In late February, San Francisco announced that at the end of March it would begin enforcing a long-dormant overnight parking restriction on Bernal Heights Boulevard. For years a community of people living in RV’s has called the street home, but now they’re being forced out.
At an SFMTA hearing in early March — speaking in Spanish with the help of a translator who also lives in his RV — RV residents described harassment they’d been facing from police since the announcement.
“Today we had an incident where the police knocked on our door at very early in the morning, to tell us that we had to leave that place. As we understood, we had an agreement that we could stay until the 28th.”
SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin apologized to the RV residents for the interactions they’d had with the police.
“Unfortunately there was a miscommunication with the police department. I have talked to the chief today. We will be working to rescind any citations that have been written this week, and trying to make sure that that doesn't happen again. We do wanna make sure that everyone is given a fair chance to adjust to the new rules.”
But according to RV residents the police continued to issue tickets for other violations, like expired registration tags. As for where they’re supposed to go, no simple solution has been provided.
