welcome to the small business commission meeting on february 27, 2023. the meeting is being called to order at 4:35 p.m. this meeting is being held in-person in city hall room 400 and broadcast live on sfgovtv. and you can listen by calling number. as authorized by california government code section 54953e and mayor breed's 45th supplement to her february 25th, 2020 proclamation it's possible that some members of the small business commission may attend this meeting remotely. the small business commission media service sxz sfgovtv for

televising the meeting. there will be an opportunity to comment on each item on the agenda. for each item, pel take comment from the people first and then those remotely. members calling in, the number is 415-655-0001, access cold 24 the 71678749. when connected you'll be muted and listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, dial star-3 to be added to the line. you'll be added to the queue wh. you're called for public comment, please mute the device that you're listening on to the meeting on. public comment during the meeting is limited to 3 minutes per speaker and an alarm will

sound once time is finished. speakers are requested but not required to state their name. please show the office of small business slide. ?ao. today we will begin with a reminder that the small business commission is a forum vitality of small businesses in san francisco. 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, particularly at this time, you can find us online or via telephone. and as always, our service right side free of charge. before item 1 is called i would like to thank media services and sfgovtv, for record thising meeting and help riding. roll call, commissioner absent. commissioner wickerson. >> present. >> commissioner herbert. >> here. >> president huey. >> here.

>> commissioner. >> vice president is absent. president, you have a quorum. >> thank you. >> the san francisco small business commission and office of small business staff acknowledges that we are on the unseeded an zest al homeland of the ramatushaloni who are the inhabitanted of the peninsula. they have never seeded nor forgotten or lost their responsibilities. as guest we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respect by acknowledges their relatives and by affirming the soverne rights of first people. please call item number 2. >> approval of legacy application and resolution. this is a discussion and action

item. the commission will discuss and possibly take action. presenting we have richard legacy businessman jer with the office of small business. >> and welcome, welcome richard. >> good afternoon, president huey, vice president, commissioners, city staff, members of the public. i'm richard business program manager. would i like to acknowledge michelle renolds who is not here. she was instrumental in helping review, coa late and process the applications before you today. sf gov. tv, i have a power point presentation. >> before you today, are three applications. each includes a staff report, a draft resolution, at mrikation itself and documents from the planning department.

at mrikations were submit today planning on september 21, and heard bit historic preservation commission on january 18th. item 2 a is lot ma jor make bakery within the limits of latino bakery. la mejor is considered, special liesing in bread and cookies baked with exquisite care and accommodated the business holidays. information hub for spanish speaking sxufts fell business owners. many are latino and many in the united states alone working to support their families who are living in latin america. for many the business has become an important. through open doors and

delicious pastries, la mejor has continued to serve the community. without bakeries like la mejor bakery, there would not be tradition neighborhood. must remain on a legacy business registry as bakery. item 2bbenjabaja mama, dedicated to package mama the living mother earth. pen pefpa mama is organic and plant base cuisine. has a history of and as a pop up and event center. with the permanently established home creates a little piece of south american carnival all year long with

weekly performances by music groups and dancers. it still meets the requirements for business registry because the business has contributed to the history and identity of northbeach san francisco and if not included in the registry, the business would place a significant risk of displacement. the businesses lease has ended and concerned about not being offered a new lease. the court feature tradition that the business must maintain is restaurant featuring entertainment. item 2-c is tony nick's cafe, founded by antonia after the repeal of prohibition making it one of the first repeal bars in northbeach.

at the time, food was required to be served with alcohol to include the business to include cafe and its name. which was tony niko's cafe. the bar was remodel, unique checker board wooden wall tires by nadine torrance all of which still exist at the bar today. the original tony nick's any on signs is one of the oldest neon signs in northbeach. it's a place for rendezvous, the business will bring it back to the era of friendly bartenders, and ice cold beer and delicious cocktails and drinks sefshds the way you like them. the business they must maintain is bar. all three businessed met the three criteria required for lifting and all three received a positive recommendation.

legacy staff recommends adding the business to registry and drafted three resolutions for your consideration. should be framed of the motion in favor of resolutions. thank you. this concludes our presentation, we're happy to answer any questions. there are business representatives in the room. possibly online who would like to speak on behalf of the application during comment. >> thank you, commissioners any questions or comments? >> okay, so we'll now open it up to public comment. >> yes, members of the public just wants to line up and then come take turns to speak, that would be great. >> hi.

we're eddie and quinton from penya patcha mama and it means circle coming together. people coming together, we dedicated to patcha mama in the aing enter indidge luce language means earth, mama universal for mother, so patchy ma maxer mother earth. and before we opened pena, we were touring musicians and that was a very happy life. but when we signed the lease for this historic location, my heart sunk because we were on such on unfamiliar ground, even officer crisp from the central police station from noticing beach who knew our musical group who came to us and said, you both don't know what you're getting into, trying to get the

landlord to give you your deposit back. but you know, we were musicians unknowingly going into the restaurant business and we didn't know that such a high percentage go out of business so. we kept struggling. but when we began to look at everything as everything like a performance, the kitchen became backstage and the food became props and the our, dancers became our wait staff and everything was a performance. and then it, it was more familiar. and i think the unique quality of pena, you can still be eating and drinking and hopefully get up to dance. and one customer even said, i feel more at home here than in my own home. but who prohibition came in 1918 all the restaurants in

northbeach went out of business and the only way they could survive was to sell illegal alcohol. so for honest restaurant tours turned boot legers opened the place we were in and it became the speak easy. and later, the after prohibition, it became this beloved italian restaurant called emlio, and the last living child of these boot leger came in and she brought her great grandchildren and, so we made an emilio's day. and she took to the stage and she told the story about the speak easy and all the famous people who came. and the story about her dad,

who was emilio paccini, and pampoccini. and she said emilio's was dark and for goent until a come poener his wife came and found the magic and life turned once more turned into penya patcha mama and she said she heard her dad whispering, i like what they're doing here. we're so thankful for everybody's support and this business. thank you. >> would anybody else like to come up and provide comment?

