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The San Francisco Street Artist Program, which started in April 1972, is a program that enables independent artists and craftspeople to purchase a certification from the Arts Commission that allows them to sell art and crafts items predominately created or significantly altered by them in designated selling spaces throughout San Francisco. The program did not come easily, but was the result of a hard fought political battle by street art advocates who were not only resourceful enough to strategically organize, but were so committed that they would be arrested many times in drawing the essential media attention necessary for their vision to be realized into law. Although the original Street Artist Program only allowed artists and craftspeople to sell their own handmade art or craft items that were completely created by them, now the certified artists and craftspeople of the Street Artist Program are only allowed to sell items that they have predominately created or significantly altered, and some commercially-manufactured goods are allowed to be sold in the Street Artist Program – thus negating an important compromise with local retail establishments. Some four decades later and with the participation of hundreds of artists, the San Francisco Street Artists Program continues to create inexpensive marketing opportunities for independent artists and craftspeople. The program is entirely funded by the street artists' certificate fees, and generates $4 million annually to the city's economic life. However, time would reveal the Street Artist Program to be more than a municipal arts program – it would also serve as a training ground for grassroots political activism, and also open an ongoing political dialogue about what activities should, and should not be, allowed in public areas. The Street Artist Program would also as serve as a template for other cities wanting to create their own street artist programs, and whose officials would contact the Street Artist Program's office in requesting advice and documentation about the procedures which govern the San Francisco Street Artist Program.

History The actual roots of the San Francisco Street Artists Program begin well before the defining legislation of 1972. During the 1960s, California was experiencing many outdoor art fairs which grew a culture of independent artists and craftspersons who would support themselves with the sale of their artwork. And at the same time in the liberal Haight Ashbury neighborhood, there was an effort to sell crafts on Haight Street's sidewalks. Later in 1971 two gay artists, Warren Garrick Nettles and Frank Whyte along with one heterosexual artist, William (Bill) J. Clark, would be instrumental in petitioning San Francisco's government for an arts program that enabled artists to legally sell on the city's sidewalks. Prior to the legislation of 1972, artists and street performers would illegally set up in public areas but were frequently harassed and arrested by the police. The 700 block of Beach Street next to Victoria Park near Fishermans Wharf was just such an area where twenty or so artists would sell with the help of look-outs – people who would watch for the police and then warn the artists, so they could temporarily move and avoid arrest. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States was engulfed in the controversial Vietnam War which resulted in widespread political activism and protests at cities and universities across the county. That era's intense political activism, nearby as the University of California, Berkeley, is seen as a cultural catalyst for the grassroots political energy of the San Francisco street-art advocates who would create the first street artist program in America.

