>> this is the regular meeting of the small business commission held on july 26, 2021. the meeting is being called to order at 4:32 p.m. the small business commission thanks media services and sfgov tv for televising the meeting which can be viewed on sfgov tv 2 or live streamed at sfgov.org. members of the public who will be calling in, the number is 415-655-0001,. the access code is 146 399 4657. press pound and then pound again to be added to the line. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussion, but you will be muted and in listening

mode only. when your item of interest comes up, dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. if you've dialled star 3 before public comment is called, you will be added to the queue. when you are called for public comment, please mute the device that you are listening to the meeting on. when it is your time to speak, you will be profrmented to do so. best practices are to call from a quiet location and speak clearly and slowly and again, turn down the device you are listening to the meeting on. public comment during the meeting is limited to 3 minutes per speaker unless otherwise established by the presiding officer of the meeting. and an alarm will sound once the time has finished. speakers are requested but not required to state their name. sfgov tv, please show the office of small business slide.

>> today we'll begin with a reminder that the small business commission is the official public forum to raise your questions about the policies that affect economic vitality. the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the emergency. find us online or via telephone. as always, the services are free of charge. before item number one is called, i would like to start by thanking media services and sfgov tv for coordinating the virtual hearing and the live stream and a special thanks to matthew for assisting with the public comment line. please call item number one. >> item one is roll call and call to order. commissioner adams is absent. commissioner dickerson? >> here. >> commissioner dooley? i think so she is having issues.

commissioner huie is absent. commissioner laguana? >> commissioner zouzounis? >> present. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> present. >> will you do the ramaytush ohlone land acknowledgment, please? >> it would be my honor. the san francisco business commission and office of small business acknowledges we are on the unseated ancestral homeland of ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants. in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone who have never ceded nor lost their caretakers as well as for people who reside in the traditional territories, as guests we recognize we benefit

from living and working on the traditional homeland. we wish to pay respects by acknowledging the ancestors, relatives and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. >> wonderful. thank you. please call item number two please. >> clerk: item two is presentation, status of reopening the san francisco economy. san francisco chief economist will review the current status of san francisco's economy. this is a discussion item. and presenting to you tonight is ted egan, chief t city's chief economist in the office of the controller. ted, let me give you presentation control. >> great. ted, welcome back. it is a pleasure to have you. please, you have to floor. >> thank you, commissioner.

good afternoon, commissioners. i am going to be sharing my screen now. hopefully you can see that. let me full screen. okay, great. last week our office released the second of what we intend to be a monthly series of reports that is tracking various aspects of the city's changing economy. the reason for doing that we know as the vaccinations increased and the restrictions br loosening, the economy would change fairly quickly and we wanted to public and decision makers to be apprised of the various ways it is changing. these presentations or these reports take the form of a monthly deck of charts with some summaries. and i'll walk through what we have introduced or released last week. and i am happy to take any questions from the commission at any time.

i think some of the highlights of this week's -- i'm sorry, this month's report -- from our standpoint and in each month there is both a combination of news we think is relatively good news and news that continues to be concerning. among the good news items in june was the jobs report. we had 17,200 jobs gained in the san francisco metrocommission. we are still 100,000 jobs below the pre-pandemic level of february 2020, but that is a very strong month. it is the strongest month we have had since last june. i would also mention that not just in the local economy and the national economy is hospitality. hospitality locally added 7,000 of the 17,000 jobs. so it is proportionately benefitted from the job growth last month.

one of the more vastly improving local ind kay, to i would say s the hotel industry -- indicators, i would say, is hotel occupancy. 45% of the rooms pre-covid were occupied during the week of july h. the reason i make that distinction is they are not all open now, but if you define occupancy as a share or the pre-pandemic hotel rooms were open, we reached 45% which is quite a bit higher than it was a couple of months ago. it was well below the pre-pandemic average of 80%, but it is moving in the right direction and a little faster than other indicator. one of the ones that is still a bit struggling is weekly office attendance. we track this by looking at the data from a company that tracks the security card swipes at office buildings, so they know how many people are entering office buildings during a given week, and they have metrowide indexes for 10 of the major

metro areas in the united states. and san francisco lags all of those other metro areas. however, it did increase to 20% occupancy or 20% attendance -- i'm sorry. it came close to 20% during the last week that we looked at. that's an improvement. it is still lagging other metro areas. other concerning news from the office sector is the office vacancy rate. this isn't people showing up at their offices, but this is firms letting go of the office space or choosing not to renew their leases. that office vacancy rate now tops 20% over the april-june period, which is a relatively very high number. that indicates continuing weak office demand. similarly, another downtown measure that is struggling is bart traffic. less than 20% of bart ridership over bart ridership is less than

20% of normal. other measures of transportation like people traveling over the bridge or traffic congestion are much closer to pre-covid levels. but not bart attendance. or bart ridership. this is a list of indicators in the report. i'm not going to go through this, but this is to highlight some of the things i'll be pointing at. one of the things that we are tracking on a monthly basis is a measure of the amount of time san franciscans spend outside of their home. and this is based on data from google mobility that ultimately comes from people's cell phones and knowing whether or not they are in their homes. this is an important indicator because it changed rapidly at the start of the pandemic when people are staying home and it is a good measure of people's willingness to go outside or their feelings about mixing in outdoor groups again, so it is important this come back to normal, and one of the good

things for the city's economy and one of the important step is that it is moving back toward normal. people were spending about 40% less time outside of their home in spring of 2020. that's now only about 15%. so there is a bit of a way to go. we're still lagging the state somewhat, but this is one where we're moving in the right direction. in terms of people's willingness to stay outside the house. this is the data on office attendance. the security card swipe data that i mentioned and here in this chart we are just showing san francisco comparing to the san jose area, which is also relatively weak, and new york which is also relatively weak, but los angeles which is doing better and metro austin which is doing quite a bit better. generally, you've seen increased improvements in a lot of other areas. our improvement is a bit slower than some other major metro areas. but we started from a bigger shutdown at the start of the year.

so we have further to go. this is just the little bit of perspective on the city's office vacancy rates over the past year and a half. we had, of course, a very low office vacancy rate around 5% at the start of the pandemic in early 2020. that's risen significantly each quarter up to 20%. i think the growth from just above 15% to 20% surprised a lot of people who aren't in the market. i found it to be a surprising jump, but we are continuing to see large office tenants releasing space onto the sublease market. and increasing the overall vacancy rate. this is a new indicator that we

are releasing this month, which we will continue to release going forward. it comes from a survey that the census bureau conducts of small businesses around the country every two weeks. and they release data nationally at the metro area level. and this is what they call the expected recovery index about how small businesses are feeling about the amount of time it will take for things to get normal in their businesses. and the good news s of course, it's been increasing. and it was prettily close to as low as it can get, minus 1 at the start of the pandemic. zero is kind of low so we are not overall feeling good about where things are nationally. we are closer to the national level and what week you are

looking at. and moving increasingly upward from the heart indicator and it matches what other areas are tracking. and another indicator that we hope to add to the report is knew business formation and by the office of treasurer and tax collector and counting new registrations we have each month. numbers are down relative to the pandemic and people may be surprised how strong new business formation that we are seeing between 800 and 1200 a month which is fairly healthy in terms of new business formation. another indicator that is healthy but i also think is a sign of concern and it's good

news but also raises questions is the data on consumer spending. this is an index of consumer spending in san francisco relative to the pre-pandemic period and it comes from a company called affinity which is tracking credit and debit card spending. and the opportunity inside harvard is providing so much valuable realtime data for government across the country. and this indicator is interesting because really it was in may that we reached above pre-covid levels of consumer spending by san francisco residents. so the economic problems cannot be laid at the door of the san francisco residents having spending power. we are lacking tourists and commuteers and we are lacking some residents, but the ones

