Twelve months into the Mission Street vending ban, a certain rhythm has taken hold. Pass through the 16th or 24th Street BART plazas before police officers and Public Works staff arrive mid-morning, and buyers can find all sorts of things, including toothpaste and steaks, for sale.
Once police arrive, the unpermitted vendors roll up their goods and retreat — some finding other spots along Mission Street — and the plazas remain clear until police vacate again in the early evening. Then, as surely as the tides, the unpermitted vendors return.
“Often, it descends into chaos pretty quickly, and we just do not have the amount of staff that we need, or the money to staff the streets 24 hours a day,” said District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who spearheaded the ban and worked with the mayor’s office to enact it on Nov. 27 last year.
The city allowed permitted vendors to return to Mission Street on June 21, and some 30 merchants have set up their stalls along Mission from 22nd to 25th streets since then. One of the two markets once established for permitted vendors is gone; the other, at 24th and Capp streets, is barely surviving.
But enforcement remains an ongoing problem.
“We still have major enforcement problems on the streets every single time there are no police and [Public Works] workers physically there,” said Ronen. Conditions at the BART plazas and Mission Street have improved markedly, she said, but the balance is fickle.
Permitted vendors opposed the ban from the day it was announced, arguing that it would damage their incomes. Shortly after, more than 100 protested the move and formed the Mission Street Vendors Association.
A year later, their situation is mixed. The city implemented a three-phased pilot program that allowed some vendors to return to Mission Street over the summer. But the pilot has not worked as intended for all.
Enrique Areola, one of two merchants spotted between 24th and 25th streets on a recent afternoon, says the sales on that block do not compare to those he made when he had a permit to sell right next to the 24th Street BART station. Earnings, he said, have plummeted from $450 a day to $15, and he’s working seven days a week.
“They gave me a permit for this block, but this is not where I used to sell. I had a permit to sell right there,” said Areola, as he looked at dozens of people walking around the BART plaza. “It’s quiet here, and it’s not fair. They should have respected my previous location.”
But the return to Mission Street has worked better than the two city-managed sites established early after the ban. Slow sales closed El Tiangue on Mission Street near 17th Street four months after the city burned through $100,000 to rent it. The second, La Placita, at the corner of 24th and Capp streets, is open, but hosts no more than three vendors at any one time. It sees almost zero foot traffic.
“The vendors weren’t able to make the same amount of money as they make on the streets, so it was never a financially equal alternative,” said Ronen of the two city-sanctioned markets. At times, merchants claimed sales were as low as $30 to $40 a day, compared to the $200 to $300 they made on Mission Street.
Still, some things have changed. Police incident reports filed along Mission Street between Cesar Chavez and 16th streets have dropped 45 percent, compared to last year. It is unclear if the street-vending ban was behind that dip, as crimes have decreased citywide and nationally.
“Our No. 1 priority continues to be public safety,” said Diana Ponce De Leon, director of community economic development at the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, which has been working closely to support permitted vendors since the beginning of the ban.
Ponce De Leon counted increased street safety as a success, and Ronen pointed to better conditions at both BART plazas and along Mission.
The situation prior to the ban was untenable. A 2018 state bill, SB 946, had decriminalized street vending, prohibiting police from interacting directly with vendors without the presence of a Public Works employee.
Both BART plazas became chaotic, particularly after the pandemic. Vendors, as well as their buyers, blocked sidewalks and bus stops, making the corridor potentially unsafe for pedestrians and people with disabilities. The 24th Street plaza, Mission Local’s managing editor Joe Eskenazi wrote, had “become the Mission’s Tenderloin.”
Leadership at City Hall and Ronen responded to the worsening situation, arguing that unpermitted sales along the Mission corridors and BART plazas was out of control, and that street vendors competed with local businesses and blocked their entrances. Customers, officials said, felt unsafe, which reduced the foot traffic on the corridor.
The pilot allowing some vendors back onto Mission Street, Ponce De Leon said, is a compromise to permit vending in a “more structured, organized way.”
