we had like walmart moving in, it would kill all businesses. i went to see their store in new york and was completely charmed. made in the u.s.. this is exactly the kind of business that i want next door to inspire me to renovate and innovate. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you tonight. i spoke with you last week and i want to reiterate with what i said last week. my name is a michael gardener. i have been in business for 36 years. between 19 and 20th on mission street. between my block alone there are 9 empty stores. there are 3 stores to the left if you look at my store from across the street that have been empty over 10 years. there is a store directly across from me empty

for 3 years. there is a restaurant across from me empty for 3 years. i can just go on and on. i am totally invested in the mission district in san francisco in my 36 years in the mission, myself and staff have donated time and to organizations. i have bought uniforms for the baseball team. whenever anybody has come to me for a donations eye # -- i have given it to them. when i came to the mission district in san francisco, i learned it was the shopping state in the united states. between 16 and 24 street it was 1 mile. it was called the mission mile. we had national shops, okay. 1 minute, please. all i would

like to say is that when i read the ordinance, and i looked at all of those things, i'm not a lawyer. i'm a businessman. jack spade is not a formula retail. i have been to their store on venice beach, it's inside of a house. it's going to look totally different and we need a business with that price point of that merchandise in our neighborhood. thank you very much for the opportunity. >> thank you. next speaker. >> my name is kyle sweeley. i'm a mission resident. i would like the board for the time tonight. i would like to elaborate or a point tonight. the point is we are not asking you for who cab -- can be in it mission. we are asking for a

conditional use hearing and asking whether officials decide. by way of background this public hearing process has voted an approved ballot. 58 percent of voters city wide. jack spade would be falling behind the property line. that's the near super majority of voters saying that having a voice in the future of it community is of paramount importance. supervisor is supporter of the proposition. what that changes is stores of america is marrick sure you have community support before you move to san francisco. a recent opinion piece noted in the seven 7 years since these controls are put into place, a broad range of observers agreed they have worked in striking a balance. the evidence backs up. some 70 of 90 chains have been

approved. jack spade has said repeatedly they have the support of the community. instead they seem intend on avoiding it. this is despite months of attempting to contact them they have radio silence. they have reached out to executives, pr firms and were completely shut out. it was this that made them lastly file their appeal. they do not give their time of day. we have showed why it is a big business owned and operated by kate spade. it should be considered one in the same. we are asking you to reach beyond the scope to let the community to decide for themselves. >> next speaker. i'm going to have him turn the computer back on for a second. i want to reiterate a few things from last week's appeal that we submitted more than

2,000 signatures in support of this appeal. we have supervisor campos and avalos in this appeal and in the direct vicinity of the storefront in question including -- just cause, poder, center for political education, shaping san francisco, the western regional advocacy project, poor magazine and these are all in the immediate vicinity of the storefront. another thing i wanted to highlight was these points from the findings section of section 703.3. i read these partly for the benefit of the representative of kate spade because i don't think they would want to violate these principles in the findings of the ordinance. formula retail businesses are increasing in number in san

francisco as they are in cities across the country. money earned by independence business is more than likely to circulate in the city economy than the money erpd by formula retail businesses that has offices located in san francisco. of course their located on park avenue in new york city. they are better capitalized and can absorb the larger start up cost. this can put pressure on existing businesses and potentially price out new start up independent bitsz. of course all of these apply to this businesses. it not monitored and regulated will hamper the goal of the retail base with retailing personality comprised. the establishment of additional formula retail. i'm

not going to read the rest of it. clearly everyone knows that these principles within the finding section of the ordinance in question here relate directly to this business. that should be considered tonight. thank you for your time. hi. i'm neale marcason i'm on the board of directors for the -- i heard the rent was going to be doubled and i couldn't stand the thought that san francisco would do that to a place like doll bebooks. we figured out that at certain point we needed to make a certain amount of money to transform the rent and

diversify at revenue models. we did a lot of research and found that the landlord was going to triple the rent and wasn't going to consider our proposal and we learned about jack spade. i can't really speak to the legality of it. it's not my specialty. it extremely depressing to me that mission is gradually becoming overrun with these boring generic stores. i think it's very tell that the potential manager of this store expressed here in the court, i noticed the writing on the computer seemed is to stutter at that point when she expressed a real sympathy for the gentrification happening in the mission. thank you. >> next speaker, please. my name is jeff ray,

president of the boards for the adobe books cooperative. i heard that last week that jack spade representative said that andrew had retired, the owner of adobe books and gave his blessing to jack spade. there is nothing more from the truth. andrew and a group of us worked on creating a worker owned cooperative. we had tut put together a business model. we thought we could be successful. we that had backing of my other business rainbow grocery, we had the backing of the communicate. -- community. the community wanted us to stay. with jack spade coming along, we could not compete with a chain. obviously they share

the same office in new york. baby gap, regular gap. and to compare, there is kate spade and say that the mission is very important to us and to have a park avenue store plop down where andrew and adobe books were there for 25 years is a desecration. it's horrible. i don't understand why there is any support from local businesses. the local businesses could have a cooperative there. we had ideas for having pop uks who would have some of the other businesses there and little corners of the store. so vote against this, please. thank you. >> next speaker.

