Page 14 - IAV Digital Magazine #581

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
S.F. Employees Are Wearing Bulletproof Vests While Enforcing Street Vending Rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cnKnIb5UJA
Nora Mishanec
San Francisco Public Works employees are being offered bul- letproof vests to wear while enforcing the city’s street vend- ing rules in
the Mission District,
where sidewalk sales will soon be banned amid threats and assaults on city workers.
The city’s street vending issue has drawn renewed scrutiny as officials try to clamp down on vendors, some of whom have been accused of sell- ing stolen goods and operating without proper permitting.
Supervisor Hillary Ronen on Tuesday announced a ban on street vending around Mission
Street that will begin next month, calling threats to city inspectors “the straw that broke the camel’s back” after a yearlong effort to curb the practice without instituting an out- right ban.
Public Works spokesperson Rachel Gordon this week detailed the threats to depart- ment employees
tasked with carry- ing out inspec- tions and enforc- ing sidewalk vending laws that require anyone selling food or merchandise in public spaces to have a valid city permit.
Inspectors have been “pushed, bumped, (had) items thrown at them,” Gordon said. “The verbal attacks remain frequent.”
Public Works made bulletproof vests available for staff, Gordon said, and “some opt to use them.” Within the past year, street vend- ing inspectors have been punched in the stomach and received death threats, she added.
San Francisco has long strug- gled to enforce a ban on the fenc- ing of stolen goods. More than a year after the city pledged to fully carry out a ban on illegal vending, the practice remains common at U.N. Plaza and else- where in the city center, where people continue to sell produce, canned goods and toiletries from makeshift sidewalk stands.
In September, San Francisco
police began a so-called
blitz intended to curb rampant organized retail theft garnering goods often resold by street vendors and other illegal fenc- ing operations. Those efforts, bolstered by a $15.3 million state grant awarded to the Police Department, employ uni- formed and undercover offi- cers to target ille- gal sales.
But the threats and assaults on Public Works employees have necessitated a police presence while the inspec- tors enforce per- mitting laws. Gordon said “police are on hand to protect our employees when they do their jobs” in the Mission and else- where.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine