am. so that's something -- i don't know if those will last but it's a phenomenon that cropped up. it just came to mind. also in terms of your nodes, it seems like one other aspect of considering where the city might spend it's money with respect to creating smaller nodal areas is to look at what kinds of private uses are along the street, and maybe try to reenforce entries to theaters maybe, might be a consideration. or maybe the entry to the new -- if it gets built, i forget the name of it, city center or whatever. >> moving forward. >> commissioner sugaya: the retail along the south side of market. and i know that, as part of that fox plaza high rise that we approved, there's a corner that apparently i think is going to be used for a restaurant or

something. i think that was at least the original proposal. so that might be an opportunity to, you know, have the city reenforce that kind of use. it's kind of like thinking of it as a parklet i guess and taking advantage of a private uses and private entries and private spaces that could be enhanced. >> president fong: commissioner hillis. >> do you have a breakdown of who uses market street like the vehicular use, autos, what percent are buses and trains and transit? do you know that? >> yes, we do. i don't have the numbers with me off the top of my head. do you recall? >> the majority are pedestrians, in terms of the number -- a little over 50% would be

pedestrians. >> which is vehicular-wise. this concept of taking autos off market street, how much does that decrease the traffic? i haven't heard except for commissioner sugaya that people like to use market street because it's hard to use. i mean i don't, but if you did take them off what percent of the traffic or vehicular traffic are you taking off market street? >> it's a fairly low percentage, and i apologize i don't have the number, it's between 10 and 20. five transit, roughly 30, so that leaves us at about 10 to 15. >> i would caution -- my sense it's not a lot. so are we really getting a lot of -- i mean i'm not for or against that, at this point, taking cars off, but what do you really get? do you really help bikes and pedestrians by taking cars off, or what else are we doing for this. and you know, i just echo some of my fellow commissioners. i don't think it's necessarily a component that we saw today but

i know it's a piece, the buildings, and what happens in the buildings, what happens on the ground floors, especially around plazas is key, is a component of some zoning changes to encourage more active retail, seat outdoors. because that's what i find areas in it market street it's just not vital enough at times and it's a big street that could take a lot more activity in places than what's there. and some of these things i think are good. like limiting the number of bus stops may also limit the amount of activity. if you don't have a bus stop on the corner there are going to be less people on that corner. how do we get more people onto market street, doing more things. i think is important. and some of this actually takes people off market street. autos certainly do. consolidating bus stops how do we get them back on to make up

for that is key. i would like to see more of what's happening in the retail spaces, how are we encouraging the right retail, not just cell phone stores, which there are a lot for some reason a market street. i don't quite understand. so that aspect and the economic development aspect, i think is key. or it could be less vital than what we'd like. >> president fong: commissioner wu. >> vice president wu: thank you. i'm also, as the rest of the commissioners are supportive of this idea of the bus -- market street. i liked hearing this idea of the connectors and nodes and supportive of what commissioner sugaya mentioned regarding trying to reenforce what already exists, looking for where there's activity and building upon that. i also liked hearing the presentation of principle around being inclusive. i was having a conversation, i think it was with commissioner borden around what if there were such a thing as a services parklet for people who are

homeless. and i think that it sort of just seeks to understand who's already on market street and how to maybe address the needs of all people. and then the last thing i want to talk about is pedestrians. so you just mentioned that it's about 50% pedestrian. everyone anticipated of their trip is a pedestrian, if you drove, if you took transit, on and on. so i appreciate all the looking at the tradeoffs of what happens about the different sort of conflict that happen between modes, and appreciating that mostly it is pedestrians on market street. >> president fong: commissioner moore. >> commissioner moore: i'd like to echo the support and appreciation of your work. i think it's a very exciting way of how you're setting it up. fast-forward i have a couple of questions. i think it is the -- one node of the extensive same pavement which has made market street look so dated by now.