>> hi, my name is brees culver ton. i live in san francisco for 20 years. i have seen many changes. the reason i initially moved here is because of the uniqueness. north beach is independent still and chinatown is independent. people don't come here to go to jack spade. people don't come here to go to another mall. and the mission has always been unique and you need to retain it's uniqueness in order to retain it's viability. as for the jack spade and mission, i don't know what kind of research they did. i don't think it's a good fit. i don't understand who is going to buy their stuff. maybe they

think rich techies are going to buy their stuff. as for their branding and merchandising, of course no stores are going to look the same. it stupid to have the same formula. the idea that a store is always going to look the same like a mcdonald's is outdated branding and merchandising. the idea that every kate spade store is going to look difference is absurd. i think you should consider the fact that they are the same. it doesn't matter what they have on the walls and what color of uniforms they wear. they are the same company and coming to the mission and destroy the character of the mission. i want to maintain my business forever. my niece is going to speak and one 1 day i would love to have her in the store. my business helps me support my family. it a shame that if you will it this pass, that another

corporation might take out my business as well. >> next speaker. >> hi. i'm from the mission. and i'm actually thinking of opening up my own business. how am i going to open up my business if i have jack spade. they are a big corporation. >> next speaker please. >> my name is savannah koebt son. i live in the mission. i like the mission because of

it's uniqueness. i'm afraid if a corporation moves in, it might ruin the culture of the businesses. if i want to open up a business, they are a multibillion dollar corporation and they can out bid me for a place in san francisco if i in the future wish to open my own independent business. >> next speaker. >> thank you for your patience. i know this is long. my name is allen. for 15 years i have owned a bookstore. i did a conditional use hearing to open a cafe. so there was a change of use. that is as far as i understand what we are

discussing is whether or not a conditional use hearing will be necessary. i know from my own experience, it's no the the end of the world and it's not going to prevent a business opening. i had no problem with mine. i got a lot of letters of support, i talked to my neighbors and it was a piece of cake. i think that there have been a lot of very compelling arguments made today by party on both sides. so we did seems ambiguous, why not have a discussion, ask for a conditional use hearing and we can talk about it which doesn't seem to be a bad outcome or inconsistent with the way we do things in san francisco. thank you for your time. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> hi, my name is hailey lynn.

the reason i think they are the same entity is because they are. last week they kept using the word entity and i looked it up. if you look in the website you can see that jack spade has an individual entity which is dissolved in 1999. not only that but jack spade has access to the kate spade pocketbook which gives us an unfair advantage in the retail market. adobe books which we have heard a lot of about was pushed out after rent increases and after they raised $60,000 through community fundraisers to pay for their rent in -- increases, they were still

asked to move out by their landlord. once jack spade came into the picture, the landlord raised her rent and told her to expect more rent increases. now it breaks down to more than double for paying in less than 6 months. another shop already suffered. they have been forced out on their 1 year anniversary when the represent was doubled. on top of that having a detrimental effect on the local businesses. all the high paying jobs are in new york. they even a hired a contractor from new mexico. now we just

let them change the spirit of our neighborhood. >> next speaker, please. >> i own a store across from the space for jack spade. i have been on the fence about this issue from the very beginning. but, after being on 15th street for 6 years now and seen a decline of my street. i have lived there for 6 years and lately my building is getting graffiti constantly, my sales are down, the foot traffic is down, the homeless are everywhere, i have to pick up feces in front of my building. i put my life savings into that business. is it important for me to be local? yeah. would i believe that kate

spade would stop that from happening? i do not. they will be paying the same rent. do i think it's a formula retail. it's up to you guys to decide. as far as what i this i is best for my street, i think basically how most people in my street feel it would be beneficial to us. 16th street is a mess. valencia street is beautiful . people objecting to this are on valencia street. i really do hope they go in and i hope it will help my block and neighborhood which is what i really think would be the outcome. i think it would be an asset to my street. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> thank you. my name is jonah. i'm an owner of a barber on valencia street and mission resident as well. to say both

