Bar draws scrutiny over nails in parklet

A Mission District bar is at the center of a controversy over exposed nails in its parklet in what one critic is calling an affront to homeless people. The bar says it was vandalized.

When UC Berkeley Professor Colette Auerswald passed the Valencia Room last Sunday, she was shocked to see nails on the seats of the bar’s outdoor dining parklet in what she said was an obvious attempt to dissuade people from sleeping or resting in it, she said.

“It wasn’t subtle,” Auerswald said of the nails jutting up from the seats. “It was not only hostile but dangerous.”

But the bar’s owners denied that the nails were there to deter homeless people. They say the parklet was vandalized, leaving the sharp nails exposed.

Security footage shows “someone dismantling the seating area using a power tool,” Valencia Room manager Peter Tam told The Chronicle on Tuesday. “What was left over

was exposed nails and makeshift-looking wood.”

The bar filed a police report and submitted the security footage for police review, Tam said.

It’s the latest flareup over curbside dining pods that have become both a diningindustry savior and a lightning rod for criticism. San Francisco’s 1,300 parklets have been a boon to businesses, but a concern for accessibility advocates who say they put valuable public space into commercial hands.

The parklets are part of the Shared Spaces program, a citywide initiative to open up parking spaces, sidewalks and streets to business during the pandemic. Businesses are responsible for keeping their parklets clean, accessible and safe, according to Shared Spaces permitting guidelines.

Auerswald, a physician and homelessness expert, is not convinced that the nails were innocuous. She pointed to the Valencia Room parklet as an example of what she called “hostile architecture” meant to deter the presence of people seeking shelter.

Such architecture abounds in San Francisco, Auerswald said, adding that spikes and other devices commonly used to prevent loitering are dangerous as well as unethical.

Tam said the incident has been taken out of context. The bar shuttered three weeks ago in compliance with the latest regulations to curb the spread of coronavirus, he said, leaving the parklet exposed to vandals.

“We sent someone there immediately to resolve it,” Tam said. “We are just trying to play by the rules like everyone else.”

Colette Auerswald Exposed nails were placed in the parklet outside the Valencia Room. The bar’s manager says the parklet was vandalized, and he has filed a police report.