>> i was not planning on speaking, when i look back or when we all look back to 19 33, it's a vision because none of us were here. imagine that time, we were coming out of the roaring 20s, in the middle of depression and nicko decided to open up i lounge inside middle of neighborhood. and antonio niko succeeded and then some. in december, will be our 90-year anniversary and you're all invited to the big party. so he opened in 1933, kept it

until 1951, we did a big remodel in 1949 and in 1951 he sold to one of his employees to keep the emerging tradition alive. and butchy, owned it from 1951 to 1999, that's a good run. in 1999, he passed the and then the grandson of antonia niko, purchased it, he took it over. and his name is mark niko, you might know him here. and mark owned it from 1999 until 2022. i worked hand and hand with mark since 2004 and like his

grandfather who sold it to his employee to further the tradition, mark sold it to me in 2022. and mark, even though he's been just as active and committed to maintaining that legacy, so in 90 years there is been three oipz and sometimes i tell people that i carry the weight of 90 years. and it's something i cherish. i'm so honored to be here, i'm honored that we were nominated and, i look forward to another 90 years, and i want to thank you all of you. so thank you very much.

>> good afternoon, i'm gabby i'm one of the founders of cultural latino district. five years ago, i initialed la mejor bakery to be on the floor for your consideration. i consider a huge honor that i'm here to see it through. just to give you a little bit of a background in the mission area, we used to have about 20 bakeries just along 24th street. just along, that happened through the immigration of the central and south american folks coming through. so they could only work with their hands. so bakery was the first thing. in the case of car me lit a, her families are bakers so the same thing happened to her. she came here and she knew how

to bake, hey, let's open a bakery. 7 days a week, 12 to 16 hours a day. this has been her life since she was a kid. before, when she was a young person, she used to baby sit for la reyna bakery's kids who has been around for 50-plus years and also la victoria bakery who has also been around for 50 plus years. so you know how she is part of the mission district. so i am so honored and privileged to be here and, i'm so pleased that she's here to be inducted so if you can give it a chance. it will be a wonderful experience for her.

this allow her business to be cemented at the present moment, we only have three bakeries on 24th street. this is on correlation to the, to the exodus of latino businesses and families outside of san francisco due to the high price of living and so for a business like hers, to be cemented in the area would be a magnificent of your doing. thank you. >> thank you. >> are there any other speakers in the room? are there any public speakers on the phone? if there are please raise your hands. seeing none. is there anyone else in the

line for public comment? there is not. hearing no further callers, public comment is closed. commissioners, do we get to give an opportunity for everybody to speak? okay, yeah. i have call you. sorry, this is my first time presiding over this. commissioner ortiz? >> thank you, president huey, you're doing an amazing job on your first day. >> so far, it's okay. >> i want to start dona carmen. what you mean to the community and your business, what people

don't understand in our culture, bakery is our social center, where people gather and find solution to see their problems. i know it's hard, and you're still there, i know it's a hard job, i know you the hours you put in and you're always there for the community. i appreciate you and i'm so happy, [speaking spanish] canal 24, thank you for your support with this, we love you. thank you for what you do for what you do. patcha ma ma, i learned so much game. culturally thing that i would have never known existed, our culture or music, how intertwined, it was a blast to like good times, good times,

and i'm glad that we can help you continue those good times. tony nick's northbeach, we use to run the park. all police officers, that was his joint, i would never try to keep wup the police officers,ing try to drink with them because i would speak in the parking lot that night. all three businesses, this is frisco, you make frisco what it is. you make people want to come to the city. thank you. >> and you all are the reasons why we used to come to san francisco before we moved here, my husband born and raised here in the city. but our vacations were always here. and we would always make our way around but i mean, i got to be careful because i can be on this mic a long time talking about the significant of you

all and the smraul businesses, they're not small, it may be small in size but huge in your impact when it comes to this city. people depend on you in ways that i'm not sure you really know. i hope you don't get offended mama, you can feel my heart. i tell you, there is something about when you can walk into a store and you've already put in the hour and labors, and you come in and i just want that hot, well, i cannot say, i'm on a business practice, i have to be how to place this on your off days. it is very warm and welcoming to be able to enter into a place where you have labored with such love.

i cannot say i've been to penya patcha mama, but i'm coming just because of the name. i just want to say to every single one of you, tony nick's, your small business is so important and we love celebrating these types of accepting your legacy business registry. let's continue to do what you've been doing. i celebrate you, i thank you and all good things belong to you because you have all labored and true love. and if your business is anything like the story has been told, you'll continue for another 90 years. thank you, thank you. >> vice president. >> thank you, and thank you everyone who is inside audience today to come and represent the

small business being here and joining us in city hall. thank you to our staff for being hands-on with these applications. i'm really excite today see petcha mama. this is a renowned venue for multi culture collaboration. i've been to so many shows where they're playing arabic music and it's a celebration of cultures that don't get celebrated so much. you're such a token to, you know, stay in our city, the type of venue that you provide for music and multi culture collaboration is so important. so thank you to your multi generational small businesses.

we're here to join you and to support you and to patronize you and i wish you luck in the years forward. thank you. >> i think everybody else has said everything that there is to be said. but i want to thank you all for coming and telling your stories to having the courage to come up and talk about your businesses and for doing the hard work it takes to keep your businesses going with the unknowns and all the ups and downs. i absolute you and i congratulate you and thank you for making san francisco what it is. thank you. >> so yes, listening to your stories and feeling your stories is really like one of

the best things that that there is on this commission. and i think if there was a way that if we could share those beyond these walls, we have to get, i don't think people actually understand how much time and effort and love all of our small business owners and you know the people who work in the small business, actually put into their daily lives. every day we walk into the intention of community. making sure that everybody that walks through our doors has the fabulous time. we want them to leave having had the most amazing experience. how often does that ever happen? you know, that somebody cares about you somebody that you have never met.

and that's something beautiful about our small businesses and all of you. thank you for sharing your stories from such a loving place. so this, legacy business portion does tend to be very feel-good. and i hope you will take this back and share it with everybody who you work with and all of your families you really deserve accolades. at this time, we have to take a motion, right? is that what i do? okay, thank you. >> i'll move to approve all business legacy applications. >> i'll second it. >> motion by commissioner seconded by commissioner dickerson, i'll read the roll. commissioner carter is absent. commissioner jakerson. >> yes.

