[gavel]. >> chair peskin: good afternoon and welcome to the land use and transportation committee of the san francisco board of supervisors for today, february 11, 2019. i am the chair of the committee, aaron peskin. joined to my right by vice chair supervisor ahsha safai and to my left by committee member matt haney. our clerk is miss erica major.

miss major, could you please give us any announcements and then please call the first item. >> clerk: yes. please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. speaker cards should be submitted to the clerk. items acted on today will appear on the february 26, 2019 board of supervisors agenda. item one is a resolution to designate theodore roosevelt middle school, 460 arguello boulevard as a landmark under article 10. >> chair peskin: thank you. i went through the pending items of this committee and realized there were a few landmark nominations that came from the hez torque preservation commission that had not been scheduled for a hearing before this committee.

one of them, 22 beaver street, was before this committee and is actually before the broard f supervisors tomorrow on its second and final reading. two of them were before us today. they were part of the historic preservation's mandated work program back in 2016 when christopher plank and his partner, ms. graves, prepared the case reports for these two items. they were actually introduced to the board of supervisors in december 2017 and have languished before this committee along with 48 other items that i am going to try to run through this committee if the sponsoring supervisors want to hear them as quickly as possible to get rid of our backlog. the first of those, the committee clerk, miss major just read, which is the landmark designation for 460 arguello as san franciscans

call it, or arguello, as it should be pronounced, also known as theodore roosevelt middle school. with that, i would like to ask the planning department, who brought this before the historic preservation commission, which recommended it to us unanimously well over a year ago to present. i believe that miss shannon ferguson, who this committee has heard from on numerous occasions will make the presentation and mr. tim frye, who is the senior staff to the historic preservation commission, is available to staff. ms. ferguson, the floor is yours. >> thank you, supervisor. my name is shannon ferguson, and i'm here to present two community sponsored landmark designations. the first is theodore roosevelt

middle school. >> chair peskin: lead me interrupt you. miss clerk, could you please read item number two. >> clerk: item 2 is an item designated sunshine school a landmark and affirming appropriate findings. >> chair peskin: miss ferguson, they both hail from the same era, the progressive era of franklin delano roosevelt. maybe we can have the staff presentation and hear about the case reports for both items. obviously both of them are san francisco unified school district properties. i know the school district is here today, and of course there are other sfusd properties that benefit from landmark status, including but not limited to mission high. i believe there are others in

addition to that. so feel free to present on both of them. >> yes. thank you. so both designations for theodore roosevelt middle school and sunshine school were community sponsored landmark designations. the landmark designations reports were prepared by plank historic preservation coordinating by donna graves with coordination provided by san francisco heritage and funding provided by the historic preservation fund committee. the h.p.c. initiated designation on october 18, 2017, and unanimously recommended landmark designation on december 6, 2017. the proposed designations recognized san francisco's progressive era and underrepresented communities and histories. the first designation is roosevelt middle school, and it's located at 460 arguello boulevard. it was constructed in 1930 and it's architecturally

significant as san francisco's only dutch expressionist style building. it has high artistic values, and it also contains three new deal murals. these murals were three important artworks parented by local -- painted by local artists, and they were employed by the public works art project, which was a new deal program. some of the murals include education by george wilson walker and harvest by nelson poole. also note the really beautiful brick awowork with the diaper pattern on the tower. the second landmark decision nation is the sun -- designation is the sunshine school. it was constructed 1937. it's significant for its association with events. it was the first public school specifically designed for children with disabilities built west of the rockies, and it was constructed using funds

from the public works administration. it's also very architecturally significant. it embodies the characteristics of the spanish colonial revival style and it has colonial and moorish being sets. it exhibits high artistic values in its ingenius floor plans which was to combine two specialized schools for chronically ill students and disabled students into one campus. the building also had a therapeutic pool for the children. there is no known public or neighborhood opposition to the designation of these three schools. staff has presented to the building and grounds committee of the san francisco school board about the landmark designation process. staff has presented three

times. on october 23, 2017, march 3, 2018, and again on september 28, 2015. our last correspondence was a letter dated december 5, 2017 saying they are not prepared to support designation for a landmark presentation at that time. the department believes the buildings meet the established eligibility requirements and landmark status is warranted. designation of the roosevelt middle school and sunshine school also meet the historic preservation commission's desire to designate underrepresented neighborhood property types. the h.p.c. recommended decision nation of both properties. this concludes my presentation and i'm happy to answer any

