NextSharkNextShark.com

SF restaurant owner frustrated after city fines him because of constant graffiti on his business

SF restaurant owner frustrated after city fines him because of constant graffiti on his business

A business owner expressed his frustration over the repeated graffiti vandalism of his San Francisco restaurant after receiving a violation notice from the city to clean up or be fined. 

July 25, 2022
SHARE
A business owner expressed his frustration over the repeated graffiti vandalism of his San Francisco restaurant after receiving a violation notice from the city to clean up or be fined. 
Viet Nguyen, owner of the soon-to-open Gao Viet Kitchen in the Inner Sunset, told NBC Bay Area that he is tired of his restaurant being targeted by vandals and repeatedly having to paint over the graffiti. 
The latest tagging of his restaurant also came with a violation notice from the San Francisco Department of Public Works last week. The notice instructed Nguyen to clean up the graffiti in 30 days or face a $362 fine.
“The graffiti, it costs me a lot of money because every tag, I’ve got to go paint that thing. I don’t actually expect it to stop, but the most frustrating thing is, I keep on getting tagged by the city, but what can I do?” Nguyen told ABC7 News. “I clean it up, I board it up, or whatever I need to do and it comes back.”
Gao Viet Kitchen is scheduled to open in September. While the owner has been busy transforming the space of his Vietnamese restaurant, he has lost count of the amount of times his business has been tagged. 
Subscribe to
NextShark's Newsletter

A daily dose of Asian America's essential stories, in under 5 minutes.

Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories to your inbox daily for free.

Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive.

The San Francisco Department of Public Works paused their enforcement of graffiti code violations during the pandemic. However, enforcement resumed last week after two years, according to Rachel Gordon, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Department of Public Works.
“Properties that are hit time and time and time again can do something called applying for a hardship,” Gordon informed NBC Bay Area. “San Francisco Public Works will use our crews or contractor crews working for us to go and do courtesy abatement for six months.”
Moreover, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors reportedly gave initial approval for a public works graffiti abatement pilot program on July 20. The proposal includes a $4 million budget for over two years to clean up and help business owners like Nguyen, who often get tagged. 
The Board of Supervisors will vote for final approval before sending the ordinance to the city mayor for a final signature. The graffiti abatement program in the city could begin this fall if the proposal is officially passed. 
“It’s going to be focused on neighborhood commercial corridors to really try to alleviate — as the supervisor (San Francisco Supervisor Myrna Melgar) wanted to do — a burden on property owners and business owners in those areas,” Gordon told ABC7 News.
“It’s great news for the city as a whole because it means that the tags will be removed quickly, so they don’t proliferate,” she added.
 
Featured Image via NBC Bay Area
MOST READ
    HAPPENING NOW
      Michelle De Pacina

      Michelle De Pacina is a New York-based Reporter for NextShark

      SHARE THIS ARTICLE:

      RELATED STORIES FROM NEXTSHARK

      Support
      NextShark's
      Journalism

      Many people might not know this, but NextShark is a small media startup that runs on no outside funding or loans, and with no paywalls or subscription fees, we rely on help from our community and readers like you.

      Everything you see today is built by Asians, for Asians to help amplify our voices globally and support each other. However, we still face many difficulties in our industry because of our commitment to accessible and informational Asian news coverage.

      We hope you consider making a contribution to NextShark so we can continue to provide you quality journalism that informs, educates, and inspires the Asian community. Even a $1 contribution goes a long way. Thank you for supporting NextShark and our community.

      © 2023 NextShark, Inc. All rights reserved.