1971

After the arrest of Bill Clark on February 5, 1971 on the 700 block of Beach Street, the San Francisco Street Artist Guild was formed by Bill Clark, Warren Garrick Nettles and Frank Whyte. Nettles and Clark would emerge as politically articulate spokespeople for the SF Street Artist Guild and their vision would eventually be realized as the San Francisco Street Artists Program. Frank Whyte was already very ill by this time and he took over the job of writing hundreds of letters to as many San Francisco and California politicians as he could to inform them about the arrests that were happening. Whyte also asked them to send letters of support to the SF Board of Supervisors for the creation of a Street Artist Program. He succeeded in getting many politicians to do so including then Senator George Moscone and Assemblyman Willie Brown. After being arrested, Bill Clark was represented by Public Defender, Peter Keane, whose Law Firm, Keane and Kantor, was hired by the SF Street Artist Guild. Peter Keane and Bob Kantor began to develop a strategy to challenge the Constitutionality of the City's Peddler laws so that art and crafts could be legally sold on the city's sidewalks. When artists and craftspeople were arrested for illegally selling their work on San Francisco's sidewalks, they were charged with peddling without a permit (Municipal Police Code Section 869). In order for anyone to peddle anything legally on the public sidewalk the SF municipal law required them to first obtain a Police Peddler Permit from the SF Police Department and then a General Peddler License from the SF Tax Collector. However, at that time the SF Police Department refused even to issue applications for a Police Peddler Permit and told people not to bother applying because the SF Police Department would deny them based on letters of objection from merchant associations which were on file with the SF Police Department. Apparently only two people had been granted peddlers permits since 1969. Keane, Kantor, and the SF Street Artist Guild realized that the City had placed itself in a difficult position by arbitrarily denying a Police Peddler Permit to any artist and craftsperson who applied for one and were prepared to challenge the constitutionality of MPC Section 869. In April 1971, several members of the SF Street Artist Guild held a protest at city hall while carrying a coffin which symbolized the death of their incomes as a result of frequent police arrests and they also held a protest at Mayor Joseph Alioto's office. The protests gained news coverage and Alioto responded by saying that he would talk to the police chief about a solution for the permits, and would then schedule talks with the artists' organizers. During those later dialogs with Mayor Alioto, Bill Clark and Warren Garrick Nettles suggested that they should consider a separate licensing system just for artists and craftspeople who sell their own creations, and that the City needs to provide designated selling areas on the public sidewalks for those licensed artists. Mayor Alioto was not resistant to the proposal, the talks went well, and Clark and Nettles left the meetings feeling that there would be a moratorium on the arrests. Later in May when the talks began to stall, Clark and Nettles realized that no real progress was being made by the mayor with the police chief. The SF Street Artist Guild then acquired a temporary state park permit which allowed them to sell in Victoria Park near Fisherman's Wharf. The Guild was able to get a permit from the State Park that allowed artists and craftspeople to sell their original handmade art or crafts in Victoria Park for several consecutive weekends. However, after only two weekends the State Park revoked the Guild's permit because of objections from merchants in Ghirardelli Square and the Fisherman's Wharf Merchants Association. After the Guild's permit was revoked, the artists and craftspeople who were selling in Victoria Park started selling again on the 700 block of Beach Street. The police began making arrests again. The Guild asked Mayor Alioto for a moratorium on arrests. The Mayor agreed to allow artists and craftspeople to sell on the 700 block of Beach Street on Sundays. When the merchant associations found out what the Mayor did they threatened to file a lawsuit against Mayor Alioto for exceeding his legal authority so the Mayor withdrew his moratorium on arrests. When the police began arresting artists and craftspeople again, the Guild filed a lawsuit against the City asserting that MPC Section 869 was unconstitutional. The case was heard in Superior Court by Judge Axelrod who declared MPC Section 869 unconstitutional. He ruled that MPC Section 869 was unconstitutional because the law sets no clear standards for licensing and makes no provision for fair hearings on permit applications. and because the city had given "absolute and unguided discretion to the license granting authority which consistently and systematically denies permits to artists and musicians." The Street Artists Guild also contended that such works – when sold on public sidewalks – are expressions of art protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In spite of Judge Axelrod's ruling, the police continued to arrest artists and craftspeople who peddled their wares on the public sidewalk. The Guild then hired the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and attorney Robert Kantor to file for a temporary restraining order preventing the police from making further arrests of artists and craftspeople. As a result of Judge Axlerod's ruling, the Guild was able to get a Temporary Restraining Order from Judge Ira Brown preventing the police from enforcing MPC Section 869. When the Guild filed for a permanent injunction Judge Perry ruled that MPC Section 869 was constitutional and he dissolved the TRO. After Judge Perry declared MPC Section 869 constitutional the Guild filed an appeal of his decision with the State Court of Appeals.U.S. Constitution. Before the TRO was dissolved by Judge Perry, word quickly spread of the new legal privilege – that artists and craftspeople could sell anywhere without being arrested – and suddenly hundreds of new artists and opportunists came to the sidewalks of crowded Union Square to sell their products during the busy Christmas season. This flood of new artists along with questionable opportunists (even salespeople from Macy's pretended to be street artists) – who would sell with no regulations or enforcement – created an environment of chaos which would occasionally result in violence among the sellers as they argued about the selection of selling spaces. The disorder and violence of that December would foreshadow a continuing and grave liability for this and any street artists program:without regulation and an enforcement strategy. Any street artists program could easily be infiltrated by opportunists who would make money their sole priority, drastically lower the quality of products, sell commercially-manufactured items, and occasionally resort to intimidation or violence during selling space selection. Since there were less than ten days until the end of the Christmas season, Mayor Alioto decided not to allow any more arrests and to have the police only issue warnings. Despite the lack of a proposed arts program, the arrests and legal changes of 1971 had attracted enough media attention that a member of the San Francisco Arts Commission, Ray Taliaferro, expressed his desire that the Arts Commission should support legislation that licenses and regulates artists and musicians. In December 1971 Taliaferro declared to the media, "I hate to see the street artists and musicians run out of the city. This is a significant artistic revolution we see going on. The city should do what it can to encourage these people."

