>> yes. >> motion by supervisor yee. >> yes. >> and if we could take that without objection? >> thank you. >> why don't we call number four. >> item number four is a liquor license, excuse me, a hearing to consider the transfer of a type 20 off sale beer and wine license from 1169 market street to 2011 market street. for whole foods market. >> thank you. if we could before we hear from the project sponsor, this is an item that is in district 8 is that the application is supervisor weiner do you want to say anything before we move on to the applicant. >> i am in full support of a license. >> thank you. >> so if we could hear from the applicant on this item, please? >> thank you very much. >> good morning, supervisors, and staff, thank you for your time today, my name is adam smith i am the director of store development for whole foods market in northern california. we are very excited to be

preparing for the opening of our 7th san francisco location at 2001 market street. we are here to request the transfer of the type 20 license as referenced. the sale of beer and wine is very critical to our store business, as well as something that our customers have come to expect from us. we respectfully request your support in the transfer of this license. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> sir. >> if we could now hear from the police department. >> rich vancorw representing the san francisco police department. whole foods has brought an application with the california department of alcoholic beverage control seeking a type 20 that is off sale beer and wine in the type 86 that is structural tasting license for 2001 market street. in the calendar year, july, 2011 through july of 2012,

there were 21 police calls for service, which generated 5 police reports. premises is located in plot, 403, that plot recorded 428 police incidents for 2001 and located in the high crime area, the premises is located in 0203, and applicant currently in undue concentration area. and there were no letters of protest or support. no opposition from mission police station and the alcohol liaison unit recommends approval and the following conditions recommended to the california department of alcoholic control. >> sales of beverages between 8:00 a.m. and 10 p.m. each day of the week, no more than five percent of the square footage of the premises will be used for the display of alcoholic beverages. number three, no wine coolers, or beer coolers shall be sold

in quantities less than manufacturers previous packaged multiunit quantities of four or more. and finally, number four, loitering, defined as to stand idlely about, linger aimlessly without lawful business is prohibited to the business adjacent to the licenses under the control of the licensee. as depicted on abc form 257. on february 19th, of 2013, jay mcfear son was contacted on behalf of the applicant and agreed with the recommended conditions. >> thank you. >> thank you, sir. >> why don't we open it up to public comment. >> if there is any member of the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> supervisor weiner? >> thank you, i am in full support. this is really 2001 market is a superb project in general and i know that the whole foods is a

welcome addition. it will provide some competition with the safeway across the street which is in sore need of that competition in terms of its customer service levels. and i just want to know one thing, in terms of the data that the police typically rely on, around these liquor licenses, one of them is the number of calls for service in the area and obviously i understand that the relevance of that. but this is one of those situations and this has what i am about to say has nothing to do with this specific license but a broader issue, that when you look at a situation like we just had in the first item on the agenda and also this one, the market for example is a area that is a little bit of a dead zone in terms of particularly evening foot traffic and just not enough commercial activity and so this whole foods with the liquor license is going to

significantly improve the conditions particularly in the evening, and on the weekends. and so, i think that it will actually reduce the calls for service. and as the department supporting the transfer and i totally agree and this is not about this specific license. but i think that it is important looking more broadly, taking into account that sometimes even if there might be a undue concentration or a lot of calls for service, having a business with a liquor license coming in can actually help that situation. and i know that you know that, but i just wanted to. >> and i agree with you and where we go from there and that for instance, we put four conditions and sometimes we put many more conditions on. so we asked the applicant to come back within six months to a year and do modifications and that is when we go back and revisit and look at the calls for service and we use that to modify and it seems to work very well. so it is a barometer of how we can help out of the applicant

as well. >> i am not being critical of the department, i think that the people hear that there is a lot of calls for service and maybe we should not put a license in an x location when can be the opposite. >> as i said with the earlier applicant at 1 polk, i looked can he cads and some of these those are traffic stops and so we look at every report to make thouer that there is a nexus for that address as well >> thank you very much. >> so colleagues, we have an application and a recommendation, of approval. would some recommended conditions, could we have a motion on that? >> so moved. >> motion by supervisor mar and we could take that without objection. >> if we could go now back to item number two? >> my understanding is that there might have been some confusion with the applicant in terms of when the hearing for this item would be held. i do want to give the police

