>> all right. what an exciting building. where all my department people? supervisor, welcome. >> okay. how are you? >> first of all, thank you all for being here a.m. san francisco mayor breed. and we are here at a building and a place that has been i would say decades in the making. many of us struggle with the bureaucracy of the city and the frustration around the bureaucracy. i gotta admit a lot to do with

the laws created at the board of supervisors including i did not create those complicated laws only lus to get rid of bureaucracy and happy top have supervisor engardio joining us here today because he, too, is someone who care busy making things easier for people to do business with the city and county of san francisco. you know what is frustrating is how hard when you have to do thing in a permit center or apply for things and you go through the process and not only does the city make it too difficult for to you go throughout press they make you pay for it. and part of what i wanted to do with a lot of changes to our structure is to the try to clear out the bureaucracy, make it easy approximate simple. i remember when i was on the board of supervisors and every year we would honor small businesses. what was interesting is most of

those small businesses could not necessary low come and sit in the chamber all day because in many case they were the 1 who is owned the business and ran the business. and part of what we have done in 2020 which i was proud of exit know an initial mall business ordinance are joining us here today; i think ben was a part of the commercial got fame from us this commercial when we introduced and put prospect heart attack on the ballot to stream line the process for small businesses in san francisco. and let me tell you what that means. during the pandemic, so many businesses had to pivot from being one business to another in order to survive. in the past, before prospect h, it could take months. sometimes up to 2 years and at the same time when you are trying to go from for example, a clothing hop to a cafe or another use. the process it would take to do

that while you are still paying rent, still paying water bill, still paying electric and the city all the fees and everything else, you are not generating money and the process is just really set up to see our businesses fail. so when we talk about how we care about mall businesses, what is most important to me is to make sure that we are listening to those same small businesses and impelementing the change to make it easier. now we are seeing extraordinary things happen. pandemic challenged us like never before am many of the businesses specific low with our mall business this is have comellow the doors to make changes to their businesses, they went from waiting months and sometimes 2 years to change their use to doing it over the counter within a day. because that is how it should be. if you want to change for example, from a clothing shop to

a coffee shop and want a change in use and it is permit in the that neighborhood, why do you have to go through a lengthy press to do it? you shouldn't. you should be able to move forward that's number one. you know what i'm talking b. you are like all i want to do is sell plants now the pandemic everybody is a plant parent. so i want to sell plant and coffee and sometimes you could not do that in the same location. and those other things we need to change. we need to get creative. we need to make it easy for people to do business in the san francisco and especially when we talk about how much we support small businesses and on top of that, when we see in many of our neighborhood/commercial corridors. we see many vacancies. when i was on the board, i go back because of my relationship with small businesses, i

remember this one ice cream place that had to wait over 2 years. had to continue to pay rent and the final straw that almost broke the camel's back a 250 thousand dollars bill this will needed to be paid up front to turn on the water. and i thought, this is criminal. for a small business to come up with all this money. mall businesses that don't have investors in some case. this need to hire staff. and what i was proud of last year is when we along with the board of supervisors introduced money in the budget to allow for the first year free. so we are waiving all of the various fees -- for people who want to start their businesses and bill, who has a great thai restaurant will talk about her experience and being able to benefit from that program. but the point is, we are trying

to make the city work efficiently. we know we are not perfect. it has been working a bit inefficient for a time. and i than it has been challenging for a lot of the city workers here because when they are doing is they are following the law this is we introduce this we get paddled. and they are doing the best jobs they can to provide you with as much information to make sure that you get through this process efficiently so you do what you need to do with plans to open your business. deal with housing, or had have you. i want to thank the various city agencies and departments and employees here today from the help desk to many of the folks with the hole crew up there. many of the people who work for the planning departmentful department of building inspection. from small business commission. the fire department. there are so many layers to this.

now we have reproductive services in this building. i don't know but, all the things you want printed and printed right away instead of going to another building you get it here >> went from 5 building guess here and mission street to having a one stop shop in this building. and it is amazing. i'm so happy. i know everything is not perfect. so i strongly suggest that as you go through this process if there are suggestions that anyone wants it make our small businesses here today. feel free. in the meantime know the goal of this center has everything to do with efficiency. and i want to appreciate rodney fong with the sudden fran chamber of commerce. ma sud with council district merchants. so many small business leaders and folks from every walks of life. people manny on the mt aboard but owns a great cafe.

and we got so many people who want to see businesses in san francisco succeed. they have been an important part of providing feedback, making the recommendations and now we are implementing many of the ideas to make sure that business is successful in san francisco. and -- that also includes the director of small business who used to be a supervisor who is also an important part of make happening recommendations to change policies to make it easy. i want to thank katy tang for her work with the mall business commission. [applause]. and i want to say to the assessor recorder joaquin torres don't reassess people and get more money. in taxes from our small businesses. let them have time to do well for a couple years before you go and ask them for more money. can you commit to that?

[laughter] assessor recorder joaquin torres. the point of us here today is to celebrate the success this is we made in order to make adjustments to mech it easier to do small businesses. i also. to take a moment before i introduce our city add administrator carmen chu to just also mention the housing for all plan. because this is a center not just for mall businesses but i center people will come to get permits and the things than i need for so many things if you want a picnic and birthday party, you get this is one stop shop permitting. a festival, this is where you come. it is also the accomplice people come who are building housing or -- doing some stuff to their homes and all the different things. in san francisco we have a plan housing for all and we are going to push forward a number of

changes to make it more efficient to get the plans approved and get housing built firefighter in san francisco. we have a requirement under the state to build 82,000 units of housing in san francisco in the next 8 years. you know what that means if we do this right? that means the city employees who work in this permit center can ford to live in san francisco. [applause] some of the people coming can live in san francisco if we do this right and make it efficiently we cut become on the costs. we create an influx of housing. have 50,000 units already approved in the pipeline and we have to make it easier and starts with our city bureaucracy, permitting process and everything we need to do to get san francisco on the right path. more how longs built. small businesses open and make people happy when they leave the

doors and feel that when they are opening their business and doing anything in san francisco they feel good about how this process works. and this process was not about saying, no to everything. it was getting to yes and ensuring the success of small businesses, housing and everything we do that makes san francisco an amazing city for all of us to enjoy. and with that i want to introduce next up, our city add administrator, carmen chu. [applause]. >> thank you, mayor breed i want to thank everybody who joined us and especially our mir for her vision and her steadfast focus making sure san francisco is headed in the right direction with make sure we support small businesses and making sure we continue to build the pipeline of house thanksgiving we need. so i want to thank the mayor for her continued commitment. for folks who may not have been

the permit cent open in the 2020. many did not know this building opened. we are happy to welcome you to the building for the first time in this way it introduce the work we do here. as we opened update facility we started to roll out more services. in 2021, and in 2022, we provided 50,000 different customers about 150,000 different service throughout permit center here. applause is great. [applause]. a lot of people are coming throughout facility. to step back the vifthz center was a simple one. that was just to say, the process that we have and how people are able to get a building permit. get different business permits and approvals to open up and dot things they want top do in the city is really hard. people went to 5 different building in the city.

whether city hall or 1155 market street or 1650 or 1650 mission. people were going all over to open a business. we have 13 departments. there are now colocated here in the permit center. this one stop shop is the beginning. the idea is simple. bring together all of the different departments and the different processes that are involved in permit nothing one house, one space so you don't have to be thrown around the city to figure out how to get your work done. but not only that, make sure that when people are together we figure out a way to help our departments collaborate. speak better and figure out how we remove all the impedimentses and presses we layered on. the process we have now was not manage that was done over night. it was done through decades of new processes that got layered upon each other. layers of different lus that got put in decade by decade.