that are here are spending more than before. when we look at other ind kaytors of small business opening -- indy 500 -- of indicators, it is not by lack of spending of san francisco residents whose incomes have held up very well all things considered. this is the job status that i mentioned. we are showing a little bit of perspective on how many jobs were lost by the two county metro area and where we are. we continue to add jobs every month since january. i mentioned june was a healthy month with 17,000 jobs. we still have a way to go. we need five or six more months like that before we get back to normal. and i don't think it will happen in the next five months. although, there's no reason not to hope. that would be very good news. we are also tracking the san francisco unemployment rate. one of the things that's interesting is how much the unemployment rate has come down

while the job numbers have not gone up as much. when there is a discrepancy, i tend to trust the job numbers. there is a little bit of math involved with the unemployment number. it is not something the government directly observes, whereas the job number is a much more direct administrative number crunching exercise, but for what it's worth, the job numbers and -- the unemployment rate has been around 5% for the past few months. that's quite good for a recession. it is not the 2% that we have had before the pandemic. but it is much better than it was at the start of the pandemic. this is the hotel occupancy number that i mentioned. we're looking at this on a total inventory basis counting all the hotel rooms in the city, not just the hotels that have chosen to open. i mention that we had 80% attendance of hotels before the

pandemic. now we are around 45%. that is quite a bit better than where we were in february when we were south of 2%, but on the other hand, july 4 is a big tourist time. so it's getting better. it still has a long way to go. something that is interesting about the hotel story is that rates are increasing as well. they are not increasing a lot. they are up from just north of $100 a night in february up to about $170 a night. again, much less than where they were before the pandemic, but it is interesting that hotels are able to raise rates and increase occupancy which is a sign of recovering demand, albeit slowly recovering. and of course, vital to the local tourism industry is getting people to ride on airplanes to san francisco airport. that is also moving in a good direction after levelling off in january.

again, quite a bit below where it was pre-covid. we're at about 1/3 of pre-covid traffic. we're still seeing suppressed numbers because of restrictions on international travel and frankly, air travel is a form of transportation that people were very averse to during the pandemic. and there's going to be some changes in consumer psychology before we start to see very big changes in air travel. air travel in the tourism industry sort of go hand in glove. we need the tourism industry to get back on its feet and totally open to give people a reason to come to san francisco. and we need people to fly here before the businesses have a reason to fully reopen. but at least that virtual circle, if you like, is starting to move in the right direction. again, we have a ways to go.

one of the areas of tourism that remains a concern and i think people expect, frankly, to remain a concern is moscone bookings. we didn't see much change from the previous month. this is a forward look at the bookings that we have and number of events through the end of 2024. right now we don't have anything like the numbers that we had before the pandemic. again, you've got the air travel problem. you have concern about gatherings in large groups, and then you also have businesses and associations dealing with the logistics of reopening and getting back to work and moving into the office, and perhaps it's the case that the conventions are not everybody's highest priority at the moment. there is also a lag time in getting them booked. so this may be a segment of the tourism industry that takes longer to recover. a few data points about transportation.

we started tracking the easiest way, i think, for us to look at how many people are driving in the city is to look at freeway speeds. and this is a chart of the average freeway speed during evening rush hour. you can see that before the shelter in place in march of last year, the average speed was around 25%. through 2019 it is around -- i'm sorry, not 2019. in the low 30s was the average rush hour speed on the freeways in san francisco in 2019. we're about at that level now. so what that means is despite relatively weak job recovery and not a lot of tourist there is, the traffic has come back. and that is a feature of the transportation changes that have happened in the wake of covid. here is another indicator of that. this is traffic on the golden gate bridge and the bay bridge together. in june it was about 90% of

normal after dropping to about 50% of normal during the shelter in place month of april. that is essentially close to recovery when it comes to people driving into san francisco. however, when we look at the bart data, it is nothing really like that. june was a good month with a jump of a couple percentage points but still only about 15% of normal for bart. when i say bart, i mean bart exits at the downtown san francisco stations. this is not system wide bart numbers and next month i think we will look at exits in a regional context and see whether or not there is something about downtown san francisco doing better or worse than other bart accessible centers in the bay area. lastly, turning to housing. san francisco has the biggest drop in asking rent of any large city in the country last year, about a 27% drop.

by january of 2021 we have had a pretty robust recovery in apartment rents. one of the better performing apartment markets in 2021 and we have gotten back about 1/3 of the decline. and so we have seen 80% growth in rent. it appears to be concentrated in the areas of the city particularly on the eastern side of the city that had the biggest drops in rent in 2020. it may be a case of people moving away and coming back. and that's a good news for the economic recovery of the city, at least the population is returning. housing construction, however, which you would expect to drop off when at least rents are down, we're tracking housing permits on a monthly basis. still nothing like the 380 or so, 390 units per month that we were permitting on average

before covid. and although, housing prices in san francisco have done well, single family homes have done well the past two years. and probably take recovery and present since before we start to see the numbers start up again. so that concludes the indicators that we have in our report. i am happy to take questions from the commissioners now. >> president: great. let's see. commissioner, do we have questions? while they formulate their questions, i will start firing them off, ted. i have a bunch for you. on the hotels with the occupancy at 45% and i think you said the vacancy rate was 20%, do you

feel a sense of where the geographic concentration is? correct me if i am wrong, but most of the airports are closer to the airport or in downtown. so i would presume we are mostly talking about downtown. >> this is only within the city limits. and so we're not considering the hotels by the airport. this is the airport largely downtown. so can just as easily reflect the weakness of downtown overall. i guess the question i am asking is, is there any sense or have you seen incidentally -- i know you are not measuring hotel results outside the city, but are hotels doing better than downtown? i suppose i can ask kevin carol, but if you happen to know. >> we don't actually happen to know, but that is another thing

we are going to add to the report next month, not just sort of local comparisons, but also how is the san francisco metro area doing in hotels compared to other cities. >> great. bart ridership, i don't think that comes as a big surprise either given that so many factors seem to stem from not having office workers downtown seem to be a big driver of a lot of the economy. but do you know of or can you think of any way to measure whether lack of service is a factor, to what degree it might be a factor? >> well, like a lot of the indicator, there's a little bit of a chicken and egg and transit is a classic example of that. if you don't have the rider, you can't offer the service. if you don't offer the service, you can't have the riders. you really need to have a push

that puts bart in the situation where they can offer ridership and a level of service that entices people back onto the trains. i would say that there are a couple of things hanging on in the background respect to office workers and job recovery generally. we wouldn't have expected some economic recovery from the lifting of the mask mandates and so forth and the rising vaccination levels, but school and child care is still a major issue. so i think we're expecting to see more recovery in the september-october data, aened in particular that will free up folks who are office workers and transit rideers. >> president: i think that makes a lot of sense. and then do you -- are you seeing any correlation in asking rents with vacancy levels?

i feel like rents have been lagging where the market is a bit. and i am wondering if what is driving the other and how sensitive each is to the other and if there is a way to measure that sensitivity. >> i have been kind of surprised by how low the reported residential vacancy rates have been over the course of the pandemic given how much rents have dropped. it is hard to imagine vacancy rates kind of below 10% as someone said. and yet you have a 20% drop and the kind of outmigration that we have talked about before that would have to lead to rising residential vacancy. >> sorry, just to be clear. i was talking about office vacancies. >> office va can sis. okay. >> so again, to repeat the

question, with respect to -- and actually, the answer you were giving was also interesting to make we'll come back to that, but on the offers vacancies, i guess what i was trying to get a sense of is i don't see that commercial asking rents have dropped as precipitously as vacancy has. do we think that is a lagging indicator? are they holding out? at what point do we give up the ghost and we see commercial lease rates drop? >>ic the best way to describe it is a lagging indicator. we as of the second quarter, average lease rates south of $80 a square foot and they were around $92 at the start of 2020 so that is a 15% plus drop.

i don't think that's going to be the end of it. i mean, there is a certain amount of what's your strategy, but when you look at the data there is a bit of a memberingcism there which is to say when office vacancy goes up, the only way it comes down is some growth and demand that comes out of nowhere and sort of saves the day or you have to cut the rent to fill up the building. what we're seeing with offices and i think whether the concerns we have about the city's economy in the medium term after we can talk about reopening is how many 2019 office workers really need and want to be in a san francisco office on any given day. if that number is a fraction of what it was in 2019, then we're seeing the opposite of the growth and we're seeing a drop.