1972

In 1972 during discussions with the Police Department, the Guild was told that the Police Department would continue to refuse to issue Police Peddler Permits to any artist or craftsperson because the police could not tell whether stolen goods would be sold. The Guild then asked the Police Department if the Guild came up with a program to certify that the artist or craftsperson was selling only their own art or craft items then would the Police Department issue those people a Police Peddler Permit? The Police Department said if the Guild could do that then they would issue those people a Police Peddler Permit. As a result, the Guild came up with the original version of the street artist certification process and then the Guild's attorney, Robert Kantor drafted the original legislation creating the certification process which was introduced as an ordinance to the Board of Supervisors by two city supervisors, Terry Francois and Robert Mendelson. The ordinance would create a process for artists and craftspeople to acquire certificates which would allow them to sell in locations designated by the Board of Supervisors. Supervisor Kopp followed by submitting his own resolution to the Board of Supervisors. Under Kopp's plan, the program would be run by a chief administrator, and it would be the supervisors who would determine who should receive a license and where the artists would be allowed to sell. Supervisor Kopp also suggested that the price of a license should be minimal, being between $48 and $100 a year. The Board of Supervisors dumped Supervisor Kopp's proposal and finally in March 1972, they approved an ordinance which would designate the San Francisco Arts Commission as the city department that would issue street artist certificates to artists and crafts people to sell their own art or craft items in locations approved by the Board of Supervisors. However, the Board of Supervisors only designated the Embarcadero Plaza, where there was little foot traffic to attract customers. The ordinance also created a 5 member Board of Artist and Craftsman Examiners who would determine whether the person applying for a street artist certificate made the art or craft items they proposed to sell. Mayor Alioto appointed Warren Garrick Nettles and Bill Clark to the Board. They served as Chairman and Secretary and spent hundreds of hours without pay certifying as many street artists as fast as they could until they both resigned after the Board of Supervisors refused to re-designate the Embarcadero Plaza or designate any other sidewalk selling locations. Unfortunately for the artists, not all members of the Arts Commission were receptive to the supervisors designating the Arts Commission to oversee the new Street Artist Program. Commissioner Alec Yuill complained that the new responsibilities would be a "demeaning imposition. A matter of public nuisance, not of artistic judgement." However, some commissioners like Ray Taliaferro and Ruth Asawa, supported the artists and craftspeople and the creation of the Street Artist Program. This would not be the last time that some members of the Arts Commission would attempt to dodge the responsibilities of the Street Artists Program. The new law was a mixed blessing for the street artists. Though they were pleased that an artist and craftspeople certification program had finally become law, they were frustrated that they would be confined to the Embarcadero Plaza and not be able to continue in their previous selling areas on the 700 block of Beach Street and by Union Square. The Guild continued to schedule meetings before the Board of Supervisors in an attempt to also include the 700 block of Beach Street and downtown selling locations as well. However, every time the artists met stiff resistance from city supervisors Dianne Feinstein, Pete Tamaras, and Terry Francois. Those supervisors refused to approve any selling areas without the merchant associations' approval. By this time the merchants and retail stores had become very organized and inflexible concerning the issue of additional selling areas. Frustrated with the impasse over additional selling areas, many of the newly certified artists and craftspeople risked arrest and went back to selling illegally on the 700 block of Beach Street and on the downtown sidewalks. Because the Guild was unsuccessful in getting the Board of Supervisors to designate any sidewalk selling locations, they went back to the Police Department and attempted to get Police Peddler Permits. They reminded the Police Department of their promise that if the Guild could create a certification process then they would issue a Police Peddler Permit to anyone who was certified as making the art or craft item they were going to sell since that was proof the applicant would not be selling stolen goods. The Police Department informed the Guild that even though the Guild successfully created the certification process the Police Department still would not issue Police Peddler Permits to anyone even if they obtained a Street Artist Certificate.