department an opportunity to say anything if they want to. there is there has been a request to continue this item. by the district supervisor. but, inspector do you want to add anything? >> we have no problem with a continuance. i think that would be the best opportunity then to discuss that issues if we want to go on record right now where there say denial, but when we come back, hopefully they will meet with us again and we can discuss this further. >> great. >> why don't we on item two, open it up to public comment if there is any member of the public that would like to speak? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. >> colleagues, could we have a motion to continue this to the call of the chair? and we will bring this item once the parties have had an opportunity to meet and hopefully we will hear from the applicant at that point? >> so we have a motion from supervisor mar if we could take that without objection? >> thank you. >> mr. clerk, if you could call

item number five >> item number five, a hearing to review the statistics from the entertainment commission and the police department regarding violence and public safety incidents associated with the entertainment venue and receive the updates from the entertainment commission's review of relevant complaints. >> and this was an item that was introduced by president chiu. >> thank you, mr. chair and i want to thank you colleagues, supervisor mar and campos may remember that in the first few years in office, night life violence was a significant issue and the number of incidents of fights and shootings and other violence in and around night clubs and other entertainment venues was an all too common occurrence and we had in those years, a significant debate about whether the entertainment commission was capable of regulating public safety in and around the night life, you may remember that the mayor suggested that the police department take back some of

those authorities. and we also heard from the entertainment commission that they did not feel like they had the tools of telling the authority to do what they were charged to do and so during that time period i spend quite a bit of time passing at this point, four different pieces of legislation to give this city and the entertainment commission more tools to do that. we passed legislation requiring clubs to beef up security requirements and to allow the entertainment commission to shut down clubs and to regulate party promoters who were responsible for a number of issues as well as operators of parking lots where many fights would break out after hours. my first piece of legislation from 2009, required quarterly reports by the entertainment commission of trends and night life violence and this committee used to actually hear the reports once a quarter, last year, and i would say this

anicdotaly, we did not have the quarterly hearing and it is fair to say that in the last couple of months on the broad way corridor these issues have not gone away, and i have asked for this hearing to refocus and i have asked king to make a presentation on the data that she sees from the last few years and we do have a deputy chief john loftus who is in charge of entertainment for the san francisco police department along with several of his inspectors to also make comments. so with that i would like to... acknowledge our colleagues, supervisor weiner is here and he also has a few words that he would like to add. >> chairman? >> go ahead. >> thank you. >> and thank you, to president chiu for calling this hearing. so, night life which is an issue that i have worked on quite a bit, and is really in

my view at the heart of the cultural identity of our city. and it is it keeps our city, and helps to keep our city, diverse, it brings music, and art, and vibrantcy and young people into our city and keeps our city as a really vibrant urban mecca and it is critical that we support and continue to strengthen our entertainment music, night life scene in san francisco. we also know and this is one of the first things that i did when i took office that i requested the city economist to prepare an economic impact report on night life in san francisco. and what we learned was that in addition to the cultural importance of night life, that night life has a huge positive economic impact on the city. 4.2 billion dollars, many, many jobs, tax revenues and so forth.

night life also not always, but often has public safety benefits when we have more people out, and about. and on the streets, at night, that makes our street safer. when we have venues that are open, at night, with often with security guards now on the street, that makes our streets safer. we are a world class city and we have world class night life and we need to make sure that that continues. and we have had violence in some situations at night clubs. and i really want to acknowledge that i do not envy president chiu's position of having to deal with some of the issues around broad way and there have some extreme situations on broad way and i think that is again, something that i do not envy for president chiu or the police or the entertainment having to deal with. we absolutely when the

nightclub is not complying with the rules or not keeping the people safe and then the action needs to be taken. president chiu mentioned that he gave the entertainment commission through legislation additional tools to do that and i have pending legislation to give them even more flexibility in terms of enforcing against bad actors. and we definitely, need to do that and i believe that the commission has really turned things around in the last few years in terms of holding bad actors accountable. what i do want to make sure that we don't throw the baby out with the bath water and sometimes we have bad situations and there is a temptation instead of focusing on the specific bad situation and going after the bad actors, and having very narrowly tailored responses, sometimes there can be a temptation to act in a more broad way which

can dramatically under mine night life in the city. and when then the mayor nusom suggested getting rid of the entertainment commission and i was floored when i heard that and i could not have agreed, and i think that it is throwing out the baby with the bath water. it is important to hear about the trends in the nightclub violence but i do want to keep that broad perspective, front and center, thank you. >> thank you, supervisors and i know that we are going to hear from folks. i do want to make couple of comments and i think that it is important for us to have some hearing and to continue to monitor what is happening in terms of violence relating to the entertainment industry. and i have to say though that i do think that this is one of those issues where maybe some of us have a different perspective and a different opinion and i actually believe that while indeed there are examples in every district where things happen and things go wrong, i don't think that

