For almost two years now, we’ve been telling City agencies about the same problem on the closed block of Hayes Street: vendors setting up shop without following the rules.
It started back in June 2024. What began as one clothing vendor with a tent has turned into a regular scene: a big branded truck, sidewalk displays, and more vendors showing up. This isn’t a one-off anymore. It’s become part of the closure.
The permit that closes the street says the permit holder is responsible for making sure vendors follow the rules, including business registration and a seller’s permit. City staff have known about this the whole time. But nothing really changes. The activity just keeps going, and it’s grown.
The bigger issue isn’t really about any one vendor. It’s what happens when rules are written down, documented over and over, reported again and again… and still not enforced. After a while, people start acting like the rules don’t apply to them. More vendors show up doing the same thing. Meanwhile, the regular brick-and-mortar businesses on Hayes are still expected to follow every rule — licensing, taxes, zoning, insurance, the whole list. No breaks for them.
Why should the standards be different just because someone is operating on a closed street? At some point, a permit stops being a real set of rules and just becomes permission for certain people to do what they want. After nearly two years, the same activity is still happening on the closed block — only now it’s bigger, more established, and more brazen. SFMTA’s response has remained essentially the same: very little.
This isn’t really about one clothing vendor anymore. It’s about an agency that has allowed a permit to operate more like a political arrangement than a set of enforceable conditions. Meanwhile, SFMTA is facing serious budget shortfalls and losing revenue across the board. So why does this particular closure — one that’s been repeatedly documented as noncompliant for years — continue to get what looks like special treatment?
At this point, the question isn’t about the vendors. It’s about SFMTA.
What’s really going on here?