Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240714

I went through a lot of struggles in my life, and i am blessed to be part of this. I am familiar with what people are going through to relate and empathy and compassion to their struggle so they can see i came out of the struggle, it gives them hope to come up and do something positive. I am a community ambassador. We work a lot with homeless, visitors, a lot of people in the area. What i like doing is posting up at hotspots to let people see visibility. They ask you questions, ask you directions, they might have a question about what services are available. Checking in, you guys. Wellness check. We walk by to see any individual, you know may be sitting on the sidewalk, we make sure they are okay, alive. You never know. Somebody might walk by and they are laying there for hours. You never know if they are alive. We let them know we are in the area and we are here to promote safety, and if they have somebody that is, you know, hanging around that they dont want to call the police on, they dont have to call the police. They can call us. We can direct them to the services they might need. We do the three one one to keep the city neighborhoods clean. There are people dumping, waste on the ground and needles on the ground. It is unsafe for children and adults to commute through the streets. When we see them we take a picture dispatch to 311. They give us a tracking number and they come later on to pick it up. We take pride. When we come back later in the day and we see the loose trash or debris is picked up it makes you feel good about what you are doing. It makes you feel did about escorting kids and having them feel safe walking to the play area and back. The stuff we do as ambassadors makes us feel proud to help keep the city clean, helping the residents. You can see the community ambassadors. I used to be on the streets. I didnt think i could become a community ambassador. It was too far out there for me to grab, you know. Doing this job makes me feel good. Because i came from where a lot of them are, homeless and on the street, i feel like i can give them hope because i was once there. I am not afraid to tell them i used to be here. I used to be like this, you know. I have compassion for people that are on the streets like the homeless and people that are caught up with their addiction because now, i feel like i can give them hope. It reminds you every day of where i used to be and where i am at now. When i look at an old neon sign thats 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 cant think of another program in another city that gives matching gunned funds to store owners, mom and pop owners, and if theyve got a neon sign, theyve 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, weve 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 momandpop 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 weve been here, weve 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 weve 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, were going to pick these five, and theyre putting together clusters, so they build on top of whats 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, youve created an atmosphere thats almost like a movie set. Some of the hotel, weve 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 weve done in chinatown, as well as the citys 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 youd 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 ririt Rita Hayworth with neon signs in the background. I think what the office of economic and Workforce Development is very excited with is that well 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 youre 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. Its a great way of supporting and helping local businesses. Theres so many ways to improve public safety. The standard way is having more eyes on the street, but theres 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, its like remembering how things were. Its 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 shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses, and challenges residents to do their shopping within the 49 square miles of San Francisco. By supporting local services in our neighborhood, we help San Francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. So where will you shop and dine in the 49 . I am the owner of this restaurant. We have been here in north beach over 100 years. [speaking foreign language] [ ] [speaking foreign language] [ ] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [ ] [ ] my name is sofy constantineo and a documentary film maker and cinema togfer, producer and director. It is inevable you want your movie to get out and realize yoi need to be a commune tee organizer to get people together to see the story you will tell [inaudible] pretty rich and interesting. In what we do as film makers is try to tell the best story possible so i think that is where i [inaudible] learn everything. Lighting and cinematography. I got jobs of stage manger at some place and projectionist. I kind of mixed and matched as i went and kept refining i feel like it isnt just about making things that are beautiful and appealing and rich and [inaudible] the way that the films [inaudible] it has to tell a story. My name is sumell [inaudible] free lance multimedia produce. My project is [inaudible] mostly oof street photographry with a few portraits. Im going arounds San Francisco and capturing the [inaudible] as we started to do this project i was reading about the decline of African American population in San Francisco and i wondered where the remaining population was and what they were doing and how life was for them. I wasnt very inspired by school, i wasnt very inspired by continuing to read and write and go to class. I watched a lot of movies and saw a lot of [inaudible] i said that is what i want to do. I had this very feminist [inaudible] and i felt like there was not enough of a womans vision on the stuff that we see, the movies that we make and the beginning of the [inaudible] the way we look at women and the roles women take in the stories being tolds. They felt [inaudible] they did want feel complex. I was like, i have a different frame i like to see the world shaped by. My grandsmother was a teacher and taught special education for 40 years in los angeles and when i was growing up she inspired me to record everything. We