot where the new barriers now stand. It’s unclear where most of those vendors had decided to move on Monday afternoon.
“It’s not a solution,” said Cesar Canales, in Spanish, of the barriers. He sells clothing across the street at the often-less-chaotic southwest plaza. “It’s something that you’re never going to get rid of.”
Canales pointed across the street toward El Farolito where, as we spoke, vendors gathered briefly out front and sold items out of small bags. Canales said he can’t compete with those selling stolen goods for lower prices, and said it was “illogical” that he frequently had to show his permit to officials, while others sold goods without permits just a few yards away.
A Public Works spokesperson said the department installed the barricades at the request of SFPD.
SFPD spokesperson Adam Lobsinger said the barriers are part of a “collaboration with local business, residents, and community stakeholders to help facilitate the flow of foot traffic in the neighborhood while ensuring ADA compliance.”
“For me in my business, I’m at a critical point of declaring bankruptcy,” Canales said. “Business is 99 percent down.”
At the east side of Mission Street, at least eight people crowded onto the sidewalk near El Farolito, slowing pedestrian movement to nearly a halt. Prospective buyers peered into backpacks and cash exchanged hands.
“Scooter for sale,” called out one teenager, rolling slowly through the crowd.
This story was updated on June 7 with a statement from the San Francisco Police Department.
I’d love something to be done about the obvious illegal activities here (and 16th St BART…I doubt anyone there is a verified vendor of items like Tide or Colgate) AND while the police are at it, a ban on any amplification would be appreciated…. loud and angry evangelicals bellowing through bullhorns or amps don’t add to the atmosphere. They can have a booth, that’s part of their freedom of speech, but keep it down to conversation level please.
Selling very obviously stolen goods, without a permit, is illegal – and the laws need to be enforced. Legitimate street vendors need to be protected, and the thieves should be denied the right to block sidewalks and fence stolen goods for drug money, while harassing passersby and threatening law-abiding vendors who paid for permits – that become useless if everyone but thieves and drug addicts avoid the Mission like the plague.
After living in and out of the Mission for 30 years, it’s absolute madness that our leaders cannot control this situation. A permanent solution, not temporary. Sellers and buyers I mean. They both blocked the sidewalk and that’s an ADA violation.
I love how you’re calling them “vendors “! More like thieves selling what they swiped. We are facilitating unlawful behavior and every parasitic activity that coexists with it, by allowing things like this to destroy San Francisco. Imagine how a family of tourists feels stepping off of BART into this cesspool ?
Wake up!
It’s sad that these seem to be needed. It’s sad that we can’t get real solutions for anything in this city.Without new leadership this city is not going to be able to thrive.
Maybe the city could set up a place for street vendors? Make it a safe, clean, and lively place to buy/sell.
So you are suggesting a City-sanctioned Thieves Market? Is it OK with you if they sell the stuff they steal for your car there, too?
I’m usually sympathetic to the fact that people gonna do what they gotta do. But the other night, going to pick up takeout at La Santeneca, the Mission Street sidewalks were just about impassable. This is out of hand.
I’m wondering if there is any connection between the sales of cordless battery powered grinder tools on the Mission Street sidewalks and rampant thefts of catalytic converters and bicycles.
How about a law banning the sales of potential burglary tools such as cordless grinders on the sidewalk?
Not gonna lie, I can’t bring myself to shop at any of these street vendors because of just how much of what’s offered is obviously stolen. Honest question, why do we even feel like we need to facilitate people selling goods on the street at all? We have stores in the neighborhood for this purpose. If we want a lively streetscape permit more food and art/local craft vendors. Why would anyone want to buy shampoo and random tool parts off the street? Just to away with this category of goods altogether.
I welcome these new barriers and the increased police presence at the BART plaza and in front of the McDonalds. The scene has been pretty scary at times. The area has become a gathering place for drug addicts and “vendors” hawking stolen goods who operate with impunity. The chaos creates an atmosphere of fear and unease, and discourages people from patronizing the local businesses. The new barriers and additional security measures are a positive part of a comprehensive strategy to address these problems.