“If they’re there, we’re monitoring and pairing that up with enforcement as we can,” she said. Plus, the presence of permitted vendors acts “as an intervention for the street itself” against unpermitted vending.
Rodrigo Lopez, president of the Mission Street Vendor Association, said the ban served as an opportunity to organize vendors.
“It wasn’t all perfect, but we organized, and we have done everything the city has asked us to do,” said Lopez. “We would love to see a little more support from the police and the city.”
Ronen, for her part, says reform is needed at the state level. Legislation from state Sen. Scott Wiener, SB 925, would have allowed officers to directly interact and enforce regulations without the presence of a city employee. But that legislation died in the state assembly on Aug. 15.
Sen. Wiener has said, however, he will try to get the legislation passed next year.
As for what’s coming in the new year, when Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie takes the oath of office on Jan. 8 and the street vending ban ends on Feb. 27, Ponce De Leon said conversations will begin soon.
“We do think it has worked well,” she said, referring to the ban. “We do think it’s a good idea, and so we want to be able to communicate that.”
Not once does the article mention what percentage of the things sold on the street are stolen. ML supports thieves?
Thomas —
San Francisco has lots of departments and commissions but we don’t yet have a Commission for Made-Up Numbers. Absent that, I’m not sure who to turn to. As to your contention that we support thieves, that seems crassly stupid to me.
Yours,
JE
Dear Joe, Are you denying that the objects sold by these miscreants are stolen? Or do you accept the reality that the folks who are selling toothpaste, perfume, laundry detergent, etc. on the sidewalks of the Mission (and then running to the dealers around the corner to get their fix) are fencing stolen goods for drug money?
Morticia —
As clearly noted in the article, there is a clear delineation between licensed and legitimate vendors and those who skedaddle when the cops show up because they’re not. Please read the words on the screen. There is no reliable way of estimating what percentage of goods are stolen; it’s a silly ask.
Yours,
JE
Fair enough, but it seems pretty unlikely that someone who is selling merchandise like toothpaste or perfume on the street is getting it through wholesalers.
With all due respect, the law was passed to support people selling tamales, handicrafts, and cultural items – not toiletries boosted from Target by junkies! And if you walk down Mission Street (as I do on the daily!) you can easily make a mental count of how many people are selling the former versus the latter. And I am going to say that – at least in my experience – over 50% of those selling (at least closer to 16th Street, which is my BART Station) are the latter. I admit there may be some gray areas for those who are selling artifacts, tools, and other items that may be stolen – or maybe just came out of someone’s garage (er, hopefully the seller’s garage and not a burglary victim’s!) When I read the text of the actual law, it does not seem geared to vendors selling anything except handicrafts, food, and other cultural items, so really, even bicycles, tools, and other “garage sale” items shouldn’t be legal, let alone toiletries and groceries (like the Chinese ladies selling off the groceries the taxpayers were kind enough to provide them!) But in reality, the state law allowing street vendors (and somehow prohibiting them to be regulated by the police?) needs to be repealed. Then SF can create its own specialized craft and food vending area within the BART plazas, where very tightly controlled craft and food vending can occur. I seem to recall, in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the 24th Street BART Station had a lovely array of Latin American vendors who sold legitimate and culturally interesting foods and crafts. SF could issue them permits tied to a city-based ID # – since it’s likely that many are undocumented. But the folks fencing stolen goods for fentanyl need to get gone and stay gone!
H Brown, I am your neighbor, not a “bot”! (BTW, you got our third place vote for supervisor, hahaha!) But seriously, we need to crack down on the thieves markets in the Mission! It’s really destroyed our neighborhood. I’ve lived here since 1991. It’s never been this bad!
Joe,
I think we’re responding to bots here.
Or, are they Avatars now or whatever ?
Whatever, it gives me another chance to try and sell Aaron Peskin to Lurie as his Volunteer for a Year Chief of Staff.
lol
There aren’t many intersections in the World that could match 16th and Mission under Feinstein even with the Cop Box.
