Jose Barajas, 45, is one of the more than 100 permitted street vendors affected by the Mission Street vending ban that went into effect last November. The initiative came from City Hall to curb crowded sidewalks and the sale of stolen goods along the corridor, especially at the BART plazas.
Barajas, who is originally from Jalisco, Mexico, said that in his 26 years living in this country, he and his wife have worked tirelessly selling flowers near the 24th Street BART plaza. They’ve never asked for government help, and they were able to build a $15,000 nest egg.
“We worked from morning to night, but it was worth it,” said Barajas. “Now, we’ve drained everything we had in the last 10 months. We don’t have a penny left.”
Barajas sold roses, lilies and air plants, all carefully displayed on a large plastic table.
Customers had the choice between a small bunch for $10 or a larger one for $20. It was a good business, Barajas said while showing me the invoices from the latest payment he had made to his flower provider in Ecuador.
“The last 10 months have been the most difficult ones since I moved to this country,” said Barajas. “I did everything the city asked me to do, permits and taxes. You name it. But then they just kicked us out without any consideration.”
Barajas said it has been really disappointing walking on Mission Street and seeing the large number of unpermitted vendors still setting up shop along the corridor, while vendors like himself have to pay the consequences of what he called a poorly designed program.
Initially, the couple accepted the offer from the city to sell at La Placita, a city-sanctioned site, but they only made $20 to $30 a day. That was far less than the $200 to $300 a day they made on Mission Street.
Nowadays, Barajas sells at the entrance to the Mission Food Hub at 2366 Mission St., where he rents a small space while his wife sells outside of La Victoria at 24th and Capp streets. They make about $100 a day at their new spots.
He considered finding another job, he said, but the city urged them to stick with La Placita, and said they would be one of the first vendors to return. Instead, the city used a lottery, and he did not win.
“It’s sad to think how much the ban affected me and other vendors who followed the rules. It’s simply not fair,” said Barajas. “I just think about how long it’s been without seeing my parents. I would love to go back, but I have young kids here.”
I’d like to see his State Board of Equalization statements and income tax statements, before I would feel comfortable feeling sorry for them…
Show us yours.
This is unfortunate. There is an illegal sidewalk sale next to my building. They block
the sidewalk, The side entrance etc. I’m sure that other illegal activities are going on too.
Campers,
Over past year my dog and I have cleared and cleaned an area the length of two football fields all around the Armory where the City used to allow a very very successful weekend Flea Market extension of the decades old La Piguelita which resides in the Parking Lot on the South Side of the Armory.
This morning a massive City crew tore down a homeless encampment across the street on Stevenson and those people should have been moved to the new City run Campgrounds on Treasure Island and on half of Lincoln and Harding Golf courses completely removed by miles from any Residential and Business areas.
But, the City refuses to build these proper campgrounds and I’m sure the homeless will flow right across the street back to the area we’ve just finished cleaning.
A total failure of leadership.
That one area around the Armory is Example One of City Failure.
They put the ugliest outdoor toilet in the World on 14th Street across from the Armory and it leaks human waste and is a designated trash drop zone with a friggin’ sign-in sheet on a clipboard that no illegal will ever approach.
With no crowds at the Armory, the toilet should be moved to the Front of the Armory next to the Latinx Job Training facility whose clients crap and urinate all over the front of the building all the way down to the corner bus stop where DPW saw fit to removed the only trash can in favor of having bus riders just abandon their half finished food and drinks all over the sidewalk well away from the tiny area at the bus shelter that the vendor cleans once daily.
The thing that pisses me most is the stack of 311 numbers I’ve accumulated addressing these issues and they ALL end up being the fault of DPW which circles the block daily with a hundred trucks at least.
They have the Trash cans and the Toilets but the DPW supervisors ignore their own management and simply lie on the tickets they turn in saying they’ve abated the situations over and over and over again.
I do believe this a leftover result of the years of Mohammed Nuru’s management.
I’d start doing an inventory of things like bulldozers (Nuru had one) and chain saws.
h.
I am all for the city coming down like a ton of bricks on people selling stolen goods, but I also feel sympathy for Mr. Barajas, who tried to play by the rules and was treated badly. Why can’t City Hall get it together?
I used to buy his flowers. Unfortunately the whole area around 24th & Mission has become so unpleasant that it’s a place to be avoided now. What happened to the salsa band that used to play there on weekends pre-COVID? We need to bring more of the positive energy back if we want legitimate vendors to succeed.
“bring more of the positive energy back” ??, pollyanna much? It takes cops to enforce the current laws. right now state law deems DPH is in charge of the street vending– they wont do it unless they have two cops with them while they do it… (have you seen how nasty some of these people get). Ronen and Lerma crowed so much about the “Ban” on vending on Mission street when they knew full well it is unenforceable, given the budget and lack of cops in SF. this is utterly shameful. Folks need to read up on legislation and understand what it takes to keep the streets clean and safe. Sadly– three shooting at 16th and mission in the past few months, not to mention armed robberies at 24th and Mission. We need more than “good vibes or positive energy” we needs to enforce laws and make out streets safe again– then maybe someone would buy this guys flowers..
ERK,
ALL they have to do is return the Feinstein Police Kobans as a base for a revolving 3 Officer Foot Patrol.
That’s 3 Officers when they regularly have at least a half dozen cops and DPW workers standing around bullshitting each other.
I’ll tell you who they’d ALL listen to or find a new job …
An ELECTED Police Chief who promised a return of Kobans to ALL Bart stops in the City plus a couple at UN Plaza and Chinatown.
Instead, Peskin wants to give a half million dollars each yearly to the exact Same BRASS that caused all of the problems through HIS (it is now) DROP Program that already failed miserably in 2008.
h.