we have to look and do the nerdy work of figure outside what was is broken. where bottle necks are and removing those so you get your stores open earlier and homes built and make sure we have a thriving san francisco. i thank the folks that made this possible. but know this this is the first install am of our commitment to make sure or processes are better. with that i want to introduce a champion to the causes supervisor joel engardio. [applause] >> thank you. you know what city hall needs to do to help mall businessesent prix nurse and creators? role out the red tape and i really messed that up? oh. i had this great line in my head and i messed it up. we need to roll out the red

carpet and cut the red tape to help small businesses, artisans and creators in san francisco. you know if you have i good idea you should not come to city hall to have that die by regulation and bureaucracy. we don't know which good idea will save our local economy. we need to roll up that red carpet and cut that red tape so your idea has the run way to sore and a beacon, come to san francisco because we woman it. thank you so much for everything the mayor and carmen chu or add administrator and katy tang is doing, too, to roll out the red carpet for all of our mall businesses. thank you. [applause]. >> all right. good morning, everyone and thank you for being here. we are so excited partner with the mayor on making over 100 changes to the planning code and

thank you to director hill us of planning department and the commission for working with us on this to make it easier for small businesses to open and expand in san francisco and for all of us to fill the commercial vacancies we see in streets. mayor said, you know looking around you see shops that offer things like coffee and plants all in the same space. before that was not allowed we want to expand that to most of the rest of the city. right now half the city allows those flexible uses to work together. and so, we are excited. we did the nerdy work to look at what we heard had was being said by owners when we go on merchant walk and had they want to see change in the city and how this translated to changes made to the planning code and others. we are excited for this journey ahead. i want to shout out to our incredible office of mall

business team who supports so many businesses around 2,000 and 3,000 businesses per year on cases and exploration of you know ways they can expand or open in the city. and so i think they are upstairs morgan and rachael. shout out to the new small business permit specialists. [applause] who just started a year ago and worked on 870 cases since they started a year ago march of 22. amazing and to all the expediters. cover your ears they are here so small businesses don't have to hire more money. we are here to help you get through the process quickly and help you start on your journey faster to open your business. with that, i'd like to also a upon nouns that we have billie who is the owner of head tai chi who opened up and excited have her join us here and share her

journey of opening a small business in san francisco. thank you. [applause] i'm very excited. first i would like to thank you, everyone. i i'm bill from tie thailand i came with a droll to hope a restaurant in san francisco. i never done this before. first day i arrive i have no one i'm here all alone i came to permit center to ask the small business center what i do do if i want to open the restaurant. they give me every answer i need ton. they gave mow a step i do from 100 step and today i had my restaurant and it is doing very well on financial district in

san francisco. [applause] thank you very much. thank you this is a big, big opportunity and it is made my dream come true. all the process starts on december 2022. and i opened my restaurant in january only take a month. the permit. the process what is done in an among. i'm here i have no one help. i'm here to ask permit to get my sign up and everything was done in a day. it was really, really good. i get a one year free program. everything is super easy. which is i -- even i'm so surprised and i get a lot of support from every stop and pireally appreciate it and i would want to say to everybody who have a dream who want to open their restaurant, mall business or whatever you have in your idea, this is the right

moment. this is the time for start and if i am foreigner who came with knowing anyone can do it and i believe everybody can do it as well. thank you very much. [applause]. >> thank you. bill that he is exciting, right this . is had we want to help in our city. we want it to be easy. we want it to be convenient. because here is the thing, bill's success is our city success. fact that she is doing so well with her business means that it can only grow and potentially expand to other businesses. and that means more financial support for the city. that means more people this she hires to work in her business. we understand the economic impact but we also understand what i feel is the most important thing. it represents the vibrance and

he uniqueness and diversity and creditivity of when makes san francisco a special place. that is why we have to make sure that everything that we do involves trying to get to, yes. trying to get on a solution. trying to make people's lives happy and more rewarding and successful. in a challenging place. beautiful amazing complex place like san francisco. i'm happy to be here with all of you here today to celebrate the permit center. to celebrate small businesses and celebrate all the things we plan to do to make things more efficient so we get on a better accomplice in our economic recovery of san francisco and i want to thank all of you for being here our small business commissioners and various small businesses the w does not stop here. it will continue. as i said, proviedz your input and feedback, we take that

seriously it make decisions about what can be done to be successful in san francisco. and i'm very excited about the fact that we also make the jam permit easy for artists to get. if you want a coffee shop that has pleasants for sale and bodes and crystals and wants a guitarist to perform you can do that in one location. we think that -- well, was that happening already. it was not. now it is. and that's when we have been able to do. that is an example of things i love in one place and when the city needs to become for small businesses all over the city. thank you very much for being here. [applause].