>> hub bert. >> yes. >> president huey. >> yes. >> car dena. >> yes. >> vice president. >> yes. >> motion passes, congratulations. [cheers and applause] >> all right, i'm doing good so far it's been two items and i'm still here. >> you're doing great. >> let's see, next item. item 3 small business survey update. this is a discussion item and the commission will hear initial results from the 2022

small business survey presenting today, we have professor and chair of the department of economics at san francisco state university. >> thank you, welcome. welcome, professor chatre. >> good afternoon, commissioners. really nice to see you all in-person. >> speaker: so it's been a privilege to work with the commission on the second round. this time it just seems like years have flown since we started this work in 2020.

just for those watching, my name is nosha economic professor at san francisco state. and and also department chair. this work was started with president huey on a phone call. and we've come a long way, we've already done two rounds. so this particular round, just let me say that this has been a team work. i have been assisted by tenas huggie who was our ms economic student and also with us as an undergrad and this is her first year as a master student. and with constant partnership from preston huey, secretary and

former president sharky, thank you all for your assistance on this round. just quickly some acknowledgment, this has been pro-bono voluntary' work for everybody. i do want to acknowledge that they have a lamb lost research award that i secured and the funds were used completely to pay for the research assistance and that's how i was able to support all the busy work that goes into this analysis. so at least the student is supported. i also taught service learning class where i had three graduate students who did some of the initial interviewing and some of the initial survey related work.

and this is a classic model, it's not a high level of an economic coming in and doing it from afar. we've been hearing from the small businesses and this is truly a participation research project. so, jumping right in, i want to go over the motivation mythology, provide a small description of the current sample that we have mostly. focus on findings and recommendation. and this is the initial finding so i would love to hear from you to do more discussion and i'll be happy to come back if there are any follow-up questions. this is a follow-up study to the 2021, efforts.

and in this particular survey, this is the second round. we focused on the state of recovery of small businesses and remaining challenges. right after the pandemic started, mckenzie came with a study and said that small businesses would take 5 years after the pandemic that's because small businesses are less resilient. and that is due to some places with more complexities and more disparities. i want to share with you some voice that's we collected a lot of qualitative data, we have data from the survey.

and i wanted to highlight some of the quotes from our survey. showing that, you know, san francisco, a lot of people believe that san francisco has been slow to recover and slowing than other metropolitans and this may help provide the data, the hard evidence that we need to to get at a lot of antidotal stuff that we already know. so the method that we use mix method that is we use interviews to kind of get at key issues and then we build a survey and then we get the survey data and then look at the survey. so we did the interviews in the summer of 2022 and then we ran the internet base survey in september and october of 2022,

and we collected data in 8 most spoken languages. what was different in this round, we had some focus policy questions, and we asked businesses to give us their opinions on those policy questions. so we got 802 responses. and if you remember back to the initial discussion of the discussion about running a survey, this was two years back, we weren't even expecting 20 surveys. and from that, we went to our first round very collected 500 plus surveys and now 802. and we have more in language surveys now. we did have a little bit of attrition towards the end when folks get surface fatigue, so

we have 65 completion rate. but that's still pretty good compared to survey methods. this is just to show the representation of our data. you can see that we, kind of covered businesses from all across the city and we even got really good samples from the major commercial corridors. so the daerk, the picture the more businesses respond on thes that we have and lighter, the fewer but we, we did capture all of the commercials neighborhoods. on the left shows the age distribution, we about 28 businesses with owners 65 and

older. most are in the 36 to 64 range. as far as ethnicity, we have about 49% of businesses identified as white. 19% owners identified as asian, 5% as african-americans, about 10% latinx. and if we look at the gender distribution, we do have for even distribution of 48% male, 42% female and capture data from about 3% owners identified as lgbtq trans owners.

as far as business locations, 20% have other location. 33% of businesses depend on tourist about 62% depend on san francisco residents, 44% on neighborhood and about a quarter depend on office workers. so i'm going to jump into main findings, the way we structure the findings, we're going to look at the current impact and then we want to look at the current assistance needed by the businesses to recover. we will look at the challenges phase and then collected some feedback on policy suggests and i'll present on that. and then we'll end with some recommendations. so the first looking at current impact, we continue to see moderate to large negative impact of covid-19.

we have 87% of businesses who say they still see a negative impact. if we look at the impact by sector, this is too small for you to even see. all through the sectors, you still see a large red there so that means negative impacts. some businesses, still less than 10% of moderate to large positive impact and these are in the real estate rental retail financial insurance and scientific services and some accommodation services. the business that's experience odds, administrative and support and construction.

if you look at change and gross receipts, so we asked questions about what were the receipts in 2019 and 2022. and we put those on the side by side, more than a million dollars there are less businesses reporting higher receipts and more businesses reporting on the others. overall business receipts have shufrnged. sxl in terms of paid employees, the same finding that more businesses now have fewer employees and they're actually we see more micro businesses with less than 10 employees as compared to themselves back in 2019. and looking at current cash at

hand, 12% of business have no cash available. 12% about 1 to 2 weeks of cash. that's about a quaert of businesses have only a two-week runway or no runway @ all and we see about 24% businesses have a 6-month to run with. so what is the assistance that businesses are asking for? before we go into that, what have businesses have done to recover? so we have seen that businesses have reached out for financial assistance. mostly federal and local but also to friends and use their own savings. and i'll post, i'll present those numbers in a bit. businesses also pivoted their business operations more than 25% resulted to things like outside pickup, online services and online sales outdoor operations sxh. it's worked

extremely well for those total, so it's not like everybody did well as as a result of the but about a third said they did extremely well. so jumping into this financial assistance. i'm going to spend a little bit more time on this. so we asked businesses whether they requested assistance from all of these different categories and we also asked that they received assistance from all of these different categories. and then we put them side by side and looked at what is the gap in how much folks asked for and received to figure out the unmet need. and you will see that all across the board, businesses did not receive everything that they asked for. this is smaller gap in federal loans but there is a larger gap in local runs. so you know, people didn't really get all the local grants

that they were asking for. we also see that there is a very low percentage of businesses like one in six or one in seven that asked for tax credits. so it could be employee attention tax credit or federal tax credit. so we think that there is a huge need, under usage there and there is an opportunity here. i want to 20% of businesses have been using their own savings. and 52% have not received any financial assistance. and why have they not accessed these assistance? we asked the question about what are barriers that prevented you from applying for financial assistances. again, there is an opportunity

