listings good morning. today is wednesday february 19th, 2025. this is a regular meeting of the building inspection commission. i would like to remind everyone to please mute yourself if you're not speaking. the first item on our agenda is roll call. vice president shattuck here and commissioner chavezed.

>> and next we will have our uh well i just want to make an announcement that item five will be tabled to the next meeting but we will have public comment on that item when we get to it. and next is the land acknowledgment. one of the commissioners said that the building inspection commission acknowledges that we are in the unceded ancestral homeland of the roma to saloni who were the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula as indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their tradition the roma too shall only have never seen it lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests we recognize we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders and relatives of the roma to colonia community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples.

thank you. an expert any members of the public that are listening in the public comment call the number is (415) 655-0001. the access code is 26608330328. >> and please press star three to and and mute yourself and the webex webinar password is 0 to 1 nine. >> okay. our next item is item two president's opening remarks. we do thank you so much. >> just briefly i wanted to thank my fellow commissioners for these last several months getting through the budget process and looks like we've done our part and it's sailing on down the hallway or downstairs. but in particular i wanted to thank alex for just staying

with us and i know was a lot of meetings and a lot of your time and you did a phenomenal job presenting over and over and over again to us and helping us try to navigate ways to fix, you know, items that were super important to us. so thank you. >> and with that i will pass it over to you. >> thank you. is there any public comment on the president's opening remarks? hey, seeing none we have item three general public comment the bike will take public comment on matters within the commission's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda. i'd like to make public comment. okay. i have some handouts for the commissioners.

>> i'm already in your you can begin. thank you. good morning. >> my name is jerry antler. the comptroller issued a public integrity review update in august of 2020 for that false report that all eight recommendations from the 2021 it public integrity review have been implemented to critical recommendations. the audit have not been implemented 3.5 years after the report was issued. the summary table from the follow up report falsely claims to be implemented. red flag control reports an increased penalty fees how does the bic plan to address this serious credibility and control problem? >> excuse me mr. driver. i pause your time. are you showing up for our presentation? i am okay. i don't i'm not not seeing it.

>> okay. there it is. okay. can i just should i start again or you can if you like. >> i'd like to thank you. okay. good morning. my name is jerry rattler. the comptroller issued a public integrity review update in august of 2024. that fall two reports had all eight recommendations from the september 2021 public integrity review have been implemented. two critical recommendations in the audit have not been implemented 3.5 years after the report was issued, the summary table from the follow up report falsely claims to implement noted red flag control reports and increased penalty fees. how does the big plan to address this serious credibility and control problem? this is the summary table from the august 2024 report showing that eight of the eight recommendations have been implemented when that's incorrect, this slide shows the five recommendations from the

2021 report i've highlighted two of them one that the department doesn't use available data to track and investigate red flag issues and the second one financial penalties for noncompliance with the code are too low. this is page 50 of the follow up report and you can see under three b performing monthly reviews of same day inspections etc. and doobies response is under review however if you look at the top arrow it says it's implemented and closed in 2022. well how can that be? there are no device management control reports that monitor for improper activities of dba by building inspectors. the four activities are unscheduled inspections out of district inspections, senior inspectors performing inspection as they shouldn't be

performing an inspections performed unexpired building permits. i submitted a document request for any report that would address this and the response was from dba was there are no reports and they're working on it. dba is not allowed to increase penalty fees without a fee study and the 2024 dbp study report specifically excluded a review of fines and penalties. this is a slide from the fee study page 52 of the follow up report darby says they're considering fee increases. well they might be considering them but without a fee study they can implement them yet the report says it was implemented in closed in 2020 for this is beyond any description i could

say of san francisco. more needs to be addressed. thank you and make use or any additional public comment over that please or it's it should be showing once you place the item there. >> um okay. there it is. >> great thank you.

okay. and i have handouts. thank you. >> okay, i'm ready to begin. this is a lawsuit obviously marissa hernandez is defended on the next page of this lawsuit. okay, here we've got a special inspection or not whatever report could be another san bruno you can reference that

joe skenazy april 11th, 2021 about buried gas pipes as you can see here, o'riordan issues a dictum saying do not stop the work once you've followed the above protocol and i believe an investigation was done and there were many, many, many, many buildings discovered and i don't think there's been any action or report taken to mitigate these these gas lines buried in the concrete against the code right here is 147 wood street sob story retrofit. john pollard was the contractor. looks like there was no inspections on there. it appears and this is a multi story apartment building where

the pass through cost can be passed on to the tenants. >> the tenants in my belief are living in an unsafe building. >> here you can see a complaint was generated in 2021 for 147 wood addressing this issue and it looks like from august 11th 2021 coordinate with senior inspector matt green with the gas pipes i guess he's still working on that was no action been taken? here's another one where senior inspector matt green went out of his district. i believe jerry was just i'm sorry mr. adler was just alluding people going out of their districts for on scheduled inspections multiple time. this building went down the hill. insufficient shoring. this was a santos job. well, reardon wrote the end of this was in my district. i should have been the inspector. i should have written the novy . there is a system in place called the wheel and the

and the seniors aren't supposed to go out there and do the inspections. >> okay. okay. and here's a lawsuit naming a receiver hernandez out there who was a was a chief of code enforcement. then he dropped down to senior . now he's back chief again. here's the results of that dennis richards lawsuit 1.8 million and settled in favor of of the plaintiff mission local march 7th, 2022 lastly i spoke about this this is 533 by santee street very confusing the complaint investigator states the rebars all according to prove plants when you look at the last thing you get where your comments you can i'm almost winding it up thanks sonia. upon review the inspector of record did not authorize the foundation poor the comments

very confusing. >> thank you. thank you. there any additional public comment either in person or remotely? okay seeing none we are on to item four directors report for a directors update. >> good morning vice president chad x and members of the building inspection commission. i'm patrick o'riordan, the director of the department of building inspection. last week mayor leary issued an executive directive launching permits safe and in initiative developing priority izing and implementing bold systemic changes to our permitting process. this is a cross-departmental effort that will help tbi and the other permitting departments move into the next phase of our ongoing multi-year effort to streamline the city's permitting processes and recenter our work on our customers needs.