that may take even more enticing rent and frankly, even more time. >> president: is there a role that the city can play in helping to prime that pump? is there -- do you see or do you have a sense of whether there are regulatory mechanisms within our control, zoning being an office unwith, but perhaps others that make it difficult for businesses to consider filling that space? how much blue sky is available to the city through policy change? >> well, i mean, i think the city has a number of ways that it affects the cost of doing business in the city and frankly t experience of working in the city and travelling to the city for office workers. i really, i mean a lot of people

are suggesting that the bay area and tech industry itself is sort of at a cross roads. i don't think that's true, but i do think the city has a new kind of competitor if you like. and that competitor is people's home offices. so we are seeing played out in the public a lot of our major employers clapping their hands and saying, okay, it is time to start going back to the office, and employees are pushing back saying i don't want to go back to the office. so one of the things that the city can do that weighs in the favor of work in the office as opposed to at home is the atmosphere of working in san francisco, going to lunch in san francisco, going to places after work, and the commute, all the rest of that. if that is a pleasant experience on the whole, people will be more likely to do that. i think we have recognized the

quality of life in san francisco is an economic asset. it is critically more so now when the people we need to be in the city drives more. >> and noticeably absent from the slides is other than small business starts, and i didn't see a whole lot of data on economic performances of small businesses. i did see on one of the slides to track the recovery what is the insight and they have paused their small business reporting because they are doing some sort of review of the data. periodically they seem to change the methodology or whatnot. but i guess i am kind of tossing a couple of questions in here at

once. you did have some indicator of what spending is vis-a-vis consumer spending relative to that -- i forget what the firm was that was doing the spending analysis, but at the credit card level so presumably reliable. i guess the question number one was, that consumer spending resumebly is at the individual level, not the merchant level. where i am going with this is i think one would expect if people were transitioning to working from home that you would see some of that economic activity migrate outwards from the better lying neighborhoods. at least in the slides we have seen we don't see to have our

clear grasp on how to measure that. >> i think that the last point is certainly true, but let me go back to the first point about the small business indicator. in the first business report which we released is to track the recovery small business indicator which was the percentage of merchant that were cloized and that number is around 45% and kind of stall there had for a while. in july that number started to look a little funny and a sharp drop in san francisco and nationally. and it may have become a data problem and i hope they fix that and bring it back because it is important to us precisely for the reason that you mentioned, which is sort of that the consumer demand picture looks

strong. where is that spending going if it's not going to small businesses in san francisco? particularly if, you know, well, for example, residents in the city if they are not commuting to downtown, would we expect that to go to the neighborhoods? we might. on the other hand, if they are going to the neighborhood supermarket and buying sandwich bread instead of going out to lunch at a downtown restaurant, that is probably a net loss for the small business sector even if it's a gain for the supermarket f you follow me. in other words, if they are buying online instead of buying at a neighborhood store. >> i would expect to see net small business consumption go down but at a greater cost to the downtown small businesses and possibly some net winners at

the local level. but i would city think the consumer behavior would tend to tilt towards amazon and insta cart and what have you, stuff that all the buying is happening at home and all the consuming is happening at home. but i think that they will go out to eat maybe not with the same frequency that they would if they were at the office downtown. but it would be great to put a number on that. we hear anecdotalty all sorts of different things and it is hard to make sense one way or the other what the real, prevailing trends are and what direction they are headed. i think kind of most importantly autoof all of this is you nailed the one half which is how many starts are we seeing which is

800 to 1200 start which is you thought was pretty good, but i don't have the slide in front of me, but i think that was down from prior years. yes. so i guess that if our net starts are still not at, let's call it replacement level, i don't know, if that was where we were at in 2019, but presumably since vacancy rates were fairly low, commercial vacancy rates. if our net new starts are still below replacement level and we're -- we don't really have any idea of what our complete closure rate was, and that continues to be a very difficult problem to get to the bottom of because nobody -- there's no reporting mechanism for when you

see us doing business. you just don't see the registration renewal. what are you thoughts to push policy solutions in it would be great to be more targeted. >> we are continuing to look for al tern tifr measures of small businesses at least temporarily closed. and you are correct that i don't think we have a verifiable, permanent closure for small business that would be timely. we would need to wait for a year and see who doesn't file for renewal. and encourage you not to draw a 1:1 relationship between what is going on in neighborhoods and commercial corridors and the new business formation. a lot of new businesses are sole

proprietors doing construction or real estate and not things that need commercial space, but that points to another data gap about what is the drivers of growth in neighborhood commercial areas? we have, as you know, fairly detailed sales tax information, and we've recently gotten the first quarter 2021 sales data and some of the questions you raised we could address with that. for example this, question of are there neighborhoods there have been net winners during the pandemic? when last we looked at that last summer, we couldn't find a single zip code where there was growth in sales tax, but into 2021, maybe some areas are doing better tharn downtown. downtown is particularly hard hit. >> president: i think the technical word is [bleep] show.

>> there are a number of anecdotal terms that work just as well. >> president: okay. and my gosh, the conventions, out of every slide you showed, that was possibly the scariest. and i think everything else feels like something that could be solved with the return of business or opening up or what have you, but with conventions not showing any real signs of life yet, that is certainly pretty concerning. i guess, again, anecdotally, but i interact with a few of those folks. you mentioned some of the factors, appetite for conventions and appetite for

people getting together, but i will note that next month i will be attending a convention in las vegas and clearly some trade conventions are still happening. i have heard or at least it is a belief that in the communities that thrive and depend on conventions that there are other factors in play here such as public perception about crime, public perception about cleanliness of streets. are you aware of any empirical research into this of surveys, data, and is there something you are looking at there? it seems to me that so much of the economy counts on people coming back to visit.

it seems like we, almost like we need a queue score for the city as a whole to address the perception issues. i was wondering if that is on your radar. >> it is something that folks of travel have been talking about for a number of year, and i would sort of defer to them as the ones in communication with the visitors and the businesses directly reporting those concerns. i don't think it is something we're equipped to -- there certainly is a third party indicator that we can find and we are not really equipped to i think create our own survey around this, but i think this is an issue that's been a competitive disadvantage of the city in conventions for a while. and it is arguably worse as the

convention arena is recovering nationally. >> president: that same number you showed for conventions, is a similar number available for comparison to see where we are respect to our peers? >> we can look into that. our data is from sf travel, but perhaps we could have a conversation with them about what is their competitive intelligence on their competitors. >> president: and that seems really relative to getting people back. by the way, commissioner, if you have questions, drop it in chat. i'm just going because i don't

see anything popping up, but feel free to interrupt at any point in time. respect to employment, looking at the chart, it seems clear that employment is down, but at least the jobs are coming back. i was kind of surprised to see that there was still down as much as they were in terms of jobs. one thing we are hearing a lot is lack of supply. we are having trouble filling as it is. is that the nature of jobs and are people moving out of the service industry or choosing not

to be in the service industry and have to migrate to different occupations? >> there is some evidence of both of those migrations migrating out of the hospitality industry and finding work in other industries. and also with other workers with the amount of job staff and that puts a slow down on number of people that with the sectors and

inflationary impacts on prices? for instance, the cost of a meal or cost of a sandwich, etc., etc. >> we're not seeing signs of that yet in the inflation data. what we're seeing in terms of consumer price inflation which is higher than it has been. over the past few months. used cars is up 24% year overyear. with pretty healthy year over

year with livestock and beverages and those can work into food prices and work into hospitality, restaurant, supplies, spryses and that could have an inflationary effect. this is a that is a peer of what is happening. for me that is a key and critical indicator. the used vehicles, which is my industry, as you noted as sort of a side mention s as much about a lack of supply of vehicles due to worldwide semiconductor shortage and what have you. but restaurant are historically very narrow margin businesses

and labor is the margin and they have found untapped reserve efficiencies and they have been able to do more with less. we have seen that with the qr codes on men use and some of that, but what i think i am waiting for is noticeable inflation on restaurant pricing and i think that would be the clearest indicator that we have a significant labor shortage and there is no more room for the ownership of the restaurants to absorb that cost. and they have to pass it to the customer. >> that is one thing you might see. and it also might account for the fact that we're still seeing

restaurants not opening to the rate and the cost of labor can't make it work. >> commissioner dickerson, thank you for being patient. >> commissioner dickerson, excuse me, mr. president, i don't know if you would like to take down the power point. >> sure. >> so that -- thank you. >> thank you, commissioner dickerson. i am done, thank you. >> commissioner: no worries. as i was waiting, my question actually, well, the question that i had has been answered. but just to make a comment in reference to the restaurant owners and the labor cost is definitely affecting them.

