San Francisco to crack down on illegal street vendors

SAN FRANCISCO - City officials will start enforcing a new law to crack down on illegal street vendors in San Francisco. 

As of Tuesday, anyone who shows up to places like the 24th and Mission BART plaza or UN Plaza will need to show a permit allowing them to sell merchandise there.

If they don't have one, they'll be asked to leave, face a citation and even have their goods confiscated. 

In a statement, Mayor London Breed said that illegal street vending often involves the resale of stolen goods and incentivizes retail theft. She also said it harms businesses trying to recover from the impact of the pandemic. 

"We've worked to create a system to support legitimate street vending, while disincentivizing illegal resales," Breed wrote.

The crackdown was approved by supervisors in March, when they created regulations for street vendors.

Those regulations include filling out an application for a permit, which the city predicts takes about an hour to fill out and costs $430 a year.

Vendors are also required to have about six feet of space on city sidewalks.

Public works employees will be roaming the popular spots for these merchants. 

City police officers will be on standby but they say they won't get involved unless the safety of a city employee is threatened..

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city has approved about 40 vendor permits so far.