questio questions. >> chair peskin: thank you, miss ferguson. i have some questions, and my colleagues might, but i believe we might ask -- miss viva mogue is here on behalf of the san francisco unified school district and as the owner of those properties, i wanted to offer her or any representative of the school district tell the committee what the school district's position is at this time. obviously, we are aware of the 2017 and 2018 letters that are part of the file as well as the e-mail communication that is part of the file. miss mogue, the floor is yours. >> thank you, chair peskin and land use committee members. we will have an additional representative if you have any further technical questions from our chief facilities officer? but as of right now, we did submit a letter dated in march

2018 that the board of education is not supportive of moving forward with any landmark designation at this time? and we are hoping to request a one-week continuance to discuss with our new board -- we actually have four new board of education members, and we want to provide them some background before this gets moved forward, and we also have our chief facilities officer if you have any additional questions. >> chair peskin: thank you. and we also will want to hear from miss kamala naughton, who we hold in high esteem. my understanding is the h.p.c. forwarded three landmark designations to this body, and that one of them, washington, was the subject of controversy with regard to certain murals. and my understanding -- and maybe my now colleague on my panel who was a member of the

school district might be able to elaborate. but my understanding is that all three of them got conflated with the controversy at wash, and that actually, as i understand it, i would watch the tapes of that meeting over a year ago, except for that i can't find your school board meetings on-line. but at any rate, my understanding is -- no, they don't exist. >> they do exist. >> chair peskin: they do? >> yes. i can send that link to you. >> chair peskin: okay. i was not able to find them. but my understanding -- and supervisor haney can elucidate for this panel what it was. my understanding all three landmark designations was really directed at one, which is not before this panel, and i have no intention as chair to bring before the land use committee of the board of

supervisors. but with that, miss kamala naughton as the facilities manager, replacing mr. golden, would like to address the land use committee, the floor is yours. >> supervisors, kamala naughton representing sfusd. supervisors, i was not at that particular meeting. my understanding as the board's direction has been passed onto me is yes, there were considerable concern own the murals at george washington, but also the significant cost of renovation at these sites if designation should go forward. i'm going to remain agnostic on those points, but i think just echoing miss mogue's point in that the board was unequivocal

in its opposition for the motion, now, we have a new board and we would like to reengage them and see if they would like to understand the topic in more depth, if they have any feedback that they'd like to share, it's as simple as that. there's not a significant content objection to the work that's been done by the preservation staff. i think these are acknowledged resources within the district, and you know, i -- i don't think there are questions per se about the legitimacy over the future of these assets, but more of a procedural etiquette. >> chair peskin: so you are aware that the state law relative to our -- as the city and county of san francisco designate -- designation should this panel and should the full board designation, is mostly

honorific. insofar as the school district is a subdivision of the state of california, it can, and i believe many times in the past i believe as to other locally designated landmarks in sfusd's jurisdiction has chosen not to come before the land use board, not request c.r.s., although it would be a nice thing for your agency to do. but mostly, this is honorific with certain exceptions when they do not concern educational purposes. >> yes, and i am aware of that. >> chair peskin: and you're also aware in the case of theodore roosevelt, the facilities have been upgraded and there are no facility improvements that would compromise the historic fabric of the building that are

contemplated. >> i am aware that there is relatively recent work within the kind of capital life ticyc of the building that was conducted at roosevelt. i'm not certain that all the entire facility was captured top to bottom and therefore that there might not be some structural or mechanical issue in the future, so i'm not familiar enough with this particular asset to know if it merits the fact that it's completely off the table for the near future. something north of $30 million, i don't think something is anticipated in the future for roosevelt. >> chair peskin: okay. thank you. anything else you would like to add? >> no, thank you, supervisor. >> chair peskin: thank you. so we have -- i do have questions for the planning department, but we have a number of speakers, so i thought we'd start with

