My head scratching chat with the city re: Mission sidewalk permits
On April 23, 2023, I noticed two employees from the Dept of Public Works and an SFPD officer trying to manage our mushrooming sidewalk vendor crisis at the 24th St. BART entrance.
I decided to follow along.
They main thing they seemed to be policing was location - the vendors couldn’t block the sidewalk. This man, sporting a “your tax dollars at work” Calle 24 banner, protested briefly, then pushed back his wares a few feet:
I examined the man’s table for a permit, but saw none. Weren’t these folks supposed to have them now? I asked the DPW worker.
“But they do have permits.”
“Really? I looked everywhere but couldn’t find any.”
“Oh. Well. They don’t actually have permits you can see.”
“Then how do you know who’s permitted?”
“Well, me, I just know.”
The DPW worker handed me a brochure explaining how the permits worked.
“So, these folks are permitted?” I asked.
“Yep. And you see that pink umbrella across the street? They’re permitted too.”
I decided I’d have to take the DPW’s word for it.
Then the he explained the fatal flaw in the system - a lack of real enforcement.
“You see that?” he said, pointing to the catty corner BART entrance where a couple of guys were furiously setting up a table of goods to sell. “When we cross over here, they set up over there, over and over.”
I thanked him for his time, and wandered across the street where I was shocked to find the pink umbrella vendor reselling the same stolen Walgreens stuff we’d been seeing for years here.
This was all very confusing. Why weren’t the permits visible, so customers would know who was legal? Why were there no consequences for those repeatedly flouting the law? And how on earth did Mr. Pink Umbrella get a permit?
Unfortunately, that’s the end of my story. I have no answers, only questions. But I suspect our city managed to pervert what was originally, maybe, good idea into an ineffectual hairball, as only they can.