San Fran Chinatown merchants say parking restrictions hurt businesses

San Fran is killing off cars, so it can close down small business—especially in the Chinatown portion of town.

“Several San Francisco Chinatown merchants and advocates say increased parking restrictions across the neighborhood are significantly hurting businesses — and their frustrations have been compounded by what they describe as a lack of communication and action by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the bureau that oversees The City’s transit infrastructure.

Of course, parking in Chinatown has historically never been easy, which is why many visitors either take public transportation to the neighborhood or park in the garages such as the one at Portsmouth Square.”

Chinatown in San Fran is one of the great tourist areas of the city.  Now you know why San Fran is in a DOOM LOOP?  I am sure this is not a racist move, are you?

Chinatown merchants say parking restrictions hurt businesses

Greg Wong, SF Examiner, 7/16/24  https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/transit/sf-chinatown-stakeholders-say-parking-limits-hurt-businesses/article_4c6341bc-4481-11ef-a62f-1b11eb568947.html

Several San Francisco Chinatown merchants and advocates say increased parking restrictions across the neighborhood are significantly hurting businesses — and their frustrations have been compounded by what they describe as a lack of communication and action by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the bureau that oversees The City’s transit infrastructure.

Of course, parking in Chinatown has historically never been easy, which is why many visitors either take public transportation to the neighborhood or park in the garages such as the one at Portsmouth Square.

But Chinatown stakeholders claim parking has become even tougher recently due to a dramatic increase in the number of yellow zones throughout the neighborhood — curbs where, for certain periods during the day, only commercial vehicles are allowed to park and unload goods — that have been installed since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There were quite a bit of yellow zones already,” said Rosa Chen, planning director with the San Francisco Chinatown Community Development Center. “But during the pandemic — perhaps with all the different programs that were happening — it created this feeling that there’s a lot more yellow zone than necessary”

It’s unclear how many yellow zones have been added. An SFMTA spokesperson pushed back on the notion that the number of yellow painted curbs have dramatically risen.

“Most of these yellow zones have been in effect for years, but perhaps it’s taken some time to be fully evident by the businesses in the area,” the spokesperson said.

The SFMTA does not currently keep comprehensive maps of The City’s curb colors, though the agency said it’s in the process of creating a database — called “the Digital Curb” — which will do just that.

“The reason for yellow zones is the same in Chinatown as anywhere else: We need space for goods loading so that trucks and cars don’t double-park and block the bus or other traffic,” the SFMTA spokesperson said. “This is especially important in Chinatown because the streets are narrow, traffic is heavy and such a large portion of the population relies on Muni … with frequent Muni service rolling up and down Stockton still well-patronized, keeping the travel lanes clear is very important here.”

The times that the yellow-zone restrictions are in effect vary, but in Chinatown they generally last from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Merchants and advocates who spoke to The Examiner called on the agency to reduce those hours to 7 a.m. to noon. After that, they want the spaces to revert to normal parking curbs for the rest of the day.

They argued that those four added hours of parking per day can make a substantial revenue difference, since most shops close around 5 p.m.

While conventional wisdom suggests the majority of Chinatown visitors and residents either take public transportation or walk, community stakeholders said the lack of parking punishes two key parts of the neighborhood’s clientele: the elderly and people from outside Chinatown.

“With so many yellow zones, when people do come visit, it’s really hard for people to find parking, and it’s gotten to the point where people just don’t even want to come to Chinatown,” Chen said.

San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce President Donald Luu said that, in a vacuum, The City’s Chinese community would prefer to shop in Chinatown because the neighborhood has the most complete selection of Chinese groceries and other traditional products anywhere in The City.

“You want to go to Chinatown … they always have fresher barbecue meat or seafood and sometimes the price is better. Chinatown has a lot more variety,” said Luu, who lives on the west side.

