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 specifically sought out this building because its the most affordable for me to be able to afford home rent, office rent, Everything Else that includes to be selfemployed, Health Insurance and all this stuff. I had no idea as this p. D. R. Zoning for us to happen. One the reasons i sought out active space, i am disabled. I have an arthritis disease. Im not able to work like other therapists. I can only see sometimes 10 to 15 clients a week. That means i have to keep my cost low. I have to see maybe two or two clients a day. I cant see three. Puts me physical pain. Which limits my income which limits my expenses. Lot of people i see work in the area, work downtown or live elsewhere and they take bart in or freeway in. Its a good match for all of us. It keeps me having affordable crises for my clients. Now i really hope that were able to stay in active space if we dont, if im not able to, ive listen looking at other Office Spaces to at least double if not triple. I would have to close my doors and probably move out of San Francisco. Please consider keeping us active space. Thank you. Thank you guys so much for listening to all of us. I want to add mid voice to the chorus of my fellow neighbors. I echo everything that has been said. Particularly about the affordability of active space and being able to share this building with so many of my fellow neighbors who are amazing practitioners. Its like our tiny independent Business Incubator of sort. Thats really valuable and really important. The building in addition to its affordable rent is mostly clean. It is secure as was mentioned earlier. Really important for us, it is also accessible. There are elevators, pathways are wide. Its easier to access for people who have impaired mobility. Theres also very low barrier to entry. I have only been a Business Owner now for exactly one year with my partners. We opened in active space last summer. Being able to have this more affordable space has allowed us to experiment and test out our Business Model and see if this is something that can really be sustainable in this city. I dont know theres another place where that can happen without having to commit to a 5year lease somewhere with extraordinary rent. I do hope that you will consider helping us to keep testing out our ideas and pursuing our dreams here in the city. Thank you so much. Im helen hick han. Hickman. I been in practice at active space for 10 years. When the office became available, i moved in myself. When you found siff space in San Francisco, i was thrilled to go into practice by myself. I have been a structure body worker. Im a massage therapist. My thing is to get people out of chronic pain. I started practicing 27 years ago. To be able to be a woman owner of my own practice in San Francisco is quite a wonderful thing. I also want to say, one of my favorite things theres things i like being stiff space. A third of my practice is bay area based. They come over through bart transportation often. Its like everyone said before, its safe. Its really conveniently located. What i love about active space, i feel like this broken apart, we have such a Great Community there. Over ten years ive been able to meet so many different therapists. Were even tighter now as a community. For a practitioner, we cant cure everyone. Our technique may not great for everyone. Its such a wonderful place to consult with other practitioners and also to one stop shop for our clients. Able it see other people when were there. Theres also other communities, other businesses that can be affected all our practitioners leaving. I want to thank you for your time. I hope you consider having us stay. Thank you very much. Im evan kaminski. I lived in San Francisco now for 25 years. Ive been a San Francisco Business Owner for 19. Ive been active space for 11. Im disabled. Im gay. Different issue issues that keee from being to able to work full time. Being active space has allowed me to do so. I live in a below market rate apartment. Im barely getting by as it is. Im able to cover my expenses with the rent that i have at active space. When i moved in there 11 years ago, i was told to me that it was multiuse. I was never once informed of any changes of the zoning. I feel that lands on the owners management. Its very difficult for someone like me to have to pay the fees that were being asked to pay just to legitimatize. But at the same time, if i lose this space, i lose my primary income and i probably would have to lose my apartment in San Francisco. Its important to me that i could serve my clients. I serve clients from every gender, every body type. I provide personal waxing and grooming service. Thank you for your time. Please help us stay where were at. Good evening. Thank you for hearing me. Im jean palmer. Im a hair dresser at active face. Ive been doing hair for 30 years. Including my time in navy and gulf war. I started my business in 2011, it was the first chance i had to create my vision what a hair studio can be. Im grateful for that and majority of my clients, who Broad Spectrum of the entire city, elderly people, students and members of the Service Community providing Service Providing community. Most of whom are on fixed incomes. It is because of being in active space that im able to keep my rates low. If im forced out, many others rely on us for Quality Services at reasonable costs. Please help us stay where we are. Thank you. President adams thank you. Next speaker please. Good evening. Commissioners. Im elizabeth sher. Im a free land medical writer. I been in active space since 2008. I write grant proposals for the San Francisco general and helping them raise money to support their Research Like cancer and heart disease. Im a woman haowned minority business. I appreciate supervisor ronen efforts. There are hand full of tenants who are nonprofits or work with nonprofits who will likely be evicted under the current legislation. I like to urge you to please amend the proposed legislation to allow nontechnology Company Tenants to participate in the legitimatization process without have been a discretionary ive been told by the office of Small Business this process will cost 14,000. Theres no guarantee that i would be able to stay. As you know, the Planning Commission recommended that