A San Francisco bar owner is pleading for the city’s help after thieves smashed into his SoMa establishment and stole his ATM. But instead of help, David Kiely said the city has only issued warnings about petty noise complaints, while his business woes fall on deaf ears as trade dries up in the neighborhood.
Kiely’s Mars Bar has been a fixture in SoMa for more than 25 years, but since nearby tech offices closed or switched to mostly remote work during the pandemic, he has been unable to bounce back.
“Our after-work foot traffic has diminished into the virtual cloud,” Kiely said in an email.
He believes special events are the only thing keeping his bar afloat.
“I personally find this ironic that we are doing everything possible to survive, yet the Entertainment Commission sends us a warning letter because a great group of lesbian and BIPOC performers were having a show in our patio at 10:30 in the evening that made too much noise past their 10 p.m. curfew requirement,” Kiely wrote. “Every time we fart past 10 o’clock they send an inspector.”
Adding insult to injury, Mars Bar fell victim to a sophisticated burglary Friday just after 5 a.m. “A team of professional thieves pried open our front door to rob our ATM machine, plus destroyed our point of sale system,” Kiely said. The police response was near immediate, but the perpetrators were in and out within four minutes, Kiely said.
The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
Surveillance footage from the bar shows a masked individual trying to pry open the doors, before an interior camera captures a masked thief jumping over the bar and grabbing something.
| Source: Courtesy David Kiely
Kiely said such burglaries are a “citywide epidemic,” noting that Oasis and the Cat Club, among other venues, have been hit in recent months. SFPD data show a surge in ATM thefts in 2023.
Meanwhile, an Entertainment Commission spokesperson said inspectors found Mars Bar not to be in violation of its permit and verbally educated the business about the noise complaint and permit conditions.
“The Entertainment Commission supports a thriving nightlife industry in San Francisco,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We provide education about rules and regulations and information about existing resources for nightlife businesses on a regular basis to our permit holders. We will be reaching out to Mars Bar promptly to ensure they have this information and help them navigate existing city resources.”
Ben Bleiman, president of the Entertainment Commission, spoke in his capacity as a bar owner and said the city’s small businesses are essentially under attack.
“There’s one [break-in] a week. It’s not like Mars Bar is special,” Bleiman said. “I mean, they’re a special place, but this is happening all over the city.”
Bleiman points to a pattern of organized crime targeting small businesses; particularly, bars, restaurants, and cannabis dispensaries. He reports that his own dispensaries have been robbed three times, with total losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“These are not crimes of addiction,” Bleiman explained. “These are organized criminals who are acting with impunity in SF.”
Kiely wants the city to make it easier for bars like his to hold special events. He pointed to nearby Folsom Street, which has special entertainment allowances.
Both Kiely and Bleiman expressed frustration with the limited law enforcement response, though they recognize the constraints faced by the police department.
“The police care. I know they care,” said Bleiman. “These things happen at night, when they have very few officers on. They’re already understaffed as is.”
Bleiman wants more attention on the issue of small businesses battling crime.
“I would like to see some high-profile arrests, and I would like to see a little more of a light shined on the fact that this is a really, really big problem in the city,” Bleiman said. “I realize there’s no easy fix.”
As Mars Bar and similar venues continue to be challenged, owners like Kiely face uncertain futures.
“Every morning we are apprehensive as to whether windows are broken again or if we can survive for the day,” he said. “Is the city here to help us or hurt us? We are not sure.”