SF Sunset District night market raising concerns for merchants over transparency

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- More than 20,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco's Sunset District for Friday night's night market.

"Can you believe the sun is shining in the Sunset? This community is bringing so much joy, and we are so happy to welcome people in from all over to just have good time in San Francisco," said Mayor London Breed, who attended the night market.

Night markets have been set up around San Francisco in an effort to revitalize a city that has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But some merchants are raising concerns about problems they faced.

Edward Siu supports the night markets. But he has concerns about what happened in the Sunset.

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"They are not concerned about the daytime merchants doing their business," said Siu, who is chairman of the Chinatown Merchants United Association of San Francisco, which also has a branch in the Sunset.

They sent a letter to organizers, signed by several businesses, calling for more transparency and raising concerns about early morning road closures that impact daytime businesses.

"The daytime businesses, like grocery stores, markets, travel agencies, salons, dry cleaning. They cannot operate, because they do not have customers," Siu said.

After the first night market in August, Siu says they met with organizers to discuss their concerns. He says this Friday's event shows their concerns were ignored.

"I want us to have open communications with the merchants. We know that something like a night market is going to benefit some merchants over others," said Lily Wong, director of Community Engagement at Wah Mei, one of the night market organizers.

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Wong said Siu's claims are not accurate. She said based on that first meeting, several modifications were made. Streets closures began later. Parking enforcement was delayed several hours. And, fewer streets were closed off to accommodate daytime merchants and their customers.

In addition, Wong says a feedback form was emailed so merchants could raise more issues. Wong said Siu did not respond to that email.

"There are many merchants' associations in the Sunset as well. And we try to have a strong relationship with all of them.

There are no more night market's scheduled for the Sunset District, but several more are planned for other San Francisco neighborhoods through the end of the year.