Transcripts For SFGTV Small Business Commission 20200122

will help ensure proper spelling of the names in the written record. please place cards in the basket. there is a sign-in sheet on the front table. please show the small businesses slide. >> welcome. it is our custom to begin and end each small business commission meeting with a reminder that the office of small business is the only place to start your new business in san francisco. it's 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 when you have questions about what to do next. you can find us online or in person here at city hall. best of all, all our services are free of charge. the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about 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. and i would like to welcome our two new commissioners this evening. cynthia huie and manny yekutiel. item number one, please. >> item one, call to order and roll call. commissioner adams. >> commissioner dooley is absent. ortiz cartagena is running late. [roll call] you have a quorum. for the new commissioners just be sure you are speaking into the microphone. item two, general public comment. allows members of the public to comment generally on matters that are within the small business commission's jurisdiction but not on today's calendar and suggest new agenda items for the commission's future consideration. discussion item. >> do we have any members of the public who would like to make a comment on any item that is not on today's agenda? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> item 3, introduction of new commissioners. welcome and introduction of newly appointed small business commissioners. discussion item. >> i would like to welcome, again, cynthia huie and manny yekutiel. i will get it. [laughter] i'll get it. so welcome to the commission. this is your first commission meeting. if you want to just say a few words, you are more than welcome. the forum is yours. >> so my name is manny yekutiel. it's an honor to serve on this commission. and on this morning i woke up, and i thought there are thousands of other small business owners who just like me woke up before the sunrise to open up their gates and open up their places of business, and tens of thousands more who showed up at the same time to work at those small businesses. it's such an honor to be a part of that community. the community of small business owners. i do believe the soul of san francisco exists within the small businesses that line our streets. and all of our halls in san francisco. i come from a small business family. my mother's parents owned a corner store and grocery shop in brooklyn, and my father was a merchant in afghanistan. my dad opened up his own restaurant when he was around my age after saving that money washing dishes and pumping gas. so small business is in my blood. i'm extremely grateful to mayor breed for appointing me to this commission. i'm looking forward to serving with my other commissioners, to work hard, to fight for all the many small businesses that make san francisco the great city that it is and that we all live in and love. >> cynthia. [applause] >> my name isia huie, and i'm so honored to be a commissioner for the city and county of san francisco. my sister and i own a clothing store in the inner richmond, and we've had that shop for almost ten years now. i also have been working with my husband and his father in their oral surgery practice and running that practice for many more years than that. and i can't imagine a life better than one of being a business owner. and to have this gift to be able to really spend the time and build the community that i want to be around has been just something that i, coming on as a commissioner have really had some time to reflect on. and i think living out a dream is one of the most amazing feelings. and i would love for so many people to be able to do that. and hopefully as a new commissioner and alongside of all of you, we can hopefully make that dream come true for so many other people, because it is an amazing feeling to grow something and build a community around you that you really love. so thank you so much. thank you for all of you. and again also thank you mayor breed for trusting us and trusting me. so thank you so much. >> well, welcome. [applause] >> commissioner. >> so i'm just here alabamaing, in part because -- beaming because for the past nine months i've been the new guy and i'm no longer the new guy, and that is so exciting. [laughter] i've had the extreme pleasure of chatting with both of you before you swore in. and i want to welcome both of you. we are very excited to have you. you're both really just incredibly pejorative people that bring a lot of important experience -- incredibly intellectual people. all that energy and intelligence and wisdom is going to be brought to bear. and we are so lucky to have you. so thank you, thank you, thank you for choosing to volunteer your time. because we are all volunteers here, choosing to volunteer your time to try to help make the city better. >> i want to echo with commissioner laguana said, and i'm so happy the mayor has two excellent choices. we finally have a representation from richmond and clement street area. i can't be happier because that is one of my favorite street, and manny, i am so happy that you are here. you can help me change the castro. and the mission. but i'll talk to william about that. but what you have done is next to a miracle. and i have so much admiration for what you have done already. and with that said, public comment. on all items, we have to ask for public comment. so if anyone would like to add public comment for the new commissioners, we are open for public comment. seeing none, public comment is closed. any