CA Prop 47 (2014)

A viral post highlighting an open-air stolen wine market at 7th and Market in San Francisco has reignited debate over Prop 47's role in creating a two-tier system: months of permits and hundreds in fees for legal sellers, near-zero consequences for theft and fencing. The contrast is stark — SF's restaurant licensing runs through four agencies and up to six months of waiting, while street-level resale of stolen goods operates openly blocks away. A decade after voters passed Prop 47 to reduce penalties for low-level theft, California is still wrestling with where to draw the line between decriminalization and dysfunction.