1973

During 1972 and 1973 the SF Street Artists Guild made nine unsuccessful attempts to get the Board of Supervisors to designate viable sidewalk selling spaces. After the ninth attempt failed which was made on behalf of the Guild by Supervisor John Barbagelata, and after the State Court of Appeals dismissed the Guild's appeal of Judge Perry's ruling that MPC Section 869 was constitutional, Bill Clark decided that the only way for it ever to become legal for artists and craftspeople to sell their art or craft items on the public sidewalk it would be necessary to put it to a vote of the people and the only way to do that would be to place an initiative ordinance on the SF Municipal Ballot. He convinced a few other Guild members to join him in gathering signatures on a petition to place an ordinance on the SF Municipal Ballot. Bill Clark then composed a ballot initiative. By this time, Bill's twin brother Robert (Bob) J. Clark had moved to San Francisco and the two of them along with a small group of street artists began to collect the signatures necessary to place the ordinance on the SF Municipal Ballot. During this time Frank Whyte died and his partner, Warren Garrick Nettles left San Francisco and moved back to Canada. Bill Clark became the leader of the Guild and he coordinated the petition drive. Often Bill would be the only person on the street collecting signatures. As a result, the signature drive fell short of the required valid signatures needed to put the ordinance on the next Municipal Ballot. Bill applied for an extension and was able to get it but by then almost all of the street artists had given up. For the next six months, Bill Clark, Bob Clark and Dale Axlerod collected almost all of the remaining valid signatures needed to place the ordinance on the next SF Municipal Ballot. One other street artist, Charles Davis who used to be a dancer in vaudeville back in the '30s stepped forward and tirelessly helped collect the remaining valid signatures. Thanks to the four of them, the initiative ballot measure was placed on the June 4, 1974 Municipal Ballot and was called Proposition " J".

1974

Since the street artists had no money to place ads on TV, radio or in the newspapers, Bill Clark then spent the months before the June 4, 1974 SF municipal election trying to get well known people from both the Left and the Right to publicly come out in support of Proposition "J'. Eventually, he got many well known people to support it including Jerry Rubin and Supervisor John Barbagelata. At the same time, Bill went on many radio programs promoting Proposition "J" and debating Bob Davis, the spokesman for the Downtown Association who was speaking on the radio and TV in opposition to Proposition "J". The day before the June 4, 1974 Municipal election, as a last ditch effort to get SF voters to vote for Proposition "J" Bill got a street artist's large truck and had it covered with huge banners saying, "Vote for Proposition 'J' ". In the back of the truck, Grimes Posnikov set up "The Human Jukebox" and Bob Clark performed his life-sized puppet of Richard Nixon known as "Tricky Dick". The truck was driven all over the City blaring the Jimi Hendrix version of the Star-Spangled Banner. The next day, Proposition "J" was approved by the voters of San Francisco. Proposition J mandated the Police Department to issue a Police Peddler Permit and the Tax Collector to issue a General Tax Collector license to any certified street artist residing in San Francisco. The Police Peddler Permit required the certified street artist applying for it to list the time, day and locations where they intended to sell. Instead of issuing a Police Peddler Permit, the Police Department decided to issue a new type of Street Artist Police Permit which allowed anyone who claimed to be a street artist whether or not they were certified by the Arts Commission to sell anywhere on the public sidewalk in the entire city of San Francisco. At that time the Police Department also refused to enforce the existing ordinances regulating the use of the public sidewalk. During the month before Proposition "J" officially went into effect Bill and Bob Clark met privately with Captain Jeremiah Taylor of the SFPD to ask him how the Police were going to issue the Police Peddler Permits. Captain Taylor sat back in his chair smoking a big cigar with his feet on his desk and simply said to the Clark brothers, "The police aren't going to do jack s**t for the street artists". Shocked by the captain's vulgar remark, the Clark brothers walked out of the room in disgust. Shortly before Proposition "J" was supposed to go into effect, Bill Clark called the Tax