professor robert turney, who is a renowned historyian, who is here today in his capacity as a member of the historic preservation fund committee. colleagues, if you do not know about that, that is actually part of the city and county of san francisco, and many years ago was given some $2 million out of a legal settlement that they have spent on doing historic surveys and other good historic preservation work in the city and county of san francisco through -- under oe -- the office of economic and workforce development. professor turney, thank you for coming. >> good afternoon. thank you, supervisors. >> chair peskin: and by the way, just so you know, insofar as you're testifying on two items, you have four minutes. >> thank you. the historic preservation fund

committee several years ago set out a priority list of things that we wanted to accomplish before the $2 million was all spent. among those was a historic context statement for the great depression new deal era in san francisco, and that has been completed. it's been reviewed by the historic preservation commission. and as one part of that larger project, we were especially interested in seeing landmark nominations for the three schools that you mentioned. roosevelt school because of its architecture and its new deal murals. george washington as a new deal funded project in terms of both the building and the murals. and sunshine school both because it was a new deal funded school and because it was especial

1930's in almost every part of the united states where the children of the unemployed were unable --

>> chair peskin: thank you, professor. as always, i always enjoy hearing from you. >> thank you. >> chair peskin: our next speaker -- and we may have questions for you, so if you would, please stick around. our next public commenter is mike bueller from san francisco heritage. mr. bueller, not to exceed four minutes on the two items. >> good afternoon, committee members of the mike bueller with san francisco heritage. i don't have much to add regarding the significance of the believe. we believe that was manifest. san francisco heritage in 2016 received the grant referenced by professor turney to complete both the new deal context study. in conjunction with that, we received a grant to prepare the three-school city landmark nominations, knowing that these three school buildings are among the most significant school buildings in the district and among the most significant buildings associated with the new deal

era. as referenced earlier, both were unanimously endorsed by the historic preservation commission. the nominations themselves are of the highest caliber. i believe each is over 100 pages in length and in our view will serve as valuable information signal documents to the district as they contemplate future improvements to their properties. they list what is significant about the school buildings so that future planning efforts can ensure that those futures are protected if at all possible. one important benefit of official designation that is not currently available to the district is that listing will enable the district to apply the state historical building code, which if you're not familiar is a more flexibility alternative to the uniform building code that often times results in a cost savings alternative to the u.b.c.

thank you for bringing those nominations forward and i'm happy to answer any questions, as well. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. bueller. the next speaker card i have is from richard rothman. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is richard rothman. i'm a richmond district resident, and i want to -- roosevelt, you know, roosevelt was designed by timothy fluger, and that he was unusual in that he was a mission boy. he grew up in the mission. he did not go to formally architect school, he was a draftsman. he's probably one of our most prominent architects in the city, and i think it would be a great tribute to honor him in the city in naming this as a city landmark. and as it's said before, the

school district is a state agency, so really, they can do -- they don't need to follow the san francisco building codes or follow the landmark status, so it's just an honor of a recognition. and i think would be a great honor to -- for his tribute to make this a city landmark. thank you. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. rothman. and as the previous speaker said, there is actually a benefit to the school district which is this designation can actually allow the sfusd to avail themselves of the state historic building code instead of the uniform building code of the state of california. both of these case reports -- and colleagues, i don't know if you've read them carefully because there's a lot of pages in them -- were prepared by christopher verplank and donna graves. and mr. verplank is here.

i have to tell you, i enjoyed reading both of these case reports this weekend. mr. verplank, the floor is yours. >> greetings, supervisors. my name is christopher verplank. i am a resident of miraloma mark, and a parent of a student next year. i believe the architectural and artistic significance as well as historical is beyond question. what really strikes me about these two schools is they're both built during a can-do era long before most americans had been trained to hate their governments. the new deal and schools in particular were about the government helping to improve people's lives, to providing work to the unemployed, modern educational infrastructure to san francisco school children as well as public art for all of its citizens to enjoy.

