Eiad Eltawil, the owner of Yasmin, a Middle Eastern restaurant on Valencia Street, has had it with the center-running bike lane. Frustrated with what he describes as a lack of cooperation from both the city and other merchants, he said he will go on a 30-day hunger strike in protest.
Eltawil plans to sit in a parklet outside Rossi — an art gallery two doors down from his restaurant at Valencia and 19th streets, which his wife owns — and starve himself, starting Sunday evening. He said he will weigh himself daily and pass around flyers.
“This is not a joke. This is not a stunt. It’s a real protest with real pain,” said Eltawil, who wants the city to dismantle the center-running lane, but did not offer an alternative configuration.
The hunger strike was first reported by ABC 7.
Eltawil said he has lost a lot of business since the bike lane was installed last August. In February, he filed claims against the city along with two other businesses, Rossi and Amado’s, saying that the bike lane has harmed their businesses.
The city has 45 days to respond to those claims — a deadline that lapses today — before the claimants can file a lawsuit. Eltawil has not yet announced how he and the other business plan to proceed.
While many businesses have complained about the economic impact of the bike lane, according to an analysis by Mission Local, the revenue earned by businesses on Valencia between 15th and 23rd streets increased during the period in which the bike lane was installed, compared to the year prior.
In February, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency published its first evaluation of the pilot bike lane project and discussed potentially replacing the center lane with two side-running lanes. The agency also said it will consult with merchants along the corridor about the new design.
In a statement, the Valencia Merchants’ Association said that it is working closely with the agency to remove the center bike lane “as quickly as possible,” and to replace it with a safer design, while limiting the further loss of parking.
Eltawil’s business has had a tumultuous few years: He first opened Yasmin in 2019, but closed in January 2022 after an alleged arson. Sixteen months later, in June 2023, as the result of a dispute between Eltawil, his landlord and his landlord’s insurance company, he was forced to reopen the restaurant’s doors in a settlement with the landlord over back rent. Eltawil said he was not ready to reopen at the time.
Shortly after, the bike lane was installed along the corridor, and Yasmin’s parklet was removed.
“I can’t do my business without the parklet. It’s impossible,” Eltawil said. The city is “trying to squeeze me out.”
According to Eltawil, after months of applying for a new parklet permit, a process that he claims should take two to three weeks, he finally received one on Wednesday. On the same day, he started setting up outside Rossi, in preparation for his protest.
Kevin Ortiz, the president of the San Francisco Latinx Democratic Club, who works as a consultant for the businesses which filed claims against the city, said the bike lane pilot came at the wrong time, when merchants were already struggling.
“You don’t take a risk in a risky time,” said Ortiz. “Businesses are suffering as a result.”
It seems this has not much to do with the bike lane as much to do with “his parklet” being taken away… even though these parklets, if I’m not mistaken were temporary due to covid. What makes him entitled to have one? If he wants a bigger place then get a bigger restaurant.
Why should city taxpayers continue to subsidize your business? And a hunger strike?
Maybe I’m missing something?
Reasonable people can disagree about the center bike lane’s safety (better or worse than two side lanes) and impact on small businesses (some business owners say bad, data disagrees).
Even if the impact on businesses were demonstrably bad though, I don’t see why dismantling the bike lane is justified. Street design should be optimized for street safety, not adjacent businesses. If a design can do both, terrific, but the safety and flow of people and vehicles using the street has to come first.
It’s bizarre that (some) Valencia business owners seem to think they are entitled to a particular street configuration and (in some cases) to operate on public property (parklets). I’m all for parklets when they work but they are not a right.
Running a business is a grueling slog. For a restaurant especially, there is no endgame beyond living to fight another day. Hats off to anyone who, with discipline and resourcefulness and, yes, some luck, makes it work. The hunger-strike guy — with his history of complaining about about having to open *too soon* after a fire (presumably to make money, ugh what a nuisance for a business to have to make money) — does not seem to me to be “serious people” about owning a business.
Oritz is wrong. You absolutely take a risk at a risky time. Because if you don’t, failure is guaranteed.
And real analysis, not magical thinking, shows that business rebounded during the time the bike lane was installed.
Bicyclists eat food, bicyclists shop. The merchants blaming the bike lane for larger economic woes are missing an opportunity to encourage a customer base that if courted instead of vilified, could pull Valencia out of the mess it’s in because it bet on tech bros instead of long term residents.
And let’s be clear here, the merchants dislike the center bike lane because it prevents them from double parking their cars to unload in front of their businesses, and keeps Uber drivers from doing the same when picking up deliveries. But that’s the quiet part you don’t say out loud, because it makes you look selfish.
This should be interesting.
How exactly does a center bike hurt business? Isn’t the majority of the restaurant business on Valencia via foot traffic?
For a bike lane?? 😂
Who is bankrolling this freakshow? What business is Rossi in, really? Yasmin seemed happy to remain closed for months after its fire. Didn’t his wife have a space on 21st or 22nd that she closed, complaining of nearby drug use, as though that’s something every business in the neighborhood doesn’t deal with? These people are . . . let’s say, “characters.”
Never let data get in the way of a good narrative.
I tried to go to Yasmin a couple weeks ago and it was undergoing some serious rennovation. It can’t have been open for business much in the last couple months. How much business could the owner really have lost due to the bike lane? Something is weird here.
