A San Francisco Board of Supervisors committee today voted unanimously to endorse a pilot plan that would require certain businesses in the South of Market neighborhood, like corner stores and smoke shops, to close between midnight and 5 a.m.
The aim is to improve street conditions and reduce crime.
The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee backed legislation proposed by District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey and District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, that would expand on an existing pilot program in the Tenderloin, which is due to expire in July. The San Francisco Police Department has hailed the program as effective against drug markets, violence and property crime.
The new plan would enact an 18-month curfew on an expanded swath of Tenderloin businesses, and would extend down into parts of SoMa.
Retail food and tobacco establishments in the area would have to close by midnight. Those with liquor licenses could stay open until 2 a.m. Businesses that fail to comply would face fines of up to $1,000 per violation.
Map of proposed expansion area for retail curfew, from legislation packet
The curfew policy is “narrowly focused” on disrupting a small number of bad actors who have used late-night retail as “a magnet at the expense of neighborhood safety,” Dorsey said.
Police Capt. James Aherne, who oversees the city’s drug-enforcement response through the Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, argued in support of the proposed expansion, citing figures from a six-month analysis of the Tenderloin curfew.
Police recorded a 14 percent reduction in violent crime and narcotics incidents, a 17.9 percent reduction in calls for service during the curfew and a reduction in “visible late-night street gatherings,” he said.
Aherne, along with Supervisors Dorsey, Mahmood and Alan Wong, said that a November 2025 study from researchers at Italy’s University of Sassari was further evidence of the pilot’s effectiveness. The researchers found that, within nine months of the curfew, drug-related incidents fell by 56 percent between midnight and 5 a.m.
“We have to crack down on those evening, five-in-the-morning drug markets,” said Randy Shaw, executive director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, during the meeting’s public comment period. “We have to be aggressive in every possible way.”
Twelve other community members took to the podium to voice support for the pilot expansion.
Mission Local spoke on Wednesday to three SoMa shop owners who would be impacted by the ordinance. They said lawmakers are unfairly targeting their businesses, risking employment opportunities and the local economy.
“It’s going to kill us,” said Abdul Almehdhar, owner of the 24-hour Habibi Market at the corner of Sixth and Stevenson streets. “By that law, it’s going to put my workers out of work.” The Tenderloin curfew forced him to close a corner store he owned on Leavenworth Street, he said, and pushed his customers down into SoMa.
Habib Qaid, owner of the Golden Corner Market on Sixth Street, said his customers “come at night to look for food.” But, if the ordinance passes, he will have to lay off at least four employees.
Dorsey acknowledged that some businesses don’t like the approach, but said they are “willing to make a sacrifice because they are also members of the neighborhood.”
“I would ask all the neighborhood residents, those who spoke today, and everybody who was listening, to not just thank those small business owners, but to do everything we can to frequent them, support them,” he said. “It is ultimately within our power as neighborhood consumers to offset the sacrifices they’re making overnight.”
The plan will go to the full Board of Supervisors in the coming weeks.