resident and business owners who believes in the best interest in the neighborhood. my grandparents opened a landri place. the area around 18th and valencia has been greatly improved. it's mine understanding that jack spade made this location on 15th street. it's a street i avoid. i have a four-year-old kid and i usually walk right passed 16 street. it's not what it should be. i would hope that this would start some investment on that block. i understand and agree with some of the locals

and concerns they have regarding jack spade and i don't endorse them. but i don't believe it's those here who decide who gets to fill the open spots. i feel they have met the requirements under the current code. if local businesses don't like that code, they can try to change it. i have read and agreed with the letter with some of the 16th street merchants have filed in support. thank you for your time. >> next speaker. >> good evening. my name is benny gore. i live next door. i own a store across the street where jack spade is supposed to

go. it's not prime location. i think a store like jack spade will help a lot. it's pretty gross, last week a homeless man walked into my store and accosted my employees and i -- constantly pick up feces and trash from the front of my store. i think it would help having them here. >> i live across the street on valencia between 18th and 19. i support jack spade going into the mission. it will benefit the 16th street corridor and provide a clean storefront. it will do so while operating with some of the existing laws in

this city which is it's right. i feel it's what this opposition is looking for. they think it should be formula retail. their argument is based on concern what will happen in the future if they are allowed to create stores like jack spade. i understand their argument. my understanding concern about their large corporation about rents being driven up by the landlord and by employers not caring much because their owner ship is ab sent. this is not a hype tell discussion. those concerns are not what this appeal is about. moreover, those concerns do not hold up. jack spade is not here to out spent small businesses. i have met their employees and they li here in the city and

they care about the business. if the opposition is interested in doing small buys. should we worry about it if this appeal succeeds. permit can be build for anything. for most businesses that can be the death sentence. laws are on a book for a reason. businesses should be allows. if we allow that to happen, businesses large and small will be able to succeed. >> next speaker. >> my name is michael cats and

i starts cat bagels 20 years ago, my business is located across the street from the potential sight for jack spade. i'm against having jack spade coming into my neighborhood. the main serene i feel like the sentiment is we have a lot of problems and i don't believe jack spade is going to fix these problems. the problems we have in the neighborhood are almost all after midnight. the graffiti and the dirt we see everywhere. i think we as a community are on a dangerous situation when we look for multinational corporations which is how i perceive them. i think we are in a dangerous position to look for them. if we want to clean our store or store front we need to look at ourselves and look at our neighbors to fix the problem

that way. this is potentially the other problem i have is that any other business can get a little subbusiness and have the structural support. and business schools degrees and so forth and how are we supposed to compete if we have been here for so long and we are part of the culture and part of this community in terms of how people feel when they do business with us. the residents should know about this and they did not know about this and they should be part of this discussion. it's been unknown. i didn't know about it until 2 months ago. we supposed to know about these things. >> thank you, next speaker.

>> my name is andrew mckinley and i was the owner of the adobe bookshop in the space that jack spade is now renovating. i was there for 25 years, but the landlord, he opted as is his right to seek a higher rent. a better tenant, quote unquote. so i'm a victim of the situation. i have enjoyed working with the expediter, very nice fellow, i have enjoyed talking to someone from jack spade who has offered to try and help my book business by buying some of the book, but i feel that the jack spade people were mislead by the landlord as to the circumstances of how this space became available for them to

consider. the landlord is his right decided to seek a better tenant, but he didn't gauge very much the attitude of the community which does resent very much what is happening. i don't blame jack spade. i sort of blame the landlord, but it's hard to blame landlords. i just feel that you should consider the community which is very upset, a certain amount of them. there are other people here tonight who support what is going to happen. the old landlord said we'll never deny anyone a living. his children, thought a little differently. anyway. thank you very much. >> actually i have a question for you sir. can you tell me what your previous rate of rent

was and what is the proposed rate of rent would be? >> the landlord was cagy about a price. we were paying $4500 a month for the space. and he never offered us a set rate. he asked us to offer a new rate and we did as a group, this cooperative group and he never got back to us. and he put the building on the market and obviously someone jack spade became aware of it. >> the question is someone earlier mentioned the rental rate was triple from what you were currently paying? >> he never offered us any exact amount a rate. i have no idea what he negotiated with

jack spade. >> never mind jack spade. what did you offer them? you said that you the coalition offered them something? >> we offered them $8,000 a month. >> okay. thank you very much. >> next speaker? >> thank you very much. my name is wald i'm the founding of the business on the street. i would like to propose to you what would it be like if i opened another store in 6 months and called it retail therapy. does the public have the right to have any input into what's going on here. i understand that we are making a decision about a permit, but i think i would really like to get my neighbors and my customers the opportunity