here around information. businesses was not aware of these programs that is about 16, 17 percent. businesses find application process to see too overwhelming and no time to apply. i saw a lot of business in the arts entertainment that did not have the time to apply for these things. there is also technical barriers and language barriers. we also have asked the question about assistance need withed leads. so we, we gathered at least 5 pages worth of qualitative comments which we, did a, you know, we looked through by trying relation with three people look at it and come wup some themes. and these are the themes that

we found most folks about 22% asked for financial assistance and grants and loans about 17% of our asking for reduced rent payments. and there is some need for lease negotiations help with communication with landlords legal assistance. but a lot of the businesses said that they didn't need anything with respect to lease. we also asked questions about assistance needed for business operations. and the most need is an increase marketing and sales and this comes up again and again. also identifying and hiring new employees. and of course there are some businesses, 15% are need assistance with online sales, maybe creating websites and apps, figuring out innovative way to see use this space and

professional development for employees, identifying new supply chain. so then we go into challenges. we gave businesses a range of challenges and asked them to rank the top three. and what came out, was the top most, more than a third of businesses think this is their biggest challenge. dirty smelly streets is a big challenge. 20% said not enough customers and the 30% ability to hire new employees. so the top 7, in addition toll ones i mentioned are staffing challenges, lack of parking. so those are the biggest challenges identified.

if you look by sector, just looking at accommodation food services, they're top 3 are staffing challenges, increase of goods sold and if you take a health education, other services like, salons and for them parking, hiring new employees, dirty streets are biggest challenges. then we ask folks about challenges about safety crime and legal. this shows up like 40% businesses talk about public safety as a big concern. a third, talk about vandalism, 20% talk about retail crime. and and you know, in the past regulatory challenges but relative to that now, the focus

is on public safety. so we mapped out how many times businesses have experienced crime and so on the left hand side, this is business that's had two to three times crimes occur on their properties. and on the right hand sued, more than 30 times. two to ten times, mission, noise valley civic center and north valley and civic center, haze valley south of market and russian hill, or knob that area. so we did ask, with all of these crimes what they reported.

and we found 80% of the time businesses reported the crime. i didn't put it on the slide but i thought i mincinged it. --i thought, i would mention it. last time we asked this question and we ask, san francisco a place to own a business. and only 20% thought san francisco was a good place to own a business. the good news, latinx thinks that san francisco is a good place to own a business. we see if we look at challenges by when businesses started, legacy businesses were disproportionately by all of these challenges.

prepandemic, most affected by unclean streets and no customers. the newer business started post pandemic, we were used to these things. so then we ask specific policy questions. should there be more police patrol on bike or foot in commercial corridor and how will that impact. we asked folks and it would be negative or positive impact. and we broke this down by zip code. so you'll see that the blues, means that this business say it's going to have a positive to very positive impact. and you see across zip codes most folks think that it would be a positive to very positive impact. we see some reds up here, where some businesses said it may have a negative impact. and these are in 94124.

bay view, and 94112 which is excelier. the second would more community behavior in corridors have a positive or negative impact? and you see this one, has more businesses saying it would have a positive impact. one or two businesses say it would have a negative impact. the only one that really really, i mean uniformly one or two businesses across the zip codes, might say this might have a negative impact. but majority say there is a positive impact, you see the blues everywhere. the third one we asked, is a little bit more controversial.

we asked more active use of feed spaces have a negative or positive impacts. and you see there is more reds here so there is a little bit of a disagreement about increasing active use. and that may have to do with congestion parking and cost of parking and that stuff. so again what comes out, the top four needs are access to grants and loans improved street conditions, greater marketing and messaging to encourage residents to use more businesses. so the first three were actually the same from our last survey. except that the second one was clean streets now it says improved street condition. so folks have expanded the need around streets.

and we see that the fourth one has got added which is increased security systems. yes, so greater marketing message to encourage residents to use more businesses and there is always something that gets not edited, right. so greater marketing and messaging to encourage resident to see support local businesses. so we laokds at them by business type and what we see is a real estate and asking for improved street conditions art and entertainment and retail are asking for more marketing and messaging. manufacturing asking for more increase security.

and professional services are asking for more grants and loans. again, aggregating by ethnicity. we see that this is how owner ethnicity is playing out in their asked, asian middle eastern owners are asking for more security and that's mostly with where they're located. interestingly, you know, our bike walk mix street owners are also for loans and grants. and white owners asking for more street conditions, interesting finding there. >> very. to summarize our findings ,z and you can see some of the representatives comments on the right-hand side but the state

of recovery is still not looking good, we see business making less money, employing fewer people. 25% business have no cash and 20% using their own saving we see the federal tax credits going under use. and more than 20 did not know or think the programs were for them. current challenges, we find these 7 as the top challenges increase cof of good and sold, and deteriorating continues and abilitied to hire new employees staffing challenges.

even if that is 50 businesses, we are losing folks from the city. so broad recommendations invest in safer streets, most businesses across zip codes think that more police patrol, police preference and community groups will bring a positive impact. provide technical assistance arounded source of financial help and businesses. i think business really need

assistance applying for tax credits, more recruitment and development. more messaging to increase sales being open is not enough. i think, we need to help businesses attract more customers. and then necessary reforms what came out from a lot of this stuff is, with the kind of hardship that businesses are going through, we, they are still paying into healthcare. they're still paying tax sxz fees, they're still delayed on licensing and permits, so these are things that require, second look. and i have these slides just if you're interested to see how the survey is different from the other survey. what are some comparisons. i'm happy to run through them if we have time. i just wanted to focus on the

findings. as i had mentioned before, businesses have expanded from cleaner streets to safer streets and more security. businesses continue to need technical assistance. and we also asked about communication how do they prefer communication? and it almost seems like the ethnic businesses were relying on word of mouth but all agreed that messaging from website or emails from the commission or duty. i think we need to work on communication. more consistent communication to everybody so it's equitable. that's it from me. thank you. >> thank you so much.

seeing this presentation again is so eye opening. at the time, commissioner comments? sorry, i have to call on people. >> thank you, is it my birthday? this is dope. thank you your presentations, they're just, they're just great and data. i don't know how you do it but the data is real data from our perspective, we need. >> absolutely. >> this is data that we can use where i go back to the ceo in my community and say, boom, this is what is real.