recorded our conversations, we recorded the [inaudible] we recorded everything to cassette players. Learning multimedia skills, from the other crossover Employment Opportunities for young people. Someone who grew up in la rks San Francisco feels like a small town. I lived in Western Addition and i was looking for someone to cut my hair, i found [inaudible] he seemed like a very interesting guy and grew up in the neighborhood and had a lot to say about something that was foreign to me. That local perspective and so important to me because i think as someone who isnt from here, knowing that history allows me to be more engaging in the community i live in and want the same for others. I want people to move into a new neighborhood to know who was there before and businesses and what cultural and [inaudible] shape what we see today. My Guiding Principles have been, if you stick to something long enough and know what it is and go for it you will get there. [inaudible] where i want to go, what i want to do and it is totally possible so, the impossible is you know, is not something to this is regular meeting of the Small Business Commission Held on monday june 10, 2019. Call to order at 5 32 p. M. Small Business Commission and sfgov tv for televising the media can be views on sfgov tv 2. Members of the public please take this opportunity to silence your phone and other electronic devices. Public comment during the meeting is limited to three minutes per speaker. Speakers are requested to state their names. Please place speaker cards in the basket. Speaker cards will be called in order. Theres a signin sheet on the front table. Welcome. Each Small Business meeting with the reminder that the office of saw business is the only place to start your new business in San Francisco and the best place to get answers to your questions about doing business in San Francisco. The office of Small Business should be your first stop if you have questions what to do next. You can find us online or in person here at city hall for our service is free of small. Small Business Commission is here to address your concerns that affect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses here in San Francisco. If you need assistance with your Small Business here, start here at the office of Small Business. Item 1 call to order. Roll call. [roll call] mr. President , you have a quorum. President adams next item please. Item 2 [agenda item read]. President adams do we have any member of the public like to make comment on item that is not on todays agenda . Seeing none, Public Comment closed. Next item please. Item 3 [agenda item read] president adams thank you adam straus. This is kind of sad im doing this. Im fighted for you adam. On this monday june 10, 2019, the Small Business commission is honored to recognize adam straus owner producer of straus events for his ten years of service and project management of the official San Francisco Small Business week. Adam began working with Small Business Week Committee in 2009, which is my first year and managed it through 2019. Adam is to commended for his excellent skills and talents in producing and managing a week long occasion that has over 60 events and workshops. This was an accomplished about his amazing ability to coordinate and manage consisting of nearly 20 Small Business community organizations. Adam was instrumental in maintaining partnerships with sponsorships which resulted in San Francisco Small Business week being the largest and most comprehensive in the united states. For these reasons and many more that the Small Business commission is proud to recognize adam straus for his contributions to celebrating Small Business in San Francisco and San Francisco Small Business week. Without adam straus Small Business week would not be what it is today. Hes a d. J. And whole lot of other stuff. Adam, congratulations thank you very much for everything that you have done. You want to say a few words . Thank you guys. Its been a pleasure working with you guys over the last ten years. Its been a lot fun. Im going to miss getting to work on that. Im sure you guys will be able to pick up where i left off and continue to make it even better. Thank you very much for the recognition and for the opportunity to get to do that. President adams commissioner comments . Its been a pleasure working with you. Best of luck to you in your new place and new endeavors. It wont be the same without you. Well miss you. Good luck with your new endeavor. President adams can we get a picture with everybody . Lets go with the flag. [applause]. President adams with that, do we have members of the public who like to make Public Comment on adam straus . Seeing none. Public comment is closed. Congratulations adam and thank you again for everything youve done for the city. [applause] next item please. Item 4. [agenda item read] president adams is carolina morales here . I didnt see her. Shes in route. President adams do you want to go to number 5. Commissioners while were waiting for carolina, lets go to item number 5 approval of draft meeting minutes. Move to approve. President adams procedure as i announce it and do we have a second to go to number 5 before number 4 . Do we have a second . Second. President adams all in favor . Go ahead with item 5. [agenda item read] theres minor correction to the minutes. I did not include that commissioner irene riley was in attendance. You move to approve the amendment with the corrections . President adams any members of the public like to make comments . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. I move to approve the minutes with the minor correction. Second. Voice vote. President adams all in favor . Aye. Motion passes. Did carolina come in . There she is. Lets go back to item 4. Thank you for waiting. Good evening commissioners. Thank you so much for having me here. Im carolina morales. Legislative director for supervisor hillary eronen. Im here to talk about the active space building on 18th street. This legislation was introduced back in february when we found out that close to 100 businesses were going to be displaced at the same time in the mission neighborhood. Specifically at 3150, 18th street. And they would suffer fines due to violations and regulations. This businesses are very small. Their owner operated enterprises and most of them are hosting personal services. We believe that close to 100 businesses on the same block, one will be economic crisis for the mission. They are facing displacement of hundreds of Small Businesses and thousands of working class residents due to gentrification. The ordinance supervisor offered will be displaced for businesses in ten years and provide amnesty under the planning code. It will allow the businesses currently operating at active phase to be considered legal conforming use and remain in the building for a permit application with 30 days. Were trying to protect art and manufacturing spaces in the district specifically the neighborhood. We must protect these hard to find spaces. We believe the solution that we have introduced that is before you today strikes a right balance between protecting Small Businesses in the shortterm while ensuring art and manufacturing space remains for the longterm. I know the commission, the Planning Commission had some ideas around amendments specifically around office space. We know this item after its heard at your commission will go to the Land Use Committee and will have to discuss basically what the supervisors what version of the legislation that the supervisors will support. We have difficult situation in terms of the intention of having office space not stay there for a longer time which was the suggestion of the Planning Commission. Then centering a lot of art businesses calling us about this amnesty and feeling like its unfair that were getting special treatment to the businesses that are there. I wanted to present a different position that have been discussed and i look forward to hearing your recommendations and your vision voices for the Small Businesses that were trying to support. Thank you. President adams thank you. Commissioner questions . You want to hear Public Comment . Well open this up for Public Comment first. Aaron starr is also here. President adams right. Wile wait for him. I know we have lot of members of the public here and theyre all Small Business owners. Theyre going to be affected. Were the Small Business commission. Wenwe want to hear what they hae to say on this. You have the cards . Ill call you up, if you want to line up on the right side of the wall, that might be easier just for crowd management. [reading Public Comment names] president adams were going to make Public Comment two minutes for tonight. Good afternoon. Im david lloyd. I may differ from the speakers in that im an office space tenant. The decision to move my business to San Francisco in 2017 was made because active space was an affordable art friendly space. Im performing arts and music booking agent. Ive been working in the performing arts field for 35 years my clients includes grammy winners and honorees. Its my belief that i qualify as p. D. R. For the city use. Ive been led to believe that i should be expecting to be evicted as an office use, which is im here today with my colleagues. My office space is is on the fourth floor. Its approximately 10 feet by 1. It has one window and small sink and only cold water. Most units do not have hot water. The temperature in the room is hot. The space has no airconditioning, or exhaust system other than the window. It is a no frills office. It is not a production space. Currently there are roughly 8 to 10 spaces that are open on my floor. It appears theres a similar number of units empty on other floors. I applaud the instinct to protect the p. D. R. Space. I question the wisdom replacing the existing Small Businesses that they will be filled by p. D. R. Uses. I encourage your commission to see the layout of the structure of this facility and examine the practicality of renting the upper there ar floor for p. D. R. Thank you. President adams thank you. Next speaker please. Team member of the Small Business commission. Thank you for holding this hearing today regarding legislation. Im wendell. Since 2012, ive been offered Massage Services to people of San Francisco bay area. Some of the reasons important for me to stay there, i ask for your approval the proposal decision today are security, privacy, accessibility and autonomy. Here we are 11 years later. Its entrepreneurs of all sorts have been able to establish their craft in this space. It seems the demand for services such as mine other than p. D. R. 1g has facilitied necessary of necessity of our practiceses. The city of San Francisco attracted, uber, lyft with financial incentives in ordered to drive its economy. Which it has. However, the people who work at these companies are human beings too. Many of them have found themselves on my massage table. Its more essential that my practice be allowed to stay in active space building to meet the needs of San Franciscos people and keep this economic power house of ours thriving. I ask for your support of this legislation. Thank you for considering my reasons to continuing offer my practice in active space. Hi. Im a practitioner of skin care i have a wholistic clinic. I help people clear their skin naturally with nutrition. I moved in the active space building in 2012. I consider myself to be a very responsible business owners. I went through 30 hours of core business classes. I took the half day course about the tax. Im willing to do what is needed to be right. This never came across to me as anything weird. All of us here cant afford to work with a realtor. Realtors dont work with us. We dont get the kind of information about zoning, p. D. R. , these steps we need take with the city. Im not blaming them, im telling you what my experience was when i walked in there, they have a Bulletin Board of postcarded, all victimming advocating businesses like mine in the building. Ive been there since 2012. Ive been looking for new space since 2015. I currently pay 1000 for 125 square feet. Im willing to pay up to 1700 or 1800 a month to go somewhere else. I cannot find it in the city. Im having problems finding spaces. Carolina morales said theres hundred businesses displaced. I counted on the legislative paper its 190 actually. Theres lot of vacant spaces available. I think longterm zoning needs to be looked at. Donald trump than president adams thank you. Next speaker. My name is austin. Im a massage therapist. My partner and i live here in San Francisco. We live in a small apartment. I own a Small Business. I work in a small space. 