You could buy drugs or get your soul saved or some say, fake Passports and other ID and original art cheap and the best bargains on quality used clothes in the World and great buskers and Thursday nights at 10am there is still an unsanctioned Poetry Reading that is amazing and I saw a North Korean former slave read there. Keep it Live !!
h.
Thomas,
You’re an old fuddy duddy.
I’ve been shopping at the Flea Market (La Piguelita) next to the Armory and on the streets there for 30 years and my apartment is full of one of a kind original art and personally imported clothing from Mexico and Central and South America.
The Cabal of Thieves who rob our drugstores and bully the legitimate Vendors are there because the friggin’ cops won’t bring back the Cop Boxes.
Go Niners !!
h.
Hillary Ronen? wow she is not on travel duties any longer? she is still around? The Mission will remember her as a symbol of utter failure.
I agree with Marcos regarding the travelling zombies and their dealers.
Last Sunday while waiting at the red light,at the corner of Mission and 23rd, i noticed 3 guys up to no good.one stayed on guard outside Walgreens the other 2 went inside and got out with a lot of merchandises. A daily occurrence.
Regarding the bikers on the bike lane on Valencia, the following comment is from a junior police officer: “the higher ups in the department do not want to do anything because they are afraid of retaliation”..this is from a police officer.Got it? who raise his hand and swear to enforce the law, to serve and protect? who is the grown up in the room? those bikers are just kids and they are afraid of them? it is a joke, in other cities like Paris for example, cops DO go after those bikers..bikes are taken away, license (when they do have one) are taken away and arrest are made. you cannot blame Chelsea or space aliens anymore.
But coming this January 20th, since the local police department voted overwhelmingly (over 90% according to a cop) for the orange man, things are going to change for sure..law or order..not! LOL
The city cannot yet even control
the open drug sales and distribution we see everyday.
I dont think they can control
the selling of goods stolen from Walgreens.
Then there are the group of “ out of touch” persons who think all dealers and addicts are victims . And those that steal should get sympathy.
That attitude really is insane and harms all.
Go live in a socialist country if you want handouts . There they would have every dealer removed from the planet , the addicts are locked up if lucky or far worse, homeless working in a factories No free lunch . Those that steal would not have hands after arrested . That surely reduces the activity .
Laws are necessary and need enforced
Enabling crime is wrong and harmful,
If you dont like the laws then vote for change rather then complain
. Be a part of the solution not the problem.
Mature a little bit .
Th
Walgreens? You’re concerned about Walgreens?!?
Do you know Walgreens was ordered to pay the city of San Francisco over 200 million dollars for their role in the opioid crisis?
Why do people think that businesses like this are “legitimate” just because they have a physical location and are a well known brand?
“Then, as surely as the tides, the unpermitted vendors return.”
There is this thing called prison that’s designed to handle people who repeatedly violate the law. Perhaps we should try it?
cardinal,
Why do y’all let the cops off so easily ???
They used to control those intersections with Cop Boxes under Feinstein and I’m old enough to remember watching them from the curtained windows of those old Jitney buses that went down Mission at Muni fare but with Jesus or Mary on the dashboard and Spanish language music of the driver’s choice.
I’m an old Behavior teacher for SFUSD and Reform beats Revenge every time cause Revenge just makes more criminals and you and the new Mayor are Revenge guys which worries me.
Go Niners !!
h.
Did you read this article thoroughly Cardinal? It’s a state law that prohibits law enforcement from getting involved with sidewalk vendors. Unfortunately DPW workers can’t throw scofflaws into jail.
DPW wont interact with vendors unless there are police in tow. Ronen knew this was not enforceable when she came up with the plan– given current laws. I’m sure Fielder wont do much more. Never even saw her come to the neighborhood around 16th in mission in the run-up to the election.
Thank god for Weiner. Scott please save the Mission from itself, and get us the laws to enforce all these criminals.