with that said, one of the things is parking. is like that and appreciate that because there is two departments in the city, maybe not city planning so much, it's a new day at planning. but you have these people that don't live here maybe be a transplant and they are the decision makers in the city's next 50 years. my kids, my grandkids? they'll be here. frisco first till i die. and i'm putting it on the record, based on your da taxer transit first? no, at the expense of somebody's vision, you're eliminating and wiping out small business. and again and i say it on record, department not department heads but these middle management that have the control that are not elected o

fishlg that are dictating the future of the city, never grew up here, don't even live here and i can guarantee you, having not walked that you have surveyed. so i appreciate that so much because that gives me just tools in my tool belt to fight. the street base where they talk specific on parking straoe spaces or street space? like shutting down the street? >> we actually give example on user street space as the shed space program. yes, so we said, let me look

for that. i noticeded sip road 941104 a large survey response. can you attribute anything to that? >> i think we need to walk the sip roads a little bit more to gather get people to i want today mention that too.

it's harder to do those online because sometimes it gets owner us. or maybe take the ipads and do that. so maybe next time there will be some gathering where there are some groups of businesses where you pass the ipad and work on it. >> i think it director tang and kerry, they walk our community. that has high success of disseminating information. like you, i'm i'm getting at the cusp of that. >> and you get distracted too and you get distracted with a phone call and that's it.

but i wanted to get back to the question you asked. we give those ex example. >> thank you, is love your survey and i love when with you come and present. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> so you're saying commission thaer we need survey parties. thank you professor for all of your work on this survey and on the previous one and to president huey in your leadership xaoen this commission and san francisco state. this data is extremely helpful for us. we're headed into budget season and also trying to figure out how we prioritize our work.

again gratitude to you and your team. >> we do have in the box folder, so whenever you need it president huey can get it to you. >> a question for our staff, do we have any reports in the email? >> this is already available to you. itches hoping that after a discussion today. >> i'm stuck on the white people being concerned about

the clean streets, what is that about? i'm a white person. was that city wide? >> you know, i think it is to do with the neighborhood and the zip codes and businesses. it was an academic thing that i start today look at different categories. so i said, it would be fun to put it up there and see what folks would think. and sometimes it's stereo typical and that lends to the disparity lens that things that we believe are showing up in data.

and they want the loans and maybe white businesses know how to access programs so they're thinking of things that are not in their control. so streets is not in their control. >> but i think owner ethnicity and type of business together, if you're interested i can big deeper. >> yeah, what the concerns are culturally across the city which is really fascinating. >> remember others are not thinking like this. but as far as the bigger percentage, that is showing up as concern by the white owners. >> and it's not surprising.

thank you. very interesting. >> anything? >> i know, doctor you're going to be putting together more comprehensive report than the presentation that we've seen. we still have the opportunity and we would love to get your input if after this meeting, if there is some thoughts you want to consider feel free to send those over probably to kerry or and she can kind of send them off. you know, seeing it again, it's so interesting, because we've been working on this and seeing it again in presentation and looking at it, you're like wow, that is just so interesting all of these things. and one of the things i wanted

to point out. took the survey in language. and 51 percent, the next businesses took it in spanish. i'm like wow, that is a high percentage of people who manage in another language. how amaze thating our city who's primary language cannot speak language and build a business here and support their family and build a livelihood, i could not imagine dwg to any other place that is not english speaking and being able to have the confidence, courage and will to be able to build a business there. so i think that was one of the

pieces that to me, i was most proud of. and like so proud of being in san francisco. as hard as it is to hear so many of these metrics. it's an opportunity to push for more. >> i just wanted to echo what you just said, president. and also what our other commissioners said today about the small businesses. and this is proofing that small businesses are a force for fighting gentrification and displacement. and our commission, this is showing that we're doing our

due diligence and fulfilling our equity goals and creating channels of mono lingual feedback. and i think that's something to note that that this goes far for our goals and making sure that we're hearing from the most impacted constituent and so great job everybody. with that, i just wanted put that on record, i think this is a good show of our work that we've been trying to build for years. >> yes, and i'm going to place all the qualitative comments in a report, please read them. >> oh yeah, i pulled out some key things. >> we can talk about how this

will be amplified and how our commission can amplify this work as well as moving forward how our partnership can continue on going on for years. if we can really streamline for what we would like to see year after year to understand the health and vait alt and understand what are the major challenges and disparity and streamline that process for us, so we can have a really nice pulse of what things are headed and how things are headed for people. i think this has been a fantastic partnership and hopefully it will continue. >> yes, i did bring this up to my dean and associated dean and

they're very supportive. i want to expand my circle many other people contributing. >> commissioner ortiz? >> dean and associate dean, we love professor, whatever she wants. >> i'll second that. >> privilege. >> thank you so much. we still have to take public comment. >> i want to if people are listen if we can call in you'll be able to provide comment. i think it's back up. let's start with comments from people in the room, if there are. no comments there, let's give just like one minute for people to dial back in if they had

something to say. no? okay. great, so hearing no further callers, public comment is closed. thank you very much, professor. >> thank you. >> next item. item 4 approval of draft minutes, take action to approve the january 23, 2023 draft meeting. >> commissioners any comments on the minutes? hearing, oh now opening it up for public comment. there are no commenters.

okay. any comment--actually. >> i was going to move to adopt the minutes. >> hearing no further callers, public comment is closed. commission motion? oh no, yes, anybody want to make a motion. >> i move to adopt the minutes. >> i'll move to adopt the minutes. >> and a second? >> i'll second that. >> motion by vice president seconded by commissioner. i'll read the roll. >> yes. >> commissioner herbert. >> yes >> president hue? >> yes. >> minutes are approved. >> thank you. next item. >> item 5 general public comment. this is a discussion item allowing members of the public to discuss matters of the small

business jurisdiction but not on today's calendar and suggest new agenda items. any members of the public who would like to make comment on items not on the agenda today? there are none. is anyone oh there is nobody on the line for public comment. public comment is closed. next item please. >> item 6 director's report this is a discussion item. >> all right, good evening, commissioners. so couple of updates here, i want today share since our last meeting, that we have completed the flood disaster relief grants as a result of the winter storms. so i want to thank my staff especially michelle reynolds to administrative this program where we received 100 businesses receive grants from the straoe as a result of