10 by 10. Very small room. Its super affordable for me. When the Health Notice got slapped on the door, i was terrified. I didnt know how i would support my family. I need active space. Anywhere else i go im looking at double where i pay now. The p. D. R. Zoning at active space production distribution and repair in 2004 when that space was built, they expected artist to come in. These tiny little spaces. Now we have a city with not whole lot of artists to use these tiny spaces. We have human art folks who are repair heart and soul body of people who live in this space. Its inevitable. Youre going to go through there because there are tons of Small Businesses in the active space. Everybody goes through there. I ask that you support this legislation. I want to say thank you to regina and to supervisor ronen and carolina. They stepped up and we went to our first meeting about this. They called this a crises. This is what it was. When i heard that word, i realized i think its going to be okay. You guys will hear us. President adams thank you. Next speaker please. I opened my salon ten years in active space. I found a commercial lease on craigslist. I applied for my business license establishment cosmetology. The state board checked me out twice. I had multiple employees over the years. Some have opened their own businesses. We built a really Beautiful Community active space. We are sad to see it go. I have an alternative type of salon there. Tailored to nonprofit works, teachers, mixed race and people transitioning through gender. We make this affordable for them. We keep the cost low. If i was at another space, i had to move now, i couldnt keep my cost low and couldnt retain those clients. Im not sure why were taking on the payments that were going to have to take on. Why active space isnt. Im not that great public speaking. I want to show up today and tell you guys that we need this space for us. I understand that we also need p. D. R. Thank you for hearing me. Thank you for having us. Im a little nervous. Bear with me. Im here representing liberation institute. Liberation institute is a grassroots Nonprofit Community Mental Health centre. Which offers Mental Health service. We currently have 10 units. We have 60 volunteer and we see over 500 clients a week and our wait list is full. Im born and raised in San Francisco. I think we all know that there are lot of people individuals in the city that are falling through the cracks. While people might be able to make a full income that doesnt mean they can afford the cost of living in San Francisco. This state of being can have really high toll on Mental Health. By being able to take on people that cannot pay full fee were able to offer really service to this community to our city. Im really proud to be a part of liberation institute. Im passionate about the work they do. I feel strongly this is a very needed service in the city. Affordable rent is necessary for our business model. At this point were still struggling to stay open. We have more and more people coming in for our services. We are hardly making the money we need now to stay open. We mostly rely on funding from generous donors. We need more generous donors. This started about ten years ago when our founder just rented active space and started pulling Homeless People off the streets and offering them therapy. Some of those original clients are still in recovery, they are still moving forward in their life and benefiting from the services that we provide. On behalf of the 500 people that serve weekly on were waiting on the wait list for our services, behalf of the people that are mustering the bravery to ask for the help you provide. We ask you to be generous. President adams next speaker. Im here today to represent my wife. She has a licensed marriage and family therapist and social psychologist. Shes been operating on active space for the last six years. She cannot be here today because shes treating clients. Her backtoback clients 12 hours a day. Monday through friday. She does this because theres a lack of Mental Health for underserved and working class people. The affordable cost of active space allowed her to offer sliding scale payment options. Her clientele ranges from people in the Upper Echelon in the Tech Industry wall the economic advantages that it provides. Shes not the only Mental Health therapist in active space doing their best to serve diverse population in San Francisco. Of the 22 Mental Health practitioners who participated in the survey, gained with liberation institute, we found therapist rent 31 units in active space and provide Mental Health to 1200 clients a week. Over 500 of those are lowfee clients from underserved propositions population. This is likely a low estimate. I like to conclude my statement with a few questions. Does the city of San Francisco value the contributions of their Mental Health practitioner president adams thank you. Next speaker please. Hello. Im karen walsh. Her wife is my neighbor. Active space. Im a marriage licensed family therapist. I started at active space in 2009 when i started my private practices internship. I got my own space in 2010. I couldnt afford to have a space and to offer therapy in the city anywhere else. 90 or more of the clients that i serve are children and families. I call my practice s. F. Bay play therapy. We offer play therapy to children in particular specializing in schoolaged kids 3 to 10. Play therapy is modality. Its the most healing for children at that age. Theres a posse of child 30s itherapists in the city. I have two interns that i supervise. In order to supervise an intern, you have to be in the same building. That allows my interns to actually get other spaces in the building and to provide services it other families more than i could in my open space. Even with myself and my two current employees, i have a wait list and get inquiries from families in particular families of children with sensory, learning and social differences like autism and adhd and sensory processing disorder. I have to constantly turn them away because theres no other people in the city that theres not enough affordable space for therapist to provide services to families. We tend to charge little bit lower rate. President adams two minutes is up. Thank you. Next speaker please. Hi. Im michelle malloy. Im a body worker. Ive been a body worker for 22 years in San Francisco. Selfemployed for 21. I moved into active space in 2013, taking over rent for someone for 470 a month for an office space thats 8 by 11. Thats how small my office is. I