[bagpipes playing]

>> welcome to mayor breed's balcony here at city hall. for those of you who don't know me i'm joann haze-white and i'm happy to be host of flag. the flag has played a role including building, engineering, science, mathematics, education, and public service. my father emigrated from ireland in 1949 and like so many immigrants here to california specifically to san francisco, he found opportunity

and a very warm welcome. he also found the love of miz life, my pom patricia haze, a native san franciscan but her parent. so my siblings and i have been raise withed a great pride in san francisco and also in our irish heritage. i'm happy to be joined by my sister patricia haze and she was 1991, rose of trolly. so let's get on to the program. first and for most, the reason we're here today because she is wonderful leader also a native san franciscan, i would like to introduce the 45th mayor of san francisco, mayor london breed. [applause] >> mayor breed: thank you so much chief for stepping in to serve as our mistress of

ceremony in this irish flag raising ceremony and it's always a tliet delight to have you here every year. in fact what i notice every year when we do this flag raising, you start really really early and you don't leave until city hall closes. liam, it still trying to understand what that is all about. but it reminds me of my family when you don't see each other for a long time, it does feel great and one of the other thing that i appreciate about this time of year is it feels like spring is coming. we're start to go see the sunshine, people are coming together and able to celebrate like we were not able to do during the pandemic. so we appreciate it so much more than ever before.

when we talk about the rich irish history, i cannot think about the great water that we are able to drink because of hetch hetchi and san francisco has the best drinking water without a filter anywhere in the country! and thank you so much for that contribution to san francisco because it saves me a lot of money on purchasing bottled water. but also, i just want to express my appreciation for just the support that i've received from this community. you know when i first became mayor under very challenges circumstances, so many of you supported and embraced ed lee and when we lost him and i became mayor, this community truly embraced me. and i was really excited and honored, i still wear this even when it's not saint patrick's day to celebrate the irish in san francisco.

but in 2019, pat, i can tell you this because you can appreciate it. when i agreed to serve as the grand marshal i committed to every single responsibility that i was required to do and liam said, well you don't have to do everything. and i said no, i'm taking my role seriously, i'm going to show up to all the events and activities. so pat, it's your serve serving as one of the prestigious grand marshal it's an honor to do so. not just because of the great parade but also because you have an opportunity to represent the community in so many amazing ways. this community really truly represents public service. making sure that the shut in are not forgotten and that the community is supported. i'm looking forward knowing you are the chair of the famine

memorial committee and now that you're grand marshal, we're going to work hand and hand to make sure it gets done in san francisco. [applause] and i'm really excited that, although i miss robert drisco, he was so great. we welcome you, we look forward to our continual relationship. our new council general, if you have not met him i would be surprised because he's making sure na the relationship between the san francisco and bay area and irish community and ireland continues to exist. we know so many of you, many many years ago, your families

migrated here for a wonderful opportunities. and at a point in san francisco's history, this represented a significant part of our communication and what chief alluded to, really helped to shape the city through engineering and mathematics and so many other marvelous things. as we celebrate and uplift this community, it's a chance to reflect on that history and make sure that we're doing everything that we can to carry on the legacy of the people who came before us. so with that, it is my honor to truly thank you all for being here. and to ask council general smith to come forward as we, celebrate today's flag raising, i want to also say that tonight city hall will be lit up in green during the day of the parade in san francisco, city hall will be lit up in green

and on st. patrick's day, officially march 17th, city hall will be lit up in green to honor that history and on behalf of the city of san francisco, i officially declare an irish-american friendship and heritage day in san francisco. [applause] and i have one more proclamation for pat unique, i want to ask you to come on up and thank you for your work with the treasure island soccer team and so many other great things that you do in the community. we appreciate your advocacy and i know that your children, you have many of them, that they will carry back the legacy of the work that do you and give back.