in our contemperary -- and that everyone deserves access to high quality infrastructure. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. verplank, and for that report inext infrastructure. miss karen kai. >> good afternoon, supervisors. these are two wonderful reports, and they're like anything that i've seen from h.p.c. adequate and quite thoroughly document them. i want to applaud the h.p.c., the funding committee, and this committee because, you know, there really hasn't been much effort to reach into the schools, and i think they're so important as mr. verplank

noted, they teach. the places that send our kids that have value that tell them about our history and what we valued. because of that, it's a lesson where they are. and i've seen what can happen by little bits. i live in district eight, but i do a great deal of work at rosa parks elementary school in the western addition, and rosa parks was the site of the last buses that took japanese americans away to the camps. and dorothea lang took a remarkable series of photographs there. very recently, we lost the big iron gates that were the backdrop for some of those photographs. they were there one day, and then, they were gone, and the community had no say in that. they just disappeared, and it's tragic. and i do know from experience

that historic designation does not have to increase costs monumentally and doesn't have to stand in the way of what needs to be done. that's been shown by many groups, and i've worked personally with little friends -- nihomachi little friends that has preserved a julia moran building, added onto it, and really taken care of it, and it has become a great asset to the community. so i thank you for moving ahead on this, and i hope that we can engage the school district in greater efforts to reach out to the communities to do more of this kind of work. thank you. >> chair peskin: thank you, karen. i really appreciate it, and i appreciate your work at niomachi little friends. are there any other members of the public that would like to comment on items one or two? seeing none, public comment is closed. actually, mr. frye, i think we've asked -- unless my

colleagues have more particular questions -- actually, i do have one question for you. mr. frye, are you aware of how many other san francisco unified school district properties have located landmark -- local landmark designation under our police caring code article ten? i mentioned mission high. i think balboa is on that list. i'm not sure. is there anything else on that list? >> that is correct, and then, i.m. scott in the dogpatch. >> chair peskin: okay. so -- >> and then, just to correct myself, 135 vanness, the old school of commerce is part of the landmark district and is individually designated. >> chair peskin: under article ten -- under appendix a as an individual and under the civic center district.

>> that is correct. >> chair peskin: okay. belt and suspenders. okay. are you aware -- obviously, many of these have come before -- have received changes. have any of them ever come to the commission for arrest permit for a certificate of appropriateness to your knowledge? >> not to my knowledge. the only time a project has come before the commission during my tenure was about five or six years ago. the dogpatch community wanted an informational presentation on the work around i.m. scott, and the school district complied by just providing information at an h.p.c. hearing. >> chair peskin: got it. but the school has never come before the historic preservation commission of the city and county for a certificate of appropriateness which is what the h.p.c. issues. >> that is correct. >> chair peskin: all right. so the notion that has been expressed that this is

honorific, although it's also to the school district staff an admonition that there's something very, very special here, and you guys should take it seriously, even if you don't have to go through the city bureaucracy as other parties might have to do. this subdivision of government, the board of supervisors and the governing body of the board of education are intertwined in many, many ways. as a matter of fact today -- yeah, recently, quite a bit, although by the way, when i scheduled this and it needed a 20-day notice, nobody knew that the eraf stuff was coming, so these things shall never meet. they're not politically connected in any way. but we are involved with each other in many ways. i do want to give the elected governing board the ability to talk about it. it sounded like if you want a one-week continuance, your board is meeting later this week, is that correct, miss --

[inaudible] >> chair peskin: miss kamala naughton, please come forward to record it for posterity. >> it is meeting tomorrow night. >> chair peskin: and this is on the agenda? >> it is not on the agenda. we were hoping to just have the one-week continuance so we could explain a paragraph what landmarking is, share that with not only the board of education but with the site staff itself which have e-mailed us can concerns over -- with concerns over the past few days about what landmarking is, how it works, and make sure that communication appears on the record and folks are apprised, and that's about it. >> chair peskin: thank you. so let's hear from my colleagues, but i would like to suggest that insofar as this is an information item only, that

we forward this to the full board of supervisors, allow that informational exchange to happen tomorrow. it seems to me like -- no disrespect to your predecessor that new staff gets it more than old staff got it because had old staff got it, this would not have been on my pending list of 48 items, and it would have been done sometime after it was introduced on december 20 of 2017. so my respectful suggestion that can allow you to address the elected board of the sfusd, and if for some reason, they freak out, we can think about it the tuesday after afternoon. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: i just wanted to just add onto that point. i think that there's been historically inertia within

