in doing so, the artists will be able to bring meaningful presentations that will provide solace to communities, and sustaining their artistry and means of livelihood. thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak to you today. i do want to let you than you cannot dance with masks on. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. next person waiting is nola mariono. nola, can you hear us? nola is muted. nola, if you could unmute yourself. >> caller: can you hear me now? >> clerk: yes. you have two minutes. >> caller: okay, sorry about that, technology glitch. okay, well, dear members of the

entertainment commission, thank you for convening this evening to address this important issue. my name is nola mariano and today i'm speaking in support of the san francisco international arts festival petition to have an enhanced city guidelines. in considering the safe reopening of the performing arts it must be noted that in addition to the diversity of artists making and performing work, there's equally wide range of scale and size of artists and art organizations producing the work. i think that it was a mistake to put all art organizations into phase four that focuses on indoor halls and their health risk. the arts festival, while still a -- (indiscernible) is a diverse group for services including marketing, and production and box office support. these will be scheduled to meet the city guidelines and available for live video streaming. it has guidelines that go beyond those currently provided to

include an organized digital box office, house managed to get people safely seated. and sanitized facilities and the safe backstage area. we need the city health department to create appropriate guidelines. it is important to stage a prototype public event as a way to test operation guidelines and procedures for outdoor performances before the rainy season in november. we want to support the entertainment commission in reopening the performing arts industry safely and we are entrusting you to other governmental departments. one final note, these are difficult and isolating times. the festival believes that their audience that always attended live performances to hear a diverse perspective and to experience that human narrative to look at complex societal events. art provides not only entertainment and understanding, but a coping mechanism that could be viewed as part of our

public mental health care system. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. all right, next person waiting to speak is makechi newburgh, can you hear us? please unmute yourself. >> caller: hello, i am super grateful to be here just plugging in and participating with my civic duty of being part of the commission. it's great to see all of your faces. i am calling in on the phone and not on video, i'm not quite sure how this is working. >> clerk: we can hear you but we can't see you. >> caller: okay. so basically i would just say that i have been in san francisco for over 20 years.

i am a songwriter and an actor, theatre actor and commercial actor. and went on to develop my own work and got an m.s.a. at the california (indiscernible) [no audio] >> clerk: it looks, unfortunately, we lost nkechi. maybe nkechi will come back on. okay. do you want me to go to the next person? >> president bleiman: go to the next person and if we could get nkechi back -- >> clerk: okay, this next person is matthew kiefe. matthew, you are unmuted. you have two minutes. >> caller: hi, i am matthew kiefe and i work at the presidio theatre at presidio park. thank you for letting me do a comment. art organizations are uniquely positioned to give connection

and community and healing safely. and as we have already seen unrest in the form of protests and skirmishes with police across the nation, the current political landscape. and as a new resident in san francisco, i can attest to the dangers of unorganized gatherings of people. just this week thousands upon thousands of people descended on my neighborhood, many without masks who left garbage, including dirty diapers strewn across the area. people are gathering regardless of whether they're allowed to or whether it is safe. we are asking the outdoor performing arts be allowed to reopen to balance and organize outdoor activities to give citizens a greater variety of venues to visit in order to make all outdoor venues safer and less crowded. our public parks are not designed to organize audiences, but our arts venues are capable of ticketing events, providing

audio and video support, and organizing space in a way that is much safer than what is currently happening. thank you for considering these comments. clerk: thank you, matthew. all right, next person waiting to speak is andrew wood. andrew, if you're there. >> caller: hello. this is andrew wood. thank you, commissioners, for taking the time to listen to us this evening. and i did attend the small business commission meeting last week where the doctor spoke. and i think that one of the things that is going to be an issue is that the guidelines that run behind the permitting are not in place. and they don't have the health department seeming to have any intention of putting the guidelines in place soon. what this means is that even if

the performing arts is a permitted activity, there's going to be a lag time while the health department comes up with the guidelines to allow you to go ahead with the permitting. if the permitting process itself could take up to a month, that means even if it was allowed today it would be towards the end of september before anything would happen. as a few people have said, we're trying to get some prototype events up in october. and some artists are trying to do this and trying to do it on october 24-25th and if we don't get a chance to do it, we don't go for the next six mont months. so how can we work with the health department to make things move along a bit. so rather than going and doing a new mayoral order or an entire new health ruling, are there