winter storm flooding. award letters or noticed went out recently. so, and most of the businesses were located in the areas where you saw on the flood map where located or near the flood zones mapped out by the city. next thing i want today share you've probably heard a lot about this. many complaints about businesses for not having proper permits for their annings and complaints have been lodged in many parts of the city. this is still on going with many different agencies to make this as smooth as possible for this business. there will be a coming upcoming workshop in-person in china town coming up at march 6 a willie woo playground. and this is because many are

launched against china town business. we'll be continuing our informational sessions via recordings that we'll share with other businesses on english and other languages as well so that will be forthcoming. let's see, the other update is that with the barrier removal grants to help make businesses more accessible, we have, i would say expanded the program. so i'm very excite today show that we're now going to be reimbursing for labor and design work as long as businesses are hiring companies that follow our city labor laws including prevailing wage requirement. so that is an improvement. we're also increasing the eligibility threshold to include the businesses earning 8 million or less in annual gross revenue. so we help that that will help more business come into clients with accessibility and being able to welcome more customers

to businesses. so the websites and application forms has been updated so it's applicable to anybody who wants to apply or needs to apply. >> this is for store front businesses with brick and moretar businesses. this is from funds coming from estate resource from the disability access funds. we want to take advantage where you can get reimbursed up to 10,000 for making your business accessible.

the short url is sf.gov/grant. also you may have seen emails or press around this, the city has launched an economic recovery website and this is designed to share can you more transparency what the city's plans are. there is a lot of information focused downtown, because it has been a driver of economic activity and it's been slower to recover compared to other neighbors. not to say that there is no focus on other neighbors. there has been focus attention again on our downtown areas because of of the trends we're seeing. encourage you to take a look

and see some of the dash boards and our city controllers office. and then lastly, we talked about how important it is to do in-person out person business so we're continue all that. so since our last meetings have been at ocean blafd, former street, lakeside village, pole being street, union street and also participated working meeting in haze valley with emergency association. so always, happy to go out there and if you, if there is a corridor with a pressing need, let us know we'll be happy to go out there. otherwise we'll continue marching along. that's it for my report and happy to answer any questions.

>> commissioner ortiz. >> thank you, director. regarding the awning, how does it form nature? how does it start? >> i'm really glad you asked the question, because the complaints and the notices of violation actually did not original with the department. it was actually the results of complaints launched by resident either a resident or multiple. quh there is a complaint submitted to the department, the department is legally obligated to follow-up. so that's what it happened, there is not a department going around, it is a complaint base program. >> thank god. and then, i ask why all of a sudden? >> you know, we can't answer that because we don't know. we wish with we had the answer to that. >> and second, ada, is it

possible and i don't know i'm just asking. is it possible to have our office come and maybe train some of the ceo, it's been an amazing program. regina and she helps into your business. if you got sued and got paid, you can still get sued. some n my community, they think the lawsuit has been done. it's been real impactful. and then. >> you absolutely can do that. >> perfect and then lastly, thank you some of the merchants on ocean, told me, hey i saw you. you two are like the fantastic duo. i appreciate it, it means a lot. you don't understand, like when you did it in the mission calle, they were thrilled.

it's just having that connect direct to our office, outside of me, you know and whom ever, we represent, it really means a lot. i'm telling you. keep doing it. thank you. it's really helpful. >> vice president. >> thank you, yes i also had a follow-up question about the awning regulation. how is this different than the one supervisor catherine stefani edited in our code. i thought that was similar. >> so the complaints that were lajd through dbi are for annings installed without permits. so that legislation that you're referring to did not address

that. so every siem you instul something in your building, have you to file permits. so somebody figured out which businesses didn't have permits on file. so, so again that's the nature of this series of complaints. >> so that would not fall under the grandfather? >> no. >> thank you. >> any other comments? >> i think with the notice of violations, it's also some of the notice of violations have also been for security gates, right. an interesting time to be dealing with that. >> yeah for the security gates, if you recall there was

legislation that this commission reviewed from supervisor safai that allowed those that had existing gates to continue to have them. that was one way of addressing those. >> okay. >> okay, i don't have any other question. so let's see, you want to call for public comment? >> yes. is there public comment? there are no commenters in the room and no commenters on the phone. >> hearing no further callers, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 7 commissioner discussion and new business as a discussion item.

>> all you had to do was listen to me. president hue, really honor, i love it, vice president, i love it and for the record, i'm sitting here on the edge not because i did something wrong staff set us up like this. but i still want to stay in this corner. i really want to address some of the things that are going in my community. i was at a press conference earlier this week, an elderly person was attacked in broad daylight, vicious. it has to stop. how does this fall on our per view. if people don't feel safe, they will not shop. we do these huge, huge events

with everybody. but it has to stop. you know, earlier today when professor was doing her presentation, the departments are just not doing their job. and it's not even our elected officials, it's not our department heads, it's this mid-management that they operate these departments like they're own systems, they don't care who the mayor is, they have been through several administrations and that's how they operate. even if you do, half as it, that's all we need at this point. our city has the infrastructure, we have the legislation and departments. but people are not doing their job and there is no accountability and i don't know what the solution is for that. but safety, that's the whole reason we're in community, why we're in government, why we live in societies, these are basic rights.

when a 70-year-old teacher gets attacked in broad daylight and there is no repercussion, it just happens, it's crazy. i group in the commission district, on 24th street and yes there was gang violence but my grandma and babies were safe at whatever hour, that's not the case any longer. and we're the greatest city has ever been with the probably the biggest budget, more than countries and to not meet the just the minimum requirements for our small business corridors, to properly function. you know we had a business in our corner that had bad yelp reviews, because it skunk outside. not even what is going on inside but because it stunk outside. it's not like a matt drey job