there is a pendulum. there is not as much high traffic adds it used to be. to find people to work at the rate it was a year ago is very hard to find. to the costs of labor and supplies. and i see and hear people say that i have work catering gigs, but i don't have people to work at the rate that i can pay.

that is some of the language i am hearing. commissioner, our job here as advocates for the small business community, we have to find new ways to want to open and existing businesses to stay in business. and this approaching to me where there is nowhere left to give. and some have chosen to exit the industry completely. and yet there is not enough

elasticity -- i am not sure if i am saying that right. >> commissioner: elasticity. >> president: thank you. in food pricing that it's actually becoming a constraint on jobs, right? as you're talking about, commissioner dickerson. so i think we have to start thinking about seriously pushing and advocating for the city to collect is self-defeating. ted, i don't know if you are

following my point here, but there is a point where i guess to use an analogy, you can charge rent so high that nobody wants to rent from you and now you have no income at all. and we may be looking at a place where the city is entering a position of making less money no matter what in terms of the tax revenue and what are you willing to trade. and go ahead. >> i don't know if i have a direct comment on that specific trade-off to trade-off tax revenue and hire lower wage workers is particularly challenging because you don't move back to san francisco if

you are a restaurant worker and you moved away the way you might if you were living in houston and maybe you moved away and now you are moving back to work there. and housing is so expensive here. the solution is before the pan dem sick to tap into labor that lives outside of san francisco. we talk about transit like it is the office worker mode of transportation, but it is not. work ores on all of the east side transit rely on bart. it is important for hospitality and other industries and not only office workers. >> i completely agree and that should also be on the radar. to be the chicken and egg and no

sustainable traffic without good option. it seems like you seed the egg before the chicken and start with good transit and build from there. is that your take on it as well? >> and with the increasing transit will pay economic dividends. commissioner zouzounis? >> commissioner: thank you for your presentation. i have a question. i know we discussed how closures is a hard metric to put our finger on with a lot of commercial sale activity throughout the last year, and you have data on that and if you

feel like that is an indicator of anything. that goes to comparing data on if there are businesses that are being out their building as an indicatorover them staying. if there is any data that is relevant or to capture those ideas. i think we have and we are tracking in our office and the commercial property sales because they may have implications for our property tax base.

we're starting to see hotels longer term and i wouldn't overstate how much that is happening. and there is a lot of uncertainty now related to commercial property and commercial property valuation. that is something that we're tracking closely. this is with the 2020 tax rent returns to commercial rents and how the rents have changed

across the that is something we are watching the we are trying to track the commercial market as we can. commissioner ortiz-cartagena? >> ted, as always, appreciate the presentation. very thorough, informative. my constituent si and the latinx and undocumented are data hidden. i want to take the time that correlation that the data and we are not on matrix that is why it

is so important and to tell everybody that the the data reflects that and this is an eye opener so future administrations can see that investment in affordable housing and that we provide in the city you need more of because you are seeing the effects in your presentation and your data that reflects

that. >> commissioner, you are right in terms of what we don't have data and we are guessing about how many people have moved out of san francisco even from census data, which is as you point out doesn't cover everyone. and we're not even going to have census data for 2020 until we see data like the wages and we can't track that. thank you for your comments about our report.

the net migration numbers that show we are back to pre-pandemic levels and at least it appears to show that we're kindover back to normal with net migration. and we are not seeing as you pointed out elsewhere a big decline in residential rents. >> well, i have seen the with the recovery in some rents, rents are still down 15% from where they were in 2019. with the things coming back and we still have a ways to go. and again, the population data, i mean, the estimates that have come out so far are from

administrative data with a bit of lag in it. and we will have to see. we won't have to wait several months until we have a sense of where we really were. and in the depths of the pandemic and a bit longer to find out where we are. we don't have the ind ka ier tos of where we are and this is the report of what we do have and who we can trust. >> do we have any sense of -- so to go off memory here, but edd data that i have seen locally and even broadly in california and construction is still strong in terms of the number of jobs out there. is that correct to say? >> if i recall correctly, i haven't looked at the central breakdown in a couple of month, but it was close to normal.

so i guess, of course, i am thinking about policy decisions with the job linkage fee. and i am wondering if is it time for a follow-up to look at some of these policys? i guess let's start with this question. has construction on new office space, i would imagine, is completely stopped? >> i think this is not an environment where people are going to find it favorable to build new offices. >> right. and that is that we might want this stuff some day. again, i think that the

construction is important part of the economy. and the economic boom times and in a period of what looks like entering the weak demand,there is less to do. and that begs the demand for other questions. and clearly looking at the long running crisis and never letting a crisis go to waste. what are the policy opportunities here? we talked about vice president zouzounis mentioned rightfully so about helping businesses get into owning their buildings and that are the pragmatic things to help set the stage for a stronger small business sector

in the future? >> well, i would just sort of point to the areas that the data are pointing to and staying and likely to be problems that will be with us for a while. i think that this disconnect and that seems to be a growing disconnect that is of concern. and i don't think people have been reminded enough or have in their minds enough how important small business is. we talk about in different ways. obviously a major source of employment for people who live in the city about half of all the jobs in the city. and also is the dominant share of jobs in other areas of the city. most of the large employers are either in downtown or are major institutions, hospitals, universities and a few areas. in most of city, the job opportunities are small

businesses. and the city isn't set up or planned for people to meet their retail entertainment shopping needs in the local neighborhood. you can't get to the mall without small businesses in the neighborhoods. people talk in the real estate world talk about why people love san francisco and tourists talk about why they love san francisco. it's the neighborhood. small businesses are vital to the experiences that residents and visitors value. if you don't have that, you don't have willingness to pay for housing and construction workers and the tourism draw. it connects to really every dynamic, every part of the city's economy. you can't be attracted to tech

workers who have to decide if you want to live in new york or london or barcelona or san francisco. so it is very important to the vitality of the city. >> i think we can all agree with that. and then have you given any thought to what kind of low-hanging fruit with respect to policy changes that can give us more visibility into minority employment, business closures, demographics of who is leaving, stuff like that? is there stuff that -- i mean, a lot of times it is just a question of introducing a check box some place or what is the

low-hanging fruit there that you have seen or, is that, we can really do a lot? >> that is an interesting question. to go down some of the things that you mention, minority employment or who is leaving, these are things that we will eventually know about from state and federal data resources and our wills come out after the one that we're waiting for so i don't think that is a low-hanging fruit? but there is certainly things that the city already regulates. and that i don't think we have the data set about. for example, do businesses need to file something when they reopen? and to clarify with someone that they are occupied again? i don't think if there is a

vacancy tax clock and if businesses have to stay stop that block because now we are operating again? that would be nice to know more about small businesses and what we have now is a bunch of businesses with a business registration and how many are taking up space and neighborhoods? we really need to have a sense of that. those are things that the city regulates that we can somehow grab that data and make a data set from. that would be helpful. >> and brings up a point i remember which is most new employment in the united states, most net new employment, comes from small businesses. and in part because these large institutions are generally not expanding it at a measurable rate or fairly incremental in

the scheme of things. when somebody opens a new business, boom, there's five new jobs or 10 new jobs. and at scale that has a significant impact on employment overall. so what this makes me think about in my own business is reservation records as luck would have it i write the code that operates the business, and so generally wherever the database record is created there is a time stamp to record the last time we touched this record or how did we touch it? there could be the opportunity to have the policy city wide of creating the standardized way of approaching data across all

