SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a law Tuesday that one member said would allow more city streets to resemble New York or Paris by allowing greater use of tables and chairs on sidewalks outside eating and drinking establishments.

"My constituents have been asking me for a long time if we could do this," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said. "Besides making streets look more inviting, they can also be a deterrent" to illegal activity, he said.

San Francisco already has about 380 establishments that maintain tables and chairs on public sidewalks, or have the option to apply for a permit allowing them.

Tuesday's action opens the door for 159 more existing establishments to apply for such permits, provided there is enough sidewalk space to guarantee pedestrian traffic flow and disabled access, among other requirements.

Special zoning overlays in the 1980s that established commercial-residential districts, such as in North Beach and the Castro, made special dispensation in planning codes to allow sidewalk tables and chairs in those areas, but at the same time prohibited them elsewhere in the city.

The planning code standardization applies only to "nonconforming uses" - which Mirkarimi described as "mixed-use" properties that blend commercial establishments with residential space in the same building. And the change is restricted to tables and chairs only.