"not my job" but it is my job. i'm fed up. and i think this commission instead of seeing legislation from people that don't ever run a business, you know, we need to start leading the ways and pushing our legislatures to hold them accountable. if you're not going to do the job, you know, maybe d.a. jenkins needs a dues because they're robbing for hours. i'm done with it. i'm just venting but we have to be more active in this commission. and under this leadership, we can get some stuff done. and then on a more positive note, march 109ing friday from 6 to 10:00 am, we're celebrating, talking about the events, we're taking over the plazas, wood permit, we're activating the space, family

friendly, lowriders, face painting, we always have a special surprise. the last two events, last he vept for valentine's day, we had swans before that, reindeer. there is going to be a food, a lot of music on each plaza. we're going to get departments to power wash and if they don't do it, we do it. bring your families out, all festivities, march 10 from 6 to 10. thank you. and good job, president. >> vice president. >> i just wanted to make announcement for whoever is listening. as i mentioned to federal taxing credit as we heard during professor speech. there is a deadline for the employer attentioning tax credit that is coming up for any small businesses that are

finishing that up. fyi. and additionally another federal update, i can provide is small business administration has created a more streamline portal and platform for paying your economic disaster loan. this is a time when a lot of people are trying to track down what they owe so it does not accrue anymore. and then, the san francisco consul issued another grant opportunity for neighborhood merchant organizations that is also having a due date in the beginning of next month.

so any activation that's has plans i would encourage to look at the avenue green light funding. i wanted to give those updates. and i guess also because i've been in contact with more ada lawsuit that's are hitting our streets. so i think another reminder and echo the need for putting that information in front of as much business organizations as we can right now since i think there is, whatever protections we had, they might there is more loopholes that are being found. i just wanted to highlight the need to pay attention to ada compliance again. that's it.

>> thank you. any other? well, i wanted to talk about couple of things going on. in china town right now, they're just closed a hearing period about a tow away zone that was a temporary as part of their one-california kind of not the express but efficient like increation the efficiency of one-california. the last remaining kind of block is now kind of up fauxer discussion in terms of becoming permanent in its three to 6 toe away period. so right now, they like a morning tow away that has been in place. and in the last year, they put

in a temporary zone between the hours of 3 to 6. so you know, this is just the last piece of this kind of transit plan that is going through. and the community is is,ing really activated right now around this one piece. and you know, i've been talking to sfmta about it, i've talked to the community about it. and you know, a lot of discussion is really about like, you know, this one street, you know, causes challenges for people coming to these businesses midday, parking, having their car towed, many of people visiting china town are seniors or people escorting seniors for different appointments for groceries for different things. as well as i think sf travel had presented on china town

being the fourth most visited place for san francisco. so you know, i can see that this is one block that we're talking about. but this brings about so many other issues when it comes to transit. so i want today bring it up to somebody here. to think about what are some of the things that you've experienced in your community so we can talk about them collectively. because i don't think this is the only time that this has happened where there were several thikz that happened. i know there is a plan for out reach but there is a gap. a few months goes by and they don't hear anything and the flood gates open. so that seems to be the general

out reach especially for the projects. you know, the other piece is, recognizing what are some of these barriers what is happening? and i think i would like to pose that to other communities who have gone through other transit issues as well. i understand this is our one block this is our community to understand what out reach looks like and what this community, you know community cultural transportation look like. if you go to china town at any time of the day, it's really a lot of adult children and i'm going to say, from the time that i could drive until now, i've been driving people around. and i would be be expected to drive my parents as they grow older. so if you look down the street, our cultural transportation

patterns are perhaps different than other areas where if i go drop off my son, i will see many moms on their e-bikes traveling with multiple children. that's a different c ada nce. how do we allow communities to thrive as they are without blanketing with decision that's are made for perhaps best another neighborhood? and then that brings me to the issue of out reach. we have mobilized over 700, i want to say 750 but i'm going to say over 700 signatures from the china town as well as api community throughout the city.

there are people who utilize this neighborhood. so these are people who are going through the neighborhood, 700 of them yet there will be a few people, i don't know how many numbers. but a few people who will speak in favor of making that more efficient? those are some of the questions that i have. for transportation going forward. and i think it speaks to commissioner cardenas comment earlier. >> and in the red lanz lyons they had a commuter two minutes, again somebody who has never been in the mission, i found out who the person was. he's like a scientist and city

planning, does not even live here. lives in the peninsula or something. does not understand the culture. imagine bringing your once in a lifetime quincenera dress? you're going to bring your generational family members? and what is the worse about it, because they don't hit the commercial corridors, the whole purpose of it is, mitt gated because it never was executed properly. all it did was mess up our small businesses. we have the data now, right. our community has organized, that cost 60 store fronts in

the mission corridor. so to your point, who is the person that called out? who approved it? that's crazy, this is crazy. >> yeah, the red zone it's the crazest thing i've seen. it's a big mistake in the urban planning department, yeah. tell me that person's name, just kidding. [laughter] i feel like the distinct neighborhoods in san francisco is what make us a unique city. and each of the neighborhood has a specific cultural landscape and architectural landscape and it should be respected and each, each of

those micro communities should be treated differently. there is got to be one way to recognize and implement ways of moving through spaces based on culture norms. >> san francisco, there is nothing normal about san francisco. and i think it's the idea when people try to come in and try to make it different than what it is. san francisco needs to be true to what it is. and that is the diversity and there is nothing wrong with sub culture. when you talk about stereotype, or those things. stereotypes are description of what people particularly do in that culture or family or whatever. i'm okay with being black and liking fried chicken or eating

watermelon, i ain't mad at that. what i'm mad is the idea that people can come in and make major ditionz like that to interrupt the flow of the culture in that, now that to me is a disparity. you assume you do the best for the community and you have talked to the people who drive there and have their business there. i have always felt like that was a form of violation whenever you come in and think that you can tell me something about how i live in my home. or you, so when we talk about these things and in my mind, i'm thinking that is a huge

that's a big item to tackle. but i would want to be part of, that's the part of me, when i was young, i use today beat up the bullies. i don't like people that feels like they have to force something. i don't have an answer all i know is, it's not right and it should be dealt with without question. when i think about the third street corridor, there is a lot that i can think about. one thing is we need to have a no tolerance for the violence and for people who are able to

walk around and think they can do whatever they want to do. they're not walking in my store, i'm saying, you know, they already know. it's interesting how they pick and choose i'm talk about thing violator. they pick and choose what businesses they want to go in and attack. whatever it's going to take. there can't be a continual tolerance of people thinking that they can do whatever they want to do. we're trying to build something, we're trying to create a new way of living that has never been seen before on third street. where we are it's never been

seen before. what makes you think you're going to try to bully these business owners trying to get and provide something for you. come on man! like today, we had this man walk down the street, he had nothing but tidy whiteys on and it appeared to be feces on his face and he's walk up and down the corridor and nobody is doing something, and nobody wants to interact with this man. and then i see one police officer in the car just following him, just driving alongside of him. and i'm thinking, i hate to say it but if that was a black why, why wouldn't we stop this man from walking into a store with feces in his face and tidy