some of the movement of the sfusd when it comes to issues like this. i'm really happy that miss kamala naughton has taken over. i think it shows a new face of leadership on these issues. i would just say hopefully we won't be in the same situation that we were before where the board voted not to want to add this label. hopefully, there'll be some additional exchange of information and clarity and that we can make a decision within a week, so i would support that. thank you. >> chair peskin: supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: so i was a part of the school board that led to this letter here, and i want to thank everybody who came out and who was a part of bringing this forward and preparing it. as chair peskin said, in my

recollection, although i do could dig out that video, too, the primary conversation was around george washington high school. as miss mogue said, it is possible that the board came with a most specific concern about george washington but also a general concern about the impact on potential modernization, structural upgrades, etc. so i think that what chair peskin put forward is a fine solution on this. if we can update the board -- the school board and let them know and that we're all in understanding about what the actual result is for -- for these buildings, and i think for the school district to have a lot of pride in this -- this recognition but also understanding if there's modernization required, that there aren't new barriers creat created around that and we're all clear on that. that sounds fine to me, and i

also want to appreciate whoever's decision it was to take george washington off of here. i think that would have led to a lot more challenges and complications around this designation. >> chair peskin: that would have been your chairman, and as i said earlier, i have no intention of scheduling that. there's a lot of hair on that one, and i'll leave that to languish on that pending calendar which is now at 46 items. i would very much like to thank planning department staff, san francisco heritage, the preservation fund committee, mr. verplank and miss graves and to the san francisco unified school district for understanding this and if you -- if i need to talk to any of your elected board members, i'm happy to do that between now and tomorrow or now and next tuesday. colleagues, is there a motion to forward items one and two

with recommendation? moved by supervisor safai. we will take that without objection. [gavel]. >> chair peskin: next item, please. >> clerk: item number three is an ordinance amending the planning code by amending the zoning map to rezone a portion of 170 valencia street from r.t.o. to n.c.t.-3, to establish a uniform zoning for the site and approving appropriate findings. >> chair peskin: thank you, miss major. colleagues, i think we were all is 70 valencia for the mayor's state of the city address, and we all read the case report which actually reveals that that property is in two different zoning districts and should be confirmed to one -- conformed to one zoning district, n.c.t.-3, which would allow the current owners not to file a conditional use for that.

with that, the representative of supervisor mandelman is here to present on item number three. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm from supervisor mandelman's office. i am here to speak in support of supervisor mandelman's office to establish uniform zoning for the parcel at 170 valencia street. it is important for a number of reasons. dating back to 1940 esthe four story art deco building has served as the high faith temple. the san francisco gay men's chorus for years used the building as a practice facility. since then, the gay men's chorus has become a social and

constitutional institution that represents the lgbt movement worldwide. our office was made aware that the parcel at 170 valencia is currently portioned across two districts. as a result, our office introduced the ordinance that is before the committee today. through this ordinance, it is our intention to apply uniform zoning to the parcel in order to continue the tradition of using the space as a community facility in this iteration as the new home for the gay men's chorus. in addition, we also believe that a uniform zoning for the building is in the best interest of preserving the architectural integrity of the building regardless of its

occupant. in closing, i'd like to thank you all for your time and consideration and ask that you join our office in supporting this ordinance, and audrey butkus from the planning department is here to report on what happened at the planning commission. thank you. >> chair peskin: thank you. and i note that on january 17 of 2019, all seven members of the planning commission unanimously recommended this ordinance to this body. miss butkus, you can still talk. i'd like to remind my colleagues when we agree with them, we like to say that it was unanimous. when we disagree, we like to remind ourselves that it is only an advisory vote by your commission. but with that, miss butkus, the floor is yours if you'd like to use it. >> audrey butkus, planning department staff, only to confirm, supervisor peskin that it was unanimously voted for approval by the planning commission on january 17. >> chair peskin: thank you, audrey. are there any members of the

public who would like to testify on this item, number three? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair peskin: is there a motion to send this to the full board with recommendation? made by supervisor safai. we'll take that without objection. [gavel]. >> chair peskin: next item, please. >> clerk: i'd number four is an ordinance amending section 191 of the planning code to deem a grandfathered medical cannabis dispensary that received a permit to operate as an m.c.d., extending the expiration date of section 191 to january 21, 2021. >> chair peskin: we heard this last week. we had to continue it one week because there was a substantive change that was not objectionable to any member of the public. is there any member of the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel].