But according to Luu and Ed Siu, president of the Chinatown Merchants United Association San Francisco, the parking constraints are enough of a deterrent that Chinese residents outside Chinatown, such as those in the Sunset and Richmond districts, are electing to shop closer to home along corridors such as Irving Street and Clement Street.

“The City is not encouraging them to come back,” Siu said. “No parking space, so what are they going to come back for? They find their own markets over there.”

Chen said that her family used to eat dim sum in Chinatown a lot, especially because many of her relatives live in the neighborhood. But due to the parking situation, her family now more often than not decides to eat meals in nearby cities such as Daly City, South San Francisco or even Milpitas.

“Even though my parents say ‘oh, but we can just stay in Chinatown,’ everyone responds with, ‘ugh, but that means we’re going to have to find parking.’” she said. “That means we have to go really early, we gotta do this and that.”

In addition, business owners said elderly Chinese people frequently need to drive right in front of stores to access them because of their mobility limitations. But the yellow zones have made that more difficult.

“If it’s a yellow zone, and they’re in the shop for a minute, and there happened to be a meter maid there, they’re going to get a $100 ticket really fast,” said Steven Lee, owner of three Chinatown businesses, including the historic restaurant Sam Wo. “So of course, nobody wants to take the chance. So that means they’d rather go to Clement Street or somewhere that’s easier to park to buy their food.”

“Sometimes the customers want to buy stuff in our store, but they don’t have the parking space to pick them up,” said Mei Zhu, owner of Mei’s Grocery on Stockton Street, a block where she claimed a yellow zone was added in the last two to three years.

Both Zhu and Daisy Xian, owner of the adjacent New Golden Daisy, said they didn’t know the curb switched into a loading zone until they saw the curb was painted yellow.

“We need the parking spaces,” Xian said through a translator. “We need our customers back in Chinatown.”

But SFMTA maintained that the spots are critical for commercial drivers and that some of the yellow zones were requested by business owners. Other spots had to be implemented to keep traffic flowing.

Ramon Rocha, a longtime delivery truck driver in The City, said the yellow zones are a “huge help” for people in his profession. He said he’s noticed fewer, not more, yellow zones throughout The City in recent years.

Rocha said he distributes hundreds of jugs of water each week across the Financial District — a route that includes Chinatown’s busiest streets, Stockton Street and Grant Avenue.

Even with the yellow zones, Rocha said it can be tough to find space to pull over. But without them, it’s almost impossible. A lack of curb space forces commercial drivers to double-park in the middle of the road. That poses a traffic and safety threat, especially on crowded and cramped streets like in Chinatown.

“You’re putting other vehicles and other drivers in danger, because now you’ve got to go around into the oncoming lanes,” Rocha said.

He also said that drivers like himself don’t just deliver goods in the morning and that they need the flexibility to deliver shipments “all day long.”

“Delivering these 5 gallon bottles of water, each one weighs 42 pounds,” Rocha said. “So when you’re lugging it from around the corner … it’s challenging.”

Chinatown stakeholders are hopeful to find a middle ground between helping the delivery drivers, relieving traffic congestion and also ensuring there remains enough parking for patrons.

Siu said advocates — including himself — have had conversations with the SFMTA and, as recently as last month, have spoken to the agency about their concerns.

But both he and Siu said that too often, they feel as if their conversations are being heard without any action being taken.

“They have come down and they’ll talk, but they never get action on it,” Siu said.

Chen was more pragmatic. She said the SFMTA does communicate with neighborhood stakeholders frequently.

“I do want to give some credit to MTA, that they do try to find solutions,” Chen said. “But I think at the same time, they’re just not moving fast enough in finding solutions. I think they listen very well to a lot of the problems and understand the problem. They hear us. But I think the thing the community is missing, is where’s the action then?”

When asked what outreach efforts the SFMTA has made toward Chinatown, a spokesperson responded that, “We will continue to engage with the community about what is working and what isn’t — and what solutions may be possible.”