Absolutely agree, especially when there is no evidence of illegal immigration anyway. Mobile food vendors have been a staple of San Francisco life for at least 2 decades; they are not taking away anything from businesses. Only Newsom and the rest of the tyrants and oathbreakers are doing that.

In fact, one of the most beloved people in San Francisco was a tamale vendor like the people in this photo. She used to go around the bars and clubs late at night with a cooler on wheels filled with the best tamales ever tasted, making everyone feel at home and loved. She saw people in their most undignified moments, and never judged, but also somehow knew when people were using drugs or alcohol as a form of self abuse, and gently encouraged them to be better to themselves. She was like a mother figure to many, and brought joy everywhere she went, and was so loved that she was welcomed even by places that had their own full kitchens.

She worked hard, a cleaner by day, then hand making all these tamales early in the night, and wheeling them all over the city late into the night. And she made everyone's lives better just for being there.

What is criminal is that all those bars and restaurants and clubs and music venues have been destroyed, never to return. All that's left is a sad line of food carts at the entrance to the BART station in an area of Market St. that no one has ever been eager to linger around.

Everything that created community, culture, social bonds, even just fun, has been crushed as thoroughly as people's livelihoods. That is what is wrong with this picture. Not people doing what they can to get by.

EDIT FOR MORE CONTEXT: Mobile food vendors have long filled a needed gap in the market in SF. Because it's a city where those who are not incredibly wealthy pay the majority of their income toward exorbitant rent, even before lockdown most could not afford to go to restaurants often (whose prices were very high, because they also had to make rent.) Add to that, the amount of people who live in SROs and other apartments that don't even have a kitchen.

The one thing SF authorities have ever done right is decide, several years ago, to not require permits to sell food on the street. Anyone can do it, no mafia tactics from the authorities. It worked the way capitalism is supposed to work - anyone selling shitty or unsafe food would be put out of business by word of mouth, and those who were exceptional, like the woman I described, would succeed also due to word of mouth.

Objecting to these sellers is like objecting to the taco trucks in Oakland; everyone who lives in E or W Oakland (the working class parts where you find the trucks) loves them. For those who have a kitchen in their apt., they are still places where you can get fresh, tasty, nutritious food cheaply (about $2 per taco,) where otherwise it would be ramen or beans and rice every night. If you don't live there, you may be able to afford your judgements, but you will not find anyone who isn't wealthy who has anything bad to say about Oakland taco trucks, or mobile food vendors in SF.

Absolutely agree, especially when there is no evidence of illegal immigration anyway. Mobile food vendors have been a staple of San Francisco life for at least 2 decades; they are not taking away anything from businesses. Only Newsom and the rest of the tyrants and oathbreakers are doing that.

In fact, one of the most beloved people in San Francisco was a tamale vendor like the people in this photo. She used to go around the bars and clubs late at night with a cooler on wheels filled with the best tamales ever tasted, making everyone feel at home and loved. She saw people in their most undignified moments, and never judged, but also somehow knew when people were using drugs or alcohol as a form of self abuse, and gently encouraged them to be better to themselves. She was like a mother figure to many, and brought joy everywhere she went, and was so loved that she was welcomed even by places that had their own full kitchens.

She worked hard, a cleaner by day, then hand making all these tamales early in the night, and wheeling them all over the city late into the night. And she made everyone's lives better just for being there.

What is criminal is that all those bars and restaurants and clubs and music venues have been destroyed, never to return. All that's left is a sad line of food carts at the entrance to the BART station in an area of Market St. that no one has ever been eager to linger around.

Everything that created community, culture, social bonds, even just fun, has been crushed as thoroughly as people's livelihoods. That is what is wrong with this picture. Not people doing what they can to get by.

EDIT FOR MORE CONTEXT: Mobile food vendors have long filled a needed gap in the market in SF. Because it's a city where those who are not incredibly wealthy pay the majority of their income toward exorbitant rent, even before lockdown most could not afford to go to restaurants often (whose prices were very high, because they also had to make rent.) Add to that, the amount of people who live in SROs and other apartments that don't even have a kitchen.

The one thing SF authorities have ever done right is decide, several years ago, to not require permits to sell food on the street. Anyone can do it, no mafia tactics from the authorities. It worked the way capitalism is supposed to work - anyone selling shitty or unsafe food would be put out of business by word of mouth, and those who were exceptional, like the woman I described, would succeed also due to word of mouth.

Objecting to these sellers is like objecting to the taco trucks in Oakland; everyone who lives in E or W Oakland (the working class parts) loves them. For those who have a kitchen in their apt., they are still places where you can get fresh, tasty, nutritious food cheaply (about $2 per taco,) where otherwise it would be ramen or beans and rice every night. If you don't live there, you may be able to afford your judgements, but you will not find anyone who isn't wealthy who has anything bad to say about Oakland taco trucks, or mobile food vendors in SF.

Absolutely agree, especially when there is no evidence of illegal immigration anyway. Mobile food vendors have been a staple of San Francisco life for at least 2 decades; they are not taking away anything from businesses. Only Newsom and the rest of the tyrants and oathbreakers are doing that.

In fact, one of the most beloved people in San Francisco was a tamale vendor like the people in this photo. She used to go around the bars and clubs late at night with a cooler on wheels filled with the best tamales ever tasted, making everyone feel at home and loved. She saw people in their most undignified moments, and never judged, but also somehow knew when people were using drugs or alcohol as a form of self abuse, and gently encouraged them to be better to themselves. She was like a mother figure to many, and brought joy everywhere she went, and was so loved that she was welcomed even by places that had their own full kitchens.

She worked hard, a cleaner by day, then hand making all these tamales early in the night, and wheeling them all over the city late into the night. And she made everyone's lives better just for being there.

What is criminal is that all those bars and restaurants and clubs and music venues have been destroyed, never to return. All that's left is a sad line of food carts at the entrance to the BART station in an area of Market St. that no one has ever been eager to linger around.

Everything that created community, culture, social bonds, even just fun, has been crushed as thoroughly as people's livelihoods. That is what is wrong with this picture. Not people doing what they can to get by.