on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, i officially declare patrick martin uniak day in the city of san francisco. [applause] and with that, everyone enjoy the festivities, enjoy your city hall but please don't get in trouble. i want to make sure that you all get home stavely as you all have a really good time during this flag raising ceremony and all the other great activities that will exist in san francisco over the next couple of weeks. and we turn it back over to chief joann haze. oh, liam is crashing the ceremony. thank you.

>> so last year liam gave me a shamrock crystal, it is absolutely beautiful. this year, it is the american flag. very beautiful, thank you. [applause] all the way from ireland. where waterford crystal is made. so thank you again. thank you deny to dormont or sister city and i know the pandemic stopped me from going to ireland. i cannot be the first mayor in the history 1984 of the sister city relationship to not go to ireland dermont. i'm looking forward to working on a trip sooner than later. thank you all for being here today. [applause] >> thank you so much, mayor breed for your remarks and for your leadership in our city.

at this time, i would like to introduce the relatively new consul general from ireland in san francisco and ironically, the office that i work in is one floor above yours. so i'm down and it's a beautiful place. woiz like to have consul general approach. thank you. >> just look around, my first few months in the city, this is truly amazing. this will really do your heart good. i want to thank mayor london breed for being such a friend of ireland, of the irish and of irish-america and in my short time here, i see what you do for the people of san francisco, thank you. and we will have you in ireland in the next few months, i can promise you. i thought that was for me behind me. keep it going.

today we raise the flag for irish flag in san francisco and not just the heritage but the city that has been a melting pot, the people from all over the world, a community of values and diversity and inclusion and acceptance. this is long been a home to the irish, this is a city that the irish helped built and shape and it's a city where the irish have forjd multi ethnic, friendships and unions. for st. patrick's day this year, we celebrate 100 year in support of peace and international order. i want to recognize, the fact that artmiss the international community for the past 100 years.

member of eu and ecc for the last 50 years and with and sign with the help of irish america. we also celebrate the fact that it's been nine years since the consul opened here. it's a great privilege for us mayor. we also marked the first just resent rethe first anniversary of russia's invasion, the further invasion of ukraine. the u.s. continues to stand with the people of ukraine and we also support as people flee the country, we welcome them to ireland and we support in and imposing sanctions upon russian a. i want to recognize the consul general. i ne the people here of

irish-america has been supportive of you. slavi ukraine'. thank you to liom frost and the board of directors, i know the work that they do every year throughout the year to ensure that st. patrick's day is celebrated across the city. thank you. i also like to recognize the grand marshal pat uniak and his wife, great people and his initial that lead on many initiatives an honor could not be better deserved. thanks, pat. [applause] i should also recognize and thank the mayor's team and maroon, mark, sean, i know is not here, thank you for all of your support. merriam, chief of protocol thank you for welcoming me. as it flies along the stripes,

it's the irish flag is 1 75 years old this year. its history france ireland and u.s. tomas france mayor, a young irelander, brought material orange white and green to ireland. this young irelander finished his days in montana and both u.s. and ireland. i leave it there, but all i can say is, look forward to enjoying this st. patrick's month ahead. by the end it, i will look ten years older, but i'll have a great smile and big heart. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, consul general smith. and i think we're going to be treated to the murphy irish

school of dancers for their performance and while they're setting up, i would like to acknowledge the consul general of ukraine, thank you for being here. and also a friend to many people and excellent city attorney, david chu, thank you for being here. so i leave it to irish dancers. [irish music playing]

[applause] >> thank you to the murphy school irish dancers, let's hear it again for them! [applause] next up i would like to call liam frost, president of the united irish society of san francisco.

