Bid to clear sidewalks of bicycle ‘chop shops’
In the space beneath San Francisco’s infamous “Hairball,” the thick knot of highway arteries looping above Cesar Chavez Street, Potrero Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard, lie the trappings of a bicycle graveyard.
Scattered amid the belongings and debris of a homeless tent camp are small mountains of bikes, frames, wheels, handlebars and tires in various states of repair. The camp’s residents are unabashed when asked why there are so many bikes and bike parts there.
“I have maybe six or eight (bikes) right now. I fix them up and I can sell them for $35 or $40,” said a man working on a 10-speed who gave his name as Solomon. Just feet away, more than a dozen bike frames were piled up on one side of the narrow pedestrian underpass that cuts through the Hairball, forcing cyclists to swerve around it as they came through.
For Solomon and others like him across San Francisco, stockpiling bikes on sidewalks and other public right-of-ways may soon become harder. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors is expected to pass an ordi-
nance that would prohibit anyone from operating a so-called bicycle chop shop on city streets.
The ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, seeks to keep chop shops from mushrooming by authorizing the Public Works Department to confiscate the parts if specific criteria are met. The bill would prohibit anyone from storing or selling five or more complete bikes, a single bike frame with its gear or brake cables cut, three or more bikes with missing parts — like handlebars, seats, chains and pedals — or five or more individual bicycle parts.
Anyone deemed to be operating a bicycle chop shop would be subject to a notice of violation, but the ordinance does not carry any citation fee or fine. And, after 30 days, anyone seeking to reclaim confiscated bikes or parts may do so, provided the person can prove ownership.
“The goal of the bill is to clear public right-of-ways,” Sheehy said. In addition to clotting sidewalks, he said, “Individuals who have multiple bikes and bike parts ... are running an illegal business. Any other business in town has to register with the city, has to observe certain rules and regulations and pay taxes. These chop shops are businesses operating on our public right-of-ways without having gone through any of those processes — that’s the problem.”
Last year, San Francisco’s 311 call center logged 777 service requests to clear bicycle chop shops. Most were tied to complaints about homeless encampments, and about 60 percent of the calls came from the Mission District.
“They just pull out all their stuff, and the sidewalk becomes impassable, just piles of stuff you can’t get around,” said Mike Babbit, who said he has filed numerous 311 complaints about chop shops near his home at 17th and Market streets. “People shouldn’t have to feel like they can’t walk down the street.”
The original version of Sheehy’s bill put the Police Department in charge of the seizures, but Sheehy reconsidered that because of swift backlash from homeless advocacy groups and other city lawmakers. Putting the power to enforce the new ordinance in the hands of the police, critics said, would unfairly stigmatize anyone living on the streets in possession of bikes or bike parts that they may well have come by legitimately.
“There was concern in the community that we were criminalizing homeless individuals, and that was never our intent,” Sheehy said. “What we were really focused on was clearing our public right-of-ways, and we realized that the Public Works Department was the appropriate agency to enforce this.” The bill was amended and passed unanimously by the supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee after Aaron Peskin changed his vote, calling the revised measure “a kinder and gentler revision to the original legislation.”
Putting Public Works in charge also helped swing the support of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, which had originally opposed the measure.
Brian Wiedenmeier, the coalition’s executive director, said he’s cautiously optimistic the ordinance will help curb bicycle theft and reduce the incentive for people to buy steeply discounted bikes from chop shops. Police report that 889 bikes were reported stolen in San Francisco last year.
“At this point, we’re willing to try almost anything that respects the humanity of folks and doesn’t further criminalize homelessness,” he said. But Wiedenmeier said his organization is chiefly concerned with clearing dangerously cluttered pathways that can be hazardous to cyclists. The bicycle coalition has been working with city lawmakers on permanent solutions to clear the cramped bike lanes and pedestrian walkways beneath the Hairball, which Wiedenmeier likened to a perilous obstacle course.
“I worry about what a serious crash would do there every day,” he said. “It’s not a safe set of circumstances for anybody involved.”
San Francisco’s Coalition on Homelessness, however, remains staunchly opposed to the ordinance, insisting that it relies on the prejudicial premise that any homeless person in possession of bikes or bike parts must have stolen them.
“We see a recipe for the further criminalization of folks living outside,” said Dayton Andrews, an organizer with the coalition. The chop-shop bill, Andrews said, fails to capture the nuances of San Francisco’s underground bicycle economy, one that provides a critical source of income and transportation for those living on the streets.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it and say there are no illegal operations happening on the street,” Andrews said. “But there are all types of different, informal transactions happening. People are recycling, they’re working on their friends’ bikes, they’re watching each other’s property. People on the street don’t have storage.”
Bernie Sollano said he usually has close to 10 bike frames and four or five working bikes stored around his tent under the Hairball. Since he started living on the street in May 2016, Sollano said, he has been trading the bikes he fixes up “like baseball cards,” exchanging them for food and other goods. He insists that he gets his parts through barter or out of the trash.
“I stay away from high-end bikes, because those usually are stolen,” he said. “I give these bikes away. I shouldn’t need to get a (business) license to do that.”
Should the ordinance pass, Sollano said, he’d be running the risk of losing his livelihood.
“I’m a bike guy, and right now, I’d be a target,” he said.