Mission street-vendors prepare for new permit law - Mission Local
At 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Luis López stands under the multicolored umbrella and lures bus commuters with fresh pieces of sliced pineapple or elotes. By day’s end, López, a street vendor, pockets hundreds of dollars that he’ll send to his three kids and “beautiful wife” back in Mexico.
López winks, “It’s my job to give them a quick dessert on the way to work. My job is to satisfy their cravings.”
A new city law prompted by overcrowded sidewalks, trash, and illegal vending will require street vendors like López to have a permit. As of June 16, vendors without a valid permit, will be asked to leave and will be subject to a fine starting at $100. The latter can be withdrawn with retroactive compliance.
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who authored the legislation, mandated at least eight weeks of permit education so vendors have time to secure their permits. “We didn’t want to create a situation where we had city workers and law enforcement confiscating and disrupting [them] without giving them fair warning,” said Santiago Lerma, Ronen’s legislative aide. “A lot of the vendors are legitimate and just trying to survive, so we wanted to make sure these folks were protected.”
Community organizations like Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, HOMEY SF are transitioning vendors, but how many will obtain the permit before the deadline remains unclear.
López will be one; his fruit cart is his primary source of income. The permitting process is “a great idea,” López said, and Calle 24 is assisting his registration. To get a permit, a vendor must apply to the city and dictate a proof of identity and contact, a description of what and where they intend to sell, and vender certification.
Dozens of street-vendors who have long been an important fabric of the Mission District community, said Susana Rojas, executive director of Calle 24. Vendors surged in the pandemic, Rojas said, as essential and low-income workers lost their jobs and resorted to selling whatever they could.
It’s unclear how many street vendors operate in the Mission and of those how many have a permit. City data from the portal Data SF lists approximately 50 push carts like hot-dog carts throughout San Francisco that have at one time registered for a permit. Three carts in the Mission have requested permits, and two have expired. The city collects permits for displayed merchandise – the kind of vendors that congregate at the 24th and 16th BART Plazas and also up and down Mission Street, but no dataset is publicly available on the city’s portal.
Vendors appear to be resigned. “I have to get it to keep making money,” said one long-time vendor who declined to be named. He has sold scarves and bracelets with his wife for over 25 years, and for a seasoned vendor like himself, he’s already familiar with navigating the city bureaucracy to be permitted, so acquiring this new one will be easy.
One man on Mission Street, who requested anonymity because of his immigration status, had a hodgepodge of items splayed out in front of his minivan: Peet’s Coffee grounds, women’s lingerie, Old Spice shampoo, a singular knock-off designer wallet and a pair of sneakers. He doesn’t know if getting permitted is worth the energy as he only earns $75 or so a day.
He started selling in 2021 after he lost his job as a grocery truck driver in the pandemic, and the money supports his family in the Mission.
“It’s better than nothing,” he said in Spanish. This vendor said he’s currently looking for a job that’s not street-vending, and he’s banking the economy will bounce back by the start of next year. “Last year was a disaster. I couldn’t get unemployment, either. Now the economy is better, but I hope it improves way more.”
Next to him, a man selling a myriad of drill bits and power tools said he’s on the fence, but leaning toward getting a permit.
The new law addresses other street-vendor concerns like the chaos on 24th Street BART Plaza, one main reason this law was initially created by Ronen.
“It’s good to have the city how it was before, with order,” the man who sells bracelets said in Spanish. “We depend a lot on tourists, and [the plaza] needs order. If I was a tourist and saw [the plaza] now, I’d leave.”
Fencing, also known as the sale of illegal goods, occurs there, too.
“They come with big backpacks, about every half hour,” said Jorge Armando, a guitarist who regularly visits Lopez at the plaza.
As we watched as a tight-knit ring of potential customers crowded a man pulling out an item from a backpack, quickly dispersed when a pair of cops walked by, then regrouped.
Other vendors openly brag about stolen goods, and drug sales also happen. “It’s mostly weed,” Armando said, “but I’m sure if you asked, you can get something more cosmic.”
Ronen’s office said police officers will crack down on illegal sales and may help city workers check permits. Police officers may cause apprehension among vendors, so Rojas said Calle 24 may give permitted vendors identification such as badges or clothes to immediately communicate to officers their legality. This could limit interactions between vendors and police.
“We are hoping that through the program and education the police will not have to be involved in a way that is detrimental,” Rojas said, “but in a way that is there to ensure that everyone is safe.”
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REPORTER. Annika Hom is our inequality reporter through our partnership with Report for America. Annika was born and raised in the Bay Area. She previously interned at SF Weekly and the Boston Globe where she focused on local news and immigration. She is a proud Chinese and Filipina American. She has a twin brother that (contrary to soap opera tropes) is not evil.
Follow her on Twitter at @AnnikaHom.
source: https://missionlocal.org/2022/04/483796/
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