the team leading the initiative includes gbi, the planning department, the office of small business and the permit center . dba has made great strides over the past year to accelerate our permitting processes and finding creative ways and in finding creative ways to increase our efficiency and improve our customer service. but there's one critical area where we and all of our city permitting partners can do better and that's cross-departmental collaboration in both conducting our work and identifying ways to more efficiently work together and provide even better customer service. that collaboration is at the heart of this initiative and i'm very supportive of its goals. we will keep you informed and as this effort moves forward now i want to let you know that there has been a change in permit services. neville pereira has left wbai i've asked mary wilkinson church to serve as acting

deputy director for permit services until we hire a replacement. as you may recall, mary is an architect who has been serving as dba as premier services manager for the past year. she previously ran milwaukee's building department operations and her experience working in another municipality has already proven valuable to our efforts to streamline our services our permit streamlining mining and process improvements will continue and no other permit services positions are affected by this change. >> we've posted a job announcement for the new deputy director for permit services to this to the city's website dba hiring website and our social media channels. please help us get the word out by sharing the announcement with your professional and social media networks. >> thank you. that concludes my report. thank you. next we have item four b update

on major projects. steve and steve goff can we get the presentation? >> thank you. good morning again commissioners. the following slides are intended to highlight the volume and value ation of projects costing 5 million or more that have been filed issues or completed in the past month. we will profile a few projects that bring especially high value in terms of their contribution to housing and community assets in january of 2024 six permit applications with an estimated construction valuation of 5 million or more were filed with tbi.

two were for a new 22 storey residential building with 201 market rate units and 102 affordable units at 1123 sutter street and we and our collectively valued at 120 million. in other words for an office office tenant improvement at 560 mission street that one was valued at $15 million last month we issued one high value permit. it was for a new seven storey residential building with 128 affordable units and a community room. that one is located at 11 frida kahlo way and it was valued it is valued at $72.5 million and lastly dba final four high value permits. one was for the completion of a new eight story building with

148 affordable condos at 400 china basin street that was valued at 80 million and the other was for a fourth floor office tenant improvement at 345 speer which was valued at $30 million. that's my report. thank you. thank you. next we have item foresee update on propose or recently enacted state or local legislation. >> good morning commissioners tate hanna legislative affairs manager first up for local ordinances is file number 241069. this allows for to used to be separately conveyed and sold as

condominiums. >> this is an ordinance was introduced on october 29th 2024 and referred to the bic for review on january 31st, 2025 the mayor approved a nine day extension for the planning commission to provide their response to that is still pending with the commissioners of next is file number 241005. this is the ordinance that adopts chapter six through 11 of the california existing building code into the san francisco existing building code. this is an ordinance that you all reviewed previously and recommended unanimous approval. we are in the process of drafting amendments to that ordinance that will be reviewed by the cac prior to the ordinance moving towards the board of supervisors. next is phone number 240982. >> this is the ordinance amending the building administrative and public works code to remove the ab program and to replace it with more holistic accessibility requirements for the department. you all reviewed this on november 20th and voted 4 to 2 in favor of recommending approval of the ordinance.

since then it's been heard by the land use and transportation committee which passed the measure unanimously. up next is phone number 241067. this is an ordinance amending the planning code to allow tourist hotels and motels to be used for interim housing without abandoning or discontinuing the hotel use classification. this is an ordinance that you all reviewed on november 20th, 2024 recommending unanimous approval on february 10th of this year. the chair of the land use and transportation committee place that ordinance on call of the chair. moving on to state bills there are quite a few substantial state bills this year sb 282 by senator scott wiener mandates that cities adopt an online automated permitting system for residential heat pump water system water heaters or h vac systems. this automated permitting system would also result in one permit for the entire system. >> notably the bill requires local jurisdictions to not place any additional requirements on heat pump installations beyond state code unless explicitly intended to advance clean energy adoption.

the bill also requires local jurisdictions to allow self-certification from licensed contractors that have specified experience in installing heat pump installation. and then lastly, the bill caps the fees for these heat pump systems at $50 unless local findings are made that show a need for a larger fee. that bill has been introduced but not been referred to a committee yet. next is ab 676 by some member chris ward. this bill tasks hb the department of housing and community development to convene a working group to research and consider identifying and recommending amendments to state building standards allowing residential developments between 3 and 10 units to be built under the requirements of the california residential code. additionally, the bill requires hpd to work in conjunction with the triennial code adoption cycle to review and recommend potential changes in the face of cost pressures for single and multifamily residential construction. write a report of those recommendations to the legislature every three years. this bill has been introduced and referred to the assembly, housing and community development committee.

up next is ab 253 again by some member chris ward. this bill requires four projects of 1 to 10 units that have no floor for human occupancy above 40ft that a building department provide an estimated timeframe in which checking plans and specifications submitted as part of the application will be completed if the estimated planned check timeframe exceeds 30 days, the applicant may consult and contract with a private plan checker. the private plan checker must submit an affidavit affidavit excuse me affirming the plan checking function and compliance with code as well as a report detailing any necessary revisions or additional information required by the department. within 14 days of receiving this report and affidavit, the department must approve the permit or indicate what requirements are not being met. provide information to correct those. this bill has been introduced but again has not been referred to a committee quite yet. moving on to ab 306 by seven member schultz. this bill would from june 1st until june 1st 2031 to prohibit a city or county from making changes to specified building

standards unless a certain condition is met including that the commission building standards commission deems those changes or modifications necessary as emergency standards to protect health and safety. this would essentially freeze all of the codes within our jurisdiction as they are no local amendments whatsoever. so just want to note that one because it is quite a large bill. we're working with the mayor's office and investment department to provide some feedback to the author there. that one is coauthored by assemblymember matt haney. so we're trying to make it known how the department feels. >> moving on to the state legislative calendar on february 21st, this is the last day for bills to be introduced . as a reminder, they can still be gotten amended later on so this won't be the final tranche of bills but it will give us a good idea of what's being introduced upfront on april 10th. spring recess will begin on april 21st. the legislature will reconvene from spring recess on may 2nd. it's the last day for policy committees to hear and report to fiscal committees fiscal bills introduced in their own house and on may 9th it's the last day for public policy committees to hear and report

non fiscal bills to the floor in their house. thank you and have to answer any questions. thank you. next is for d update on inspection services. >> good morning commissioners. i'm matthew green, deputy director for inspection services and i'm pleased to provide an update on the activities of the inspection services division. first slide please. >> in january 2025 the building electrical and plumbing divisions conducted 10,073 inspections. 93 of those inspections were conducted within two business days of the date requested by the customer meeting. our target of 90% in the same month. next week in the same month our housing inspection services

conducted 851 inspections with 74 of them being routine inspections of multi family housing. next with the building, electrical and plumbing divisions received 376 complaints and responded to 99% of them within three business days exceeding their target of 85%. additionally our code inspection sorry our code enforcement division sent 66 cases out to directors hearing . >> next please. lastly, our housing inspection services received 399 nonlife hazard complaints and responded to 92% of them within three business days. for life hazard and heat complaints housing received 46 complaints and responded to 78% of them within one business day. housing inspection services also abated 412 cases with a notice of violation and were able to send 35 cases on to directors hearing. that concludes my report and i'm available for any questions may. >> okay. thank you. thanks.

next is for e update on dbrs finances. >> good morning commissioners. alex koskinen deputy director administration. i have the regular monthly update for you. >> we're 58% of the way through the year and to date we have collected 62% of our budgeted charge for services revenue. that's our main revenue source. so a little bit ahead of where we need to be which is great news. we're projecting approximately $1.4 million budget surplus. we're just exiting the slowest time of year. hopefully things pick up even further. we will update that nine month quarter three. next slide please. so as you can see where slightly ahead in charge for service revenue where

projecting some additional apartment and hotel license fee revenue. next slide please. >> we are current we're still projecting salaries and benefits to be on budget. however, it's looking increasingly likely that we're going to have savings there due to the mayor's hiring freeze. so that is our most significant cost and that will be the driver of our expenditure projection update in quarter three. next slide please. and permits remain very close to where they were last year both in number and in total valuation were slightly ahead of last year which is great and hopefully we pick up even further as we get into the busier time of year that concludes the regular update. i'd be happy to answer any questions. thank you. alex, i got i'm sorry to jump

right in on one advantage of a little machine here. first question on that first slide you said the 2% above budget was 1.4 million. you've probably answered this a million times but if there's a surplus above the budget are we able to backfill any of these items that we talked about in the last couple of months as far as the cbo goes or the sro collaborative budget line items? can that money be backfilled? >> sure. that would need to happen in the budget process so we would need regardless of what happens with revenue we still need appropriate funds to spend. we need the permission the authority to spend. so it is up to the mayor's office and comptroller's office to come in and the mayor or the mayor's office and the supervisors to approve appropriation for the next two years. there are mechanisms to request additional appropriations in

the middle of a year. however, that is an ordinance that is a supplementary appropriation ordinance. those are big deals usually sponsored by the mayor's office so we can certainly ask and tell the mayor's office we are projecting revenue surpluses this year, can we? well, i think that the issue is with budget year so we can tell them we're projecting revenue surpluses this year. this is unexpected windfall good news that we had not built in to our fee study. and can those be used to backfill in budget year going forward? >> we can certainly ask. >> well that's kind of good news ish. i guess maybe. >> yeah. any any expenditure savings? any revenue? well any revenue surplus is

good news. expenditure savings can be good news but in the case of expenditure savings due to us not having the staff and being able to pay them is not not so great. >> okay. thank you. was there any public comment on the directors report items for a three? >> and he remotely and no further commissioner comments. thank you. that concludes the directors report item and item number five. as mentioned previously will be table to the next meeting. with that i'll read the item and then call for public comment. discussion and possible action to amend rules and hearing procedures for appeals to clarify their application to request for extension pursuant to section 41.23. is there any public comment on this item? okay.

i'm seeing none. thank you. we'll go to item six. commissioners questions and matters. six a increase to staff at this time commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices and procedures which are of interest to the commission and six b. future meeting at agendas. at this time the commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a special meeting and or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the building inspection commission. believe the next meeting is on march 1985. is that correct? yes. on march 19th is the date of our next regular meeting and there may possibly be a special meeting prior to that but it will be noticed and the commissioners have any inquiries or questions of staff . i'll let you guys go first. all right. let's take advantage of this little thing here.