other commissioner comments? next item, please. >> item 4, approval of legacy business registry applications and resolutions. discussion and action item. the presenter is richard kurylo, legacy business program manager, office of small business. >> good afternoon, good evening, president adams, commissioners, office of small business staff. welcome commissioners. richard kurylo, legacy business program manager. sf gov tv, i have a powerpoint presentation. before you today are five applications for your consideration to the legacy business registry. the applications were reviewed by me for completion, submitted to staff on november 25 and heard on december 18. each application includes a staff report, draft resolution, the application, a case report from planning department staff and a resolution from the h.p.c. there are copies on the table and the public binder. item 4a is cortney's produce. the business is a grocery store established in 1971 by patrick and lola courtney in the triangle neighborhood. it stocks fresh organic and locally-sourced produce and dry goods and fresh flowers. they provide sandwiches, vlad, and juices all made fresh daily. they focus on providing the freshest items every day from fresh bread delivered daily to fresh ingredients sourced from produce markets. courtney's produce doesn't sell high-margin items such as alcohol but focuses on staples and healthy food. item 4b is eclectic cookery. the business is a timeshared commercial kitchen located in bayview hunter's point shipyard. established in 1984, it is san francisco's first and largest commissary kitchen. the model supports food industry entrepreneurs by providing them with an affordable permitted kitchen, storage space and support in navigating the steps to be a licensed food business. they have provided services to nearly 500 local food-based businesses, including support for mobile food vendors. item 4c is gamescape. the business is a game store established in 1985 by robert hamilton. robert envisioned the business as a place where the local community and gaming enthusiasts could enjoy the world of tabletop gaming. it is renowned for their selection of games it offers as well as providing an event space for tournaments and gaming. the store consists of several departments including board games, role-playing games, classic games, family games, miniature games, playing cards, mechanical puzzles and jigsaw puzzles. as the neighborhood's landscape changed so did the hobby gaming industry and with that gamescape evolved and continued to fill the demand for the need of a friendly local game store. item hd is lorna coal hire ornamental plaster. lorna kollmeyer started with plasters from peter merchant who trained her in the art of plastering. it is in the hunter's point shipyard and has expanded to various spaces over the years. kollmeyer partnered with omega salvage in berkeley and san francisco victorian to source new molds. in 2015 they closed and lorna kollmeyer acquired the collection of brackets, mouldings. today the business holds the only archive of san francisco's cast sculptural architectural details. item 4e is the potrero view. the business is san francisco's oldest continuously published community newspaper. it began in 1970 out of a private home. aspiring to emerge to a newspaper that could influence municipal policy decisions, they received guidance from their first editor who had journalism experience at long island's newsday and san francisco's progress. potrero hill resident ruth started contributing in 1971 and became the editor and publisher. steven moss took over in 2006, maintaining a commitment to strong journalism. all five businesses received a recommendation from the preservation commission. after reviewing the applications, staff finds the businesses met the three criteria for listing on the legacy business registry. there are five draft resolutions for consideration by the small business commission, one for each of the applicants. your support of the businesses should be as a motion in favor of the resolutions. in the resolutions, please pay close attention to the core features and traditions that define the business. once approved, the businesses must maintain these physical features or traditions in order to remain on the registry. for courtney's produce it's grocery, for cookery it's kitchen, commissary kitchen. for gamescape it's game store. for plaster it's traditional plasterwork and for the potrero view it's publication covering the potrero hill area. this concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions. there are business representatives in attendance who would like to speak on behalf of the applications. please be mindful we have one additional legacy business to be heard in item 5. so if we do a photograph that should be after item five, not item four. >> okay, great. any questions or do you want to go right into public comment? right into public comment. so we are going to begin with public comment. and i want to start with tom who is here from supervisor mandelman's office. welcome. >> thank you commissioners. and congratulations to our new commissioners. i'm here on behalf of supervisor mandelman to speak in favor of courtney's produce. rick shared some of the courtney's story with you but they have been providing fresh produce to the triangle neighborhood since 971 in the same location in the castro. they are the sort of business that we in the upper market can and should be supporting so they can be here for another 40, 50 year, and we would support you adding them to the legacy business registry. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi, there, commissioners. thank you and welcome to the new commissioners. hi. i'm jen snyder, a legislative aid for dean preston, and i wanted to extend his full support for the legacy business application for gamescape, a beloved and friendly local game store. for decades, it has provided san franciscans with a place to play your favorite fantasy tabletop and role-playing games. thank you for keeping this special brand of creativity alive in our city. we are hopeful the legacy business will be awarded to you and we can make sure that every san franciscan household can have katan and the booster pack. >> great. thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. my name is amy. i'm here on behalf of hillary ronen. i'm a legislative aid in her office. we go from gamescape to books. so we are delighted to be nominated, to have nominated adobe books. >> they are going to be heard next. they are not in this. but don't go away. we are going to hear them next. sorry. come on up. >> good evening. my name is bill roberts. i'm one of the owners of eclectic cookery. i would like to start by saying how proud we are to have a chance to be included in the san francisco legacy business. we are san francisco's first, largest commercial commissary kitchen. our kitchen provides timeshared space to small batch entrepreneurs. we operate three facilities totaling 16,000 square feet. all three are in the bayview. two kitchens in hunter's point and the third is less than a mile away. eclectic started in 1984 in the old marine barracks building. the four original partners, susan, scott madison and others until our friend passed away in 2018. his wife jennifer is now our fourth partner. we have considered it a family enterprise. although we are not a formal small business incubator, we operate in that capacity. over 35 years, we have assisted hundreds of people in starting their businesses. we pride ourselves on being affordable, convenient and helpful. although we are a for profit business, we have always approached our interactions with perspective clients from a nonprofit mindset. we taught many people when we knew they were not properly prepared to start a small business. we have about 100 clients. they are very diverse in both the product they produce and in their personal history. on any given day, folks are working side by side preparing food that ranges from kim khi to texas barbecue. we have cuisine from mexico, ukraine, vietnam, france, italy, afghanistan, china and of course the famous california cuisine as well as many other delicious foods from all over the country. one of the most wonderful things is that not only do the aromas mingle but all the languages are also in the air. the kitchens are a very eclectic atmosphere. our clients learn from each other and help each other. together we have created hundreds of jobs that in turn provide the san francisco bay area with thousands of meals every day. thank you for the opportunity for me to be able to tell you about eclectic. i hope you get the sense of how san francisco it is and how lucky we as the owners feel to be part of it. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please. come on up. >> hi. my name is jenny wong and i'm the program coordinator for the renaissance entrepreneurship center in the bayview. we are a nonprofit that helps people start and grow their business. many of our clients are low income. and they use eclectic cookery, including our recent entrepreneur of the year, of creative ideas catering who started her business out of eclectic. the impact we have made in the community is enormous, providing opportunities for local residents to earn a living through entrepreneurship. we are honored to participate in the selection of the first participant in eclectic cookery's mentoring program, which provides free use of the kitchen for a year, including business support services and mentoring. the owners scott and bill are truly committed to the community and helping small food businesses succeed. what's incredible is during eclectic cookery's many years of service, they stated they never had a problem with any of the rents. we think that this is a testament to their ability to work with the most vulnerable small businesses and entrepreneurs in the community. so in summary, the renaissance center supports he eclectic's legacy business listing. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. my name is robin courtney. i'm the daughter of patrick and lola courtney of courtney's produce. thank you for considering our legacy application. when my parents established courtney's produce at the corner of castro and 14th they changed the corner and improved the neighborhood forever. they have the iron bars removed from the previous owner, removed from the windows and doors. they strung up lights and added seating around the magnolia tree. they became a location where children in the neighborhood from across the street could come to get a treat with their parents, they became available for patients and staff across the street at the medical center to get nutritious and healthy food while they were visiting or serving patients. it's well-known to the police, fire employees as a place to get nutritious food quickly at a reasonable price. the neighborhood considers courtney's produce to be a gem and part of the neighborhood family. the philosophy from a business perspective is to keep the prices as low as possible so that they can be a business that supports the working class of san francisco. they've been very successful at that. they sell by volume, not by large, pricey items such as alcohol or tobacco. again, we are very grateful that you will consider our legacy application, courtney's has been in place for nearly 50 years. my parents started it with a few dollars they made from painting houses, and from then they made it into a very special place. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. [applause] >> good evening. tom hamilton with gamescape. on behalf of the gamescape community, we would like to thank rick and the legacy business program, vallie brown and dean preston's office for their support throughout the application process spells thanking the historic preservation committee for their recommendation as a legacy business. gamescape plans to continue the traditions that made it what it is today, a commitment to the community and to host gaming space that is welcoming to all. your recommendation for the legacy business registry would be an honor for us. so thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening. i'm lorna kollmeyer from ornamental plaster. i arrived in san francisco in 1981 and was completely overwhelmed, not only by how many wonderful people there were in the city of san francisco but by the wonderful wacky architecture we don't have in southern california and south bay of los angeles where every fourth house is the same. a couple years later suddenly finding myself doing, making moulds and providing medallions and products for furnishing variety stores and the buildings of the city has just been a very interesting journey for me. i started doing it as something just to sort of, a little extra money on the side, and suddenly it has turned into we now house the last collection of all of these very specific things that we see, we take for granted of them in the city. but they take them for granted in the city, but all the ceiling medal whereons -- medallions. you can't order them from the east coast, they are all very different. the shop that we have out at hunter's point houses the archive of all of that. and we've been very fortunate to have a wonderful space to work on the shipyard. very supportive in the arts community out there we've got wonderful neighbors and wonderful people that support us. my partner, mike meyer, he's been -- we've been operating the business as a partnership for about 20 years now, i think. but it just gives us great joy to be part of the beautiful legacy of architecture of the city. and we serve homeowners and contractors, painting contractors, architects, and we are actually able to supply them with the real deal. it's people don't have to go to home home depot and buy a plastic ceiling medallions or pay a large amount of money to have one custom-made because nine times out of ten we already have things people need for their restoration project. anyway, my time is up. i would like to thank you for considering us for legacy business status. and thank you to rick and the preservation committee. and anyway, thanks. >> thank you. next speaker, please. [applause] >> i'm mike, the business partner. and last time i was here, i mentioned that we have the largest collection of plaster moulds west of the mississippi river. and i mentioned that lorna says you can't is a that because mgm studio has a larger and older plaster shop. i found out i can't say that anymore. it's now 20th century fox because mgm closed its doors. so we have the largest collection of plaster moulds west of the mississippi of everyone, i believe. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> any more speakers? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners? commissioner. >> so first, it's really good to see so many district 10 -- i'm sorry, i didn't mean to take it from you. [laughter] props to supervisor walton. you've been -- district 10 has been underrepresented a little bit. my business is in district 10, so it's nice to see so many folks from that side. have to give a lot of acknowledgement to the cookery, which is basically like an incubator before we called them that. and i think we got to give special acknowledgement to the businesses that facilitate other businesses, particularly in our role on the commission. so that's remarkable that you've been doing that for so long. we want to of course thank supervisor preston for continuing with the legacy business nomination of gamescape, which was the first store -- one of the first stores i popped in when i moved here in '91. but out of all these, there's some i do have to say something special about, which is i was driving with my kids, and i said, you know, there's something coming up on the legacy business commission tomorrow. and they said what, what. and i said it's something you are going to care about. and they said what, what. i said, all right, i'm going to make you guys guess. i said you've eaten there more than any other restaurant in san francisco. what? and they are like is it chow? no, it's not chow. and they are like oh, is it -- so we were going through all the restaurants we've ever been to in san francisco. is it taco licious? and my wife is like you have got to tell us. i drive them crazy with this. and i said, well, both my boys went to mckinley elementary, and every day, every single day, they had to have their sandwiches from courtney's. that's where they got their lunch. and we would go in there. and i'm getting a little klempt here, because they both graduated from mckinley, and it was such a big part of our life. and -- and then i had several years where i could not walk, and i had to go to physical therapy at bayview center, and i would go there because that was where you could get a healthy sandwich. and what you guys have done, that special little store doesn't seem like much, people just drive by it, but it is a centerpiece of that community. so thank you. >> commissioner. >> so i live in the castro. i live at 24th and castro, but i'm moving deeper into the castro soon. and i have a little courtney's produce story. i was driving to the hospital next door to courtney's, cbmc, right? and my friend was there. and i was on my vespa and i realized i didn't