San Francisco Mayor London Breed pushes for bollards and planters to protect Union Square businesses from retail crime

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A little more than 24 hours after suspects crashed a car in an attempt to burglarize the Louis Vuitton store in San Francisco’s Union Square, Mayor London Breed wants to make changes to try and improve security in the area.

He is pushing for an easier process that would allow businesses to put more poles and planters in front of their locations.

INTERACTIVE: Take a look at the ABC7 Neighborhood Safety Tracker

If you’re not familiar with pylons, they’re the tall, round things that surround the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. They also surround federal buildings.

Now there’s a push to bring these or similar ones, along with growers, to Union Square. All this in light of another crash and attempted grabber at the Louis Vuitton store on Monday.

“We’re just asking them to stop vehicles from crashing into these businesses to rob them,” Mayor Breed said.

RELATING TO: Suspects crash car into SF Union Square Louis Vuitton store in apparent attempted robbery: police

He said the city would eliminate some of the red tape in the approval process.

“We appreciate the support from the city, not only allowing us to easily navigate the process for permitting and things of that nature, but also supporting the funding of this tool,” said Marisa Rodriguez, president of the Union Square Alliance.

It’s not yet clear how much the city will distribute.

RELATING TO: Police say thieves crashed a car into a SF Union Square Dior store and stole thousands of items

Rob Reiter, co-founder of the Storefront Safety Council, says the barriers have been installed in New York City, Las Vegas and Chicago. While he appreciates the effort being made here in San Francisco, he has questions and concerns about businesses going through this installment process when the city’s infrastructure is more than a century old.

“If the city did this, pardon the expression ‘correct’, they would put up the poles themselves so they would all be continuous and they would all look the same, and it could be done in phases, which makes sense,” Reiter said.

ABC7 News’ Phil Matier has thoughts on why Union Square is a focal point compared to other neighborhoods in the city.

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“Let’s be honest about this. Yes, we have problems in the Mission and other parts of the city, but Union Square is the one doing it on TV,” Matier said.

It has not yet been determined how quickly barriers can be installed in the area and how much they will cost.