these different departments so that, for example, if the business was closed and to complain about something in front of it and planning and filed a permit with the master data set that could be helpful and what the that is with the cities and the various types of

the that is the gold standard and they are going to run the credit card stuff. to figure out the way for the city to get the product that we want there, that could be very helpful to policy makeers. >> i couldn't an i degree more and the chamber of commerce has put out exactly that data u but it was discovered or one of the cards that wasn't super common. >> all right. unless there is any other commission for the commissioner, we have taken up enough after your time. we appreciate the time to visit with us, as always. and the points you raised here

are also sharing throughout the small business community and it will help make everybody in this sector adept at navigating the crisis. with, that let's check and see if there is any public comment. >> currently there is no one for public comment. >> seeing none, public comment is closed. ted, thank you so much for your time. we really appreciate you and everything you do for the city. i am always rooting for you. >> thank you, commissioner. thank you for your time. >> okay. bye. bye. next item please. >> item number three is general public comment. this allows members of the public to comment on matters within the small business commission's jurisdiction but not only on today's calendar --

but are not on today's calendar and suggest new agenda items for the commission's future consideration. president t matthew, are there any callers in the queue at all? >> there are not. >> president: okay. seeing none, public comment is closed. next item. >> clerk: item four is the director's report. this is an update and report on the office of small business, small business assistance center, department programs, policy and legislate ifr matters, and announcements from the mayor, and announcements regarding small business activities. so commissioners, i will first just make note in regards to an announcement from the mayor as the city and the mayor has created the resiliency fund for small businesses. and last friday the mayor had an announcement, press event, from

the resiliency fund the $4.5 million that was allocated to that grant program was distributed to 560 businesses and commissioner ortiz-cartagena, you may have been in attendance, and if so, it would be great to hear about it more during commissioner reports. so 560 businesses received grants between $5,000 and $25,000. they have not completed issuing the grants and are anticipating and expecting to award a little over 700 businesses. in addition, the update for the venue fund since i am talking about grants. this week is the final week for any of the applicants who do

think they qualify to get in the final documents. we currently have 63 applications -- or 63 applicants that have met the guidelines to receive the grant. and reminder that 37,000, roughly 50 -- roughly $37,50 # o out of the 84 applicant. there is 21 applications, but applicants that are still working through the proornsd so by the end of this week, we -- and working through the process and so by early next week because they have the full day on friday, july 30, to get their information in, but we'll know early next week the final total and outcome thereby. and i want to express my appreciation to richard for being so diligent and working really closely with the businesses to really help them

meet the application criteria. hopefully you have seen the emails that i sent out this morning. that you do now have someone filling the position, your position, as the commission secretary policy analyst. and carrie burnbach. very happy about that. she will be starting on monday, august 23. so the future or the light at the end of the tunnel is definitely in sight. and of course, i want to thank all the commissioners who spent their time going through the interview process, particularly to commissioner huie and ortiz-cartagena who held a marathon interview session with six candidates.

i really want to extend my appreciation to all of you weighing in and i think we have a really great candidate coming to full this position. so, last week -- last meeting i noted about the add back and what some of the budget enhancements and one of the budget enhancements was a $500,000 add back to the legacy business program. so we did not know or i did not know the last meeting just what the intent of those $500,000 were intended for for the legacy business program. we have met with the three primary supervisors advocating for that funding. supervisor peskin, supervisor chan, and supervisor ronen.

the staff has broken out that we have $100,000 going to help fund a position to help us with the application process and also help with doing our outreach for the simplification of saying this to the equity owned businesses as they are the racial equity special committee identified that we do have some significant gaps in certain areas in our legacy business program and businesses that are missing from -- not missing but not on the registry. and this position will be also

helping in that particular area to increase the number of our equity businesses on the to go to grants to be distributed as one-time grants to the legacy businesses. and again, a little bit of a concern that we are having to do another grant because in issuing the grant we don't have the position fill sod this will sort of further delay the application process. but we are looking to set the grant program so that it is distributed as quickly as possible. it will not be too complicated in terms of the application

process. and rick and i will be working on what that looks like and likely at the next commission meeting, we will provide you with a report with how the funds will be distributed. and i think one of the key points that i do want to say is that there is some confusion because we did have the business assistance grant program. i know that i and rick have had conversations with the full commission about the initial program and that the way it was designed with proposition f was a very unwieldly program in terms of, one, not just in terms of it escalating obligation, financial obligation, if it were to be fully funded and our

inability to modify how the grant program is to be enacted because it was created by the voters. so i do -- we can have further discussions on this, but i want to emphasize that there was funding to help back fill and that funding couldn't -- and that that -- that the amount of money needed to back fill that program. we will be looking at that grant program and moving forward, as long as we continue to look at,

i think, the rent stabilization program is a program that needs the legacy business program needs and needs and the needs and the intention of what the program is about which is retaining the businesses. movering forward, hopefully having this new position in place even though right now we only have it funded for one year is that i think there are other meaningful programs that we can work to design to design and implement that will have -- that meets the intent of the program. and from rick and my perspective will have a greater impact, so if there are conversations that are being had with you about the need for these business

assistance grants, i want to encourage you to just know to support the office and our need to have some space to establish other more meaningful programs. that isn't just cash out the door one or two times. and while we know it is covid and businesses do need some funding but when we take a look at if we equitably distribute this and the 286 businesses that are on the registry is about 1,000 to $1300. so it's a short-term gain for some of the businesses. and the small amount of money.

and for the program, we need to look at more of the long-term trajectory of what we want to create with this program and establish some really much more mature and programs that have a greater long-term benefit for our legacy businesses. and really help elevate the stature of the program not only within san francisco but nationally as well. so that's enough said with that. then some other updates are i just received notification today from kevin true with the department of environment on the crb. and a letter has been sent out by calrecycle saying they are no longer going to be charging the inlieu fees.

and that is good news moving forward, and we'll continue to work on the issue of the charges that businesses experienced around the in lieu fees and fines that are retroactive. and then i am very happy that you had the opportunity to have this time with ted to really have that substantive conversation about what the city is doing and tracking, and so in preparation for next week or next meeting on august 9, we will have director sokus here to talk about her goals and visions with oewd. and then she -- the mayor recently tasked director sofus and oewd to help track the

economic recovery work with the recommendations from the economic recovery task force. and so to expect the conversation much kind of what sort of -- what sort of transpired towards the end of the meeting or what are things that we can do to track around small business and look at that economic recovery. ted is part of those meetings. so that conversation that you had with him will help him because he is a part of working with oewd on this. and so i am really excited for director sofus to have this conversation with you on how we want to track and measure our economic recovery from a small business perspective. and then just to also think about what our sort of standard metrics that we want to be able

to track and utilize. not only just as we're in recovery but moving forward to keep track of the health and maintenance of our small business economy. and as director sofus said is she really wants to work closely with you. [please stand by]

i really appreciate the amount of time you took with him. and, with that, i'm trying to see if there's i did send you last week it was introduced. and so supervisor stefani is looking at doing some amending to the signage for the planning code. you will hear that at the august 23rd meeting which will be carry's first meeting and

your former commission secretary analyst donavan will be presenting on that, so that will be fun and then supervisor peskin which goes in after the closure of a laundry mat. so i'm hoping that we'll be able to hear that as well. so those are the key pieces of legislation that i had to inform you of. with that, that will conclude my report and i'll take any questions should you have any.

