San Francisco will put to vote next Tuesday a punitive new approach to ending the blight of empty storefronts.

On the ballot is a tax on property owners or leaseholders whose storefronts stay vacant for six months or more. If two-thirds of voters approve the measure, San Francisco would become one of the first big U.S. cities to tax landlords for store vacancies when it goes into effect next year. Washington, D.C., imposed a similar tax in 2011, though it was on residential and commercial property vacancies, not just retail.

The purpose of the tax is to “reinvigorate commercial corridors and stabilize commercial rents, thereby allowing new small businesses to open and existing small businesses to thrive,” the proposition’s language says.

The results of the San Francisco vote will be closely watched from coast to coast. The issue of urban storefronts lingering vacant for many months or even years has plagued downtowns and residential neighborhoods from New York City and Boston to Berkeley, Calif., while city officials have struggled to find workable solutions.

Residents tend to blame landlords for the ugly pockmark of empty storefronts, which can make city streets less safe. Property owners are holding out for higher-paying tenants, critics maintain, a prospect these critics say is unrealistic with bricks-and-mortar stores under assault from online shopping and food delivery.