bring him flowers so i stopped at the red light and yelled can i borrow some flowers and without thinking about it, you maybe aren't that happy about this, they gave me the flowers and said pay us next time. and it just shows what a community corner store can look and feel like to the kind of place that understands that someone will come back and pay, and i did ride back the next day and pay for the flowers. but it really warmed my heart that there were places in san francisco that were that comfortable with the community. and then gamescape, so two things. one, my business i run is open seven days a week, so i understand the importance of having a scape that is open, and when you submitted the application, 362 days a year. that's an achievement. and it means a lot to the community to have a place that's reliable, especially to the communities that gamescape opens through its doors so often. i purchased all the games at gamescape, and remember talking with the employees about what kind of games we should have at my small business. we are living at a time of increased social isolation where people are on their phones sometimes it feels like more they are looking and talks to each other. and places where they can meet and interact with other human beings are rare and valuable and essential in a city so thank you so much for providing that space for the community for so long. and i appreciate what you do. >> commissioner huey. -- huie >> this is my first public comment, so i'm a little bit emotional from the things that you have said. the two businesses, when i was kind of looking over the agenda today, that really struck a cord with me and everybody, i mean everybody struck a cord with me. but one was gamescape. i have a ten-year-old boy who he was here earlier and he was obsessed with all games, and our family is obsessed with all games, and he was introduced to the pokémon night. and he was super shy. i was super shy. we stood in the corner for quite a bit of time. and he had prepared these decks and was really excited to go, and he almost turned around because he was so intimidated by the whole thing. all these people were already in the midst, and somebody pulled us aside, and they were like, hey, how are you? how is it going? and they started engaging him in play. and i thought this is so cool. like, he was literally about to leave in tears and we would have had one night, but instead somebody else asked him to play. and made him feel really, really welcome. and after that, he's been wanting to go back. and he's gone back several times. we still, we go for games, but now he is obsessed with going for pokémon tournaments. so i appreciate having a place where people individually are welcoming and where a little kid with learn that there are really nice people out there. and also i was reading -- i actually have never been to courtney's produce. i live -- i don't know, i'm all over the place. but i've never been to your produce shop. but i was reading a lot about it. and to know that, like, family businesses are thriving in the city is really heart warming for me. it's really important for me. it's been something that's part of my personal history. and watching my children grow up with family businesses around has really shaped, i think, how they view the world and the work ethic that hopefully they will be able to grow up with and that's shaped my work ethic as well. so thank you so much for continuing on with legacy and for everybody to provide such an amazing business for san francisco. >> great. thank you. anybody else? okay. i'm going to speak. because a lot of these businesses i have connections to, first with eccentric cookery. i'm involved with renaissance entrepreneurial center, and what you have done with a lot of those clients is a miracle. we call renaissance the boot camp for entrepreneurials who want to get started. and i can't tell you how many of their clients have started out in your kitchens. so thank you for everything you've done for that. gamescape, i also live in the castro. and you are very close to the castro, right down the road there. and i bought many, many, many games there for not only myself but for the neighborhood kids too. so you just keep that shop open, because that is so, so important. and lorna kollmeyer, so i have like my light stuff, or in a minutes, and i bought it at cliff's but you provide all that for cliff's. and i think a lot of people, like in my neighborhood, you know, that's our go-to for victorian mouldings and everything, the plaster. because i have plaster, and i wanted to keep plaster in my house, and terry says we have this stuff from this shop in bayview. so i have your ceramics or your plaster mouldings, because it's plaster, in my house. and it's stuff you can't find anywhere else. and i know of a couple of old apartment buildings on russian hill, which i'm not going to name any names, but they have those mouldings as well when they were doing some renovations. so you do awesome work. last but not least, i live in the castro and it's courtney's. i've lived there for 21 years. i've gone to courtney's. i was telling commissioner the neighborhood kids all go to mckinley's, so i wind up picking them a lot so i take them over there. actually i get them fruit there because you have all that fresh fruit. i've bought candy too. and i was also head of the castro merchants for seven years, and your parents have always been active with castro merchants. and anything to do with the neighborhood, if we needed sandwiches, they provided for that. you've really been a staple for that upper castro neighborhood and for the castro neighborhood. every time i drive by there, i do stop by there a lot. i buy a lot of produce there. but how can you not? just the colors when