ways that things could be done at the start level around regulations that are within the pursue of the entertainment commission? so maybe borrowing from what is already allowed for small family gatherings or religious gatherings and even some the shared space gatherings. if we're not able to move things along in a fashion that allows us to test some of these things, it's going to set us back by quite some time. and i think that, again, what other people have said is that the legacy of the entertainment commission kind of means that you are our guys in dealing with other city departments. the whole idea of getting permits so that performing arts can happen, so that entertainment can happen, is -- you're kind of our inside voice. and so if you can really advocate for the community, and

as well as being a commissioner role. to the other branches of government and to the other departments -- >> andrew uryou'r you're out of. >> clerk: thank you, andrew. we have a comment in the zoom chat that i will read from joe crieter. i am a artist and i have been creating public art in the city for 25 years. i am creating a piece of public art with dancers dancing off the side of a building and rerecorded music. this project is a gift to the neighborhood offered for free and in partnership with noad and co-tenderloin and jewish action. the project is just completed a successful summer program for youth in the tenderloin and we know what it take i takes to bed safe. keep public art alive and give

san francisco some hope. next person in line to speak is a caller. hello, caller, you have been unmuted. can you hear us? >> caller: hi there, sorry about that. can you hear me? >> clerk: state your name and your two minutes. >> caller: great, thank you, thank you so much for taking the time to listen and for all of your support and just everything that you're doing. i am kevin nelson and i work for magic theatre, which is a 53-year-old mid-sized theatre. over the last several months we have created several plans with the hopes of being able to perform something outdoors for small limited audiences. but, unfortunately, all of the plans have fallen through without any path or guidelines

to allow for public performance. theatres and performing artists have all been grouped together under the gross assumption that it can only happen with large audiences packed closely together. but there are many artists and organizations that could easily hold responsible distanced performances outdoors. it would be much safer if there was a checklist for public performance, but artists could reference prior to any presentation. with no guidance, there's no way to do this officially. and without the local guidance and support we're also facing difficulty if gaining approval from the artist labor union to approve of any work at all. it's my hope that the entertainment commission is able to help to support the performing arts and the artists by working towards a permitting process to allow for small public performances. other gatherings are occurring outside in parks, restaurants and in other spaces. there's no reason that a small

performances for limited audiences would not be as safe, if not safer, than some of these other gatherings. the audience members would know what to expect and tracing would be easy to implement if anyone who attends did fall ill. thank you for your support and for helping us to try to reach a solution. thank you so much. >> clerk: thanks, kevin. so ncheki is back. so let's let ncheki back on. >> caller: okay, am i unmuted? i believe that you can hear me. i just want to make [broken audio] somehow it works. okay. are you hearing me twice? >> clerk: you are cutting out a little bit. >> caller: okay.

i'll try this. one, i want to say, hi i am nkechi newburgh and i'm a die-hard lover of san francisco, being a singer/song writer and turned performance artist and i got my m.s.a. from cal integrated, and a bit of science, and i have created a body of work (indiscernible) and a work in progress. basically my hope is to be able to engage and play in order to learn more about diversity. and it's been fun and i have put it in a couple places and have opportunities. with our new present crisis i just want to say that i believe in my own personal heart that people need an opportunity to have a checklist of issues that we are talking about. they went from (indiscernible)

to two humans talking at a time with each other about real issues. it is incredibly refreshing. and so just recently i was at marina bay and i did a little mini-performance and was recording for myself and people, the feedback was, oh, art. so i want to remind us that art is part of our life. when i serve the homeless... [no audio] >> clerk: unfortunately, she cut out again. president bleiman, what would you like? >> president bleiman: are there more comments? >> she only had nine seconds left on the clock anyway. >> president bleiman: if you're listening now, i would just encourage her to reach out to us, whether starting with the

staff and she wanted to -- for her additional nine seconds, so we want to definitely hear the rest of it. and i will remind everyone that when you reach out to our staff, you are not limited by minutes. you can have long emails and conversations and we will be able to answer your questions. is that it for public comment? do we have anyone else? >> clerk: there's nobody else. >> president bleiman: all right. i want to acknowledge how much public comment we had there and i want to thank everyone for chiming in and i want to say that we hear you, i hear you. and we do what we can to remedy this. within the confines of what we can work with. thank you. with that i'm going to close public comment. and then move on to the next agenda item.

