Ban on vending is leading to cleaner streets, city says

Street cleaning requests in the Mission District dropped 21% in the three months after a ban on illegal sidewalk vending versus 6% citywide, prompting city officials to argue the ban led to cleaner streets — as well as less chaos and safer neighborhood conditions.

Street cleaning requests through the city’s 311 system for just the area where the ban was in place were down 23% during the three months after it compared with the three months prior, Department of Public Works spokesperson Rachel Gordon told the Chronicle. That area was a one-block radius on both sides of Mission Street between 14th and Cesar Chavez streets. It remains unclear if the street vending ban is directly related to the drop in cleaning requests. There could be another explanation for the drop, or the vending ban could be one factor among many that’s leading to cleaner streets across the neighborhood.

Gordon said the department thinks the decline in requests for cleaning in the Mission is tied to the ban because street vending activity tends to leave a huge mess behind.

When asked why the entire Mission neighborhood saw a drop in street cleaning requests, not just the area of the ban, Gordon said that DPW has successfully filled more vacant positions recently and has increased staffing on teams focused on clearing street debris along Mission Street. The ban, she argued, made it easier for the fully staffed team to operate. Gordon couldn’t immediately provide DPW’s current job vacancy rate, but said it’s lower than the 30% rate in 2022 and focused on keeping street cleaning teams fully staffed. In all, there were 2,671 requests for sidewalk cleaning before city officials imposed the ban in late November to combat the sale of illegal goods. That dropped to 2,061 after it. The number of cleaning requests across the city went down from over 33,000 before the moratorium to a little over 31,000 after it.

The 90-day ban was recently extended another six months. Supporters of the ban say it’s a vital tool for the city after a state law decriminalized street vending in 2018 and the neighborhood became an epicenter of sidewalk sales of stolen goods.The ban is also partly in response to San Francisco Public Works inspectors facing repeated threats and enduring physical violence while trying to curb illegal vending in the area.

But critics of the ban have argued it has made life more difficult for vulnerable families trying to make ends meet by selling goods on the street.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen worked closely with Mayor London Breed to set up the ban, which included creating legal vending areas along the corridor.

The mayor’s office last month touted a survey of 192 brick-and-mortar merchants along Mission Street that found 76% said they want the ban to continue. The mayor’s office said that 56% of respondents said Mission Street is safer though it couldn’t immediately provide the survey methodology. Ronen agreed that the ban has led to cleaner streets. “Neighbors, transit riders, and small businesses deserve a clean, safe and accessible Mission Street,” Ronen said. “We will continue working with SF Public Works to keep our streets in good condition while we address the illegal activities that deteriorated the health and safety of the corridor in the first place.”