Mission District crackdown on vending noticeable
For months, San Francisco Public Works inspectors Alejandro del Calvo and Jondelle Bretz have been roaming the Mission, trying to enforce the city’s new illegal vending law.
For more than a year, the neighborhood has been one of the city’s hot spots for people hawking stolen goods, with the two BART stations crowded with vendors, frustrating residents and nearby business owners who’ve called the situation chaotic and dangerous. Officials temporarily closed the 24th Street BART plaza last summer, saying the vending had created lawlessness.
Bretz and del Calvo say there are now fewer vendors since they started enforcement, and sidewalks and bus stops are more accessible during the day, but it’s still a game of cat and mouse. And after dark, the streets fill back up. Still, they see a notable difference.
“There have been massive gains,” del Calvo said. “There’s a lot to still handle, and from DPW, we’re doing the best we can as DPW inspectors.”
While Bretz and del Calvo are accompanied by a police officer, they said they get threatened regularly.
“They say they’re going to kill me,” Bretz said.
On Saturday morning, as del Calvo and Bretz crossed 24th Street, unpermitted vendors began packing up quickly as soon as they saw the men in neon yellow vests. The team made their way Saturday morning up and down eight blocks of Mission Street between 16th and 24th, an area rife with unlicensed street vendors were hawking shoes, clothes, bathing products, tools and other goods.
“They know the drill,” del Calvo said as he watched the vendors scoop belongings into suitcases. “They already know us — we see them packing up as soon as we’re here.”
A year ago, the supervisors — with Mayor London Breed’s backing — passed a law to regulate illegal vending to address the crisis in the Mission and at U.N. Plaza, but it’s still an open question whether the enforcement is working. The hand-wringing over illegal vending comes as City Hall is in the midst of an intense debate about public safety and street conditions.
Supervisors are expected to vote this week on Breed’s push to spend another $25 million to fund police overtime.
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the Mission, has been vocal about the illegal vending and broader crime, drug use and homelessness in the neighborhood, reiterating this week that the neighborhood is in chaos and is being neglected by City Hall.
Ronen said at a hearing Wednesday that she felt “betrayed” by the SFPD’s decision to use overtime dollars to fund its officers downtown instead of putting more cops in the Mission.
“I’ve been begging this department to give the Mission what it deserves in terms of police presence,” she said.
“I have been told time and time and time again, ‘There are no officers we can send to the Mission,’” she said passionately. “It hurts.”
Ronen did successfully lobby for new ambassadors to help calm the neighborhood’s streets.
And Public Works inspectors have now spent months warning vendors about the new legislation, which they started enforcing in September.
The ordinance required street vendors to obtain a permit from the city and provide proof of purchase for goods they were selling. According to the most recent data from Public Works, 122 street vendors have received permits — the vast majority of them, 112, authorized for the Mission.
Now, Public Works inspectors such as del Calvo and Bretz spend their days ensuring vendors have permits or telling them to pack up and move on. It can be a challenging task. They’re aware that many vendors are trying to support their families, but they want to help restore order to an area that many local residents have grown increasingly frustrated with and no longer feel safe navigating.
“We’re trying to be as nice as we can be, and get as much compliance as we can,” del Calvo said.
On Saturday, Ronen spokesperson Santiago Lerma described the situation now as “a tale of day and night.”
“During the day, when inspectors are out and backed up by SFPD, conditions on the street are vastly improved,” he said. “In the evening, after the inspectors go home, it’s a completely different story.”
Since September, Public Works inspectors have issued 23 violation notices along Mission Street between 16th and 24th streets, spokesperson Rachel Gordon said, with 20 additional instances in which goods were removed as “abandoned” with no vendor present. Inspectors have also issued two violation notices for vendors at Mission Street and Ocean Avenue, and one for a vendor at Fourth and Market streets.
At U.N. Plaza, where street vending is not allowed, vendors have not been issued any violation notices, she said, because sellers “did not stick around to have the notices handed to them,” Gordon said.
“However, goods displayed for sale have been removed as ‘abandoned’ 15 times,” she said.
When del Calvo began doing street enforcement, “24th and Mission looked like a Moroccan bazaar,” he said.
They began by issuing notices of correction — which don’t include fines — to unpermitted vendors. If that didn’t work, they escalated to violation notices, which can carry fines of $250, with escalating penalties. When inspectors see unpermitted vendors, they pass out information about how to obtain city permits and tell them to pack up their stuff and move along.
On Saturday, some passers-by stopped to greet the inspectors, including David Bjorklund, 73, who was visiting the neighborhood for his weekly trip to Rainbow Grocery.
“The Mission needs a major redo,” he said. “From the Embarcadero to the end of the line … it’s a mess.”
Bjorklund said his wife was still at home because he didn’t want her to come with him.
“Too many undesirable characters hanging out,” he said.
Del Calvo said it’s tough at times to get vendors on board. The inspectors might spend an hour or more on each block, talking to vendors and making sure they comply with the new ordinance. They know that as soon as they leave, new vendors might set up shop. But they say they’ve seen slow, steady improvement. At first, many vendors were angry at them. As months passed, however, they’ve gotten more on board, and now, have relationships with many of the vendors.
“They were reluctant at first (to get permits) because it had gone unabated for so long,” Bretz said. “But once they get them, they were proud — they feel legitimate.”
“We’ve grown a pretty thick skin over the past nine months,” del Calvo said.
The inspectors wandered over to chat with Audomaro Necada-Pacheco, who was selling merchandise on the southwest corner of the intersection of 24th and Mission. He hadn’t gotten his permit, yet, they said.
They chatted briefly, and he began collecting his things.
On the block between 15th and 16th, Bretz wandered over to Felicia Massey, who was selling shoes, jeans and a couple of sculptural candlesticks.
“You’re not going to like me,” Bretz said, “but I’m going to have to ask you to pack it up.”
“Not a problem,” she replied. “I’m just waiting for my sister to come with the car.
She sells stuff on the weekend — it “helps pay the bills,” she said, adding that she hadn’t been aware of the permitting program.
She’d have her sister look into what they’d need to do to get a permit, but “it feels like they’re coming and evicting me without any kind of warning.”
Community advocates remain concerned about the state of the neighborhood.
Ryen Motzek, president of the Mission Merchants Association, said having inspectors at 24th Street has helped. But he said he believes the neighborhood needs more resources and attention and a more robust safety presence.
“It’s no sustainable solution,” he said. “They’re just slapping Band-Aids everywhere.”
After hours, he said, the BART plazas border on “mania.”
Like Ronen, he said he felt like the city was neglecting the Mission in favor of policing downtown to prevent retail theft — ignoring rampant commercial burglaries, robberies and more serious crime in the neighborhood.
“San Francisco has a lot of affluent neighborhoods,” he said. “These crimes aren’t happening there. … The silent majority does not want the Mission to look or feel the way it does.”
SFPD Chief Bill Scott has said the department is grappling with a staffing shortage, which has forced it to use overtime to backfill unfilled positions. He also said that theft is one of the biggest problems for the city.
“The prevailing issue is there are not enough San Francisco police officers to go around to do what we need to do,” Scott told supervisors.
On the block between 15th and 16th, Bretz and del Calvo stopped to chat with Eduardo Garcia, who had a slew of tools and other goods carefully lined up on a tarp. Did he have his permit? He did, he said, pulling out the plastic-covered document.
“Perfect,” Bretz said, with relief.