'Illegal' San Rafael night market draws complaints from residents, businesses

'Illegal' night market in San Rafael draws complaints from residents, businesses

While some towns are opening up official night markets to promote identity and community, one unofficial night market has drawn complaints from some business folks and residents for being too loud, too late, and too many.        

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - While some towns are opening up official night markets to promote identity and community, one unofficial night market has drawn complaints from some business folks and residents for being too loud, too late and too many.

"We live in the wild, wild west," said Omar, a brick and mortar businessman.

He says this ad-hoc, nightly, thriving and illegal food market has taken root in San Rafael's heavily Latino Canal District.

A Free-For-All:

"These guys can just open up anywhere, and now we're not talking about two or three. We're taking about 20 to 25 guys. It's definitely chaotic. These guys come in like after 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock [p.m.], and they're there until like twelve, one o'clock [a.m.] They're not local and that's from officials of San Rafael," said Omar.

While brick and mortar restaurants are licensed and inspected, the street market potentially creates health issues. 

"No water to wash their hands. I did get notices of people getting sick. The canal area, we do have a lot of undocumented residents…so, they are not likely to report sickness. The mess that they leave at the end is now causing rodents to show up," he said.

Omar also says they have no permits or licenses, block sidewalks and customer cars often block streets. 

"They are selling beer out of their coolers now…they're selling beer without having a beer license," he said.

Limited Recourse:

The City of San Rafael and Marin County officials are aware of this problem as some residents and businesses complain. 

"There's some parts of the issue that are in the city's jurisdiction, and some parts of the issue are in the county's jurisdiction," said Sarah Jones, Marin County’s community development director.

But given limited resources and many more critical needs, coordination of enforcement is difficult. 

As with homelessness, a major sweep could lead to the market popping up elsewhere. 

"That's very likely and we do see it move around. This city is trying to find a path to making it possible for them to do this in a legal way, identifying a place where it can happen," said Jones.

Many will tell you that this is as much a cultural thing as a rouge thing. And, like the homeless issue, finesse usually works better than brute force.