>> president laguana: i don't see any questions. i did have a question about the grants. they think the final number is going to be over 700. >> director: yes. >> president laguana: and which grant is this referring to? >> director: this is the sf resiliency grant. >> president laguana: which has been in process for quite awhile, right? >> director: it was launched at the same time as the new grant. >> president laguana: oh, it was? got it. how much was this one? was it $4 million? >> director: $4.5 million. >> president laguana: okay. and very exciting news looking forward to having our commission secretary again.

that will be good. okay. i don't see any other questions. so, matt, do we have any public commentors on the line? >> there's no one on the line. >> president laguana: okay. seeing none. public comment is closed. next item, please. >> director: next item is item number five. this is commissioner discussion and new business. it allows the president, vice president, commissioners to report on recent small business activities, make announcements that are of interest to the small business can you want and make inquiries to the staff and allows commissioners to introduce new agenda items for future consideration by the commission. this is a discussion item. >> president laguana: commissioner ortiz-cartagena. >> commissioner ortiz-cartagena: thank you, mr. president. like our director was saying, the mayor came out to specificallytwenty-fourth street and we awarded four grants to four businesses in the neighborhood and it was

just great. and through my nonprofit, i helped several businesses fill out this grant and kudos to the mayor and her team. the grant was really easy to fill meaning that equitable by lowering all the barriers to fill stuff like this out, you make it equitable. i just want to give a shout-out to her mayor, her team, and our former director joaquin taurus was out there and, man, it was just awesome. it was easy and the money got to the people. over 80% of the grants awarded so far have been to minority women owned businesses. that's how it should be and it's working and i just want to once again thank the mayor. >> president laguana: that's great. um, yeah. absolutely. and, nice to see your quote in the press release on that as well. great quote. okay. anybody else?

vice president zouzounis. >> vice president zouzounis: this isn't the new business item or -- >> president laguana: they're combined. >> vice president zouzounis: okay. good. thank you. i think piggy backing off our conversation earlier, i would love to see for new business at one point, i know we have a backlog, but i just want to put it out there, i would love to see any reports on small side acquisitions programs that the city has right now whether that's a direct through oewd or whether it's through one of the funded partner organizations that came through in rfp that's helping with small businesses being able to acquire their buildings. i would also love to see any

new data on city vendors. i think that could be an indicator for us if there's small businesses getting their local business enterprise certification so that they can be a vendor with the city. so any contrasting data that's new could be an indicator that i'm interested in reviewing as well. those are just the two things that i wanted to mention. >> president laguana: sorry. go ahead, director. >> director: commissioner. thank you, mr. president. commissioner zouzounis, make sure you mention that at the next meeting with director sopis as one of the indicators that we should be tracking and monitoring. i'll mention it too, but it should just to reiterate that because it is one our l.b.e.s and our vendors who do business with the city as an area of

small business that both o.s.b. and oewd do not give a lot of attention to. so yeah. okay. thank you, mr. president. and i'll go back to you. >> president laguana: of course. i was just going to say, you know, i have a lot of interest in this area and i wonder it if there's, you know, given how critical sba usually is in business owners getting financing for buying their properties, i wonder, commissioner, if perhaps we could have somebody from the sba come and make a presentation on the 4a loans. i think i'm forgetting what they're called. >> vice president zouzounis:

yeah. there's 7a loans and 504 loans i'm happy to do that at the end and put a little time going over the working capital loans if that's what you're asking. >> president laguana: i was thinking something closer to the top of the hour and if you feel qualified to do it, that'd be great, but i think the business community would, you know, thinking about, again viewing the crisis in opportunity it seems like it's possible that commercial real estate values may either be going down or may be low, you know, at some point presumably they'll come back. so now's the time for somebody to buy. how do we help a business who might not be imagining to have the money to do that. >> how do we help them -- wait

a second, no, you do have this opportunity and it's doable, you can do it, we can make this happen. it'd be. you know, i'm considering that for my own business as well. >> sure. yeah. i'm happy to work with our director to see if that's something we can schedule and i'm happy to make that presentation or do it in tandem or bring one of my colleagues to do it. >> president laguana: yeah. and i'll say also in a related note with director focus coming in that you guys have heard me before talk about the employer retention tax credit which gives me an awful lot of tax

credits. so my goal and commissioner ortiz-cartagena, you may be interested to know about this and i think you would be also a really important partner in this conversation, i mean shgts all of you, really, but with respect to what you were just talking about, you know, i have found i'm fairly sophisticated as far as business center goes. i've built my own accounting system and yet this is so complicated, i wouldn't even dare try to figure this out and it requires really specialized expertise to pull off which obviously inherently is going to disadvantage any vulnerable community, any vulnerable population. anybody who english is a second

language. most i would say of our small businesses are not going to have the resources to do this. i spoke to one small business and as i talked to them, they went and talked to their accountant and the account says that's too hard. how is anybody going to access this there's 100,000 small businesses in san francisco alone, but nationwide, only 30,000 across the entire country. so i have made it one of my little side quests here to see if i can persuade some large enterprise accounting firm to,

you know, be willing to put in an rfp and then perhaps the city can issue some kind of grant or create some kind of program to help fund this and my idea was simply i'm paying about $150 an employee, but the tax credit is 5,000 an employee in 2020 and $7,000 an employee per quarter so that's a pretty good investment. so when the city issues a grant for $5,000, i mean, i'm happy we're doing that. we could issue a grant for $1500 and potentially unlock $300,000 in tax credits. that's an incredible return on investment. so i've been saying to the

city, this is just a huge opportunity and san francisco should own this zone and we should be trying to help every single business that's hung on to their employees. avail themselves of this and, if necessary, we should pay for it for the work to get done because the benefits are so huge and so massive and have -- i mean, there's no constructive difference between giving somebody $100,000 and saying they don't have to pay $100,000 in taxes. it winds up being the same thing i can either give it to you or say you don't have to pay the bill, but either way you're $100,000 richer than before, so this is just a huge

opportunity and i think it would have huge impact on particularly our smallest businesses and especially businesses with a second language. i just think it's something that we have to make happen. so i'm going to talk about it every meeting and keep you guys thinking about it and you can talk to the people in your community about it and maybe something will bubble up here that will help us really make a difference in the small business community. so that's all i've got. should we see if there's any public comment? matthew. >> there's currently no one in queue. >> president laguana: thank you. so seeing none. public comment is closed. next item, please.

>> director: right, next item, sfgov tv, please show the office of small business slide. >> president laguana: we will end with the reminder that the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco and that the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the local emergency. if you need assistance with small business matters, continue to reach out to the office of small business. >> director: thank you, president laguana. item number six is adjournment. this is an action item. do i have a motion to adjourn? >> i move. >> director: thank you. and a second >> seconded. >> director: a motion to adjourn by commissioner ortiz-cartagena, seconded by vice president zouzounis.

commissioner adams is absent, [roll call] that motion passes four to zero with three absent and the meeting is adjourned at 6:18 p.m. thank you, commissioners. >> vice president zouzounis: thanks everyone. >> president laguana: bye you guys. >> have a good night.

>> after my fire in my apartment and losing everything, the red cross gave us a list of agencies in the city to reach out to and i signed up for the below-market rate program. i got my certificate and started applying and won the housing lottery. [♪♪♪] >> the current lottery program began in 2016. but there have been lot rows that have happened for affordable housing in the city for much longer than that. it was -- there was no standard practice. for non-profit organizations that were providing affordable

housing with low in the city, they all did their lotteries on their own. private developers that include in their buildings affordable units, those are the city we've been monitoring for some time since 1992. we did it with something like this. where people were given circus tickets. we game into 291st century in 2016 and started doing electronic lotteries. at the same time, we started electronic applications systems. called dalia. the lottery is completely free. you can apply two ways. you can submit a paper application, which you can download from the listing itself. if you apply online, it will take five minutes. you can make it easier creating an account. to get to dalia, you log on to

housing.sfgov.org. >> i have lived in san francisco for almost 42 years. i was born here in the hayes valley. >> i applied for the san francisco affordable housing lottery three times. >> since 2016, we've had about 265 electronic lotteries and almost 2,000 people have got their home through the lottery system. if you go into the listing, you can actually just press lottery results and you put in your lottery number and it will tell you exactly how you ranked. >> for some people, signing up for it was going to be a challenge. there is a digital divide here and especially when you are trying to help low and very low income people. so we began providing digital assistance for folks to go in

and get help. >> along with the income and the residency requirements, we also required someone who is trying to buy the home to be a first time home buyer and there's also an educational component that consists of an orientation that they need to attend, a first-time home buyer workshop and a one-on-one counseling session with the housing councilor. >> sometimes we have to go through 10 applicants before they shouldn't be discouraged if they have a low lottery number. they still might get a value for an available, affordable housing unit. >> we have a variety of lottery programs. the four that you will most often see are what we call c.o.p., the certificate of preference program, the dthp which is the displaced penance

housing preference program. the neighborhood resident housing program and the live worth preference. >> i moved in my new home february 25th and 2019. the neighborhood preference program really helped me achieve that goal and that dream was with eventually wind up staying in san francisco. >> the next steps, after finding out how well you did in the lottery and especially if you ranked really well you will be contacted by the leasing agent. you have to submit those document and income and asset qualify and you have to pass the credit and rental screening and the background and when you qualify for the unit, you can chose the unit and hopefully sign that lease. all city sponsored affordable housing comes through the system and has an electronic lottery.

