{"id":30136,"date":"2023-11-24T12:03:43","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T20:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30136"},"modified":"2023-11-24T13:42:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T21:42:56","slug":"street-vendors-unite-to-fight-mission-st-vending-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/11\/24\/street-vendors-unite-to-fight-mission-st-vending-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Street vendors unite to fight Mission St. vending ban\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Avatar by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN<\/a><\/strong> NOVEMBER 22, 2023 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A vendor speaks at a press conference on Nov. 22, 2023. Photo by Eleni Balakrishnan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With a vending ban on Mission Street five days away, Latino vendors held a press conference Wednesday morning, again pleading for a delay until after the New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 100 vendors, they said, have formed an association that is getting legal assistance to assess how to fight back and delay the Nov. 27 start date. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not asking for anything unreasonable,\u201d said Luz Eresma, a vendor who, like others, spoke in Spanish before the crowd on Wednesday morning. \u201cHow will we survive if they want us moved elsewhere, or want to take us away from the Mission, which has been our home?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eresma said the process by which District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen announced the vending ban last month<\/a> lacked transparency, and many vendors voiced concerns that the ban could be extended indefinitely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Manuel Soltero has been selling clothes, perfumes, and other goods since he lost his restaurant job during the pandemic. He sends money back home to his family in Jalisco, Mexico. Photo by Eleni Balakrishnan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Santiago Lerma, a spokesperson for Ronen\u2019s office, said that the vending ban would last for 90 days and then be reassessed, but that Monday\u2019s start date would not be delayed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost impossible, just on an average day, for inspectors to walk the corridor because of the amount of vendors out there,\u201d Lerma said. He said the ban was necessary to get control of an \u201cout of control\u201d situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vendors met with Ronen on Friday in a tense exchange<\/a>, after which she refused to delay the ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last summer, Ronen\u2019s office announced a vendor permit program, which she said would allow city officials to more easily identify and remove vendors selling stolen goods or engaging in other criminal activity. Many vendors signed on and acquired permits. But that process has not done much to change the climate at the neighborhood\u2019s BART plazas. Fencing of stolen goods and open drug use continue, and disputes sometimes escalate to violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the ban, permitted vendors will have access to a space rented by the city at 2137 Mission St. for 30 to 40 vendors that will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. A second spot at a parking lot at 24th and Capp streets will house nine vendors, and run Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone else vending in the street come Monday, Lerma said, could be immediately identified and asked to move along by police. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lerma added that Public Works inspectors would be stationed at both BART plazas, and that two teams would patrol the Mission Street corridor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that, while vendors may feel safe working together, inspectors and residents do not<\/a>. \u201cThe City employees that are getting assaulted are [afraid],\u201d Lerma said. \u201cSo we have to work for them, too. We have to work for the brick and mortars. We have to work for the people that can\u2019t ride the bus \u2026 because there\u2019s too much chaos.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How those breaking the rules will be kept away long-term, however, is unclear. Typically, when inspectors leave or turn their backs, people hawking goods flock back to the area. On Tuesday afternoon, a group of DPW workers and police stood on a virtually clean part of the plaza, but on the side of the plaza that fronts 24th Street, vendors sold items from paper bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"YouTube<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Between 23rd and 25th streets on Mission, at least three different individuals sold items Tuesday afternoon from a paper bag or a small suit case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deldelp Medina of the Latinx Democratic Club, who spoke during Wednesday\u2019s press conference, called for a more specific plan on handling the street conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust because you don\u2019t have vendors doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re automatically going to gain safety,\u201d Medina said. \u201cDo not conflate \u2026 having a safe system for us to be able to walk around in this area, with a lack of vendors.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, most vendors who gathered on Wednesday seemed unwilling to move indoors during the ban \u2014 for visibility, and because they say there isn\u2019t space for all of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a permitted street vendor, we have rights, and they should not be violated by anyone,\u201d said Carlos Escalante, another vendor who spoke on Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juanita Valdez held a sign listing \u201cbigger problems than street vendors:\u201d car break-ins, street shit, drug addicts, rent prices. \u201cSF put your energy where it matters. Leave vendors alone,\u201d it read beneath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Juanita Valdez among the flowers she sells with her husband. Photo by Eleni Balakrishnan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Valdez said she supports her two children by selling flowers in the plaza with her husband \u2014 she has been selling for nine years in the 24th Street plaza, and sold flowers for some 20 years before that closer to 16th Street. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked what she will do if the ban goes into effect on Monday, Valdez, like others who gathered on Wednesday, was unfazed: \u201cI will keep fighting,\u201d she said in Spanish.  <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ELENI BALAKRISHNAN<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

eleni@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REPORTER. Eleni reports on policing in San Francisco. She first moved to the city on a whim more than 10 years ago, and the Mission has become her home. Follow her on Twitter @miss_elenius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN NOVEMBER 22, 2023 (MissionLocal.org) With a vending ban on Mission Street five days away, Latino vendors held a press conference Wednesday morning, again pleading for a delay until after the New Year. More than 100 vendors, they said, have formed an association that is getting legal assistance to… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1493],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30145,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30136\/revisions\/30145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}