the next agenda item is number 4. and this is an update on the state of san francisco's independent music venues, and this is going to be from san francisco independent venue alliance. >> hi, i am fred bomes, and i'm the president of the independent venue alliance, which is a group that represents over 20 independent venues in san francisco. and the surrounding. and the sizes of the venues vary from capacities of, say, 50 to 100 to over a thousand, our largest. and, you know, obviously, as everybody here knows, you know, we were the first to be shut down and we have no clear idea

at all about when the reopening schedule, phase four, is going to be, even for the smaller places. and, you know, in reality, without any assistance or an opportunity to generate income, you know, o possibly 50% of thee venues will go out of business by the beginning of next year. which is what w we have formed this alliance for. we have done some events online webathons, where the artists are streaming with contributions from home. and various other things. and we have managed to raise close to $50,000 out of the public donations. and we're going off private funding arts foundation funding

and that sort of thing. and the whole purpose of this group is to come together and to be able to have a focal point to do this kind of fun fundraising activity. and we really appreciate the entertainment commission's support with us from the beginning of listening to us for various things. but as this goes on and on we're coming to a position where we really need, you know, now more, you know, drastic measures of any kind. essentially anything that we can get. as somebody pointed out earlier, these small businesses like us are, you know, sitting patiently and trying to wait and see what -- what will happen or what measures will be given. and, really, as every month goes by for venues, there's an extraordinary amount of expense that is not sustainable.

you know, each of these places is obviously a very large building because it has to, you know, in the good old days of having shows, it would host hundreds of people. so the rents are enormously high. and there's all kinds of fees and taxes and massive, you know, garbage collection bills. and all of those kind of things that are still ongoing and are very hard to negotiate out of in a situation, even though certain things have been undisturbed across the board. other niggling things continue, for example, organization like csac who have recently written to several of our venues with a bill asking for their licensing money for, you know, the last six months, a period where

everyone has been out of operation. and then, obviously, now we'll have to go into finding, you know, what those organizations are like and negotiating out. a lot of these places don't have many staff working and the time to do these kind of things. so there's all kinds of, you know, situations that have to be dealt with on a weekly and monthly basis that continue to build and sap the resources of an industry here who has zero income at all. and no future of being able to say when that will happen. i've heard so many people talking tonight about the possibility of doing outdoor shows. and that is something that we will be very interested in, being able to pursue. this week, the venue that i'm the general manager of, the chapel, did the first -- or i believe the first show in san

francisco that was permitted, actually, an official show. it was in the outdoor parking lot of the temple with an extremely limited attendance of 30 people. and it was an instrumental performance. and incredibly strict guidelines. to do everything -- it was very successful and went off without a hitch, obviously, that amount of people are not really able to be profitable. it was a high ticket price for vendors to have a benefit for independent venue alliance. wo but one thing that was urged at that event is of the whole closed down area of valencia that was going on that weekend, that event that we had was by far the most -- the place where the real social distancing rules were being taken into account and were in effect because they

weren't really happening anywhere else. so i think that one of the things that we find very frustrating is attempting to do things like benefit concerts or the kind of things that people are talking about here is that we see in delores park and all of these other places, and golden gate park and other places, huge amounts of people outside and not following social distancing guidelines and alcohol consumption and music playing from, you know, large distance and other things and sometimes bands playing. so it's like there's a concert happening but it's completely unregulated. what essentially we're asking here really is to just bring something that is unregulated into some order. i think that it would be reasonable if everyone was at home and we were -- you know, we were pushing hard to get everyone to come out and to do something that there would be some opposition to it, but,

