San Francisco Extends Curfew for Downtown Convenience Stores

Mandatory closing times for certain convenience stores in the Tenderloin and other downtown San Francisco neighborhoods will expand and continue for 18 additional months, after the Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to extend a pilot program.

Supporters of the new ordinance say the program has helped reduce illegal activity in the late evening and early morning hours by limiting spaces where people might congregate, particularly around shops that sell alcohol and tobacco. But some local residents worry the plan cuts off business for small shopkeepers without addressing the root cause of street-level crime issues.

“Philosophically, I don’t like having to punish small businesses for problems that are outside of their control,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who oversees the South of Market neighborhood, which the pilot program will encompass. “But the reality is that we need an effective strategy to give the neighborhood a kind of overnight cooling off period and just to make it a less welcoming environment for some of the disorder that plays out.”

The ordinance, which was passed with nine yes and two no votes, prohibits certain food and tobacco retail stores (but not restaurants or bars) from operating between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. Violators can face up to a $1,000 fine. Supervisor Jackie Fielder and Supervisor Shamann Walton voted against the extension.

“It’s my view that this legislation makes small businesses the scapegoats for the failures of SFPD,” Fielder said after the proposal to extend the plan was first presented to the full Board of Supervisors on Feb. 3, referring to the city’s police department.

What started as a pilot program in July 2024 in the Tenderloin will now extend north to Geary Street, west to Polk Street, east to Powell Street and south to several South of Market corridors such as 6th Street. The city is also pushing back the program’s initial end date of June 2026 to 18 months after the ordinance is signed into law.

San Francisco Police Department data shows there was a 14% decrease in violent crime in the initial stage of the pilot program, as well as a nearly 18% reduction in calls for service in the designated area.

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, said in last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting that “loitering around late-night establishments isn’t just an issue of optics.”

“We are administering this type of solution so residents in the Tenderloin don’t feel like they’re in a de facto curfew where they feel unsafe walking outside,” Mahmood said, adding that it’s not a “perfect solution.”

Several residents and local organizations have expressed support for the curfew and changes they have seen in their neighborhood since its implementation, including the Mid-Market Business Association, the Mid-Market Community Benefit District and UC Law SF.

“This legislation is a necessary step toward bringing these drug markets under control and restoring livability to Mid-Market and SOMA,” Leah Edwards, a District 6 resident, wrote in a letter of support.

A separate independent study published in November 2025 also found a 56% reduction in drug-related incidents during the curfew hours over nine months. However, authors of that study told Mission Local that their findings should not be taken as conclusive support for the approach, but rather offer preliminary and limited data.

Dorsey said the plan has helped calm down street conditions late at night, but that there is still work to do to address underlying issues. He pointed to the city’s effort to hire more police officers and a new sobering site downtown where people can get connected to drug treatment options like buprenorphine, a medication for opioid use disorder.

He said his office is also working to secure some kind of relief, such as limiting business fees, for the roughly 75 shopkeepers who the curfew could impact.

Opponents of the approach, which include the Small Business Commission, maintain that it threatens to cut off sales and could make it harder to operate in an area known for its music venues, galleries and event spaces.

Other skeptics said the data on the program so far might fail to capture where street-level challenges have shifted since the program’s implementation.

“Incident counts alone are not a clean measure of underlying street conditions, particularly when enforcement strategies may change alongside policy implementation,” Kayla Brittingham, a resident of SoMa West, wrote in a letter to the Board of Supervisors ahead of the vote on Tuesday. “For many blocks, nighttime activity is a defining feature of the neighborhood’s identity and economic viability, rather than a source of disorder.”