>> i do have this probably is going to fall into inquiries of staff and i don't want to take over the agenda for president and i'd rather defer this over to her and let you guys figure out how to agenda items this but the report we heard earlier and public comment as far as the controllers office and the recommendations that weren't implemented. >> it'd be kind of nice to hear a little bit more about that. so i'm not sure if that really falls under inquiry as to staff or an agenda item and i'll defer to president truitt when she returns and perhaps the commission secretary as to what better what best path forward that might be and i don't even know if i'm able to do that but well yes it is fine to uh to request that you know that there's a staff update and consult with president alexander to as well. fantastic. >> that's fine. okay. well, i got there. any other items commissioners? okay.

thank you. is there public comment on item six and b thing then we will go to item seven closed session with legal counsel pursuant to pursuant to government code section 5495 6.92 and e in san francisco administrative code section 67.10 d a point has been reached where on advice of legal counsel based on existing facts and circumstances evidence by written communications from property owners requesting extensions pursuant to san francisco administrative code section 41.23 that there is significant exposure to litigation with the city as a defendant and seven a as public comment on matters pertaining to the close session . >> is there any public comment in and remotely case?

seeing none. the next item is seven b possible action to convene a closed session. is there a motion to convene closed session. >> motion to convene a closed session. >> second, there's a motion by commissioner neumann and a second by vice president shattuck and i'll do a roll call vote on the motion. >> vice president shattuck yes . and commissioner chavez yes. >> commissioner newman. yes. commissioner williams yes. okay. the motion carries unanimously and we are now in closed session. it is 10:47 a.m.. so all public members are we are requested to leave the room at this time hello this is the building

inspection commission and we are reconvening our meeting. we are now on agenda item we genda item 70 reconvene in open session to vote on whether to disclose any or all discussions held in closed session motion to reconvene and not disclose. >> second there is a motion by commissioner newman and a second by vice president shattuck to reconvene and not disclose. i'll do a roll call vote on that motion vice president shattuck yes. commissioner newman yes. >> commissioner chavez yes. commissioner williams yes. and that motion carries unanimously and for the record that we we convene the open session at 12:11 p.m.. we are now on agenda item eight review and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of january 15th, 2025 so moved

is there a second okay. >> is there any there's a motion by commish commissioner shattuck and a second by commissioner williams. is there any public comment? no public in present. are all commissioners in favor by i or any opposed the minutes are approved and then item nine is adjournment is there a motion to adjourn and second all commissioners in favor i say we are now adjourned it is 12:13 p.m.. >> thank you

>> we think over 50 thousand permanent residents in san francisco eligible for citizenship by lack information and resources so really the project is not about citizenship but really academy our immigrant community. >> making sure they're a part of what we do in san francisco the san francisco pathway to citizenship initiative a unique part of just between the city and then our 5 local foundations and community safe organizations and it really is an effort to get as many of the legal permanent residents in the san francisco since 2013 we started

reaching the san francisco bay area residents and 10 thousand people into through 22 working groups and actually completed 5 thousand applications for citizenship our cause the real low income to moderate income resident in san francisco and the bayview sometimes the workshops are said attend by poem if san mateo and from sacking. >> we think over restraining order thousand legal permanent residents in san francisco that are eligible for citizenship but totally lack information and they don't have trained professionals culturally appropriate with an audience you're working with one time of providing services with pro bono lawyers and trained professionals to find out whether your eligible the first station and

go through a purview list of questions to see if they have met the 56 year residents arrangement or they're a u.s. citizenship they once they get through the screening they go to legal communication to see lawyers to check am i eligible to be a citizen we send them to station 3 that's when they sit down with experienced advertising to fill out the 4 hundred naturalization form and then to final review and at the end he helps them with the check out station and send them a packet to fill and wait a month to 6 weeks to be invited in for

an oral examine and if they pass two or three a months maximum get sworn in and become a citizen every single working groups we have a learning how to vote i mean there are tons of community resources we go for citizenship prep classes and have agencies it stays on site and this is filing out forms for people that are eligible so not just about your 22 page form but other community services and benefits there's an economic and safety public benefit if we nationalize all people to be a citizen with the network no objection over $3 million in income for those

but more importantly the city saves money $86 million by reducing the benefit costs. >> thank you. >> i've been here a loventh i already feel like an american citizen not felt it motorbike that needs to happen for good. >> one day - i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, for liberty and justice for all. >> you're welcome. >> (singing).

>> (clapping.) >> introduce the san francisco field officer director ribbon that will mirror the oath raise your hand and repeat the oath i hereby declare on oath repeating. >> citizens cry when they become citizenship to study this difficult examine and after two trials they come back i'm an american now we're proud of that purpose of evasion so help me

god please help me welcome seven hundred and 50 americans. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> she wants to be part of the country and vote so much puppy. >> you know excited and as i said it is a long process i think that needs to be finally recognized to be integrated that is basically, the type of that i see myself being part of. >> out of everybody on tv and the news he felt that is necessary to be part of community in that way i can do

so many things but my voice wouldn't count as it counts now. >> it's everybody i hoped for a bunch of opportunities demographics and as you can see yourself there's a good life for everyone. >> that's why. >> you have people from all the walks that life and they're standing in water 8 hours to be an american citizen and contribute to the city and that's really what makes this

worthwhile. >> ♪♪ ♪♪ >> come shop dine and play. taraval street is open for business. >> my name is mark recollect the owner of lou's cafe on taraval street. since 2010, my brother and tj and vince and mom [indiscernible] we used to sandwiches all the time. we said why not us. geary boulevard in 2010. i figured i might to start in another location and when i opened the location in 2015. we treat each customer as family and we make our food with love and make sure everyone is happy.

