San Francisco Board of Supervisors approve legislation requiring street vendors have permits

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved legislation to require permits for all goods sold on its streets. The measure is to curb the sale of stolen items by street vendors. 

Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Ahsha Safai co-sponsored the legislation introduced by Mayor London Breed. 

Ronen posted the news to Twitter with some additional commentary. "The streets of the Mission are in chaos. The sidewalks are impassable, there is trash everywhere," Ronen wrote. She said that often times the vendors sell stolen goods. 

Human Rights Commission, Office of Economic and Workforce Development and Department of Public Works will determine the time and parameters of the permit guidelines.

Failure to comply will result in administrative fines and possible confiscation of goods, Mayor Breed's office said in a press release. 

Vendors selling prepared foods and street artists will not be affected by the legislation, according to the mayor's office. 

"Illegal street vending has posed a significant challenge to our city and our small businesses for quite some time now, and it has only gotten worse since the beginning of the pandemic," said Mayor Breed.

The legislation makes the city's U.N. Plaza a vendor-free zone with the exceptions of Wednesday and Sunday during the Heart of the City Farmer's Market. 

The mayor's office said the conditions of U.N. Plaza have greatly deteriorated over the last two years, but claim the presence of nonprofit Urban Alchemy's community ambassadors and the new Linkage Center have started to improve the situation.