>> thank you joann and thank you for stepping up and being the mistress of ceremonies for us. i do want to welcome everybody to the 172 st. patrick's day season, thank you all for coming. i want to thank the san francisco bagpipers and murphy school of irish dancing for entertaining us. those kids are going to be the ones out here either at the podium or sitting where you are continuing our traditions. so it's great that we see them out there and that they're supported in every way that they can be. thank you again. i want to thank the mayor for host hading the flag raising and making us feel welcome. every year we come here, whether it's the covid or we have to move, it's great to get us back in this area. it's amazing what the flag being raised and everybody

being able to come here to enjoy this. i want to thank kevin birmingham and ma rhone from the mayor's office for putting this together. i get a couple of phone calls and they make everything work smoothly and it's amazing. and i do want to welcome our new consul general, niehal, his wife, claire, sorry, the brain thing. and the vice consul general, jennifer chadwick, thank you. i want to thank stephani and the one person that helped her put it on adrian roach and sponsored by the soe, of realtors. so thank you. [applause] putting on the parade and the festival is a lot of work and i

get up here and get the opportunity to get the accolades but it's all the people behind the scenes, my board but especially for parade, kathleen, teresa and james quinn. [applause] and then closing down san francisco to allow us to have that parade, we need the help of a lot of your city agencies, and they do a great job, bill scott, his station, my good friend captain doug and derek and then the man with the boots on the ground, sergeant tobey moore. they do an excellent job for us. [applause] and i want to thank and congratulate our grand marshal, pat uniak, and all the families of the honorary grand marshal. it's definitely a honor but

it's also a commitment and as the mayor said all the events with her busy schedule, we can hope that she leads the way and you can follow. but we appreciate it, your wife una and pat is getting all the accolades but we know you'll be helping him out, so we get it pat. as well as all the families of the grand marshals. thank you. [applause] so it is the season to be irish, we invite everybody to be irish come out and celebrate with us. especially the irish from san francisco, those are two great traditions. the irish traditions are faith, family and community and by all your support, that's what it's all about. let's move forward and hurl into the future. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, very much liam. we're all looking forward to the parade next weekend. next up, i would like to call,

you've known me since i was a little girl. we have retired deputy chief and he served with distinction. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed, ladies and gentlemen, we are very very happy again to be here with you in this great beautiful city hall to welcome everybody to the st. patrick's day celebrations. and to see, for so long there, we've always taken the mayor back so you are our next candidate to go to ireland. as far as the celebration is concerned this year will be as good as ever. going way back the first parade

was in the 1860s along kearny street. at the time the paper said, and the consul general would appreciate this, that it was lead by a group of is to lar irish men carrying custodycudgels. they were carrying curling sticks. he's also a fine fine athlete coming from ireland. if any man knows how to handle a curling stick is pat and he helped to field the fields. wonderful wonderful candidate and we applaud him and thank him for being the grand marshal of this year's parade. thank you very much and have a great great. >> have something for you. >> thank you merdent. and i would like to present a

certificate of honor you've been involved since the beginning. thank you so much. [applause] >> and next i would like to ask the bagpipers band to come up and receive a certificate from mayor breed. [applause] all right, i see brendan o leaery. come on down, the irish pipers.

thank you to the irish pipers. and finally for their wonderful performance today, the murphy school of irish dance. [applause] so just to close things up, thank you to mayor breed for her welcome into city hall. and saving the best for last, our grand marshal patrick. i know patrick that you knew my

father and i always say, big city small town, i went to school with his daughter teresa who is here today. and the uniak family, pleasure to know you, but our sons, your son and my son are good friends. that's what the irish is about, building communities and friendships. please come out and honor the grand marshal next weekend, march 11, the start of the parade 11:30. thank you. with that, there is a reception for to you enjoy and continue to communicate with each other and celebrating irish heritage. all right. >> are you ready? >> okay, here we go.

