Permitted street vendors continue their fight for a permanent return to Mission Street.
Last November, Supervisor Hillary Ronen announced a ban on all street vending along Mission Street in response to illegal vending and unsafe conditions in the area. The ban aimed to curb illegal vending and address safety concerns but effectively shut down a vital economic lifeline for hundreds of licensed street vendors, most of whom are Latinx families and immigrants.
“The city said ‘no vending,’ and we never break the law,” said Rodrigo Lopez, president of the Mission Street Vendors Association. “As street vendors, our clients are on the streets, not inside buildings.”
Since then, attempts to create alternate, sanctioned vending sites have not proved financially viable for the licensed vendors. “Everybody tried to put as much as they can to make [El Tiangue and La Placita] work, but it doesn’t work,” said Lopez.
In response, street vendors worked with the city to launch a pilot program, allowing a rotating group of 10-11 vendors to sell along Mission Street between 23rd and 24th streets. Vendors say the trial program is the only one that’s proven successful.
“Everything works. It’s not perfect, but 90% of it is working,” said Lopez. “If we have to continue working with the city and the community to fix the 10%, we can fix it. We can do it … But that’s our hope — to be permanent and to not worry every three months or every six months.”
The pilot program coincided with the introduction of Senate Bill 925, drafted by State Sen. Scott Wiener and sponsored by Mayor London Breed. The bill sought to specifically target vendors selling stolen goods but was shelved in the state legislature on August 15, effectively killing it.
“There was a lot of hope on that bill for us,” said Lopez, adding that the group put “a lot of hours” into working with the city, State Senator Scott Wiener, and community nonprofit groups to draft the bill. “The police would have kept full control of the street and everyone is going to be more safe.”
Right after the bill was killed, San Francisco extended its moratorium on street vending on Mission Street for another six months until February 2025.
With the pilot program’s future uncertain, much depends on the outcome of the upcoming election. “We don’t know who’s going to be the next mayor,” said Lopez, adding that mayoral candidate Mark Farrell wants to “sweep the city of street vendors.”
As street vendors brace for more uncertainty, here’s how candidates in the District 9 supervisor’s election answered the question: How will you support Mission street vendors?
Julian Bermudez
I grew up in the small business culture here in the Mission at Rancho Grande Appliances, so I’m pretty knowledgeable about how business is run here in San Francisco. I was always an avid supporter, even at the start of the Vendors Association. I was always there, giving them support. When California passed the vending laws, I felt like they were too broad and didn’t even give a specific meaning of what it means to be a street vendor. I believe that as a city and county, we need to set up specific rules for what is considered street vending in San Francisco and provide the supplies, opportunities, and services that these street vendors need to actually be street vendors. Like how they are now—they have their vests, they’re clearly marked. Something like that would bring more vibrancy to the neighborhood that some of the neighbors want. And the old guard here would have the traditional street vending that we’re looking for.
h. brown
I spent a couple of years working on the armory. They had some leftover fencing that was there to protect the scaffolding they used when they redid the roof. Fabulous job they did there. But I finally got the planning department to validate the complaint I made against them a couple of months ago. They told them Mr. Brown’s complaint is verified. So you’re going to pay $2,000 for the inspection and $1,000 a day and move the fencing. We cleared 1,000 linear feet, which will take 100 vendors easily with a 20-foot sidewalk. You empower the vendors by giving them space. All power to the vendors. I love them. My whole house looks like a vendor’s stall.
Trevor Chandler
The folks who have been vending the longest throughout District 9, especially here in the Mission, are the ones calling for safe streets the loudest. These are the people who have been here for decades and are saying they can’t make any more sales because of the state of our streets. One thing we can do is make sure we have a compassionate and accountable vending system where these longtime vendors who have been here for decades can continue to vend and be part of the marketplace. Second, I have a plan on my website at Trevor4SF.com that will show how we can make our BART plazas into permanent vending spaces that allow for continual turnover so folks can get a taste of what it is like to actually have a storefront, in case that’s something they want. So, safety, vending enforcement, and making sure that the folks who are selling non-stolen goods get priority and protection are key. That’s what we can do the most: make sure that they feel safe.
Jackie Fielder
Vending is the backbone of Latin American culture in the Mission District. I’ve talked to vendors throughout the past… more than a year. I’ve talked to vendors at La Placita and El Tiangue multiple times and had long conversations about what can be done. I’m fully committed to making sure that on day one, our vendors can come back to Mission Street in an organized fashion. I think that’s possible. We just have to get all of the different stakeholders onto one plan: small business owners, the police, Public Works employees who are responsible for navigating the plaza centers and Mission Street. I think it’s possible. What I am concerned about is the further criminalization of vendors, especially those who might not have papers, as we might see a Trump presidency. In the past, I’ve worked on a campaign called “No Tech for I.C.E.,” so I’m committed to ensuring that our city remains a sanctuary city and to decriminalizing enforcement on our cultural vendors.
Jaime Gutierrez
D9 street vendors are very important. For a lot of people, a lot of families, that’s how they make their money. So they’re very much a part of this community, and they’ve been here a long, long time. I want to support them, and I have been supporting them the entire time by showing up for them and helping them out when they were in Tiangue over there on Mission Street. I would bring them donuts, and I got to know a lot of people involved there, particularly a guy named Rodrigo, who is their organizer. I was introduced to a lot of people there—some whom I’ve met and some I’ve known for years, who have been on the street there for years. I was very much engaged with their process, and I want to continue. They have a place at the table, and they should never lose that place.
Roberto Hernandez
I’ve always supported street vendors. Thirty years ago or more, there was a crackdown on señoras who were selling tamales, and men who were selling churros. I organized at that time. The outcome of that was the development of La Cocina, which is a nonprofit organization here in our community that has been doing amazing work. The second time was when BART cracked down on our vendors, probably about 15 years ago, and we created MISFA, which was all the vendors in a self-regulating and creative partnership with BART. Currently, we need to take the existing vendor association that’s been created and develop both short-term and long-term plans for their safety and development in our community.
Stephen Torres
Although I understand the reason for this ban and what brought it to this point, I do not feel that this is the approach that makes the most sense. Several of our vendors have already lost their homes because of their lack of livelihood. This is part of our culture—not just the Latine/Latinx community, but so much of the culture of San Francisco. We need to sustain that culture and find ways of programmatically implementing oversight and safety for the vendors, but also for the general public, commuters, and brick-and-mortar merchants.