really, what we're doing is at this point is suggesting that we -- we are the people who know better than anyone else how to regulate an audience, to have all of the security, and, you know, to have hundreds of people that work for us that we could -- we would love to give some employment to and some artists some employment to, and raise awareness, all of these things. but more than anything else to actually to create an environment that would be safer than what is currently happeni happening. so i lend my voice to all of those people that are saying that, and i would love to be able to work on something like that as we have had that successful experience this weekend. and that even as a small event could hopefully be the gateway into something else. i have a whole list of things that i can talk about if you want, but is there anything specific that you want would

like me to focus on? >> i've got a question. how many of the venues do you have on your list that have patios or anything outdoors, accessible to outdoors? >> very few. there's one place that has a large parking lot and a patio. but most of the others have nothing. >> president bleiman: sidewalk? >> a sidewalk, yes, some of them have a sidewalk. some of them have a sidewalk and are currently are on valencia street and places where they a closed down situation going on. and others don't currently have something like that but they would love to be able to have that opportunity to close down an area of their street and to, you know, to be able to put on, you know, some kind of event of some kind. >> president bleiman: okay, i think that is a problem, you

know, all of us to have big venues and we can't go inside is an issue. we're trying to do whatever we can to think outside of the box to use the streets and the sidewalk. and they've been doing the shared street programs and they're trying to figure out things. so if you guys -- you should come up with any ideas, i mean, we'll start off with the musician thing first, you know, and try to get the musicians out there and performing safely and then we'll have to try to get the audience there. >> right. >> there's really no answer. >> i mean, what we really -- you know, what we wanted to look at was an area like the amphitheater in the park or stone grove where there currently isn't anything happening and there normally would be in their festival, somewhere like that, where we could have something that is set -- we could overextend the

amount of limitation guidelines beyond even what they're asking and still be able to have a few people there because, you know, i think that the official capacity of say the park and the amphitheater is close to 3,000 or something. so you could have even just -- you know, even if you just had 300 people in that huge of a space or whatever it would be, that would be something. and, you know, it would enable -- it would then be a benefit for many venues. you know, we are non-profit, so it wouldn't be, you know, it would take a lot of boxes for people to support it. >> president bleiman: so you were thinking of -- if you had an opportunity to have an outdoor venue you would get together with the other venues and be like a fundraiser to help -- >> yeah. >> president bleiman: is that what you're trying to propose?

>> yes, exactly. so it's all independent venues. boi.>> president bleiman: right. >> so it goes from places, like the church to as places as 1015 fulsome. but what would be a sedate affair, a daytime event, i think that a lot of people associate in their mind around the situation that they're thinking of something like a nightclub atmosphere. that's not what we're suggesting at all. it would be about the music and it feels like -- and, obviously, i'm sure that many of you agree with this, that at this point being fairly victimized. a couple weeks ago in sonoma there was a small instrumental show that was cancelled while the same weekend there was a horse event that had over a thousand people attending. that doesn't make any sense, you

know. and there's -- you know, there's scientific evidence that music itself transmits the virus, there's no real sense on what is happening here. the word concert is terrifying people, but there's no relationship to, you know, what we're really suggesting is something that would be more regulated and more sedate than what is actually currently happening. >> president bleiman: okay. we have had this discussion offline, ben and i and another organization, and we have been thinking in the lines like this, but it's a big one. so i guess that really some guidelines from the health department. i guess that we're kind of stuck. >> yeah. i mean, i'm not, obviously -- i realize their position and i really appreciate all of the, you know, the support that

you're giving and i'm not saying that it's an easy matter. it's just at this point it's starting to get confusing as to what exactly -- the logic aspect of it has disappeared. it's a convenient thing to put us to the end of the thought process around this completely. but at this point if it's about the congregation of people and the spreading of the virus, then it makes little sense because there's already people congregating like this, you know, either unofficially, just in parks or at restaurants and other things. and, you know, even if we had to go to the length like i said of being more distant than everyone else, we would take it. you know, whatever it needs to be. you know, and and this weekend's event was very successful, but

hopefully that -- you know, that can lead to something because just being able to do something with 30 people and then instrumental band is not really -- it's not going anywhere on its own, you know. even though lots of people wanted to go. >> president bleiman: i don't have anymore comments. other commissioners, any questions or comments for fred? >> fred, i just want to say that i hear you loud and clear and a lot of the people who gave public comment today as well. i think that i can speak for almost all of us on this commission when i say that we really do deeply understand the value of music and performance when it comes to culture and community. and we want to be your advocate. and we definitely understand your frustration. that maggie and staff are