Collector and asked him if he had the General Peddler License papers ready to issue to certified street artists. Bill was surprised when the Tax Collector said that he did not have papers prepared to give to certified street artists. Bill called all of the heads of the different departments involved in issuing the Street Artist Certification, the Police Peddler Permits and the General Peddler License and scheduled a meeting with them a few days before Proposition "J" was to go into effect. At that meeting, Howard Lazar, who was representing the Arts Commission said that the Arts Commission wanted nothing to do with properly implementing Proposition "J". As a result, the Tax Collector said he was not going to require any street artist applying for a General Peddler License to show they were certified by the Arts Commission before the Tax Collector would issue them a General Peddler License. The result of the decisions made by the Police Department, the Arts Commission and the Tax Collector caused the problems that occurred on the sidewalks from people selling with Proposition "J" licenses. That decision by the Police Department, the Arts Commission and the Tax Collector attracted hundreds of new artists, craftspeople and phony street artists to San Francisco’s sidewalks, and by December fifteen hundred people would have licenses. That September, just a few months after Proposition "J" was passed, the Downtown Merchants Association began to complain that the sidewalks had become flooded with artists, and that their displays created "wall-to-wall street artists" who "seriously hamper pedestrian traffic." The Downtown Association wrote an ordinance creating overly restrictive police and fire safety standards and gave it to Supervisor Kopp who introduced it to the Board of Supervisors pretending that he wrote it with the cooperation of the Police and Fire Departments. The Board of Supervisors approved it in spite of objections from the street artists that it was an illegal amendment to Proposition "J" and near the start of December the police, in carrying out the "Kopp Ordinance", began to clear many street artists out of the downtown area including Union Square. Their explanation was that the artists and their displays were blocking fire hydrants and store exits. Though the artists quietly left after police warnings, the organizers of the Guild said they would challenge the new police crackdown in court. A member of a downtown merchant association filed a lawsuit to order the Police Department to enforce the "Kopp Ordinance" but the lawsuit was dismissed for lack of standing because the person who filed the case did not live in San Francisco. Because of all of the bad publicity that was being printed in the newspapers about what was happening in Union Square, the street artists' attorneys, Al Knoll and Craig Brown set up a meeting with all of the street artists in Union Square to try to get them to agree to create a lottery system to allocate the selling spaces around Union Square in an attempt to keep the police from arresting them. A large majority of the street artists rejected the lottery proposal and continued to grab spaces at Union Square. So many artists and craftspeople had decided to sell near the popular downtown areas including Union Square that some of them had to show up as early as 3 AM in order to get a good selling space for that day. Eventually some opportunistic sellers began to actually guard their selling spaces overnight, so they could be assured they would have their same favorite selling space on the next day, and the day after that. One day the Police sent word to Bill Clark that they were going to enforce the "Kopp Ordinance" and move everyone out of Union Square. Bill Clark immediately warned the street artists in Union Square that the police were going to move them out and confiscate all of their displays but the street artists in the Square ignored his warning. A couple of days later, before dawn, the police came to Union Square with a big truck and confiscated all of the street artist displays that were set up around Union square. The Kopp Ordinance made it illegal for anyone to sell around Union Square because a street artist's display must be on a sidewalk which was wide enough to allow a ten foot wide pedestrian walk way. The sidewalks around Union Square were not wide enough to satisfy that width requirement. The street artists knew there were not many locations which complied with the Kopp Ordinance. However, The Board of Supervisors knew the Kopp Ordinance was likely to be challenged in court by the Guild's lawyers because it conflicted with the provisions of Proposition "J".

