CA Prop 47 (2014)

A viral post highlighting open-air wine fencing at 7th and Market in San Francisco has renewed attention on the gap Prop 47 created between the consequences facing law-abiding businesses and those facing petty thieves. Restaurant owners navigating six months of permitting and nearly $2,400 in annual licensing fees are watching stolen wine trade freely on the same streets — a contrast critics say reflects a policy choice, not a failure. Prop 47's 2014 reclassification of theft under $950 as a misdemeanor remains the backdrop for this tension, even as SF's own Prop M (2024) began rolling back some of the local fee burden on legitimate businesses.