working so, so hard to find path ways to include clear guidelines for outdoor performing arts as we continue to roll out these shared spaces. so it sounds like you're really asking two things. one, finding, again, those clear guidelines on how to conduct outdoor performances and then, second, some way to be able to facilitate the use of, like, public park spaces once those are rolled out. >> yes, that would be -- that would be fantastic for the opportunity to do something to fundraise essentially. we can -- and we will continue to do it online virtually anyway, because, you know, we have to do something. but, yes, absolutely. but also, you know, if your weight as a group to be able to assist us with some of the

things that we -- though the venues are having to deal with, that are essentially sapping whatever reserves they have that are allowing them to continue through this at the moment. it would be really be helpful. maybe that's not a conversation that we have right here now, but a list of some of those things that -- we've been doing a lot of questionnaires with all of the -- all of the venues and a lot of, you know, sort of taking information in about all of these kind of things. which we can share with you, some of which may be helpful to you. but a lot of it really shows how this is -- i mean, i'm sure this is no surprise to anyone, but it's not a sustainable situation going forward because there's still huge amounts of costs. and there's really nothing. you know, and i think that also

hopefully these are all things that we can do to help to further the situation and to also learn from it and in the future help -- as they'll have to rebuild and not have everything come back in exactly the same way and in insane amounts of unnecessary fees and hoop jumping and all of that kind of thing when we have to come back and to try to earn some money. and it will probably be a slow process coming back and everything else. that period also could end up taking a lot of people down. so -- >> absolutely. where so many other industries have been able to pivot during this time -- >> right. >> we haven't had a lot of room to do that. >> yeah, i mean, you can't -- there's nothing that we can sell online, there's -- and we can sell a bit of merchandise or whatever, but it's not realistic, it's all a drop in the bucket. and, you know, i think that a lot of these places too are not

huge -- they're part of an ecosystem in their area that brings, you know, on any night between all of our venues, you know, over 10,000 people into different areas to spend money and shop, and some restaurants and all of those kinds of things. so there's the counter aspect and there's a huge financial aspect and if a lot of these places start to go, whole areas could go down with them, you know, because these are the things that draw people into different areas in a way that a single restaurant doesn't do or other places, because there's hundreds of people that are in these different places. so, you know, and, obviously, in san francisco the culture aspect is huge because this city is so much a huge part of the whole culture and defining in the last 50 years, it's about music and what's coming out of the venues. but we all understand that aspect. and i really appreciate -- like, i'm not here trying to -- i

really appreciate everything that is done here. it's just as it goes -- obviously, one point it was going to be a few months and then it went on, and now we're in a weird period where nobody knows what's going on. and there's very little assistance coming. so that's what this -- the forming of this is about to try to keep more the most vulnerable, you know, whoever is the most vulnerable, we'll all try to help and to try to make sure that we'll all get through it. some of us will probably make it through it and certainly, you know, there's some vulnerable and there are some that, you know, there are a few places that i have heard about that are basically on the way out but have not been publicly made known yet. so it's going to start to be a real -- you know, really terrible, sore situation if it really starts to go down like a domino. >> can you actually speak a little bit more about that?

you said that you have conducted questionnaires and surveys with, i guess, 30 of the venues that are part of this alliance. >> yeah. >> i am just curious in terms of your fundraising strategy, like, what are some of the goals in terms of how much you're trying to raise and offset costs? and, you know, like for what period of time are you trying to create this kind of sustaining strategy? and anecdotally, any of the stories around -- like, what is -- like, imminent in terms of closure and what type of venue is actually really in the red at this point? i think that it would be important to kind of go into detail. because we don't see a lot of these stories covered in the media. and i think that, you know, our lawmakers, i think that it's important for them to know anecdotally these stories. and actually just the social and emotional impacts, the toll that