and i think the quality of market street was good contemporary buildings, and somewhat dormant historic buildings. these are fantastic infrastructure in terms of width and right of way, sunlight and poa potential trees which i think will be interesting to see of how you're addressing the materiality of market street. i think one of the sad things which has happened is that the contemporary buildings, which happened after the brick theme was installed, some could never really address and embrace market street. so the modern contemporary buildings, more toward the ferry building, all don't really deal well with the entrance and the vertical materials interacting with the brick. and even as you move further up, the historic buildings really all look, unfortunately, not

lending their lobby or the greatness of those entrances to be gateways to, and when one of the commissioners talked about -- i think it was commissioner hillis, how does retail deal -- how do the new buildings deal with being part of market street. i would be very interesting to hear your next discussions. i hope you will tell me that the brick will disappear, that we indeed have enough energy behind the rethinking of market street to talk about an appropriate response to materials, including guidelines how some of the new buildings need to be more engaging of the vertical and horizonal surfaces that face market street. and i think it's in that w weavg together where market will -- something that ages well, and something we don't have a dialogue because it's so good we

don't have to think about it anymore. that is the signature of those strong streets, most of them being in europe, some of them being car-free like copenhagen, there are no cars on those streets but that's another story and i don't think it a i hope ta lot of time and a lot discussion and look at what other people do, what succeeds and what is in your budget. thank you pmpleddle thank you. commissioner antonini. >> commissioner antonini: thank you. a couple of things to add. the area between van ness and octavia is really unique to market street in your consideration, because there's so much often space there. there are a couple of historic buildings, not a lot, which could be preserved, and a lot is buildings that probably don't have too much historic significance, and you know, the ability for development there guided in the right direction,

could really change, which i think is one of the most troubled parts of the street. actually it's almost worse than the mid-market in some ways when you go through there. it's not real pleasant area to go through. and the other thing that commissioner moore brought up, and unfortunately she's entirely correct about the discontact tht between the areas, don't really relate real well trot street because there was a period when businesses developed commercial buildings in those areas went to great lengths did not have a market street address. it had a derogatory characteristic to it, even in the lower part of market street so they'd make sure that even though the building might be on market street it would not have the address because the public had figured out that market street wasn't very good. so that's part of the problem, and i think we have to make sure

that, as we move forward anyway we can connect these buildings and any new buildings with market street is really important. >> president fong: director -- >> go ahead, please. >> i just wanted to first thank neil and chris. this has been really a fun project to work on. and i do think, as commissioner miguel said, hurting cabs is not an easy tasks in this sea so i am grateful for -- and i shouldn't characterize it that way because other departments have been quite helpful and quite collaborative in this effort, and it's really been fun. i appreciate the commissioners comments on the kind of land -- the larger land use urban design issues around the street because obviously the design of the street itself is not the only issue that we have to be concerned about. and one of the things that we're looking at is there's a huge difference between some of these districts.

you have a tremendous amount of pedestrian activity between fourth and fifth and yet west of fifth is very different and frankly east of third is very different, the zone that you were just talking about with the kind of 70's office buildings that don't have very much activity at the base of the building. i think there's some simple things we could look at, how to activate those plaza. i'm interested in looking at multi-level transpairnlsy on the street, really take being -- market street is the one street in the city where you could look at more just street level activity that helps activate the street, creating some transparency, some physical transparency between private buildings and the public street. having storefront second building open up, having a blurred line between public and private along the edge of that street. i also think it would be great for us to start talking about the public art component of the street and having some really dramatic sort of interactive public art i think would add to the street. so it's a fun time to be doing

this and i really look forward to discussions in the coming months. thank you. >> president fong: thank you. commissioner moore. >> commissioner moore: i want to also say that i think we new he to be very careful looking at the rapid spread of formula retail. i think to activate and make market street the destination it used to be, at least in certain parts, we need to have bookstores, we need to have art, we need to have all kinds of things, which really speak to the uniqueness of san francisco and not let it just be like the large chain store type of assembly of enterprise. the other thing is i hope that the department has enough support, enough time, and the support from the pac to also engage architectural efforts and building renovation as it occurs as we speak, to really speak about the larger issues that move you, and that is touching

on materiality uses, how can you prepare for having your lobby indeed be more interacteddive is what's going to come. and i think if you have that support then i strongly encourage that you work very closely with the process to make that happen. >> president fong: commissioner borden. >> commissioner borden: -- venue is opportunity to plug for two blocks of art which urban solutions is doing for market along 6th street to howard. i think if people haven't been around and had a chance to walk in that neighborhood, they're having it twice this fall, once on september 28 and the assembled time is october 19 from 4 to 8 pm and they will be on those two blocks. every business has an art component, whether it's a laundry mat or a restaurant. it's a great way to see some of the things that are organically starting to happen along that

corridor along market street, but also be able to help support those businesses, because they're the businesses that are kind of there, at the time, when they don't necessarily have the huge crowds and the big support. in order to kind of advance the larger strategy of helping market street, they have to support those businesses there now. there's a great new museum, a lot of stuff going on. but people don't know about it as much as we can help support that activity, i think it would be great. >> president fong: commissioner sugaya. >> commissioner sugaya: turnouts for food trucks. >> really quickly, if i may build on the plug. we've actually planned a sort of a pop-up storefront to happen on the 28th on the same day of two blocks for art. at the food lab inside the -- at the ren waw hotel where we will have project material on hand for folks to have a look at and