Ronen is useless, Fielder will be just the same. They both wanted to defund the police. Residents are so sick of it all. Get the thieves and drug dealers away from the Bart Plaza’s and out of our neighborhoods.
No Capp,
She did a Merchant Walk that took her past Carlin’s Cafe downstairs from my little museum at 14th and Valencia which only looks better now cause me and my dog clean it up and you never made so many friends til people have passed you on their way to work for a year finally trust you enuff to stop and compliment and my dog’s getting the big head.
Fielder even came up to look over my virtual SF Political Museum and check out the dozen posters of her and Peskin covering all my windows
Go Niners !!
h. .
Illegal vendors are a severe threat to public health and safety. They authorities need to use every tool available to remove them from the streets. They can and should look up their big, fat books of penal and health and safety codes to find some loopholes to circumvent the state’s utterly insane edicts. Additionally, San Francisco should consider hiring an independent contractor tasked specifically with confiscating and impounding the illegal vendors equipment, food, and merchandise.
Circumstances around 16th BART and along Mission between 15th and 16th have deteriorated significantly since the siting of Mission Cabins at 1979 Mission, with itinerant fentanyl dealerships that attract Tenderloinesque opiate zombies like flies to shit taking the place of the vendors, sprouting up whenever the cops are gone.
It is like Breed, having lost the election, like Ronen, who’s long since checked out, is not even going through the motions anymore.
I can tell when fentanyl is being sold on Mission because that’s when junkies start passing out on the adjacent residential blocks after fixing. In addition to depositing feces, addicts will often nod out on the ground where others shit, blocking our garage. Who wants to spend time trying to coerce a nodded out junkie to move?
I was hoping that the City could provide adjacent residents with narcan in atomizer form so that we can broadcast spray the dead weight passed out junkies with opioid antagonists to get them to come down from their high and move on under their own power.
One would think that Bridge Housing would listen to the residents of their 1950 Mission building who have repeatedly expressed disgust for conditions on the sidewalks, some have asked to move, and leverage their access to make the sidewalk passable for pedestrians.
Whenever the City wants to duplicate Mission Cabins, we will be ahead of them warning neighbors in other districts that DHSH cannot be trusted.
Marc,
Like yourself, I’m a hoodie of 16th and Mission but being retired I go out with my dog every morning from around 8-10 am cleaning up the feces and broken glass and syringes and tons of aluminum foil and you know the drill.
I got Peskin interested in the idea of building 4 permanent City RV Campgrounds (2 on Treasure Island and one on each City Golf Course – Let the Rich Play 9 holes and see how they like that ! lol) …
Maybe Lurie will pick up on it.
I’m a rare 80 year old optimist and I think AI will solve the problems of homelessness and Poverty over the next decade or so and the City will have 4,000 places for an American Work Force Retired on UBI to visit in addition to the Ohlone Casinos in the Armory and old Twitter Building.
Let me give a shout-out here too if Joe will let me to the guy who has my vote for ‘Best SF Cop’ on duty now.
His name is Ferrera and he’s a Patrolman who has declined to take the Sergeant’s Exam despite being best Foot and Bicycle Patrol Beat cop in town.
I was picking up trash today when I was shocked to see a cop on a bicycle coming down Valencia Bike Lane’s unpainted inside land coming east approaching 14th street and I stopped him to congratulate him for being the 4th cop I’d seen not in a car in the 10 years I’ve lived on the corner and it turns out he’d grown a beard and so I didn’t recognize him and he’d been the other cop 3 of the last 4 times from Noe Valley to the old Levis Building.
Go Niners !!
h.
All this is no surprise. I find it absurd that a person without a social security number,a sales tax permit from the State Board of Equalization in this country illegally can get a permit to break the law.I wonder how much of the money the person who claimed they made $450 a day paid in taxes either sales or income? I wonder how much of that money was sent abroad?
The city still does nothing to stop the drug dealers from selling lethal drugs to addicts Polk at Geary , Cedar at Polk , Alice b Toklas place at Polk, Myrtle at Polk and Ellis at Polk are daily open drug markets ; yet they are going after persons selling itemson the street? If the seller can show a receipt for the items , then let them get a business license , pay taxes and allow selling in certain areas.