>> chair peskin: seeing that, i appreciate that the director of the department of cannabis is here. if you have no comments, is there a motion to forward this item to the full board with recommendation? made by supervisor safai. we will take that without objection. next item, please. [gavel]. >> clerk: item number five is an ordinance waiving permit and inspection fees under the commemorative street plaque requirements at one location on the silver sidewalk commemorating former high school student miss salina lam. >> chair peskin: this ordinance has been brought to us by supervisor ronen and her staff. miss carolyn gusen is here.

miss gusen, the floor is yours. >> thank you, supervisor. thank you so much for having me. this waives the flooring and installation fees for this commemorative street plaque in honor of salina lam. she joined the hill crest community as a toddler, accompany her parents and older sis tore to school and then began attending there as a kindergartener. she occupied a special place in the hearts of everyone in the hill crest community, and her friends and classmates remember her as the girl who was always smiling and always sharing her snacks. last year, selina unexpectedly passed away, and this will be installed next to a tree that will help enshrine her memory.

essentially, these amendments -- these amendments do three things. they expedite the plaque approval and installation process and authorize public works to provide reasonable maintenance and repair of the plaque after it has been installed. it waives the public works hearing that normally applies to the commemorative plaque explorations, and it expressly authorizes the city to accept the plaque as a gift to the city so that the city can be authorized to prepare and maintain the plaque and assume liability. supervisor ronen could not be here but was hoping that someone on the committee could help move this forward with these amendments, and we want to thank the hill crest community for bringing this forward with the planting of the tree and designing of the plaque to held salina lam in

all of our hearts and memory. thank you very much. >> chair peskin: thank you, miss gusen. is there anybody here from public works? >> thank you, chair peskin, members of the committee. jeremy spitz, department of public work. we have a permit of application from the applicant, and we've been working with them on installation and location, and we very much support this ordinance. i'm here to answer any questions that you might have. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. spitz. any questions from members? supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: just wanted to move the amendment. >> chair peskin: we've got to get public comment first. are there any members of the public who would like to comment, please come up. >> thank you so much. my name is gabby anderson, and i'm the social worker at hill

crest elementary school, and we just wanted to offer our thanks to you for hearing and to hillary ronen's office for supporting this legislation. it was a really hard time for our school, and we're really touched that there's been so much support for remembering salina, and for public works in planting the tree in her honor. >> chair peskin: thank you. is there any other public comment? seeing none, we're very sorry for your loss. supervisor haney, would you like to move that? so moved, without objection. can we forward that to the full board with recommendation as amended? motion, moved by supervisor safai. we'll take that without objection, and we are adjourned. [gavel]

. >> i love that i was in four plus years a a rent control tenant, and it might be normal because the tenant will -- for the longest, i was applying for b.m.r. rental, but i would be in the lottery and never be like 307 or 310. i pretty much had kind of given up on that, and had to leave san francisco. i found out about the san francisco mayor's office of housing about two or three years ago, and i originally did

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though i knew it was less than ideal conditions, and it was very junky, i could see what this place could be. it's slowly beginning to feel like home. i can definitely -- you know, once i got it painted and slowly getting my custom furniture to fit this unit because it's a specialized unit, and all the units are microinterms of being very small. this unit in terms of adaptive, in terms of having a murphy bed, using the walls and ceiling, getting as much space as i can. it's slowly becoming home for me. it is great that san francisco has this program to address, let's say, the housing crisis that exists here in the bay area. it will slowly become home, and i am appreciative that it is a bright spot in an otherwise

>> when i look at an old neon sign that's working or not working, i feel the family business that was in there. >> since 2009, citywide, sf shines, has supported businesses and sites like the ones that receive new neon signs. >> you know, sf shines is doing an amazing job to bring back the lighting and the neon glow of san francisco. >> sf shines is such an amazing program, and i can't think of another program in another city that gives matching gunned funds to store owners, mom and

pop owners, and if they've got a neon sign, they've really got a great way to advertise their business. >> this is a continuation of the sf shines program. >> focusing other neon signs is relatively new to us. of the seven neon signs, we've invested about $145,000. >> a good quality sign costs more, but it lasts infinitily longer. as opposed to lasting five years, a good neon sign will last 15 to 20 years. >> in san francisco, the majority of neon signs are for mom-and-pop businesses. in order to be able to restore these signs, i think it gives back to your community. >> part of the project has to

