SAN FRANCISCO (NewsNation) — The San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave final approval for a new two-year pilot program that will place a curfew on overnight retail stores in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood in an effort to combat crime.
The program will prohibit retail, food and tobacco stores from operating between midnight and 5 a.m. Restaurants, bars and businesses with liquor licenses, already required to close between 2 and 5 a.m., are exempt.
Why did San Francisco decide to do this?
Tenderloin, one of San Francisco’s most dangerous neighborhoods, has been besieged by open-air drug use, homelessness and crime.
To address this, the city unanimously approved the program last month, which will apply to a 20-block area between O’Farrell and McAllister streets and between Polk and Jones streets.
“We heard from many community members that this is something that needed to happen,” Kate Robinson, executive director of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District, told NewsNation affiliate KRON.
Retail owners oppose new curfew law
Businesses in the area have complained they’re being unfairly targeted and that this is the city’s way of reducing police presence at the expense of their profits. However, city leaders disagree.
“I don’t anticipate it being a negative impact on the existing businesses in the neighborhood. They are open other times of the day, and that’s really when majority of the neighborhood residents would be going there for their needs. It really is about their safety as well,” Robinson said.
The program will be enforced by the city’s Department of Public Health, and businesses that violate the curfew will face fines of up to $1,000.