i recommend everyone come out to the sunset. >> take time for teraival bingo, supporting small business, anyone can participate. it is easy, collect stickers on a bingo style game board and enter for a chance to win awesome prizes. for

>> when i look at an old neon sign that's working or not working, i feel the family business that was in there. >> since 2009, citywide, sf

shines, has supported businesses and sites like the ones that receive new neon signs. >> you know, sf shines is doing an amazing job to bring back the lighting and the neon glow of san francisco. >> sf shines is such an amazing program, and i can't think of another program in another city that gives matching gunned funds to store owners, mom and pop owners, and if they've got a neon sign, they've really got a great way to advertise their business. >> this is a continuation of the sf shines program. >> focusing other neon signs is relatively new to us. of the seven neon signs, we've invested about $145,000.

>> a good quality sign costs more, but it lasts infinitily longer. as opposed to lasting five years, a good neon sign will last 15 to 20 years. >> in san francisco, the majority of neon signs are for mom-and-pop businesses. in order to be able to restore these signs, i think it gives back to your community. >> part of the project has to do with prioritizing certain signs in the neighborhood based on their aesthetics, based on their current signs, and base on the history. in the time that we've been here, we've seen a number of signs restored just on eddy street. >> there are a number of signs in the tenderloin and many more that are waiting or wanting to be restored. i have worked with randall and

al, and we've mapped out every single one of them and rated them as to how much work they would need to get restored. that information is passed onto sf shines, and they are going to rank it. so if they have x budget for a year, they can say all right, we're going to pick these five, and they're putting together clusters, so they build on top of what's already there. >> a cluster of neon signs is sort of, i guess, like a cluster of grapes. when you see them on a corner or on a block, it lights up the neighborhood and creates an ambient glow. if you havy got two of three of them, you've created an atmosphere that's almost like a movie set. >> some of the hotel, we've already invested in to get those neon signs for people to enjoy at night include the elk hotel, jefferson hotel, the verona, not to mention some

we've done in chinatown, as well as the city's portal neighborhood. >> we got the fund to restore it. it took five months, and the biggest challenge was it was completely infested with pigeons. once we got it clean, it came out beautiful. >> neon signs are often equated with film noir, and the noir genre as seen through the hollywood lens basically depicted despair and concentration. >> you would go downtown and see the most recent humphrey bogart film filled with neon in the background. and you'd see that on market street, and as market street got seedier and seedier and fewer people continued to go

down, that was what happened to all the neon strips of light. >> the film nori might start with the light filled with neon signs, and end with a scene with a single neon sign blinking and missing a few letters. >> one of my favorite scenes, orson welles is chasing rita hayworth with neon signs in the background. >> i think what the office of economic and workforce development is very excited with is that we'll be able to see more neon signs in a concentrated way lit up at

night for visitors and most especially residents. the first coin laundry, the elm hotel, the western hotel are ones that we want to focus on in the year ahead. >> neon signs are so iconic to certain neighborhoods like the hara, like the nightcap. we want to save as many historic and legacy neon signs in san francisco, and so do they. we bring the expertise, and they bring the means to actually get the job done. >> people in tenderloin get really excited as they see the signs relit. as you're driving through the tenderloin or the city, it pretty much tells you something exciting is happening here. >> knee an was created to make the night more friendly and advertise businesses. it's a great way of supporting and helping local businesses. >> there's so many ways to improve public safety.

the standard way is having more eyes on the street, but there's other culturally significant ways to do that, and one those ways is lighting up the streets. but what better way and special way to do that is by having old, historic neon signs lighting up our streets at night and casting away our shadows. >> when i see things coming back to life, it's like remembering how things were. it's remembering the hotel or the market that went to work seven days a week to raise their money or to provide a service, and it just -- it just -- it just

- >> we are doing is filipino and mexican cuzeen. the main component the filipino style meat originated. we grew up on that. the most popular items are burritos. we have really something for everybody. we have a salad, we have tacos, we are natcho s and-trying to create something quick and casual, something you can get anything any time. for me i love food and didn't want to be a chef. i was in the business side of it and bring something special to san francisco so why i reached out to my

business partner gil and he wanted to partner for food and we share a passion for food that comes from our parents cht it was a honor for us to be able to do this for ourselves and also for our parents and you know, our families. for us to have a business as thriving here in san francisco, such a honor and makes me feel proud of myself and of my city as well. just to be able to add to this city that is so special. we are just a speck of the specialness, but you know, to have any part that is just a honor. >> who doesn't love cable cars? charging emissions and we're free which we're proud of you know, it's not much free left in the world anymore so we managed to do that through donations and through our gift shops. you got

a real look and real appreciation of what early transit systems are like. this was the transit of the day from about 1875 to about 1893 or later, you know. cable car museum is free, come on in. take a day. come down. rediscover the city. you can spend as time you want and you don't have to make reservations and it's important to be free because we want them to develop a love for cable cars so they do continue to support whether they live here or other places and people come in and say, yes, i have passed by and heard of this and never come in and they always enjoy themselves. people love cable cars and there's none left in the world so if you want to ride a cable car, you've got to come to san francisco. that what makes the city. without the cable cars, you lose part of that, you know, because people who come here and they love it and they love the history ask they can ride a cable car that has been running since 1888 or 1889. wow! that's something.