get feedback. trying to reach the folks that aren't able to make the traditional workshop so we will be out there as well so stop by. >> president fong: commissioner hillis. >> quickly, i'd echo commissioner's moover comments on formula retail because it gets planned in areas but also the size of the retail. there are places where it's more fine grained around 4th and 5th and larger scale down towards the financial center. >> you mean like where woolworth's was. >> yes. but then it gets to be a big lobby with a cell phone store and a bank. >> right. >> president fong: commissioner sugaya smpleghtsdz the last thing as long as we've talking formula retail i'm not as offended as i am with their signs. if we could control chase a little better and cvs, in terms of the way they put their signage up, i think it would go a long ways to alleviate some of

the visual intrusion i think in downtown. others seem to be more conscious of it. i know there's a comparison, and this is commissioner moore's pet peeve, of the cvs in california and battery, is it? versus the walgreen's store, which is one block away, on a corner, which has two discreet sort of bronze-looking signs. i don't know if they're bronze, but oldie type. i'm not advocating for oldy type but discreet signs versus the cvs signs. >> president fong: i think overall we agree this is great work and glad the at the present time is paying attention and time to it and thank you, commissioner miguel. >> commissioners that will place you on your final item under the regular calendar, item 12, case

no. 2012.0561(c) at 901 valencia treat request for conditional use authorization. >> good afternoon, commissioners. brittany bendix of planning department staff. you have before you a request for conditional use authorization to establish an entertainment use as part of the existing restaurant doing business as -- within the valencia street neighborhood commercial transit zoning district and situated at 901 valencia street. there are no changes to the building and proposal will reestablish the mariachi entertainment provided in the restaurant. the department received six letters of support for this project and one from a group of neighbors in opposition. these neighbors cited concerns related to noise, loitering and management of the subject property. however since the publication of this case report there has been a proactive dialogue between both parties, regarding -- new management and the operating

standards required by both the planning and entertainment commission. these discussions appear to have reassured neighbors that their concerns have been addressed and that new management will be more reactive to problems as they arise. the department is recommending approval on the project -- approval of the project on the grounds that it is considered necessary and desirable, contributes to the diversity of services offered in the neighborhood, and meets all applicable requirements of the planning code. this concludes my presentation and i am available for any questions. thank you pngetdz thank you. project sponsor. >> good afternoon. marsha gar land on behalf of the project sponsors, the baros family. i'm proud to introduce them. there's luna, and becky, and their father, carlos. and this is jim, who will be

handling the security at the restaurant. the family has owned this restaurant since 1951. it was the grandparents of these people here, also the grandmother's name is esperanza. they established the restaurant and the family are all from the mission, born in the mission, lived in the mission, and now own property in the mission, as well as the restaurant. the restaurant is 99-seat restaurant. it's had a complete renovation. it's gorgeous right now. and the hours of operation are from 10:00 until 1:00 per alcohol service and 10:00 until 2:00 for food service. as ms. ben fix mentioned, there was a problem with the neighbor, we had consistent dialogue for at least two weeks, and all those issues have been resolved. part of that was establishing a

professional security plan with jim individualo vidos of greatey protective services. the police department is pleased to see that this property will be used again as a commercial space because it enlivens the corner and eliminates some of the vagrants that have been sheltered there on the corner. and of course it brace back lots of jobs and the baros family is very proud that their cooks and service people from before have been waiting for them to reopen and they will be back again. i'd like to introduce the baros family if they would like to say anything. luna. >> hello. my name is carlos baros, and i have the opportunity right now sort of like to say to open up the restaurant in my father and my mother left me and i trying to get it going for my daughters that are flex to me right now. and i'm trying to hopefully think of my grandchildren, you

know, as part of the torch that i'm going to give them, you know. so i'm doing this and -- in respect to my family, you know, that they keep going with all these -- with all these things, that my father and my mother started for me. i'm just trying to keep everybody going in remembrance of my father and mother for all the help that they done to me. i want to pass that to my daughters. thank you very much. >> my name is beatrice baros and i just wanted to say, music in our restaurant since my grandparents opened it has always been a part of the restaurant and -- means a gathering of people singing, and, you know, it's music there. so i mean i feel like our -- wouldn't be the same without having live music. it's not a bar, like -- or a nightclub. it's restaurant where you can

sit down and enjoy lovely music, mexican culture. and i'm really proud to have this restaurant open and hope from i we can continue with the music like we used to have before. thank you. >> my name is esperanza baros and i agree with what my sister said. i would like to thank the local merchants. they were all friendly and nice and supportive and they wrote really nice letters. just wanted to -- they're very excited for us to reopen and enjoy the live musk. >> thank you. >> that conclude my presentation unless you have in he questions. >> we may. we'll open it up to public comment. if you have any questions, commissioner, be sure to ask. is there any public comment on this item?