office use tenants like me, even if we were able to navigate that long process, would only have three years to stay resident and 10 propose the for the other personal Service Space businesses. As everyone else mentioned here, theres really nothing comparable. San francisco at this price point. I understand the importance of preserving affordable face for artist. Its critically important to support sole proprietors and variety of people who are contributing to a diverse, vibrant economy and i ask for your consideration. Thank you very much. My name is sonia. Im a bilingual Mental Health clinician. I have been active space since 2015. It has been a Beautiful Community. Like many of my peers, we really want to stay there. It is very affordable and were serving communities that would have a very difficult time Getting Services if we were somewhere else paying the rent. In my work, i particularly work with more than 50 of the people that i see are monolingual families. Their primary language is spanish. They have difficult time getting access to services. I would imagine not being able to provide the services there would make it harder for them to see a therapist. We know it is very difficult to get anything here. Rent anything here in San Francisco for affordable price. Being there it really helps us to provide services that are reasonable price. I ask for your support so we can continue to be there for this community and so that we can continue to do what we love. Thank you. Good evening i have auto immune disorder. If i had to move from this location, i have to close my doors indefinitely i would not be able to afford another space in city of San Francisco. I have looked times for salon pacspaces. They are double oar tt i pay because of gentrification. This doesnt just affect the business itself, it affects my health and livelihood. This is also how i sustain myself. Many of my cohorts are in the same situation a im in. I thank you for considering and i hope that you will vote in our favor. Its critical to our businesses but also its critical so some of us for our health and well being. Thank you so much. My name is brittany. I have had active spaciness spae 2010. Im a salon owner. It allowed me to stay in San Francisco. Im bay area native. Without active space i wouldnt be able to do what im doing. Theres been so many great points here today made by everybody. Im not going to go on. I wanted to tell you that thanks for hearing us and i hope you consider and vote in favor. Thank you. President adams any other members of the public . Public comment is closed. I want to thank everybody for coming out and speaking tonight. I know youre all independent and people do massage appointments and hair appointments in the evening. I really appreciate everybody coming out and speaking tonight for Public Comment. Do we have any commissioner comments . Vice president dwight well as a p. D. R. Business owner myself and founder of s. F. Made. Its dedicated to preserving p. D. R. Businesses in San Francisco. I think that probably zoning restrictions on this building has outlive their usefulness. It doesnt seem to me in p. D. R. Even a practical use for the building. Regardless of the subdivision that happened within the building. Even if it were reformatted for p. D. R. I doubt wed be able to attract the kind of p. D. R. Businesses that would occupy such a space. Zoning needs to be reevaluated. That being said, its not okay to just break the law. Landlord here has led you all into a trap. I support legitimatization process to allow you to stay in these spaces allow building undergoes an evaluation as to what appropriate zoning would be. The landlord probably need to bear some of the financial burden of this process. Im i not here to adjudicate th. That would be my recommendation. I think that all of us here are here to support and preserve Small Businesses and you guys have all doing the hard work of running your own business. We all appreciate that here because were doing the same thing. I support the legitimatization process and hope it includes some of the offices related kind of endeavors commissioner dooley im familiar with active space. As small independent person. I totally support. The city is driving away some of the best people. We just have to take a stand here and say, you people are needed. Youre necessary. Giving services it that are very important. Commissioner riley i agree with my fellow commissioner. This building needs to be rezoning. I have a question for planning. After weve gone through this process. If they are allowed to stay, how long would that be . Would it be to the extent of the lease . The ordinance allows them to stay for 10 years from the Effective Date of the ordinance. It should be about two months from now. The tricky thing with land uses, it isnt the tenant its the atlanta use. Land use. The other people can move in within this 10year period. Does it revert back . It goes back to earth zoning. The Planning Commission suggested doing s. D. For the property. Rezoning would be difficult. Its seed p. D. R. 1g. Youll be putting different zoning in there. Vice president dwight it begs to look at other buildings to see if they are in compliant. This happened organically in this building. I would argue that happened deliberately. The landlord knew what he was doing when he did this. This building was constructed prior to the p. D. R. Zoning being implemented. The Planning Commission put a restriction on the building that said it could only be for light and industrial or art activity uses. That restriction wasnt honor by the landlord. Commissioner dooley do we have to wait ten years. Can it be considered to do it ahead of time . If theres a need for it . There are 15 vacancies. Theres not a high need for that kind of use. Maybe we should look at the supervisors, take a look at the zoning. That will up to the supervisors. Not up to planning. Vice president dwight what is going to happen with this landlord . Are there fines . There maybe enforcement fines. Im not sure when they start incurring. When trying to come to compliance, they trying to come in compliance. We hold off on enforcement. There maybe time and materials charges for them. Commissioner zouzounis a recommendation that is bigger picture, this is looking at the definition of office use if