1975

For the first half of 1975 the street artists grudgingly sold within the Kopp Ordinance's restrictions, but on May 27, 1975 the street artists held a mass demonstration on the 700 block of Beach Street and 27 street artists were arrested for violating the Kopp Ordinance. Since Proposition "J" was a voter-approved ballot initiative it could not be amended by the Board of Supervisors, only by another ballot initiative. The 27 street artists chose to be arrested and jailed rather than simply signing a police citation and going home. On June 5, 1975, Supervisor Terry Francois, knowing that the Kopp Ordinance was an illegal amendment of Proposition "J" , introduced his own street artists ballot measure to the Board of Supervisors and the Board voted to place it on the November 5, 1975 Municipal Ballot as Proposition "L". Proposition "L" merely repealed Proposition "J" and replaced it with the identical ordinance that was in existence before Proposition "J". Proposition "L" would also return the authority to the Board of Supervisors to restrict the selling locations where street artists could sell. George Moscone, at the time a state senator and a candidate for mayor, sided with the street artists in opposing Proposition "L" by stating, "The attempts to harass them off the streets of our city and to circumvent the will of the people as expressed through their approval of Proposition "J" are, to me, terribly wasteful." Moscone would later become mayor, and demonstrate a very supportive position for the Street Artists Program – more than any other mayor in San Francisco's history. Later in 1976, the street artists nearly lost all their downtown selling spaces when the Board of Supervisors voted to permanently remove them. However it was Moscone's mayoral veto which stopped the supervisors' proposal, and preserved those selling spaces for decades to come. Some street artists wanted to respond to the threat of Proposition "L" by drafting their own new ballot initiative for the same election, called Proposition "M" over the objections of Bill and Bob Clark. The Clark brothers wanted the street artists just to oppose Proposition "L" and support Proposition "J" Those street artists refused to listen to the reasons why the Clark brothers were opposed to placing a competing ballot measure to Proposition "L" on the next Municipal Ballot and in three weeks collected enough valid signatures to place Proposition "M" on the November 5, 1975 Municipal Ballot. After Proposition "M" was placed on the Municipal Ballot, 26 of the 27 street artists arrested on May 27, 1975 decided to plead guilty to violating the "Kopp Ordinance" claiming that if they won their case then it would hurt the chances of Proposition "M" winning in the November 5, 1975 municipal election. Only Bob Clark refused to drop the case and after he refused the street artists fired his attorney, Al Knoll, so Bob had to hire a new attorney, Susan Irons, to defend him in court. The day Bob appeared in court the charge of violating the Kopp ordinance was dismissed and that was the end of the fight to have the Court rule that the "Kopp Ordinance" was an illegal amendment of Proposition "J". In the end, Bill Clark was arrested 13 times, Bob Clark was arrested 9 times and Bill's wife, Patricia (Pat) Clark was arrested 3 times in their fight to allow artists and craftspeople to sell legally on the sidewalks of San Francisco. 
Propopsition "M", with its four pages of rules, would further limit the power of the supervisors over selling space selection, but would still contain provisions for fire and safety regulations which would ease sidewalk congestion. In an effort to appease the merchant community, the specifications of Proposition "M" would reduce the number of artists around Union Square by 75%, continue the same certification process to insure that street artists make what they sell, and would also limit the number of artists in a given region by using a lottery system to equally share designated selling spaces. Even though he was opposed to placing Proposition "M" on the Municipal Ballot, Bill Clark decided to run for Supervisor and support Proposition "M" in order to get equal time with Supervisor Francois who was running all over the City and going on the radio supporting Proposition "L" by lying about Proposition "J" causing all of the problems on the sidewalks because Proposition "J" was "poorly written". Unfortunately for those street artists who supported Proposition "M", it lost at the polls and Proposition L became law. To date, the ordinance defined by Proposition "L" is still the current law which governs the San Francisco Street Artists Program. After the passage of Proposition "L" in late November, the street artists met with the supervisors to resolve what selling areas would be designated as a result of the new law. The Supervisors knew that it would look like they just got Proposition "L" passed to get rid of the Street Artist Program if they didn't designate some viable selling locations so they were forced to grant some selling spaces in the Union Square area, on Market Street, at Fisherman’s Wharf, and on the 700 block of Beach Street near Ghirardelli Square. It was also decided that the Public Works Department would mark off and number selling spaces upon the sidewalk, so they could be equally shared among the street artists with a lottery for selling space selection. However, the Public Works Department refused to paint the selling spaces so the street artists themselves had to paint them. Since Proposition "L" gave the Board of Supervisors the legal authority to pass the "Kopp Ordinance" which included the restriction that no selling space could be occupied between the hours of midnight and 6 AM, the Board of Supervisors reinstated the "Kopp Ordinance" and it halted the problem of people leaving their displays on the sidewalk overnight and guarding those selling spaces overnight. Since the downtown merchants wrote Proposition "L" and the "Kopp Ordinance", they were very content with the new regulations and selling spaces, because they knew unlike with Proposition "J", the Police Department would enforce Proposition "L" and the reinstated "Kopp Ordinance" which would prevent a repeat of earlier Christmas seasons' sidewalk congestion. In early December 1975. when the new ordinance finally went into effect, 800 street artists bought certificates for a fee of $80 a year.