it's taking on the business owners and their workforce, and, i mean, i could go on just about the impact of, like, our culture within the city at this point. >> yeah. >> so if you can kind of share a little bit more on that, i'd appreciate that. >> okay. well, originally when we had -- we started and we had around 10 to 15 members, we did a questionnaire, similar thing like this, and when on our original fundraising mission was to try and to raise off the back of that $2 million to try to get these people through a period of about three or four months, right? of course, maybe 15 venues. now we're still in the process of that, which is the second process that has been fundraising with private

companies and that's where hopefully we're going to receive larger amounts. and get closer to that sort of thing. but now we have more members and we are getting a clearer picture. we actually are in the middle of doing a really comprehensive survey like this, which i don't have the full details of, but i can definitely get to you when it's finished, which it hopefully will be in the next week or so, or a week and a half. but essentially for the ones that are more at risk, you know, it's obviously those obvious factors like the ones where -- if they own the building themselves, that's a huge help, obviously. even though they have all of the property tax issues and all of those kinds of things. but the ones where they had no -- no savings really. you know, this is an industry

where you really live on the margins anyway, even in the best of times. so a lot of people are breaking even, basically, so when this happened, they didn't have a lot of resourcing there and they have these large rents. and they're probably, you know, some of the smaller ones. but the buildings are still large because they'll have to hold, say, 200 people, that kind of thing. some of those places, you know, they tried to do the honorable thing and hold on to as much staff as possible and look for loans and that kind of thing. there weren't really a lot of loans found. and the reason that we started this in the first place is that what we found was they didn't really fit into a category for getting loans out, the original cares act, you know, supposedly could give small loans or whatever. and hardly anyone was receiving anything there. whereas some restaurants and other things were. so for whatever reason -- and

also cinemas and yet other venues weren't. and then their only resource became going online and asking for their patrons to give the money to gofundme, so it became all there was. so that raised tiny amounts of money for them and other bits and bobbles. and that wasn't feasible thing to happen. so then as this goes on, you know, we've tried to band together. but the ones that are going potentially going to go under is because when they're looking, you know, looking at however many months now without any income, and then when we come back a limited capacity, that is not, you know, really you need to be able to have full venues, at least, two or three nights a week or whatever, to make it work. through the bar sales, and other

things. and if you're going to come back at 25% capacity, that's then the metrics. so what you're looking at is like a year before you could come back to breaking even? those are the people who i think that are making decisions now, you know, it's not worth it. and really they're doing it in a way that they're holding off. a lot of them are going into the red themselves just to try to hold on. and they're doing it more for the sort of san francisco community than themselves because they're losing money here. you know, to try and just to hold on and hope that we can get through because no one wants to see this happen. so it's pretty heartbreaking. and that's what we're trying to, you know -- you know, to do. and one thing that happened is that we've all come together. we're normally a group of businesses who essentially compete very tooth and nail with each other. so we have come together to try

to help each other, because we realize that none of us want to see this happen. we don't want to see -- it's not the ones that are going to survive are happy. great, all of the others are out of business. no, that's not what we want at all. we want this to continue. and we want the more vulnerable aspects and the more vulnerable members of our, you know, alliance to remain standing. and, you know, there are few that i know about. i can't really share that with you because they haven't made it public. but they have essentially made a decision but not announced that they probably won't be able to go forward unless a miracle happens, obviously. but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. but, you know, we are trying to remain as optimistic as possible with our ability to fundraise more than we have been able to do and pull our heads together

and work on what we can do to keep them alive. and, obviously, it's everything else. it's all of the musicians, you know, all of the d.j.s and all of the other people related, and all of the sound technicians, and all of these sectors of society that are hard to put together work. a lot of these people work in all of the clubs. sound tec technicians often worn 10 clubs, whatever. you know, different places. and they're not an employee of one. but when you put these people together, thousands and thousands and thousands of people who work within just these, you know, these 20 plus clubs. and that's -- so, yeah. but basically, you know, it's a never-ending situation. as you start to pick away at it, there's more and more things, you know, and issues.

i mean, it's a system that has really gotten many facets to it and it's been working for decades and decades. so as it falls apart like this, you realize how much of it there is. >> i want to thank you. and it's heartbreaking. (please stand by)ar