whity down the corridor. he's not going in there for a latte. that was my vent for the night. i'm in agreement with what you're saying. i'm just, i just, i don't have a tolerance for that mind set. i think we need to be on some type of planning or gother whatever we need to gather to see some changes in that area, for sure. >> i'll give you an example. on 24th street, similar but this person was naked, my daughter is 7 years old, mcdonald's they don't even like to come to our neighborhood. she is so traumatize because of what she saw what happened in

front of mcdonald's. she now associates mcdonald's with that experience. and the bar plaza there is a ton of plaza and they go to our vendors, not rob just walk out and sell it 30 feet away. but they will get you for some annings. --awnings. >> that part! i don't understand. >> ttsz only the first meeting we're on a good trajectory. >> speaking of awnings, i went down to china town, you have to be in the neighborhood to see what is happening. i, i want to share with the commission eventually, maybe

i'll share it with you carry but what the signage looks like in a parking area. there is like three signs upon, one after another on how you can park, when you can park. you cannot do these at these days. you're in san francisco trying to figure out how to parallel park and whatever. how do you read three signs with like, you need a calendar, you need a calculator, you know, it's like. and yeah are the signs not bilingual. i cannot even understand them, i'm fired up but i'm like, i can't even understand them and that's because i don't understand math and numbers apparently. but if i couldn't understand it in english, why don't we have buy language wal. so i'm down there walking and we're talking about sfmta but i get there early so i talk about

the awnings to people. then somebody grabs me and telling me about their ada issue. and i started, you know you get na feeling in your gut when you know that there is something else going on kinds of thing. it's not just this or that. she waz like in the 80, there was this big post so it limits how big the door can be because of seismic retrofit issues. and i thought about our environment and infrastructure we have. and how china town, not unlike many other neighborhoods were placed that, you know, were not really meant to still be here.

this is neighborhood that have been unwanted. and somehow our communities have persisted over the years. we say what a resilient community. so i think about that and i was thinking about how we had to self fund these together after the earthquake. we had to piece together after imminent domain decisions. so the fact that we cannot come into compliance today, perhaps is not entirely our fault. not to absolve of ourselves of any responsibility as business

owners and property owners and all of these different things. what i would like to see or consider is some acknowledgment that there have been decisions made historically that have dis en franchised certain communities that that we don't have a solution for but we can at least acknowledge and begin to have that conversation about where we should go with this new knowledge, right? one of things that you were saying, middle management and frustration and i think so about bureaucracy, those are decisions and decisions that have been made over many many years, it's not anybody. not one person but layers and

layers that vice president has been talking for years on this commission. that have built upon themselves and the more we continue to uphold these piece sxz try to could to* like do our job, we're continuing to uphold injustices and inequities that have dis infranchised day in and day out. and we have an opportunity to acknowledge the infrastructure that is now built. and why that looks the way it was. my question to the commission are we ready to or is there an interest in figuring out how we can acknowledge some of these issues that you know, we can go on and pick out all of these different things and keep

having this conversation about this and move this legislation this way and that way. but if we don't have an acknowledge of institutionalized inequities that we face in our neighborhood in our business community even, i think it's where you know, what is work of this small business equity. where do we go from here? >> where do you start, and my

sentence, it's got to be approached from multiple sides and layers. you know a lot of people that have bureaucratic jobs have bureaucratic jobs because they don't want to th* think outside of the box. they want to follow, sometimes rules that make no sense. so the guys that did the red zones on mission, you know, who knows why he talked everybody into doing that. that does not mean that we should not try is my point. that's all i have to say. >> thank you for giving us that purpose and goal to chase kind of set the tone for our commission.

president hue, i really appreciate that. we have to do the leg work ourselves and tap into the policy part of us. and i think we have a president on this commission for doing the research and proposing a white paper to whether figuring out whether it's an interagency fix or whether we'll need a legislative partner like a supervisor to change some of the outdated codes. we've been pushing that as a body, i think supervisors have caught on to us. we had big code clean up, getting rid of permits like a permit for a canyon was still in our books at one point. so i think we're getting there

but that's not the sexy stuff that the politicians want. so it's not up to us the institutional. it's that they're dealing with compounded codes that they have to subscribe to. something that the city made them do. we have so many business, we don't talk about the impacts but that's a huge one. and the city did not provide any support for mitt gaigt. maybe we need to do some of the auditing stuff that our cities is looking at right now. i think the bicycle coalition still gets money.

they had a letter saying that they had to work with the equity. we need to talk to the people and say, okay you said you need to be more equitable more diverse, how are you supporting merchant corridors that will be decimated. yeah, we're going to have to ask the hard questions and do some of the leg work but you have my commitment for that and thank you for the rallying call. we support you and you're right it's a huge problem. and in our lifetime we will not

solve it but our grandkids may enjoy. and i think it's like alcoholism, if you don't admit you have a problem, you're never going to get the solution under cure. i think that which proposed acknowledgment of this institutionalized racism, like you said, all we do is make bad mixes for all. and it's nobody's fault because they're all human but if we're at least acknowledging it and show it through some lens, this word equity now, i hate it in the sense that it's just a box. we need true partnership and civic engagement right because we're so diverse, i'm with you and i support you and even if you start with some acknowledgment, that is low

hanging fruit, well i think it is, we'll see. that would be a great way to start. >> well thank you very much for for helping you through this meeting. yeah, i look forward to working with all of you. >> this was your first meeting. >> this is my first meet as president. >> love it. >> is there any public comment? nobody in the room and our web ex is down so there is nobody in the line. hearing no further public comment and public comment is closed. next item. >> item 8 adjournment sfgovtv please show the office of small business slide. >> we will end with the reminder that the small business commission is a 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 businesses is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the local emergency. if you need assistance continue to reach out to office of small business. and meeting is adjourned. hit it. >> [gavel] [cheers]

please stand by for the san francisco planning commission meeting of march 2, 2023. >> good afternoon and welcome to the san francisco planning commission hearing session for thursday march 2, 2023. sfgovtv is broadcasting and streaming live and we'll receive public comment for each item. each speaker will be allowed up to three minutes. when your time is reached i