workers in the neighborhood. if i were to venture a rough guess, i would say certainly fewer than 20% of the people on market street itself. half our house in the immediate neighborhood. -- half are housed in the immediate neighborhood. this is conjecture, would be my guess. >> any other comments? >> thank you all. >> next item. good >> item 7, presentation on small-business week, 2012.

this is a discussion item. >> welcome, mr. strauss. >> i have a power point. what is the best way to do noth? >> you can try. >> proceed at your own risk. but thank you for having me here this evening. >> adam, if you are going to talk, we need to have you got into the microphone, since we are live. four new commissioners, just so you are aware, we are required as city government -- for

individuals who are hard of hearing, we have a closed captioning, so for all presentations commowe do need te the presenters begin to the microphone. i may say to you we need to have used the into the microphone, just so you -- you have to speak into the microphone, just so you are aware of that. >> my office is in mission, and while i am an worried when twitter moves in i will have no parking left, but i am glad to have an upgrade to. -- to have upgrades. >> i think they all have bicycles. you should be ok. >> i apologize. there are some good visuals are wanted to share.

my name is adam strauss. i am the producer for small business week, which is a partnership between the office of small business and the commission, the chamber of commerce, the sba, the golden gate is disassociation, -- golden gate business association, a number of organizations, african american chamber of commerce, so we take advantage of national small business, and we convene of the small business organizations to gather and celebrate the impact now small businesses have on a community and to partner with corporate partners to create networking opportunities

throughout the week to highlight small businesses, so this is the eighth year of small business week in san francisco. we are the largest small- business week in the country. there are 4000 people who attend the event throughout the week. of we have 52 free workshops, and we do a number of mixtures throughout the week -- mixers throughout the week. the last two years we have been trying to build on our success and build a program to go from region when i came on board a few years ago we had 800 people attending our gala event, and last year we have 1400 attendees. we had six teeteen workshops, se

are trying to grow the opportunities we are trying to present. this year our theme is saluting the heroes of our economy. we are excited about this. we are going to have a number of ads throughout the city as well as in "across mccall -- "the chronicle,"the spanish paper, "the business times," showing a campaign illustrating some of the small businesses in our community and talking about small business

week, so that is where we try to reach out to regard we try to let people know that small business week -- where we try to reach out. we try to let people know that small business week is happening. we go directly through all of our partners of the economic development organizations and our host organizations, so we host slavers of san francisco, which is our main the -- the host flavors of san francisco. this year we are hoping to take the awards program out and hold a separate event tuesday evening. we are still hoping to secure the sponsorship to create that, but it is difficult when you have 1400 people drinking and eating and having a good time to pay attention to the program, so

we are going to break out of parts, and on tuesday, -- break out of parts -- break that apart, and on tuesdays, they award small businesses. we are hoping to acknowledge them at the awards program on tuesday evening. the conference will be held out sentences thursday downtown campus of the westfield, -- at san francisco state downtown campus at westfield. the one thing we are not going to be doing this year is a program previously called shop your neighborhood, which is where we partnered with local merchant associations and tried to market and what initially were sidewalk sales, but due to low involvement from the neighborhoods, we have scaled

that back. i do believe you would have offered waivers for the merchant associations who made use of it, and the merchant associations that were successful at it, they build a community event on their own, and the investment away from some of the other programs we did for small business week. we have been quite successful this year. we have lost a few sponsors, and we have gained a few sponsors. i want to thank the commission for underwriting of part of our work, and without my visuals it is hard to go forward, but are there any questions? >> any questions from commissioners?

>> i am co-chair this week, and adam, you do an awesome job with this. when it was at city hall you would get about 100 people, and about was it. last year we have 1400, and the networking capabilities with small businesses, with each other, was quite amazing. it is something you should be very proud of, and the workshops you offer, i cannot tell you how many small-business members not only from my merchant association of from inner sunset, from the excelsior, we actually attend these

workshops, and they take it back to their own businesses. it is insoluble, so i have to say hats off to you. you have done -- it is valuable, so i have to say how thought to you. you have done a tremendous job. >> it brings it together, and it is a pleasure to have so many different resources to work with economic development agencies and the committee we have and the chamber. but it is a wealth of resources a. >> this is the largest small- business week in the united states, bigger than new york, chicago, los angeles. this is not something san francisco can say we are number one at.

they have the most small- business participation of anyone in the united states, and that is great. >> one thing the regional director said is we have the most small business involvement you're good in a lot of areas they made to an awards -- the most small business involvement. they reach out to small businesses and trying to engage in networking within air corridors as well as citywide and also provide a large amount of education opportunity. good parts are want to thank the director for helping secure the premises -- >> i want to thank the director for helping secure the permits. we look forward to that. that is one of the biggest shopping days. it is a iq to draw into our neighborhood, -- a huge draw

into our neighborhood. we just need to expand to other neighborhoods. >> my dad helps me never gave some of the politics and policies to make sure this moves forward. -- helps me navigates some of the politics and policies to make sure this moves forward. >> i think that is a great idea to separate and. that is something that needs to be done, so thank you very much. doug >> we are just a sponsorship. gthis is 100% under written by our corporate partners, so anything we want to do we have

to get paid for. >> what is the sponsorship on fasthat? how much money are you looking for for that separates the even event? but i think we are looking for a $15,000 sponsorship or someone to under rite aid region -- someone to underwrite it. >> but as a $15,000 proposition? perhaps it is what of further cost is. new -- >> it is whatever the cost is. if it is a hotel ballroom, that is a different price from somebody's shop, so that is

different. you could do it when a lot less. it all depends on what location. by 5 news scouted locations -- >> have you scouted locations. >> commissioner adams knows some people who goes something like this. >> hopefully i will have something on wednesday. >> if somebody came to me without wanting to oppose it, we would pitch it for 15, but we try to work with what we have. >> i am sorry if are blanked out -- if i blanked out.

