what frustrates me walking down market street particularly from octavia to van ness is the obscured ground floor locations and i think that enforcement abilityd working with property owners along that corridor to really liven those ground floors will help a lot with eyes on the street and kind of the more feeling of the access to the street. the other thing, in terms of street furniture i think there's much more need for street furniture along that corridor for place for people to sit. people already sitting but they're sitting on the street because there's no place to sit. so looking at making sure not only just the portion from van ness to embarcadero but those few block portions that there are adequate areas for that kind of activity and maybe even having like kiosks, like there's a little flower place, they don't have an ideal kiosk

but how to have places where people could set up a coffee or flower boutique or something, how to build that into the plan. in terms of traffic, taking cars off, i'm very much in support of taking cars off market. i'm not sure why there's ability to turn between van ness and 12th why there's that turning lane. i'm trying to figure o are comim because they've had so much chances to turn before that point i don't understand why we need that block for cars to drive along. i see every day conflict with cars and bicyclists and pedestrians. so i think whatever we do, in terms of the choices that we make we definitely have to beef up enforcement and education so people understand why things are done that way. i'm also supportive of fixing the bus -- and stops. the one bane of my existence is

the f line which on occasion i love to take that train but it literally takes me three times or four times the amount of time to get to the same location than if i just walked to the underground. it's so much quicker and part is because there are too many stops and the other part are the tourists and people getting on the train and it's very congested. it's not an effective mode for locals and there there's not enough information for people to understand how to use that mode. even more signage, f line stops, reducing the number of them, and looking at around the fifth corridor really not having cars there because that just adds -- creates such added congestion. and the train and buses get stuck in that corridor between fourth and fifth for sometimes five to so minutes because there are so many pedestrians. anything we could do to make it more comfortable for pedestrians and transit pass-through makes a

lot of sense. i love your reference to the chess tables because i've seen in other major cities where they've built in, because we have people bringing their own temporary tables. it would be nice to be built in along corridor areas where we had built-in chess tables and people could bring their pieces and play there. i think this is really exciting. i think there are other components, like the design principles and working with merchants and property owners around the storefronts, and how they treat those will be a really critical part of this and also more about whether it's street trees or other sort of art incorporated into those frontages and how -- i know there's a program in the cultural mid-market area where there are installations to like take up storefronts but codifying it and making real is the other component part because we want it to be nice and there would be an improvement but i

think the other part is some of the economic development aspect. so really excited about this, and willing to help in any way. >> president fong: commissioner sugaya. >> commissioner sugaya: yes. i guess being a car owner, being a car driver, not too keen on car -- market. i use market a lot, actually. maybe other people don't. but it's a diagonal. so it saves me time, having to go -- especially on the north side. if you have to go down and take a street, pine, and then go to van ness, and then down to market, it's easier just to go to market and diagonal down. saves gas too. anyway, i never been a total car-free person anyway. i have a question, -- not a question an observation.

if you allow paratransit and other, like delivery and taxis, how are you going to treat the new form of urban -- they're not called taxis, this iewber, whoever those other guys are with the mustache on the front of the car. there are at least three or four that i think have started up. so that's a consideration, unless there is some way to identify them, i guess if you have a mustache in front of your car, that's an easy way to identify it. but i think if somebody like me participants in one of those other programs and just uses my car, then there's no readily available way to identify who i 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 ownedthis 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