San Francisco supervisors today proposed separate legislation to ban advertisements from city bus windows and to allow a city commission greater power to revoke the permits of trouble nightclubs.
Supervisor Eric Mar today asked the city attorney’s office to draft legislation that would prohibit the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency from putting ads on Muni bus windows.
Mar acknowledged that the SFMTA is in dire need of revenue, but noted the agency already allows ads outside buses and on bus shelters.
“It’s an issue of creepy, and creeping, commercialism in our city,” Mar said.
He said covering Muni bus windows with advertisements would impede passengers from seeing outside, and that some riders “may experience claustrophobia or even nausea.”
In another move, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu called for legislation that would give the city’s Entertainment Commission full authority to permanently revoke the permits of nightclubs that are breaking city rules.
Chiu said the legislation intends “to deal with the continuing trend of nightclub violence.”
Chiu’s district has been the site of three nightclub-related shootings in recent months, including a Feb. 7 shooting outside the Suede nightclub near Fisherman’s Wharf that left one man dead and four others injured, and a Feb. 19 shooting near a North Beach nightclub that was followed by a police chase and fatal hit-and-run crash.
On March 31, the Entertainment Commission voted to suspend Suede’s permit for 30 days after reports of numerous violations and complaints by local residents and businesses.
However, the commissioners said that night that based on the specific violations, they did not have the authority to permanently close the club.