every week there's a listing on dalia. something that people can apply for. >> it's a bit hard to predict how long it will take for someone to be able to move into a unit. let's say the lottery has happened. several factors go into that and mainly how many units are in the project, right. and how well you ranked and what preference bucket you were in. >> this particular building was brand new and really this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. in my mind, i was like how am i going to win this? i did and when you get that notice that you won, it's like at first, it's surreal and you don't believe it and it sinks in, yeah, it happened. >> some of our buildings are pretty spectacular. they have key less entry now. they have a court yard where they play movies during the weekends, they have another

master kitchen and space where people can throw parties. >> mayor breed has a plan for over 10,000 new units between now and 2025. we will start construction on about 2,000 new units just in 2020. >> we also have a very big portfolio like over 25,000 units across the city. and life happens to people. people move. so we have a very large number of rerentals and resales of units every year. >> best thing about working for the affordable housing program is that we know that we're making a difference and we actually see that difference on a day-to-day basis. >> being back in the neighborhood i grew up in, it's a wonderful experience. >> it's a long process to get through. well worth it when you get to the other side. i could not be happier.

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪] >> i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world, you shouldn't just be something in museums, and i love that the people can just go there and it is there for everyone. [♪♪♪] >> i would say i am a multidimensional artist. i came out of painting, but have also really enjoyed tactile

properties of artwork and tile work. i always have an interest in public art. i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world. you shouldn't just be something in museums. i love that people can just go there, and it is there for everyone. public art is art with a job to do. it is a place where the architecture meets the public. where the artist takes the meaning of the site, and gives a voice to its. we commission culture, murals, mosaics, black pieces, cut to mental, different types of material. it is not just downtown, or the big sculptures you see, we are in the neighborhood. those are some of the most beloved kinds of projects that really give our libraries and recreation centers a sense of

uniqueness, and being specific to that neighborhood. colette test on a number of those projects for its. one of my favorites is the oceanview library, as well as several parks, and the steps. >> mosaics are created with tile that is either broken or cut in some way, and rearranged to make a pattern. you need to use a tool, nippers, as they are called, to actually shape the tiles of it so you can get them to fit incorrectly. i glued them to mash, and then they are taken, now usually installed by someone who is not to me, and they put cement on

the wall, and they pick up the mash with the tiles attached to it, and they stick it to the wall, and then they groped it afterwards. [♪♪♪] >> we had never really seen artwork done on a stairway of the kinds that we were thinking of because our idea was very just barely pictorial, and to have a picture broken up like that, we were not sure if it would visually work. so we just took paper that size and drew what our idea was, and cut it into strips, and took it down there and taped it to the steps, and stepped back and looked around, and walked up and down and figured out how it would really work visually. [♪♪♪] >> my theme was chinese heights because i find them very beautiful.

and also because mosaic is such a heavy, dens, static medium, and i always like to try and incorporate movement into its, and i work with the theme of water a lot, with wind, with clouds, just because i like movements and lightness, so i liked the contrast of making kites out of very heavy, hard material. so one side is a dragon kite, and then there are several different kites in the sky with the clouds, and a little girl below flying it. [♪♪♪] >> there are pieces that are particularly meaningful to me. during the time that we were working on it, my son was a

disaffected, unhappy high school student. there was a day where i was on the way to take them to school, and he was looking glum, as usual, and so halfway to school, i turned around and said, how about if i tell the school you are sick and you come make tiles with us, so there is a tile that he made to. it is a little bird. the relationship with a work of art is something that develops over time, and if you have memories connected with a place from when you are a child, and you come back and you see it again with the eyes of an adult, it is a different thing, and is just part of what makes the city an exciting place. [♪♪♪]

>> : i apologize to keep you all waiting. i want to thank for joining us today. the board of supervisors, the department of emergency management director. we're here at one of the first sites that opened, to not only provide testing for the community but also provide vaccinations. no appointment necessary. we knew that the disparities that existed with this virus were going to impact primarily the african american community but also the latino community. we're seeing those disparities play out in those vaccination process. why are we here today, san francisco is really proud of

where we are and what we accomplished. when you think about the fact that we're one of the most dense cities in the country and have had one of the lowest death rates in the country. when we look at vaccination rates 75% of san franciscans are vaccinated and 83 percent have received at least their first dose of the vaccination. we should we should be proud. we're doing an incredible job. with this new delta variant we're seeing real concern. especially in the african american community and latino american community. we're seeing 60% of the vaccinations. in the latino community,

although there are -- it's a larger percentage of the latino community that has been vaccinationed over 70%, they are two point two times more likely to be infected with the new variant. we're seeing the disparities play out in our hospitals. everyone in the hospital at san francisco general right now did not get the vaccine. dis opposed to propotiona disopd -- we knowwhat happened with te experiments in the country. we know that african americans were used for forty years not given penicillin in '47, it widely known that was a cure for

syphilis. the share croppers who were used and suffered and discarded. african communities in my family my grandmother, one generation removed from slavely, concerned about trust in the vaccination process, we know that is real. but this is also real. we're in a different place now. the same people are experiencing some of the same challenges around concerns with trust, but more importantly what we will see what the data shows is with

the delta variant we will see higher people who are not vaccinated and at least 250 more deaths and disproportionately those people will be african americans and latino. i understand people who are hesitant. i got the vaccine. i got the vaccine because not only did i want to protect myself but everybody i came in contact with. i wanted to protect the elderly people i came in contact with. i wanted to make sure they were going to be okay because they are the ones likely to die because of this. when i say it's a matter of life or death, this is serious. that's why we're here today. that's why we're in the bay view

hunter's community. we understand the importance. we're not using rhetoric. we did our research on this. question asked the questions to our public health experts not only here in san francisco but all over the country because we knew people would be concerned. we knew especially african americans would be concerned and there would be issues around trust because of historical factors. what we're here to talk about is not what this means and how it relates to life and death but the importance of doing the right thing. doing our part whether we're uncomfortable with it or not. protecting our relatives, whether we're uncomfortable with it or not. protecting our community, whether we're uncomfortable with it or not. this is important. i want to thank you all for being here to get the word out.

i want to thank my friends who are here that didn't want to get the vaccine. thank you jamal gregory for getting the vaccine. he was like, no, no, no. he got the vaccine. he was like, okay. mayor. that's what this is about, protecting one another. so we can get back to our lives that we know and love. i'm tired of wearing a mask, i'm tired of shutting down. tired of getting covid. how do we open up this city, we do our part and get the vaccine. without further adieu i want to introduce the supervisor who represents district ten who is here today.

