SF reinstates street sweeping violations

San Francisco will resume issuing citations for cars parked in street sweeping zones beginning June 15. 

Mayor London Breed along with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency announced Friday that drivers will again have to move their vehicles on street sweeping days or face a parking citation. The change is effective as of June 15.

Enforcement was halted in March due to Covid-19 and The City’s shelter-in-place order with some residents unable to leave their homes to find an alternate parking space.  

The mayor said in a statement:

“At the beginning of the Stay Home Order we wanted to ensure that people who were sick were able to isolate themselves without needing to leave to move their vehicles. Now as we’re reopening, we’ve reached the point where we must resume parking enforcement so that we can clean our streets. We’ll of course continue waiving tickets for people who face issues related to COVID-19.”

On May 4, Breed urged able-bodied residents to move vehicles on scheduled street sweeping days to allow the Department of Public Works to properly clean the areas. She warned then that citations may be prematurely reinstated if healthy residents did not comply. 

The Mayor’s Office said that as many as 18,000 vehicles per day were not being moved to accommodate street sweeping.

Acting Public Works Director Alaric Degrafinried said in a statement:

“We certainly understand the needed pause on street cleaning enforcement during the early months of shelter in place, but there have been consequences. Our mechanical sweeping crews have not been able to do as thorough a job cleaning, resulting in more litter and leaves on the streets.”

SFMTA Director of Transportation Jeffrey Tumlin said in statement that now is the right time to reinstate enforcement as businesses are beginning to and more people are returning to work.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.