you drive by there. and your parents should be very proud, because they are like part of the fabric of our castro neighborhoods. so hats off to you. commissioners, do we have a motion? >> i move to. >> i'll second. >> motion to approve all five legacy business registry resolutions, seconded by commissioner. roll call vote. [roll call] motion passes 6-0 with one absence. [applause] item 5, approval of legacy business registry application for adobe books and arts cooperative. discussion and action item. commissioners huie, laguana and yekutiel. can you confirm you have watched the meeting from december in order to participate in this item? >> yes >> yes. >> yes. >> fantastic. the presenter is richard kurylo, legacy business program manager, office of small business. >> thank you, commissioners, richard kurylo, legacy business program manager, sf gov tv, i have another powerpoint presentation. before you today is one additional application for your consideration for the legacy business registry. the application was reviewed by me for completion, submitted to planning department staff on august 19 and heard by the historic preservation commission on september 18. it was initially presented to the sbc on september 23. item 5 is adobe books and arts cooperative, inc, a bookstore founded in 1989 on 16th street in the mission. the store became a bohemian nexus for local artists, musicians, writers, readers and thinkers. in 2001, a gallery was opened in the back of the store where friends of the shop could show their work. the space became a defining one for artists featuring artwork, music, poetry and literary events. in 2012 the shop faced a rent hike and changing neighborhood. a group of supporters came together and form aid cooperative business structure to preserve the store. they raised funds on a crowd funding site, formed a cooperative corporation and found a new storefront location on 24th street in the mission. where the store joined a small number of existing independent bookstores adding to an informal bookstore row. the cooperative is interested in building more explicit, dynamic connection between the bookstore and exhibition space by encouraging artists to make site-specific works. in 2018, they hosted 159 public events free of charge to all the artists, musicians, poets, writers and thinkers. on september 23 i presented the legacy business registry application for adobe books. a former worker spoke in opposition to the application citing a number of personnel issues in the business the person claimed were unresolved. the commission requested that the office of small business do research on the issues raised in public comment and report back at a future meeting. the office of small businesses four-page report is included in our packet. you can find it online under supporting documents for the meeting, and there are two copies in the binders on the table. key findings include the following. adobe books was set up as a volunteer-owned business and volunteer-based. they have not made a profit in several years. because adobe books is a volunteer-owned cooperative, insurance requirements are less straightforward than those for standard businesses. adobe books has received business assistance since the september 23 meeting. and it's not unusual for businesses to have personnel issues. there's been no finding to date of any misconduct by adobe books by the california department of industrial relations, the california division of labor standards enforcement or office of labor standards enforcement. the business structure and business model, volunteer-based is not concerned with individual profits, give rise to complexities that could on their own, account for workers' grievances. adobe books made a serious good faith effort to improve its business practices. they have worked with a lawyer to ensure they are following all proper business practices including insurance requirements, they are working with the company project equity to determine whether their business structure as an employee-owned business is the best model or if they should be converted to a different type of nonprofit. they are analyzing their model to see if the viability of the business could be improved. as a reminder per the administrative code, a legacy business is a business that has been nominated by the board of supervisors or mayor and the small business commission determines it meets each of the following criteria. the business is operated in san francisco for 30 or more years with no break exceeding two years. the business has contributed to the neighborhood history or identity of a particular neighborhood or community. the business is committed to maintaining the physical features or traditions that define the business including craft, culinary or art forms. if we make all three findings it shall include the business as a legacy business. there are 17 letters of support for adobe books included in the meeting documents. today i received one additional letter of support and two letters of opposition, specifically addressed to the commission, which i am presenting to you now. madame secretary, if i can hand those to you. they are included in the public binder of these three letters. adobe books received a positive recommendation from the historic preservation commission after reviewing the application, the recommendation from hpc and letters from the public, staff finds the business has met the three criteria to qualify for listing on the legacy business registry. there is a resolution for consideration by the small business commission. your support of the business should be as a motion in favor of the resolution. please pay attention to the core physical feature or tradition that defines the business. once approved, the business must