. >> this is going to go on for a little while longer. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. other commissioners, anybody have any comments, questions? all right. so fred, i can't thank you enough. this has been real sobering, and it's really hard for me to hear, but it's something we need to know, and i appreciate how eloquently we stated things. i have a couple of points, and one is on the d.p.h. front. you know, it seems to me that san francisco is a place that has what economists would describe as a high level of social trust, and that's the faith in other humans and in institutions, and i think that's part of the reason that

i'm so proud of this city and part of the reason that i live here is because i do have faith in government, and i do believe that it can help people, and i think there's a failure right now, and -- on the communication side from the department of public health. i think that they have a lot on their plate, and it's a tough job that they're doing. but we in this city, we trust our government, we trust our fellow officials, and when they shutdown large sectors of society, they owe us more of an explanation and they owe us more of a communication. there's 3,000 people in dolores park. why can't 30 people gather in front of somebody who's not singing? it baffles me, and if there's a

reason, i want to hear it. i bend towards trust. i'm really open to hearing the explanation, but while we are seeing beloved sectors like independent music venues eventually destroyed by our government's actions and told that we can't open and that there's no safeway for you to open, it -- it just -- it kind of -- it confounds my mind. i don't understand how those two things exist, and i know their job is hard right now, and i know that i'm happy i do not have their job, but they owe us more than this, and i would ask them to please help, please help explain this or find a way for -- preferably for this to be done safely and trust us to -- trust us like we trust them, essentially. so that's one side of it, and that kind of heats me up. the other thing that i'm

hearing is that you guys need help now, and you need help in the long-term. is that a safe thing to say, fred? like, right now, you need some emergency help, whether it's the ability to operate outdoors or cold, hard cash. but it wasn't like things were hunky-dory before for your industry, right? >> yeah, that's true. i'm not going to ask you right now to list out things, but i would ask you to think in your group to come up with ways that maybe the city of san francisco can support small, independent venues going forward. and i do think that you are cultural gems. i do think that you offer more to our society than an average small business, and i don't say that loosely. i have average small

businesses, and i don't think that i contribute as much as you do to the fabric of our city culturally, and so, you know, i would hope that we can come up with a list that you can list that we can help address the issues that you're facing. you may not have the entire list in front of you, but can you name as many of the 20 venues as you can? >> yeah, yeah. >> i think it's worth saying their names because i want to here exactly as what we are at -- exactly what we are at risk of losing. >> okay. so our member list as it stands, although it's growing all the time, is -- includes

1015 folsom, bottom of the hill, d.n.a., chapel, el rio, drone bar, makeout bar, neck of the woods. pillow fight, the rip tide, the s.f. eagle, the great northern, and the lost church. >> thank you. all right. and with that, you know, i also -- oh, i'm also inspired by the previous comments from the public comment and i'm inspired by you, and i'm hoping that the rest of the commissioners can also feel the gravity of this situation. i think we need to do as much as possible, as we possibly can do, and i just want to state that on the possible record

here. and with that, thank you, fred, very much. i want to open this to public comment, and hopefully analyst rice can help us with that. >> thank you. >> there are no people waiting in public comment. i can just do a shared screen slide for a little bit as a reminder on how people can do that. someone has their hand raised, a caller. all right. caller, please unmute yourself and state your name if you're there.

>> all right. so they're -- [inaudible] >> okay. that caller, there may be a problem or maybe they're listening to the radio when they're calling, and it's regurgitating the sound and creating an endless loop. maybe give them a chance to mute, one chance before they speak. sounds like a typical radio call-in issue there. >> okay. the person just hung up, so -- >> okay. and then, is there a -- okay.

all right. yakichi, are you there? >> yes. can you hear me? >> yes. >> all right. thank you for giving us a place to speak. i think we all said similar things. i just wanted to highlight that performance is a mental health for all of us, not only those of us who make it, but those of us who see it. i think just to have a chance to let it all go. i personally did a little tiny series that i was producing by the water's edge this past sunday, and i just did one of

my dances, and i was so moved by how many people felt it necessary to talk and engage with this teeny weenie weenie piece of art. if we think a little bit ahead and give artists a little bit of space to start creating, i think we will bear much fruit. i think about kids during this time. it would be great to create events and keep their minds creative during this time. i can honestly say that it's a gift to be