Criteria for acceptable arts and crafts

Even though the original centerpiece of the Street Artist Program was to allow only items to be sold that were handmade by the artist or craftsperson, the Arts Commission changed that by making up a vague and ambiguous definition of the term, "handcrafted item", which is, "an item predominately created or significantly altered by an artist or craftsperson". Now the centerpiece of the San Francisco Street Artist Program is the principal that only art or craft items which an artist or craftsperson has "predominately created or significantly altered" are allowed to be sold in the Street Artist Program. Even though the Street Artist Program still "officially" strictly forbids the sale of commercially manufactured products that new definition of the term, "handcrafted item" allows people to be certified as a street artist who want to sell mass produced, machine made and/or commercially made art or craft items in the Street Artist Program. The stipulation that commercially manufactured products should be forbidden is very necessary to reassure the merchant community of retail stores that street artists will not be selling items like cameras, books, cassette tapes, etc. within ten feet of any doorways to their shops and to protect the legitimate street artists who are hand making their art or craft items from unfair competition. Because of the new definition of the term, "handcrafted item", before a Street Artist Certificate is granted, the artist or craftsperson must only demonstrate to a screening committee that they predominately created or significantly altered the product they will sell. For each craft category there is a set of guidelines which specifies what is, and what is not, permitted for a product to be designated as "predominately created or significantly altered by the artist or craftsperson". During the screening of an artist's or craftsperson's work, the artist or craftsperson must not only bring finished items which they have predominately created or significantly altered, but they must also bring raw source materials, show partially completed items, and show receipts for the raw materials of their product. The members of the screening committee can also ask that an artist predominately create or significantly alter a piece while before them. And if the screening committee is still not satisfied that the work is predominately created or significantly altered by the artist or craftsperson they can schedule a shop visit, which will cause members of the screening committee to visit the artist’s or craftsperson's workshop in verifying that they predominately created or significantly altered the items they wish to sell. Since it is not unusual for financial opportunists who do not create their products whether they are commercially manufactured or manufactured by another craftsperson to attempt to acquire a certificate from the Street Artist Program now that the definition of the term, "handcrafted item" has been defined as, "an item predominately created or significantly altered by an artist or craftsperson", it is impossible for the screening committee to keep mass produced, machine made and commercially manufactured art or craft items from being sold through the Street Artist Program and the survival of the Street Artist Program is threatened. Having certified street artists sell items that they did not create can generate many negative effects for a street art program and its reputable artists and craftspeople. If a street artists program develops a reputation that they are allowing commercially-manufactured items, the very organized merchant community of retail stores will urge city government to limit or disable that program. And if scammed or not-totally created-by-artist products are allowed, they will displace sales from valid artists and craftspeople and have a demoralizing effect on sincere artists and craftspeople who put their heart and sweat into their work.

The following are some of the various craft categories which are now permitted: Bead Making, Bead Stringing, machine made mass produced books, Button Craft Jewelry, Candles, Castings, Ceramics, Sculpture, Coin Cutting, machine made mass produced Computer-Generated & New Technology Art, Decoupage, Doughcrafting, machine made mass produced DVD’s/Cassette Tapes/CD’s, Enameling, Engraving, Fabricated and/or Cast Jewelry, Feather Art, Fiber Art, Found Objects, Glass Art (Blown Glass and Stained Glass), Kite Making, Lapidary, Leathercraft (Including Belts and Soft Clothing), Millinery, Miscellaneous Items, Musical Instruments, Painting and Drawing, Paper and Papier Maché Jewelry, Photography, Pipes, Plants and Dried Flowers, Plastic and Metal Arts, Printmaking, Puppets and Dolls, Sewn Items (Including some Puppets and Dolls), Shell Jewelry, String Sculpture, Terrarium Making, Textile Arts, Toy Making, and Woodcraft.

Designated selling locations

Street artists are allowed to sell only in areas designated by the Board of Supervisors. Those sales areas can be amended through time by the Board of Supervisors. The designated selling spaces are clustered in a handful of regions throughout San Francisco in Fisherman's Wharf, the downtown financial district, the Cliff House, and Justin Herman Plaza. However, the Director of the Street Artist Program, Howard Lazar, has stated that he will not put any proposal for new sales locations before the Board of Supervisors that the merchants disapprove of even if those sales locations meet all of the safety regulations approved by the Board of Supervisors pursuant to Proposition "L". Mr. Lazar demonstrated that as a fact when he had a committee of the Board of Supervisors table a proposal to designate 4 street artist selling spaces on Hayes Street that met all of the safety regulations were approved by the full Arts Commission because of the objections of Hayes Valley merchants. Unlike some public arts programs like Seattle’s Pike's Place Market, San Francisco does not assign selling spaces by seniority. In order to fairly share the better selling spots among all certified artists and craftspeople, lotteries and a daily selling space signup procedure are held every morning to determine an orderly and fair assignment of selling spaces for that day. An orderly and fair space selection procedure is considered essential for such a program, because disorderly or unfair selling space assignments can cause confusion and hostility among the artists and craftspeople.