can't do that with other historical museums. rarely, have i run into anybody from outside who didn't come in and didn't feel better from knowing something about the city. it's a true experience you'll remember. i hope they walk away with a greater appreciation for the history, with the mechanics with people are fascinated by the winding machine and i hope the appreciation, which is a part of our mission and these young kids will appreciate cable cars and the ones who live here and other places, they can make sure there will always be cable cars in san francisco because once they are gone, they are gone. it's the heartbeat of san francisco that founded the cable and the slot and without the cable cars, yeah, we would lose something in san francisco. we would lose part of its heart and soul. it wouldn't be san francisco without cable cars. [bell ringing] okay, we're going to get

started. >> mm hmm. good morning, everyone. i'm scott weiner of the honor of representing san francisco and northern san mateo county and the california state senate. and today we are announcing new legislation senate bill 395 to give san francisco an additional tool specifically low cost liquor licenses to reinvigorate and revitalize downtown san francisco. first i want to start by congratiayrie omqn a very, very scefu weekend here in san francisco and i was exhausted looking at his social

media as he was doing between the all-star game and what i think for my recollection is the largest crowd for the chinese new year parade i've ever seen in san francisco is back and is getting stronger and stronger by the day. so thank you, mr. mayor, for your leadership. so we need to continue to build on the progress that we are making and we know that downtown financial district union square south of market yerba buena it is absolutely essential for san francisco's recovery for our economic vitality and for our city's future and not just for san francisco for the whole bay area. we know there have been huge challenges with remote work and all of the hangover coming out of the pandemic and as years of crime and public drug use that we're working so hard to try to address. and we know that we need to

reimagine downtown for the future and have more diversity so it's not just the office but more and more housing and retail and nightlife and food and drink other kinds of recreation entertainment and nightlife is a key part of that strategy. we know we see that when you give people a reason to be downtown, they go downtown. we've seen it with some of the street festivals. the first thursdays are bhangra beats or the chinatown night market. people will come. and so we need to keep building to give people more and more reasons to be downtown not just at night but to come into the office because there's more to do and there's more vibrancy. we've been working hard. i want to just really thank my colleague assemblymember matt haney who has also he has a select committee on downtowns

and he's done a tour of the state because there's a lot of commonality. so thank you assembly member for your leadership. we also were able to pass the entertainment zone legislation that has allowed on front street and other at the warriors arena and other parts of the city to allow outdoor drink and allowing the local bars and restaurants to sell onto the streets. and we want to continue to build on that success too that the state of california is being a good partner to san francisco and other cities in this recovery. we know that when people are trying to open up new bars or restaurants it is extremely expensive and one of the most significant costs is is obtaining a liquor license. it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and we know that and i won't get started on my critiques of california's restrictive liquor laws which hamstring cities in many ways and assemblymember hayne and i constantly work to

deconstruct that and give cities more flexibility without micro-management from the state . and that's what we're doing here today. so sb 395 will create 20 new low cost liquor licenses for a hospitality zone defined by the city. and it will just allow some of these businesses to get going in a much more affordable way. and so with that, i want to turn it over to our sponsor of this legislation, mayor lurie. >> and you guys. >> good morning, everybody. >> thank you. senator wiener. well, it's great to be back in union square again after we welcomed hundreds of thousands of people over the last few days. >> i appreciate the shout out

to me but it took everybody behind us all of our departments muni sfp, pd, fire sheriffs, all of our departments, parks and rec everybody came together to pull off an incredible weekend for so long. this area has been a a hub for tourism shopping and dining. and last weekend people came from across the bay area and the country and frankly the world to take part in the lunar new year parade and all star weekend. and i was here throughout the weekend and every time i visited the streets were packed and teeming with people. people were enjoying the shops, eating at restaurants and even playing basketball on a court right here to get our economy going again. all of downtown needs to be at full strength. and this weekend was a great way to get people here.

now today we are taking the next step with permanent solutions for this neighborhood by adding 20 new liquor licenses. this legislation will bring new restaurants and bars, new people and energy. downtown san francisco is known for our world class food and culture. and last week we were named the culinary capital of the united states. >> we should be making it easier not harder for businesses to set up here. right now state law limits our number of liquor licenses and they are expensive and hard to get to. this high barrier sends in and sends the wrong message to businesses that want to come here. well, the message from r administration is san francisco is open for business. that's the message we are sending with this bill.

and that's the message our administration is sending consistently. listen to what we did just last week. we launched permit s.f. which will streamline the city's permitting process and help new small businesses open faster. we signed the fentanyl state of emergency ordinance, announced plans and announced plans for a 24 seven police friendly stabilization center so people can get medical treatment and police officers on patrol right here can get back on the street faster. and the board of supervisors land use and transportation committee passed our bill with supervisor dorsey and supervisor souder to make it easier to turn empty offices into homes. that was just last week the week before that we launched the speedy hospitality zone task force task force with dedicated resources to increase the police presence not only around union square but also

around mosconi center and yerba buena center. this bill will allow us to do even more for that hospitality zone bringing more restaurants and bars to our shopping areas and union square and yerba buena gardens. and we will continue to take bold steps to revitalize downtown. this work is urgent. and that's the energy our administration is bringing every single day every day. i'm working with senator weiner, our partners in government and our friends downtown to bring people back to our city. if you're a business owner this is your moment to invest. if you've stayed away, come back and experience everything our city has to offer. and if you haven't heard san francisco is on the rise. so let's get on board and let's go san francisco. >> sorry.

thank you, mr. mayor. next i want to bring up one of our unsung heroes who's had the ms.. mr. rodriguez who the ceo of the union square alliance and who has it's been a rough few years for union square, but i'm optimistic about this neighborhood's future and i just want to thank marissa so much for your incredible work and perseverance. >> so mr. rodriguez. >> all right. union square, how are we feeling? i want to hear you. we just came off of an incredible weekend. that's what san francisco is about and that's what union square is about. the billboards are still up and what do they say? we don't play. >> we don't play san francisco. i'm so excited about this great opportunity that we are talking about today. why? because san francisco's lifeblood is right here where you are standing.

