Sidewalk vendors in San Francisco's Mission District came together Friday to push back against a temporary ban.
The small business owners say the temporary ban on street vendors in the neighborhood is crippling them.
Several members of the city's street vendors association marched from Mission Street to San Francisco City Hall
They agree Mission Street has become violent and even deadly - because of illicit sales by illegal vendors. But the members of one group made up of vendors, who have legal permits from the city to operate say they are not the problem.
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"it's kind of hard to say. It's really complicated. Because the city makes us look like criminals. We are not criminals. We are families," said street vendor Rodrigo Lopez.
Vendors operating under the law are getting caught in the fight between the city and people who are selling food without permits, stolen goods and sometimes threatening the public works employees who are in charge of enforcing the rules.
Although the city rented space for some of them to operate during the 90-day ban, one man said he’s making 200 sales a week instead of 200 sales a day.
At prior protests and demonstrations, they've gone after Mission District Supervisor Hilary Ronen. On Friday, they were trying to get the attention of mayor London Breed.
Organizers say a complete ban on vending is the result of little to no coordination with the people who would be directly affected.
In an effort to get their message heard, the Mission Street vendors took their demonstration into San Francisco City Hall.
They took their list of concerns to Ronen's office. No one was there, so they dropped their list into the mail slot.
At the Mayor's Office, the group presented their list of concerns to a front office attendant, who quietly received their list. Then, they went back to his desk.
The vendors said they had hoped for more of a response from the mayor's office.
"Well, it was kind of sad. But at least we expressed ourselves and we raised our voices," Lopez said.
Lopez added the Mission Street vending ban has been devastating for him. He moved to a spot off of Mission Street, but his customers don't know where to find him, his sales have since plummeted.
Breed said on Thursday that her her office just met this week with Ronen's office to try and figure out some remedies for the vendors.
"We don't want them to be penalized financially because of all the other stuff that's going on," she said.
According to the Mayor's Office, they recently modified qualifications for a $1,000 grant, which now makes most permitted vendors eligible.