they are limited only to the entertainment industry, and to night life. i think that the reality is that just about every business there is the possibility of something going wrong and an incident leading to violence, and my own personal view is that some of the concerns in terms of linking violence to the entertainment industry and to night life, in particular, in my estimation had been exaggerated and i think ha it cuts the other way too and in fact one of the things that i have found troubling is that the focus has been so much on the entertainment commission, and i say this as someone who used to serve on the police commission that i don't think that there is enough focus on the police department itself. and i think that it is fair to say that many of us who have been monitoring this for all of these years have also seen that depending on who was over seing the unit that dealt with the

entertainment industry, you had less or more cooperation with the industry. and at times, i certainly felt that the police department was not doing enough to cooperate with the entertainment industry and my hope is that that approach is changing and my understanding and my experience with the entertainment industry is that when there are legitimate concerns and issues that they are willing to work with the police department and hope that going forward that the police department is going to work with them there really is a two-way street and i think that this venue provides an opportunity for us to have that discussion. i think that at times, the way in which we have talked about this, has been too-one sided and the focus has been so much on the negative and not enough recognition of the positives and the fact is that the vast majority of businesses that do this kind of work are responsible. and want to do the right thing and they are in fact doing the

right thing as well. supervisor mar? >> thank you. >> i will be brief. i think that this is a great hearing, i'm looking forward to hearing both from the entertainment commission and the police on how they are working together to keep our merchant areas, especially those with late night entertainment safe. i know in my district, since the old days on geary and a lot of partying and different incidents i have not seen the incidents from the past but i know that the former rocket room was one place where there were a number of incidents and i appreciated not only the richmond police station and also the staff of the entertainment commission for really encouraging effective security and good communication with the club owners and the residents as well. so i have appreciated how the system has worked. it is not perfect, but i know that better communication and really, coordination with both of the endties of the police and the entertainment commission has been very successful in the richmond district i feel.

>> why don't we, unless we have anything else. why don't we turn it over to the entertainment commission staff. >> thank you, supervisors. i think that we are still in good morning, josyln cain and i handed out a lot of memo and a lot of what is in here is said and i am pleased to present the fifth report to the board of supervisors on this subject of entertainment issues of public safety in san francisco. as president chiu mentioned this process began if 2009 and we reported through 2010, and then, in 11, and 12 did not, have not been back. and so, that is why the numbers and the memo that you have got in front of you basically limited to 11 and 12 and up to date through 13. and just the context we did basically give you some raw numbers around different types of incidents and i am happy to go through those.

but the context is, essentially that the supervisor weiner mentioned this is a huge industry. and it hires thousands and thousands of people, and in fact, 80 million spending customers come annually through these venues including restaurants. if we take the restaurant out and we talk about entertainment night clubs and bars you are looking at 9 and a half million patrons. so then, when we look at numbers and in terms of violence throughout the year, in permanent venues, we are talking about 127 that were reported to us through the police departments system of sending us weekly reports. and 100 of those, 127, were venues, permitted by the entertainment commission and then in 2012, that number went up, the total went up to 178 and ours 139.

and you know, we can attribute that to all sorts of things, we saw an uptick in business. and so, i don't know that it tells a whole story, it is very, very consistent and up through this year, you know, we are half of that at the moment. those are violent incidents, those are dat batteries, assaults it is stave safe to say that these are happening outside of venues but occasionally things happen inside with bottles and things that could be considered weapons. but we are very quick to use the tools that supervisor chiu mentioned and we also are reporting in this memo this citations that we have issued as well as novs which are notices of violation if we are not able to issue a citation as well as the 16 suspensions from the beginning of the entertainment commission that we have done and the majority of those have been, between

2010, and currently. they are really, really helpful. and supervisor weiner's additional sort of crafting of the tools that we have been using even further are going to be even more effective as well. we find that the relationship like you talked about with the police department is excellent right now. and the reporting specifically is here because we get weekly reports from the police department from all of the stations and then, via, alu and the creation of a liaison a few years ago. and with the help of cmac. and in the industry, it was fantastic and so we have a command level liaison in the police department that we talked to, quite literally, i think that i talked to officer van coal, and inspector van

coal every day, sorry. and the chief when he is not too busy. and all of the permit officers and it is better than it has ever been, the two things that are vital, for the entertainment commission to be good at what we do, is respect in the industry, and i get that with the tools that i have got now. and i am in there quick and then, cooperation with the police department and i know things if they keep moving the way that they are, it will only get better, i love that these insurance incidents go to 0. i don't know that that will ever happen. there is a lot of nights to party in san francisco. and again in my memo, i sort of gave you a number for context, but if the 400 places of entertainment were only open two days a week, we are looking at 41,000 nights to go out and party and if 100 or so of those turn into violence, it is not great but it is not the worst

