Mayor Daniel Lurie presided over a ceremony on Tuesday celebrating a new state law that cracks down on illegal vending in San Francisco, and San Francisco only.
The new law lets the city’s police officers issue tickets that could result in a jail sentence and fine for vendors selling stolen goods.
“This law protects legitimate vendors. It supports those who work hard and play by the rules. And it ensures that honest businesses can operate without fear of intimidation,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said at the ceremony today at the offices of CLECHA at 2081 Mission St., near 17th Street.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 276 into law on Monday, but it is unlikely to go into effect until early next year as the city prepares the system for monitoring the unpermitted vending of stolen goods.
Unpermitted vending became so chaotic at the 24th and 16th Street BART stations after the pandemic that the city banned Mission Street vending in 2023. Still, it continues to flourish, especially at the 24th Street BART station and after 5 p.m. on the east side of Mission Street near 16th Street.
Under the new law, the Board of Supervisors will draft a list of commonly stolen goods around the city. If a person is found in possession of any of those goods and can’t provide a receipt, they will receive a written warning from Public Works employees.
Police officers will issue an infraction if a second or third offense occurs within 18 months of the first offense.
A fourth offense within 18 months of the first can lead to a misdemeanor, a fine and six months of jail time.
The legislation, which only applies to San Francisco, is an amendment to SB 946, the 2018 statewide bill that decriminalized vending.
At present, the Department of Public Works leads all interactions with vendors. However, after multiple reports of physical and verbal abuse from unpermitted vendors, police officers began to accompany Public Works employees on their rounds in 2023.
The law will not apply to food prepared on site or “a prepackaged food item, including a bag of chips or a nonalcoholic beverage, that is sold along with a food item that is prepared for sale onsite.”
The mayor was joined today by Mission Station Captain Sean Perdomo, members of the Mission Vendors Association, Public Work’s director Carla Short and Sen. Scott Wiener, the bill’s original author.
“This is a huge tool in our toolkit to be able to actually have law enforcement, not just there working alongside us to keep our staff safe, but they can then take the next step if someone is violating the law,” said Short.
Perdomo said the police department and Public Works will create a database of vendors who have received written warnings. The city still needs to hold at least one workshop informing the about the progress of the ordinance, and to launch a media campaign at least 30 days prior to the legislation’s enactment.
Thanks forcreporting
Does that include persons who are selling distributing and sharing drugs ?
Still cannot figure out or understand why the city cannot get the dealers and addicts off the streets ?
Throw the book at them .
They are never going to stop .
This is what has destoyed sf
The selling of goods is related to the drug scene .
The smell of rotting flesh and ingesting poisons like rats is getting old
“Still cannot figure out or understand why the city cannot get the dealers and addicts off the streets ?”
Yeah I’m just shaking my had here too. The open drug scene remains casually accepted by the powers? Like, I was having business in the T’loin yesterday afternoon. Coming out of Powell station, turns out I happened to walk right behind a kid who was already awaited by his “customers” on the steps of Halliday Plaza west. Getting right to business in the open, selling out of his fanny pack slung over his shoulder without even checking if I might be a cop or whatever.
It’s about the time!
4 offenses before any possibility of punishment is weak sauce – probably more like 8-10 bookings and a panoply of other priors will be needed to get an S.F. judge to sentence someone to prison – but better than no sauce I suppose.
I use to love to sit in the sun,on 24th and Mission, and just people watch. Now, not only is impossible to sit, since the City has removed the concret benches, but it’s impossible to even walk, because thiefs are selling their ill gotten gaines, on the sidewalk. I’m surprised that the disablity folks have not weight in on the-“Hot Mess”, at 24th and Mission, because it has become wheelchair-inadmissionable.
It’s not so much stolen goods, from stores as it is people selling items that they were given at the Food Banks. I would argue, with the previous director of the S.F/Marin Food Bank, a Mr. Ash, and threaten not to give his organization any more money, If he didnot do anyting about, this one Asian lady would take the food, and sell it at 30th and Mission, she has now moved to 9th and Mission, and was last seen at 24th and Missionon last Saturday, with food from St.Anthony’s and Glide.
There are both stolen goods and food being sold by different people, not just by one Asian lady.
My god! Won’t someone save us from little old Asian ladies trying to make meager change peddling expiring produce and low-budget packaged food? How can we abide this unspeakable crime against property values in a sluggish real estate market?! Throw the book at ’em!
Can we at least get a comment from Supervisor Fielder for this kind of story please?
Is this going to affect the seniors who sell their groceries that they get for free from
the government? What about Mission between 14th and 15th street next to the
Vara Apartments?
4th Amendment violation. I see this getting neutered in court.
Assuming the Constitution still applies under Trump’s traitor brigade?
Very maybe.