>> the hospitality zone is where we put our best foot forward. it's where we greet our guests, where we welcome visitors not only locally our san franciscans, our bay area residents, our northern californians but internationally all over the world and nationally. this is us. this is what we represent. we can't move. the convention center west of twin peaks we can't move union square in 12,000 hotel rooms anywhere else. it is here and we have to continue to invest. when people come to visit us for two days, three days a convention just coming into town because they've heard so many wonderful things about our world class city, we want to put our best foot forward and guess what? that is? that is our food and beverage. that is our nightlife. that is the essence that makes san francisco so unique. that is our people. that is our culture. that is our innovation. and if we can't put that front and center right here in 27, 30, 40 city blocks, we are

failing and we aren't failing anymore. a light switch went off. the energy is alive. this weekend showed us that our city is all about it. it was in credible and it's going to stay that way. i'm excited for what this means when union square and yerba buena thrive. our entire city does our neighborhoods thrive and we are modeling this opportunity after a successful opportunity in our neighborhoods. let's continue to do that great work. i want to think oh i see them. >> i know they're in it with us. our state partners looks like the irs is behind me. >> that's because we mean business. we are serious. look at these guys. they're showing up. our mayor daniel, he doesn't play. we don't play. this is real. >> this is serious. this is our city's ability to continue to thrive on the line and we're going to continue to do the work. we're going to continue to make this happen. we love san francisco. we're so happy to be here and

thank you so much for all you do to support us. >> and next when i ask up my legislative partner in this effort. assembly member matt haney. >> good morning everyone. don't worry i'm not the tax collector. you know we're world class cities have world class nightlife. and in order for our city to thrive, we need world class nightlife. if you look around what's happening all over the world as cities have come back from the pandemic, they've done it with thriving restaurants, bars and people places for people to come out and enjoy themselves with each other, period. and what we're seeing in california in particular is the cities that have really invested and supported their nightlife have been the fastest to recover across the state. >> why is that? it's because people now in many cases have a choice of where they go and how they spend their time. we can't just rely on people coming in to our city during

the day for jobs at their desk . now many of those folks have a choice of whether they come in at all or whether they work remote people who have choices of places to visit, how they spend their time and when they have places to go out in the evening that are enjoyable where they can build community ,where they can experience arts and culture that's where they want to be not just at nighttime, not just in the evening but they also want to be there during the day. and what we're seeing in our downtowns including in this downtown is we're not just in eight hour downtown anymore. cities that are thriving are 24 hours. they're looking at what's happening during the weekends or looking in the evening and nighttime. and so i want to thank senator weiner for his leadership in understanding that and taking us there with entertainment zones and all of the partners who've come together to ensure that we are making it easier

for nightlife can thrive to thrive not harder. our mayor said it our city's coming back. we showed it this weekend. we have to be able to embrace the role that nightlife plays because when nightlife is thriving our businesses do better. more people come and visit. our entire city benefits from it as well. thank you, senator weiner, for your leadership and all of the partners who are here. we are going to get this done and make it easier to make things happen in san francisco. thank you, senator weiner, for your leadership. i'm next. in addition, it's not just about union square. it also goes south of mark. and i want to next call up jill jo lynnwood, director of external affairs at the yerba buena partnership. >> you know, thank you. thank you, senator weiner. mayor lurie assembly member me and marissa. so fun to work with.

>> our organization comes from the other side of market street from yorba buena which is the city's arts cultural and convention district. as you may know, we have 11 hotels. >> and this weekend at nba all-star we were so delighted that we understand nearly every one of those 11 hotels was at capacity. all of our restaurants and bars were sold out. the dawn club, the lark bar, the restaurants within the w hotel, the marriott, the palace everything was booked solid. and our museums and our galleries were absolutely full . >> the diversity certification that this that this piece of legislation is putting forward to give businesses an opportunity to open that might not otherwise well help us give

give businesses another reason to choose to have conventions at moscone center and to choose to visit our museums and galleries and visit our restaurants and bars. our ambassadors work seven days a week all year round to ensure that our neighborhood and union square alliance that the ambassadors in this neighborhood ensure that our downtown is clean and safe and welcoming. so as yerba buena and all of downtown's strong arts, cultural and entertainment community communities are driving our comeback, we are so supportive of this legislation as another signal that san francisco wants your businesses here and is where your business will thrive. >> and then our final two speakers i want to welcome up the supervisor for this district supervisor danny sauder who will be followed by

ben lyman, a member of the san francisco entertainment commission. >> thank you, senator wiener. good morning, everyone. i'm danny sartor, the district three supervisor having the honor to represent union square in our incredible northeastern neighborhoods. and i'm really proud to support this effort. i see it as the next step in the puzzle, the next piece of the puzzle to bring union square back. and on my way over here today saw many of those pieces in action. you know, we have our ambassadors who are working to keep this neighborhood friendly and safe. we have our sfp ready here with a concentration in the new hospitality zone. we have i was told about the toddler time here in the corner the 200 days of programing that are now in union square bringing people back into this square and giving people more reasons to come here. and i think that is certainly the theme that we've seen in this past weekend. we saw it in winter walk. we saw it on display.