Obviously not on every corner where they block public access . If they cannot provide receipts for new items, show a license and pay the taxes , then take the items and arrest the sellers . Some items may be stolen . They must show paperwork .
Im more concerned that the city is closing this down rather then using resources to go after the illegal drug dealers and addicts .
The new California prop that passed will help crackdown on the thieves and illegal
drug scene. I’m tired of paying taxes to support illegal drug activity and oaying more at the store because until now , idiots robbed stores . We pay for these thugs ,
Remove those that are from society They have lost the priviledge to live in public.
Clean this mess up.
If the penalties were severe enough and enforced, you can be bet this activity will stop.
Why are there few addicts and dealers in Singapore ? Why in other countries and other cities in America is this controlled . Because the laws are followed and enforced .
The babysitting and progressive nuts have harmed everyone , The problems are the result of their inability to get real. Please get real.
Start helping and quit harming others
You do understand the link between illegal vending and drugs, right? I’ll break it down if you need a refresher: Drug addicts shoplift items from stores, or break into homes, cars, and businesses – and then set up shop on the sidewalks of working class/immigrant neighborhoods like ours. Then they use the money to buy drugs the dealers who swarm around like sharks. Any questions??
To any average citizen of the Mission, the government’s priorities should look something like:
1. The people who live in the Mission and pay their share
2. The businesses who operate in the mission and pay their share
3. The informal vendors, but not criminal, who do not pay their share
4. The criminal element, who do not pay their share
But in Hillary’s view (and Bernal Heights politics), the priorities are:
1. The businesses that operate in the Mission — sales are disrupted by the vending and neighborhood deterioration
2. The informal vendors — priority is given to ensuring their livelihood
3. The criminal element — criminalization of any kind is being avoided at all costs
4. The people who live in the Mission
And with all of this in mind, Hillary is blaming lack of resources to make her plan work. What she should be asking is why did she think this solution was ever going to work?
Are mission businesses paying higher taxes for the top priority and to protect their zones of operation? No
Are the informal vendors able to contribute enough to cover the costs for supporting their livelihood? No, which is why these city-subsidized markets are closing.
Is the criminal element contributing or being reduced in any way? No
Has life improved in the Missoon for residents? Not if you live/work near BART
The reality is if the focus had simply been on the criminal element (#4), then the following happens, from the bottom up:
– The informal vendors are less disrupted and able to continue to make a living
– the legitimate businesses see no competition from stolen goods, business maintains or improves, coexisting with informal vending
– the residents are happier with their neighborhood, shop at local businesses/vendors, and are happy with their supervisor
I want to thank the administration of Mayor London for working all this year with the Mission Street vendors so that we could go out and sell in a more orderly way, not everything was perfect on the part of other entities, (the laws are complex ) but the mayor pushed for a pilot plan to be developed where vendors could return with permission to the Mission (between 25th Street and 22th St.) vendors had to learn to make our sales in an orderly and responsible.
Is there more work needed to be done? Yes, more work and time is required to be able to organize the Mission, let us understand that this work cannot be done overnight,
On the other hand, let’s focus our words on changing some laws so that change can be made (some laws tie our hands, I experienced this firsthand).
To Supervisor-Elect Jackie Fielder and Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie,
I live here and clean the streets with my dog 7 days a week and this ban was a horrible idea from the beginning.
What it reflects is poor work by the SFPD that had Police Kobans at the BART stops under Feinstein but the SFPOA got Willie to remove them as part of their deal to endorse him.
Removing the Vendors from 16th and Mission has taken away the Vibrancy of the intersection.
It’s now only peopled by drunks and addicts and preachers and it’s hard to tell the difference but they all have negative vibes to me and the Licensed Vendors were cheerful and had colorful setups and Regular Customers like me.
Bring back the Kiosks/Kobans/Cop Boxes !!!
Go Niners !!!
h.