Head West Market SFMTA Permit 2026

Political Pressure Overwhelms Permitting Process
On Thursday, January 22, 2026, SFMTA/ISCOTT approved a 4-date street closure permit for the for-profit Head West Market, despite four years of community opposition and strong testimony from local small businesses.

What changed this time? Nothing — except for the Supervisor’s pressure.
No community member or merchant spoke in favor. The only person who did? Lloyd Silverstein of HVMA, a longtime advocate of the contested Hayes Street closure.
Yet behind the scenes, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood’s office actively lobbied for approval. According to SFMTA/ISCOTT Chair Bryant Woo, “policy direction” came from the Supervisor. That became the basis for permitting. Not data. Not impact review. Not community input. Just raw political influence.

This is alarming.
SFMTA/ISCOTT are supposed to be neutral agencies that evaluate permits based on operational impact, neighborhood support, and safety — not politics. But on Hayes Street, that responsibility has been outsourced to a short-tenured Supervisor with deep ties to the event’s supporters.
When permitting decisions are driven by a Supervisor’s agenda — not public input or transparent review, the process loses all legitimacy. What we are witnessing is a politically hijacked system.

No Convening, No Process — and Now Mayoral Involvement?
There was no merchant convening ahead of this 4-date approval. No outreach. No heads-up. No process.
Then came a new revelation: SFMTA/ISCOTT staff referenced coordination with the Mayor’s Office, suggesting that approval was quietly pre-arranged at the highest levels, despite the absence of consensus and years of documented harm.
This points to a disturbing trend: a politicized, non-transparent process that systematically cuts out the very stakeholders most affected.

The Bottom Line
It’s now clear that events like Head West are not being approved on operational merit, but on political cues from the Supervisor’s office, and potentially even the Mayor’s.
This raises serious concerns about agency independence and the politicization of what should be an equitable, community-based permitting system.