when people have a reason to come to union square they love it, they enjoy it. they will come here and that's what this legislation unlocks. you know, we i was researching the legislation and i think it's interesting that it's tied to residents. of course we want to work to bring more residents downtown living downtown we've taken action at the board of supervisors to make that possible. but in the meantime we know that this neighborhood is changing. the office use is changing, the retail use is changing and there's nothing more san francisco than more restaurants, more bars, more nightlife. you know, imagine what this legislation can unlock. you can take the cable car down to union square and maybe enjoy a mai tai or an irish coffee or hopefully soon soon again in anchor steam. so those are, you know, the pieces as the cable car goes behind us. those are the the the opportunities and the promise that this legislation unlocks. so it's for me it's a no brainer i think for san francisco it's a no brainer for us to support this legislation and for this

neighborhood to thrive with this legislation. >> thank you. >> the closer everyone. i'm a big fan of this legislation and you can tell because i wore my most formal puff and sweatshirt today. >> i'm a bar owner and i also have organized many of the bar owners in town into a group. we have about 538 of us and when we talk about downtown we talk about it being almost like the circulator tree system for the whole city. it brings a ton of economic activity tax dollars that get spread out around the city and also a vibe it brings energy, it brings people it brings all sorts of intangible things that then go out into the greater city and fill us up. if downtown is the circulatory system, union square is the heart. so without union square as union square goes, the entire system kind of depends on it and that's why it's so important to put resources and effort and thought into into this. >> i believe a few things. so one thing is that our downtown is going through a

reckoning and we have to bring it back and in order to do so we have to re-envision it. it cannot just be a place where people go to work. i also believe that nightlife entertainment, performance art they're not going to be a crucial part of the of the re-envisioning of downtown. they'll actually be the main driving force for it because without them people simply aren't going to want to visit downtown. and we're talking about people who maybe are deciding whether or not to work from home on a friday. right. talking about visitors from overseas or other cities who would come to union square and shop and enjoy themselves are going to town and we're especially talking about people from there. even san francisco in the greater bay area who maybe never envisioned downtown as a place that they can go for nightlife. we're going through that reckoning now. a lot of our downtowns went through it in america over the last 2030 years. now it's our turn. entertainment is going to push that. i'm really excited about this legislation. it sends a message that union square and soma are back open and specifically for me a lot of our best nightlife and a lot of our best restaurants and

hospitality and clubs they actually don't start downtown or soma. they start in the outer neighborhoods. they start all over the city. but a lot of those operators have felt kind of priced out from downtown just it's really hard for them to get a foothold here and i expect that many people who are kind of thriving in other areas of the city will take a look at this and say now is my chance to move down here. and as far as i'm concerned that's exactly what we need. so i want to thank senator wiener. i want to thank mayor lurie for putting this together and the whole team i know there was a ton of effort put into it. i think it's a step in the right direction and let's go. >> thank you. thank you. that's that wraps it for us. >> we're happy to take some questions. i don't hurt any barrier. reporter i wanted to ask the mayor. yeah, we're going to work with raphael management board president on that. it's in the early stages but i'm very supportive and look

forward to working with him on it. what kind of about what that'll be up to the city will structure how it works yeah well they will go from there that's what they do. a lot of people work for jobs are good work. i want the boundaries be drawn. the city will draw the boundaries and i don't want to speak for mayor. i know there's been talk about, you know, union square. >> yeah. you ever going? i don't know if you want i mean we just looking at the hospitality zone so union square yerba buena center mosconi center really looking at it as a cohesive group. so that's that's the game plan but we'll work with our legislative partners on the board of supervisors as well.

any other questions? okay. yeah, i love this. is there. so you know, i don't know if is really whether it's like marketing later in time your quote. yeah i mean we're we're actually working now to make sure that our public transit systems are still functioning and not collapsing. so muni bar and you know always any opportunity to say this that the public needs to understand if we have inertia and nothing happens muni bar, ac transit caltrain will all have to enact huge service cuts and we we have to stop prevent that from happening and we will and that's why we're working in the state budget to try to support these systems and also to try to authorize a regional

funding measure. other states fund public transportation at a much higher level than california does and so we need to play some catch up. and so we need to shore up these systems and yes, i would love for them to go later. but job one is making sure that we assure them up and other questions. great. thank you so much everyone. >> thank you for thinking

- >> we are doing is filipino and mexican cuzeen. the main component the filipino style meat originated. we grew up on that. the most popular items are burritos. we have really something for everybody. we have a salad, we have tacos, we are natcho s and-trying to create something quick and casual, something you can get anything any time. for me i love food and didn't want to be a chef. i was in the business side of it and bring something special to san

francisco so why i reached out to my business partner gil and he wanted to partner for food and we share a passion for food that comes from our parents cht it was a honor for us to be able to do this for ourselves and also for our parents and you know, our families. for us to have a business as thriving here in san francisco, such a honor and makes me feel proud of myself and of my city as well. just to be able to add to this city that is so special. we are just a speck of the specialness, but you know, to have any part that is just a honor. pen. >> well to edge own little square we are a new culture

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