that is something we can add to our recommendation in addition to whats been said. I would like that. Lot of different types of businesses in San Francisco. Thats a pretty broad catchall. Thank you all for coming. You are the face of San Francisco, Small Business and although, these circumstances are less than ideal, im glad that youre in the fold of now advocating for Small Business in San Francisco. Knowing were a Reference Point to help that. President adams ive been to 3115, 18th street. My massage therapist used to be there. Its a great building to go to if you get lot of massages, its a great place to get a massage. Im saying like it is. I agree with what my fellow commissioner have said here. The landlord does need to be held accountable. Its unfair to all of you. You guys all work hard and you pay taxes and you are the heart and soul of the city. Its people like you, the hair dressers, massage therapists, the Mental Health therapist. Those are very important items that we desperately need in the city and affordable spaces for them. I totally support this legislation. Do we have a motion . I like to try out a motion to support this legislation with some recommendations. The recommendations being to broaden the legitimatization to include those businesses which are presently excluded from it. To provide a pathway which has minimal cost to the tenants to complete their legitimatization and those expenses, if there are expenses, those be covered but the landlord and not by the tenant. And that serious consideration become given to rezoning this building. Understanding that spot zoning is a difficult issue but also to look at a broader rezoning of this area and just to look at whether this area has outlived its zoning as it currently on the books. That would be my recommendation. Second. President adams read that back. Commissioners, do i need a motion to support the legislation as it is written with recommendations to broaden of the current businesses who are included to broaden whos included in the legislation to include all businesses that are excluded to minimize the cost burden for the businesses and attempt to have that cost be born by the owner to rezone to have the city look at rezoning this building and also to evaluate the zoning of the entire area as well. Correct. Roll call vote. [roll call] motion passes 50 with two absent. President adams thank you very much for coming. [applause] now back to work. President adams next item please. Item 6 [agenda item read] president adams i dont have anything to report at this time. I have one announcement. It came to my attention as an employer in the city, Small Business employer in the minimum wage is increasing once again on judgment july 1st from 15 an hour to 15. 59. This odd numbezathathathathatzao there has been no proactive outreach from the city to alert small buzz Business Owners that minimum wage is increasing. Clearly its on the books. We need to be aware of the law. We also get reminders to pay our taxes. We should be adult to know about that too. It does help when the city proactively informs us of dates and actions that affect our businesses even if theyre already in the legislative code and were not experts on that code and were busy running businesses and arent aware of changes. July 1st is the adjustment wage in the city and county of San Francisco. President adams any other commissioner comments . Commissioner dooley i wanted to mention that this weekend will be the north beach festival. The oldest festival in the united states. This year as we have been doing, were moving away from the generic festival and this year were introducing entire block of makers booths where you can meet the artist and see them doing their work. We hope to in years to come, follow more in that direction and weigh from the general life. Just getting drunk. Please come out and meet the makers and support our moving forward towards supporting Small Business. President adams any other comments . Seeing none. Do we have any Public Comment on commissioner reports . Seeing none. Public comment is closed. Next item please item 7. [agenda item read] president adams do we have any new business . Public comment is closed. Next item. Sfgov tv show office of Small Business slide. Donal president adams okay. It is our custom to begin and end that the reminder that office of Small Business is only place to start your new business in San Francisco and best place to get your answers to questions about doing business in San Francisco. The office of Small Business should be your first stop. Where you have question about what to do nexting you can find us online or in person here at city hall and best of all, our services are free. Small Business Commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about the policies that affect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses in San Francisco. If you need assistance with Small Business matters, start here at the office of Small Business. Item 8 adjournment. Move to adjourn. President adams all in favor. Aye. Meeting adjourned 6 32 p. M. Shop and dine the 49 promotes loophole businesses and changes residents to do thirds shopping and diane within the 49 square miles of San Francisco by supporting local services we help San Francisco remain unique and successful where will you shop and dine shop and dine the 49. My name is neil the general manager for the book shop here on west portal avenue if San Francisco this is a neighborhood bookstore and it is a wonderful neighborhood but it is an interesting community because the residents the neighborhood muni loves the neighborhood it is community and we as a book sincerely we see the same people here the shop all the time and you know to a certain degree this is part of their this is created the neighborhood a place where people come and subcontract it is in recent years we see a drop off of a lot of bookstores both National Chains and neighborhoods by the Neighborhood Stores where coming you dont want to one of the great things of San Francisco it is neighborhood neighborhood have dentist corrosive are coffeehouses but 2, 3, 4 coffeehouses in month neighborhoods that are on their i pledge allegiance to the flagt ates of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all
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