>> good afternoon, president and commissioners. my name is -- a 10 year merchant at 2601 mission street, which is located about two blocks from the proposed permitted venue entertainment license at -- i'm -- in a few months, going to be expanding my own personal business to 20th and mission. and currently, in my business, have the opportunity -- or the necessity to meet with professional business type people, due to the nature of my business. i'm a paralegal for a law firm. and this particular location is going to be ideal for meeting with, and socializing in a safe and vibrant context, with the

combination of music and good culturacultural cuisine. i believe it will also increase the vibrancy and the safety of -- that's consistent with what we're trying to achieve at 20th and va val en valencia. it's been around for generations. since 1951 the grandparents and parent of the now kids are hopefully, with your approval today, going to provide them with the opportunity to maintain a safe gathering place of latin culture and mexican culture and provide the mariachi music that's so accustom and consistent with their business

model and formula. i believe that it's very difficult to find a whole lot of places, at least in the past, not so much in hisly i in necese present and hopefully in the future, to be able to meet in an atmosphere that doesn't involve long lines of necessarily fast food type experience, but a nice, quiet, cultural sit-down environment with the option or flavor of vibrant live entertainment. i do know that there is a concern for loud noise and security issues. but i believe that that's all been addressed and dealt with, with the local neighbors. again, i thank you for your time, commissioners. it would be my pleasure if you would all support and approve, keeping the -- experience legacy

and live and grant the entertainment permit. thank you. >> president fong: thank you. >> thank you. my name is dan al lard. i'm here today to pledge my support for the restaurant and the baros family. i am very familiar with the restaurant as it was one of the first restaurants i ever went to when i first moved to the city about 25 years ago. i found it to be a lively place. the food was great. and the band played a very integral part in making it such a fun atmosphere. i met the owners, and in discussions about their business i find them to be serious and determined business people, with great sensitivity and compassion for the neighborhood and for the city of san francisco. if given the privilege of an entertainment permit, i know the baros family will work diligently to follow the terms of the permit. i respectfully request that you grant the entertainment permit for the restaurant.

thank you. >> president fong: any additional public comment? seeing none, commissioner gordon. >> i am thrilled this restaurant is reopening. i was a person who went very often and i loved the festive atmosphere, the music. it was always such a fun place. nowadays it's super-unique along valencia because it had a record of having a lot of mexican-american restaurants, doesn't have very many left anymore. while everybody things of what goes on at mission street val epsia used to be the same way and this is the last few places that exist and it's exciting that it's reopen and it's exciting that it plays mar ach-i music. on a regular basis, it's very rare to find. i also live in walking distance of this restaurant and for a

long time, when it had been shut down, was wondering what was happening and was excited when i started to see work being performed on the space. i think it will add a lot to that block and bring back a part of the cultural history of valencia so i move to approve. >> second. >> president fong: commissioner sugaya. >> commissioner sugaya: i think you moved your bar? that's what i remember approximate. you took out my favorite eating place and i thinkit part of your kitchen. i've been waiting for you to reopen and i think everyone else is going to vote yes. so i call the question. >> on the motion to approve with conditions, commissioner antonini, aye, commissioner borden, aye, commissioner hillis, aye, commissioner president fong, aye. >> that motion passes unanimously and places you on the final item under your

agenda, general public comment that's a time members of the public may address the commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission except agenda items. i have no speaker cards. >> president fong: i have one speaker card, dino. >> hey, how is it going in dino, i want to inviolate you to check out 474 fairly street, a neglected property. we've talked about finding some solutions to what goes on in mid-market and north of mid-market and one of the solutions is addressing negligent owners of properties. i tried to put pressure on them. we've started doing reading if you want to join us, reading promoting a drug-free community. it seems to be a food hold on closing that gap. thank you for your hard work and commitment to san francisco. >> president fong: thank you. any additional general public comment?