[applause] [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] >> so i grew up in cambridge, massachusetts and i was very fortunate to meet my future wife, now my wife while we were both attending graduate school at m.i.t., studying urban planning. so this is her hometown. so, we fell in love and moved to her city. [♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪] >> i was introduced to this part of town while working on a campaign for gavin, who is running for mayor. i was one of the organizers out here and i met the people and i fell in love with them in the neighborhood. so it also was a place in the city that at the time that i could afford to buy a home and i wanted to own my own home. this is where we laid down our roots like many people in this neighborhood and we started our family and this is where we are going to be. i mean we are the part of san francisco. it's the two neighborhoods with the most children under the age of 18. everybody likes to talk about how san francisco is not family-friendly, there are not a lot of children and families. we have predominately single family homes. as i said, people move here to buy their first home, maybe with

multiple family members or multiple families in the same home and they laid down their roots. [♪♪♪] >> it's different because again, we have little small storefronts. we don't have light industrial space or space where you can build high-rises or large office buildings. so the tech boom will never hit our neighborhood in that way when it comes to jobs. >> turkey, cheddar, avocado, lettuce and mayo, and little bit of mustard. that's my usual. >> mike is the owner, born and bred in the neighborhood. he worked in the drugstore forever. he saved his money and opened up

his own spot. we're always going to support home grown businesses and he spent generations living in this part of town, focusing on the family, and the vibe is great and people feel at home. it's like a little community gathering spot. >> this is the part of the city with a small town feel. a lot of mom and pop businesses, a lot of family run businesses. there is a conversation on whether starbucks would come in. i think there are some people that would embrace that. i think there are others that would prefer that not to be. i think we moved beyond that conversation. i think where we are now, we really want to enhance and embrace and encourage the businesses and small businesses that we have here. in fact, it's more of a mom and pop style business. i think at the end of the day,

what we're really trying to do is encourage and embrace the diversity and enhance that diversity of businesses we already have. we're the only supervisor in the city that has a permanent district office. a lot of folks use cafes or use offices or different places, but i want out and was able to raise money and open up a spot that we could pay for. i'm very fortunate to have that. >> hi, good to see you. just wanted to say hi, hi to the owner, see how he's doing. everything okay? >> yeah. >> good. >> we spend the entire day in the district so we can talk to constituents and talk to small businesses. we put money in the budget so you guys could be out here.

this is like a commercial corridor, so they focus on cleaning the streets and it made a significant impact as you can see. what an improvement it has made to have you guys out here. >> for sure. >> we have a significantly diverse neighborhood and population. so i think that's the richness of the mission and it always has been. it's what made me fall in love with this neighborhood and why i >> e it so much. >> shared spaces have transformed san francisco's streets and sidewalks. local

business communities are more resilient and our neighborhood centers are more vibrant and lively. fire blocks and parking lanes can be for seating and merchandising and other community activities. we're counting on operators of shared spaces to ensure their sites are safe and accessible for all. when pair mets, firefighters and other first responders arrive at a scene, they need clear visual access to see the building entrances, exits and storefront windows from the street. that means parklets should be transfer in the areas above inches above the sidewalk level. it's best if these areas are totally unobstructed by transparent materials may be okay. you can check with fire department staff to make sure your site meets visibility requirements. emergency response crews and their equipment need to be move easily between streets, sidewalks and buildings, especially when they are using medical gurneys,

ladders and other fire fighting tools. that means that parklet structures need a three foot wide emergency feet every 20 feet and 3 feet from marked parking spaces and emergency access gaps need to be open to the sky, without obstructions, like canopies, roofs, or cables and should always be clear of tables, chairs, planters and other furnishings. emergency responders need to use ladders to reach windows and roofs to buildings and the ladders need unobstructed overhead clearance and room to be placed at a 72-degree angle against the building. clearances needed around the ladders to move equipment and people safely up and down. so not all parklets can have roofs ask canopies depending on the width of the sidewalk in your area. please make sure that your electric cables are hung so they are out of the way and (indiscernible) to the structure, they can be

pulled down by firefighters. cable connections need to be powered from an outdoor reciprocal in the building facade because hard wire connections are much more difficult to disconnect quickly. these updates to the shared spaces program will ensure safety and accessibility for everyone, so we can all enjoy these public spaces. more information is available at sf dot gov slash shared spaces.