do with prioritizing certain signs in the neighborhood based on their aesthetics, based on their current signs, and base on the history. in the time that we've been here, we've seen a number of signs restored just on eddy street. >> there are a number of signs in the tenderloin and many more that are waiting or wanting to be restored. i have worked with randall and al, and we've mapped out every single one of them and rated them as to how much work they would need to get restored. that information is passed onto sf shines, and they are going to rank it. so if they have x budget for a year, they can say all right, we're going to pick these five, and they're putting together clusters, so they build on top of what's already there. >> a cluster of neon signs is sort of, i guess, like a cluster of grapes. when you see them on a corner

or on a block, it lights up the neighborhood and creates an ambient glow. if you havy got two of three of them, you've created an atmosphere that's almost like a movie set. >> some of the hotel, we've already invested in to get those neon signs for people to enjoy at night include the elk hotel, jefferson hotel, the verona, not to mention some we've done in chinatown, as well as the city's portal neighborhood. >> we got the fund to restore it. it took five months, and the biggest challenge was it was completely infested with pigeons. once we got it clean, it came out beautiful. >> neon signs are often equated with film noir, and the noir genre as seen through the hollywood lens basically

depicted despair and concentration. >> you would go downtown and see the most recent humphrey bogart film filled with neon in the background. and you'd see that on market street, and as market street got seedier and seedier and fewer people continued to go down, that was what happened to all the neon strips of light. >> the film nori might start with the light filled with neon signs, and end with a scene with a single neon sign blinking and missing a few letters. >> one of my favorite scenes,

orson welles is chasing ririt rita hayworth with neon signs in the background. >> i think what the office of economic and workforce development is very excited with is that we'll be able to see more neon signs in a concentrated way lit up at night for visitors and most especially residents. the first coin laundry, the elm hotel, the western hotel are ones that we want to focus on in the year ahead. >> neon signs are so iconic to certain neighborhoods like the hara, like the nightcap. we want to save as many historic and legacy neon signs in san francisco, and so do they. we bring the expertise, and they bring the means to

actually get the job done. >> people in tenderloin get really excited as they see the signs relit. as you're driving through the tenderloin or the city, it pretty much tells you something exciting is happening here. >> knee an was created to make the night more friendly and advertise businesses. it's a great way of supporting and helping local businesses. >> there's so many ways to improve public safety. the standard way is having more eyes on the street, but there's other culturally significant ways to do that, and one those ways is lighting up the streets. but what better way and special way to do that is by having old, historic neon signs lighting up our streets at night and casting away our shadows. >> when i see things coming back to life, it's like remembering how things were. it's remembering the hotel or the market that went to work seven days a week to raise their money or to provide a

service, and it just -- it just -- it just shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco. by supporting local services within our neighborhoods, we help san francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> my name is ray behr. i am the owner of chief plus.

it's a destination specialty foods store, and it's also a corner grocery store, as well. we call it cheese plus because there's a lot of additions in addition to cheese here. from fresh flowers, to wine, past a, chocolate, our dining area and espresso bar. you can have a casual meeting if you want to. it's a real community gathering place. what makes little polk unique, i think, first of all, it's a great pedestrian street. there's people out and about all day, meeting this neighbor and coming out and supporting the businesses. the businesses here are almost all exclusively independent owned small businesses. it harkens back to supporting local. polk street doesn't look like anywhere u.s.a.

it has its own businesses and personality. we have clothing stores to gallerys, to personal service stores, where you can get your hsus repaired, luggage repaired. there's a music studio across the street. it's raily a diverse and unique offering on this really great street. i think san franciscans should shop local as much as they can because they can discover things that they may not be familiar with. again, the marketplace is changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, it's

hello, welcome to the tuesday, february 5th, 2019 commission meeting for the san francisco commission meeting. i am the commission president. if you are a member of the public, there are speaker forms on the front tables. you can fill one out and hand it to the staff or come to the microphone when i call for public comment. turnoff your cell phones or put them on silence including commissioners and staff. thank you to sfgovtv for sharing this meeting with the public.