did you review the neighborhood focus? >> one of the innovations we've made, it is a name that way because the event has restaurants, and so people are more likely to talk to them. what we have done is we have invited a different neighborhoods, so we say, coming here and invite two or three restaurants, and you get to have a corner that is just the

castro and represent your area. the restaurants often do a lot of fun recreation, so they can definitely create a splash. in helping connect to some merchants have have not necessarily connected. there seems to be -- merchant associations have a lot of fun showing off through the city, so we are looking for ways to engage and support of different organizations throughout the city, so we are looking for different ideas and ways we can do that. >> we are all from different parts of the city.

i have two restaurants from the castro that were very skeptical, and they go in every year because they see direct benefits weeks after with people coming back. >> i know patreo hill is involved. they are very good. >> thank you, adam. >> thank you very much, and i hope you get to go home at a reasonable hour this evening. >> we previously heard item number eight, so we are now on item number nine, directors report. >> welcome. i am going to move into our

director's report. i will provide an overview of key activities that have taken place throughout the month and provide an update in terms of legislation the commission has hureard. any policy matters before the commission are ongoing policies and then have updates, so just to let you know, last month i mentioned the office along with a commission of small business california posted a workshop to educate businesses, and commissioner reilly attended, so i am going to let you provide a much more detailed report, but it was well attended and lots of fun.

small business week is coming up. this year we are not going to be promoting the area because of low participation. we are still going to be providing the sidewalk encroachment fee for those who want to do this. their deadline to get information into our office is on the 23rd of march, so just like supervisor chiu being with us, for departments to be able to waive fees, they need direction and approval from the board of supervisors, so waiving the fee requires a legislative process, so that will be before you. another update now i would like

to provide you is that with the mayor's job plan, one of the items that is in creation, and we have had discussions through the commission over the years is a one-stop plan for the businesses that are interested in saying what are the regulations i need to open a restaurant, and they are able to get not a complete vetdetailed list but an overview. commissioner o'brien made a comment that businesses need to be able to get an assessment of what those are up front before they engage with presenting their plans to dbi and the

planning department, so we are in discussion about combining a tool but will allow businesses to do our rough estimate of what the impact fees are going to be, so tomorrow there is a meeting, and in april i will be providing updates to villaraigosa -- providing updates. i think we will be providing us summer launch. goono updates on the work development plan. i hope to have a presentation of this month, but since we started late, if there is another way to tax businesses other than the payroll tax, so we are holding

off on that meeting until april . i cannot officially announced the business -- the position is posted on line, and because this is a civil service position, there is a unique selection process, but the office does not have control over it as we have with other positions, so i will be keeping you --hopefully by the end of march are will be receiving who the top candidates are to interview, so i will keep you posted, and moving on to legislation, it has not been assigned to committee -- i am

sorry. it has been assigned but it is not in committee and land use yet. goothe benefit corporation wille heard on wednesday, and the proposed changes due to this commissions feedback and discussion with the human rights commission, there are four bulleted items i have provided which would prevent them from getting a discount if it would bump a non-profit. the discount would apply to contracts under $10 million, and add an evaluation period to

two years. last month we heard the mayor have legislation appropriating $1 million, so it had a hearing of the budget and finance committee, and it will be heard this coming wednesday, so i will let you know the results of the budget and finance committee. supervisor wiener has identified -- have introduced the eating and drinking establishment requirements, but hopefully that

will take place soon. gooa height increase, there wera couple of areas in district 1. but is waiting to be scheduled as well, and the security plans for the commercial parking garages is being scheduled on march 29, so i will keep you apprised of the results of the actions. most likely chris will keep you apprised as to what takes place with these items, and some ongoing policy matters, there is a disability access we have been having working with businesses. i have been meeting with merchants, and what is being developed are some proposed recommendations at the state and

federal level. understanding it is not going to change, but there are things that can be done to help inform small businesses and increase the accessibility and increase the liability for small businesses, -- decrease the liability for small businesses, so we are hoping to have of formal proposal, so that it will be something that will be coming before you, and i am sure you have been reading regarding mobile foods, that they have introduced legislation that prohibits mobile servicfoods frm

being 1,500 feet from a public and private elementary school monday through friday from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. this takes out all of the real estate of sandford cisco, so supervisor wiener -- of san francisco, so supervisor winner has been in discussion, and we are working with the state legislative committee and state lobbyists to try to affect some change, because this would have a tremendous impact on the program and we have worked so hard to create, and it is a model designed for our rural and

suburban environment, so right now in our permanent program, no food trucks are allowed in the 1500's were a foot radius -- 1500 square foot radius of the public high school monday through friday, and that has been too restrictive, so supervisor winner has introduced legislation to scale down a dark and one city block -- supervisor wiener has introduced legislation to scale the track in one block, so i will keep you apprised as we make sure we know the direction.

it is either the san francisco is exempt or that there are municipalities but have a robust program are exempt, but the preference is the and we have san francisco exempt from this state legislation because we are a unique urban environment that does not exist anywhere else in the state, so that is something offices are actively working on, and oak overview -- a quick overview of what is happening with the retreat, we will be getting agendas and some packet materials of this wednesday and subsequent information will be following through e-mail up until the monday before hand,