thing with a tiny percentage. most people come to san francisco or go out and they live here and they go out and they behave, you know, exactly how we expect them to. and those that don't, you know, we take them to task. very quickly. >> so i'm happy to answer questions. this is inspector greneli who is out there every single weekend and he has got raw data if you have questions about these sort of larger numbers. and i want to definitely give an opportunity for the police department to come up and sort of present how they work with us. >> before we hear from the police department, i know that president chiu had questions. >> thank you, mr. chair and first of all i appreciate you compiling the information and frankly, the task that you have had in the last couple of years has been a challenging one, supervisor weiner and i joined together to support budget add to help with the staffing for inspections which has been stalled a bit but hopefully

that will continue and we need to understand why, that has been challenging, but you know, i very much appreciate the work that you are doing i also want to say in response to some of the earlier comments from supervisorers weiner and campos it has been my perspective that the vast majority of clubs are doing the right thing and as i have often discussed with the entertainment industry, it is those the handful of bad apples in certain neighborhood corridors that we need to really focus our attention on. and what i was interested in from your data, was it appeared that between 2011, and 2012, every indicator of issues has been on the increase in the negative way. and so, for, members of the public that might be watching this, the number of violent incidents between 2011, and 2012 increased by 40 percent. the number of public safety incidents that did not involve

violence that could have involved, weapons charges, narcotics, drug arrest and permit violations and abc violations the number of those has increased by 79 percent between 2011 and 2012. and the number of quality of life incidents that occur in and around the venues, thefts which i think are a bit more than quality of life incidents permit violations and loitering and etc., increased by 115 percent. and i know that it is not... we can't pinpoint exactly why these things happen. but could you give a little bit of perspective on what you think is going on, you know, in and around these clubs and particularly i am wondering if you are able to break down this data by neighborhoods. and or exactly where these incidents are happening whether they are in a nightclub, in a parking lot, in a short distance outside of the entertainment corridors and certainly the experience that i have seen in the street still

remain intense. >> so, i will take a stab at some of these. the issues of the rise, and again, it is not something that i am positive about, one thing that i am sure of, however, and i think that the police will back me up on this is that regarding the theft, cell phones and anything with an iin front of it is something that is routinely a problem. and there, we get those reports every week about someone leaving their purse or cell phone on the bar and going to the men's room or lady's room or pick pocketing and so those i feel like that may be part of that number for sure. you know, the other thing that i want to point out and i know that supervisor chiu had asked me, to include some 2010, data as well. is that we have improved but it is taking year after year after year to improve the reporting.

and it took 2010 was not a year where we were getting very many reports from the police department it was spotty and 2011 improved and 2012 was incredible and i have a sense and i am a little bit guessing that maybe, this is also respective of us knowing now that these incidents are occurring and we will obviously watch 2013, because it will be just as hopefully as good as 2012 in terms of getting us all of the data and then we will be able to know whether there is actually arise or is it just about us knowing what it is and again, we might be able to ask the chief loftus to look back on it and if you are going to continue to sort of this repeat this, quarterly or semiannually, we can come back with that kind of stuff. because i don't have the other stuff that you asked for, at the moment in terms of neighborhoods.

i will tell you that in our name is permitted or zoned as it were in various view parts of the city. entertainment is really bunched up and as you know it is very much in your district and so, as well as supervisor campos and supervisor weiner it is bunched up where is visit ors come and plans allows it and so when i do put it in that form, i am sure that we will see quite a bit of it in your district. and as far as inside and outside, and again, this is anecdotal but i am 99 percent sure this is right, is it typically is outside, it does not mean that it is outside of the sphere of influence that a club has to control. and definitely parking lots as you know, the parking lot legislation was informed by that information. that these for the most part are things except for where you see the 16 suspension, that

happens, you know, within positive control or there was a nexus that was solid to the nightclub. but not necessarily inside. we don't have much patience, i certainly don't, for things that happen inside of a venue that are very violent that include, assaults and weapons, and so what i will do tha. >> that is not perfect but that is what i know. >> i want to acknowledge that the number of citations that the entertainment commission has issued has increased substantially and i think that is the reflection of the hard work and the increasing work that you have done doing in this area. i would like to make a request of the entertainment commission and of the san francisco police department, to the extent to which you can drill down and really help us understand, where are these incidents happening and by h