In my case, the clone operation wasn't completing properly. git svn clone would fail partway through the checkout. Once I fixed the issue, it automatically did the checkout after the clone operation--no more empty folder.
[Update]
Here's what worked in my case:
Attempting git svn clone --preserve-empty-dirs <repo> failed for me. After scouring the net, I found https://www.semitwist.com/articles/article/view/the-better-svn-git-guide, which says, in part:
This part is a bit of an annoyance. From v1.7.7 onward, Git has a --preserve-empty-dirs. Problem is, the damn thing's broken. If you try to use it as-is, the whole operation will likely just fail partway through. It has to be fixed.
First, find your git-svn file:
$ find / 2> /dev/null | grep git-svn
$ find 2>/dev/null / -type f | grep -l "Failed to strip"
For me, it was at /usr/libexec/git-core/git-svn.
Note: It’s not in git-svn any more (at least not in git 2.7.0). I found it in /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.22/Git/SVN/Fetcher.pm.
Open the target file in your favorite editor:
sudo <your-favorite-editor> path/to/file
Now, in this git-svn file, search for die "Failed to strip path. ([Depending on your version of git,] it [may] be somewhere near line 4583. Change the die to print and save. Your git-svn is now fixed.
git svn clone --preserve-empty-dirs <repo> should now behave as expected.