>> : first i just want to say good morning and thank you to our mayor. i'm here because i'm scared. i'm squared for the black community. i'm squared for people who are 25 to 40 years old. i'm scared for people who refuse to get the vaccine. we worked hard here in san francisco, we worked hard to get the vaccine in places and accessible, putting pop up sites in every area in the district. mobile sites that will come to your front door. we have done all of that not

because it's something fun and exciting to do because we know it's important to get the vaccine. i have family members and friends who are not getting vaccinated because of the lack of trust with vaccines and history and what it has done with african americans. i have so many arguments at bbq's and family dinner he's. folks are getting information from so many places that are untrue. they are not listening to our medical professionals and looking at the data. here is the reality. the new delta variant. folks getting sick and ending up in the hospital are folks who are not vaccinated. we have more real life data in front of us that tells us how the vaccine is working in our

communities and why it's so important. here is another fact, as we stood here at the beginning of the pandemic, did a press conference and said we knew how much district ten would be effected by the virus right here at this site. mayor talked about the elimination of barriers. the highest number of cases coming up now are 92124 and bay view hunter's point. there's a reason for that. we are not all doing everything we can to protect each other. for me, this is a cry to my community, a cry to everyone who has not gotten the vaccine to say, we need you to get vaccinated. it is important for to you keep yourself safe, for to you keep your family safe, and for to you keep the people around you safe.

this is not information that we are making up. i had a meeting with dr. co lfax the other day. it really scared me. we're starting to see a rise in cases again. you can come here monday through friday, get the vaccine, no appointment necessary. we also have the same thing at the health center. we have a vaccination site at 1800 oak dale. we have consistent pop ups in community. we're going to continue to do everything we can to get to every nook and krany for people who are not getting vaccinated. incentives. people are giving out groceries, gift cards. we're doing it and providing these incentives to save lives

in our community. please do it and take the opportunity to save lives today. remember those folks that do not have the vaccine are getting hospitalize and the ones who are going to die for not taking that precaution. i would rather be caught with than without. please get vaccinated. thank you all for being here and helping us get the word out to our communities that need to know and get the right information to take the right steps to getting everyone healthy. thank you. >> : thank you for your great

remarks. i think if we take a step back for a minute and realize for every person in the hospital right now and every person dying of covid 19. those hospitalizations and deaths are nearly 100% preventible. 100% preventible. there's very little in health where we can make that statement. these vaccines are so incredibly effective. people ask me, how do we avoid covid, what are we going to do? top ten answer, get vaccinated. until you are fully vaccinated wear that mask indoors to protect others. you've heard from others, i want to go through a few more. in the last 12 day as lone, we have seen a three folds increase in covid 19 cases in san

francisco. it's a rapid increase in cases is due to the delta variant. covid on steroids. this virus is far more infect ows. if you didn't get covid before now, it's likely if you're taking risks that you could get infected. if we look at the case rates of code i had right now in the city, they are two and a half times higher amongst black a afn americans. those hospital haded in san francisco 28 percent are african american. this is not just about older

people getting hospitalled now. we're seeing younger people getting hospitalized. the average age of people hospitalized in san francisco is 48. now it's people 35 and under. this is preventible. please get vaccinated. low barrier vaccination sites are available everywhere. we have done so well. three quarters of people are vaccinated but the delta is here. protect yourself and your family. let's get this done so we can continue to do the things we love and continue to emerge from covid. san francisco is a better place than most places in the country.

we still have more to do. support your family, your community. we're here to support you. we'll get this done. thank you. >> : i'm the director of the department of emergency management for san francisco. the san francisco emergency operations center remains activated and committed to making vaccination convenient and available for all san franciscans. we're at the forefront of the equitable vaccine strategy. we have shifted our strategy to be more neighborhood centric. i want to be 100% clear here, we have many opportunities for folks to get their vaccines and tests throughout the city in

their own community. here we're at the south center in the bay view. we are fully staffed. we have some folks that are go to go get their vaccine today. we're so grateful you are here to be an example to your community and family. the delta variant continues to be a very serious threat. as we move forward, i just want to say that to reiterate that the vaccine is safe and in san francisco it is extremely easy and convenient to get one. we will continue to work together with our partners to make that vaccine and testing available. we've done so well, 75% is great. we really have to focus on our most vulnerable populations and protect each other. thank you very much and if you haven't got a vaccine, please go

to sf dot gov, get vaccinated to find all the locations. >> : thank you. i just want to thank a lot of our first responders and the folks who work here. they have been out and about from day one helping to get the community vaccinated. i've been told by so many people who live in this community when they come to this location, they are treated with a smile and so much love and respect. we truly appreciate you and all you have done and will continue to do to get us to a place where hopefully we'll see a 100% vaccination rate in san francisco. with that, i'll take a few questions and then me and my people are going to go in there

and get vaccinated. i'm going to hold their hands and do this. any questions? the question centered around getting this message out in a different way. we started -- we knew sadly in low income communities and communities of color it has a significant impact. we embedded a equity response. a number of agencies we work with that have direct relationship with folks in this community. they have been the ones to help various campaigns to get people excited about getting a

vaccination. unfortunately it has slowed down. we expected it to slow down. when you look at what san francisco is doing and even our communities of color compared to any other major city in this country, there no comparison. we did a really great job. we need to do more because what's important to me is saving lives as it has been since the beginning of this pandemic. we'll continue to push messages and get people engaged. nothing is better than a direct conversation with someone you know and love. not an argument, a conversation. not necessarily making people feel guilty or bad but helping them understand. it's really about a relationship of trust. a lot of people i contacted and talked to in my family, a lot of times it turned into an

argument. the fact is i love them and want to keep them safe. i get someone on the phone and explain that variant thing you talked about. it's doing our part to get our relatives vaccinated and protect our community. any data about what? >> : the question was about are we seeing any vaccinated people testing positive for covid 19. the bottom line is if you're vaccinated, the vaccines are

very powerful in preventing hospitalizations and protecting you from covid. there are going to be what we call break through infections. with all this attention of break through infections, the difference between getting covid if you're fully vaccinated and not could be the difference between sniffles and suffocation. i want to make that very clear. if you do get covid 19 if you're fully vaccinated. the vast majority will have only mild symptoms. i think it's really important to emphasize the fact that people need to get vaccinated. there will be some people who become infected that are are vaccinated. but my god, such a better outcome if you're vaccinated.

the mayor said already at the disuker berg hospital with covid, all of them are unvaccinated. you see the deaths. everybody who died in maryland who had covid were unvaccinated. we should be focusing on access to vaccines particularly in the african american community right here today. thank you. >> : the question was are we considering reinstituting mask mandates. we're considering basically

providing guidance on suggested mask wearing in certain instances. we do ask that people who are not vaccinated when they go indoors wear a mask. for those vaccinated we don't have a mask requirement further than that. we're looking at a change to the policy but not necessarily a mandate. all right. thank you. and now let's go get vaccinated.

>> my name is angela wilson and i'm an owner of the market i worked at a butcher for about 10 years and became a butcher you i was a restaurant cook started in sxos and went to uc; isn't that so and opened a cafe we have produce from small farms without small butcher shops hard for small farms to survive we have a been a butcher shop since 1901 in the heights floor and the

case are about from 1955 and it is only been a butcher shot not a lot of businesses if san francisco that have only been one thing. >> i'm all for vegetarians if you eat meat eat meat for quality and if we care of we're in a losing battle we need to support butcher shops eat less we sell the chickens with the head and feet open somebody has to make money when you pay $25 for a chicken i guarantee if you go to save way half of the chicken goes in the enlarge but we started affordable housing depends on it occurred to us this is a male field people said good job even for a girl the interesting thing it is a women's field in most of world

just here in united states it is that pay a man's job i'm an encountered woman and raise a son and teach i am who respect woman i consider all women's who work here to be impoverished and strong in san francisco labor is high our cost of good ideas we seal the best good ideas the profit margin that low but everything that is a laboring and that's a challenge in the town so many people chasing money and not i can guarantee everybody this is their passion. >> i'm the - i've been cooking mile whole life this is a really, really strong presence of women heading up kitchens in the bay area it is really why i moved out here i think that we are really

strong in the destroy and really off the pages kind of thing i feel like women befrp helps us to get back up i'm definitely the only female here i fell in love i love setting up and love knowing were any food comes from i do the lamb and that's how i got here today something special to have a female here a male dominated field so i think that it is very special to have women and especially like it is going at it you know i'm a tiny girl but

makes me feel good for sure. >> the sad thing the building is sold i'm renegotiating my lease the neighborhood wants us to be here with that said, this is a very difficult business it is a constant struggle to maintain freshness and deal with what we have to everyday it is a very high labor of business but something i'm proud of if you want to get a job at affordable housing done nasal you need a good attitude and the jobs on the bottom you take care of all the produce and the fish and computer ferry terminal and work your way up employing people with a passion for this and empowering them to learn