For the parklet he Yasmin had on 19th, he wasn’t able to keep it because of the requirements for large setbacks from oncoming intersections.
Pledging a 30-day hunger strike to protest the Israeli destruction of Gaza and Gazans would make a little more sense.
Considering Eltawil’s background, I was sure this was what he was going on a hunger strike for.
the valencia street bikeway is essentially a ‘freeway’ for cyclists though it appears to lack the safety of a real ‘freeway’ because it does not have limited access.
much like a ‘freeway’ for cars, it does not support the surrounding businesses’ need for unlimited access.
much like the current trend to criminalize being poor by large corporations, the merchants along valencia street are using the same tactic to advocate against a transportation project that is very much needed for the continued success of our city and the environment.
Dude clearly has some issues and I hope he finds some peace.
“while limiting the further loss of parking” Yeah, that is literally the center running bike lane. This is the configuration we have because merchants whine at a frequency the city can hear.
“Eltawil, who wants the city to dismantle the center-running lane, but did not offer an alternative configuration”
How productive.
clever.
publicity.
stunt.
————-
3words
I really miss Schauplatz!
He would have more business if his food was actually good. Which makes this extremely ironic.
Ya, his food was decent a few years ago but kinda blows now. And now he’s using a Mexican flour tortilla as a “wrap” instead of lavash bread = failed attempt at fusion and a big cultural sin…for both sides!
You can’t even higher electrician or plumber to do work on a building. There is no parking and all parking 6 wheel loading zones. Ridicules. As a tenant you can’t park unload groceries or any items. You have 5 min loading for regular cars. Walk a block to your door and up to your apartment is 5 min. The city loves these loading zones, generates so much money in tickets. They giving them out left and right by the hour. As a customer goes to purchase from a business, gets a ticket they are not coming back.
Bicyclist are not even shopping at the merchants on Valencia. You would see bicycles parked all over the street. They give no revenue. It’s just a highway to do exercise and go to work and home. These are the true facts.
Great publicity stunt!
I want to see Valencia thrive.
I’m not a business owner in this street and it seems like none of the comments above have any idea how hard it is to run a business in SF.
I was talking to the owner of Rheas & Serendipity – they are also worried because so many businesses have closed. WITH DOWNTOWN A MESS, WE WANT OUR NEIGHBORDOOD CORRUDORS LIKE VALENCIA TO THRIVE. For Résidents, for people who visit from other neighborhoods and for tourists! Good god, SUPPORT VALENCIA BUSINESSES and stop trashing this guy. He is serving the community.
No everyone rides a god damn bike.
Not everyone drives a god damn car, either, but for some reason we have to make endless space for them everywhere.
One of the comments: “let’s be clear here, the merchants dislike the center bike lane because it prevents them from double parking their cars to unload in front of their businesses, and keeps Uber drivers from doing the same when picking up deliveries. But that’s the quiet part you don’t say out loud, because it makes you look selfish.”
It **is** selfish. Why not own it? Bikers don’t want businesses to have deliveries. Businesses cannot operate without supplies. Deliveries cannot be made on foot, by carrier pigeon, or by drone.
The small percentage of San Franciscans who bike don’t care whether Valencia merchants succeed or not as long as they have their bike lanes. Restaurants could not care less about bikers as long as they have their parklets. When the merchants are gone, Valencia will be a flat street with boarded storefronts and devoid of vitality, just as it was not so long ago.
Yeah, I said that. And you’re wrong. Here are the multiple reasons why
There are three kinds of deliveries; commercial trucks dropping off bulk items, food delivery, and shop owners using their own vehicles.
Truck deliveries are served by the expanded loading zones that were installed along with the center running bike lane. In case you missed them, walk Valencia and notice all the yellow “loading zone” signs.
Food delivery can be done, and is best done, by ebike, not by car. Maybe we just let the ebike delivery guys have the Valencia st. tags. The Uber drivers can work other streets where their double parking doesn’t create a dangerous mess.
When you’ve internalized all this and want to discuss reasonably, we might be able to talk about the actual problem that small businesses face; finding a way that they can use their own cars with non-commercial plates to drop off stuff at their shops. But there is absolutely no obligation to meet you half way until you acknowledge the differences between the three activities.
PS, The last category does NOT include shop owners getting to park all day in “their” space in the loading zone. It doesn’t work that way.
Don’t forget people who maintain buildings. Electricians, plumbers Contractors etc.
They can’t park in 6 wheel zones. Which is majority parking. They have to travel blocks and can’t service the community. If they find spot limited 30 min in regular commercial. This bike lane devalued the properties adjacent to it. Landlords have more difficult time renting commercials and residents, due to this bike lane. Devalued their properties.
Walking down Valencia St this morning, I saw a different shop owner get a parking ticket. He pleaded with the cop, saying he just went in to do payroll, and this is his business, but he got the ticket anyway.
There’s no back alley behind Valencia Street. There’s no place to park for people doing deliveries and pickups. This may be why business owners are so upset about the bike lane — it’s really more about the missing parking spaces.
Should we be as unsympathetic as we are? Mission Local has written a few stories about how challenging business is on Valencia Street these days. Having no place to park doesn’t make it easier.