California Passes SF Bills Targeting Stolen Goods Sales and Downtown Recovery

The Facts

On September 4, the California Legislature passed two San Francisco bills with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bills, authored by Senator Scott Wiener and sponsored by Mayor Daniel Lurie, now head to the Governor's desk. Senate Bill 276, the SAFE Streets Act, allows SF to require permits for selling commonly stolen goods and passed the Assembly 65-2. Senate Bill 395, which authorizes 20 new, lower-cost liquor licenses for downtown bars and restaurants, passed the Assembly 74-0.

The Context

These bills address two persistent problems undermining San Francisco's recovery. Stolen goods sales proliferated after the 2018 Safe Sidewalk Vending Act decriminalized sidewalk vending, creating chaotic conditions in the Mission, Tenderloin, and SOMA that forced the city to impose a temporary Mission Street vending ban in 2023. Previous efforts by Mayor Breed and Supervisor Hillary Ronen to address the problem were hampered by state law constraints—street vending legislation passed locally in 2022, and SB 925 died in the legislature in 2024, leaving the city with only temporary moratoriums as a solution. At the same time, downtown's recovery has been hampered by a nearly 80-year-old cap on liquor licenses, with secondary market licenses costing upwards of $200,000—a major barrier for small businesses.

The GrowSF Take

Incredible! Thanks to Senator Scott Wiener for authoring these bills and Mayor Lurie for sponsoring them—this state-local partnership demonstrates precisely the kind of effective governance San Francisco needs. The near-unanimous support for these bills shows that practical policies addressing public safety and economic recovery can build broad coalitions. By targeting actual bad actors while protecting legitimate vendors and creating new opportunities for small businesses, this collaboration solves real problems without creating new bureaucratic hurdles. This is pragmatic, evidence-based leadership in action.