maintain this in order to remain on the registry. for the adobe books bookstore. this concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions. i believe there are representatives in attendance who would like to speak on behalf of the application. if you have any questions? >> we are going to go into public comment and go ahead. >> thank you so much, commissioners. my name is amy, i'm a legislative aid to supervisor hillary ronen, district supervisor for district 9, which includes the mission which happily is home to adobe books. supervisor ronen was delighted to be able to nominate adobe books as another member of our legacy business registry. adobe books has not only offered affordable reads for 30 years, it has become a neighborhood staple for everyone. the store opens its space for san francisco-based authors and thinkers. last year it hosted 159 completely free events for bay area artists, committed to empowering the mission's spanish-speaking population, the cooperative owners host numerous spanish language story hours, book club meetings, poetry events, drawing classes and more every month. and adobe also participates along with 24th street latino cultural district in 24th street events including sunday streets and carnival and the art mural tour. and we are so fortunate to have them and so glad that after the initial hearing in september that so many people came forward with support for this nomination. so we hope that you approve the registration. thanks. bye-bye. >> thank you. any other members of the public who would like to speak? [applause] >> good evening. my that i mean is thad, i'm here representing my wife janet bishop, the chief cue rater at san francisco museum of modern art. she couldn't be here, but she wanted to read a statement. many of san francisco's most important contemporary artists got their start here at adobe books and have gone onto show internationally. its ongoing programming and welcoming environment, they serve an important purpose. we are neighbors of them and in 2013 we couldn't believe they were moving closer to our home. now a black and a half away. we have raised our daughter going back and forth to that store, and it's been a wonderful addition to have closer to our home. we have also been to several fund-raising events to help keep it going. so thank you. >> thank you. any other members of the public? >> my name is heather holt. thank you for hearing our application for legacy business. i've been involved with adobe books in many capacities since 2003, primaryry on the art side but most recently have gotten involved as the treasurer and signed on to the lease last year when we needed members to come forward and take more fiscal responsibility for the business. i'm thankful to all the helping hands from within the co-op and community that volunteer their time, money, support and good vibes to help us figure out the next step for a sustainable future. we are not a commercial enterprise concerned with individual profit. we are a vessel to be filled by anyone who would like to come to our doors and operate -- not operate but to be themselves and be authentic and express their artistic forms. since the voluntary resignation of the store manager last july, we have been operating as a volunteer endeavor. in order to stabilize our finances, strategic planning and operations, and we are all participating at our free will. and in order to keep the doors open to the many diverse humans that come through, adobe books as no owner and no profiter. we would really appreciate the opportunity to have the support of legacy business status to help stabilize us further so we are not in a fight-or-flight mode and to have room to room to work with the city and other professionals and people who can help us figure out the best business model for us. thank you for your time. >> thank you. [applause] >> hello, commissioners. my name is katie. i'm a founding member of the adobe books and arts cooperative. i'm the executive director of the tenderloin museum. and a 14-year mission resident. i'm part of the original group that raised the money to move the store from 16th to 24th street and turn it into a cooperative. i still remember when angie mckinley told me in 2012 that it was going to close. it was really one of those moments where you are like that's it, i'm done with this city, i'm leaving if adobe books can't stay open. there were countless numbers of people in the community that felt that way that volunteered countless hours to keep the store open. in the three years that i was involved in adobe books, any musician who wanted to play a show, any artist who wanted to have an art show, every author who wanted to do a reading, we found a way to showcase their work. we have never turned a single person away. no one has ever been asked to leave adobe books for loytering. everyone is welcome to stay and read and speak. it is really genuinely a cultural hub and not a store in have many ways. it has been a great honor of my life to have helped support adobe books so it's been able to be open and thriving and support so many people in the community. thanks so much for your consideration for recognizing adobe books as for what it truly is, an organization, that is a vital part of san francisco's legacy. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> hi. >> hello. >> my name is marina. i've been in san francisco for 30 years. i moved here in january of 1989, the same year and month that adobe books opened. i came to study at new college, a master's in poetry. and so i feel that my whole existence in san francisco has kind of followed adobe. i'm going to read something that i wrote, because i feel really nervous right now. my name is marina, i'm a local poet and musician and i work for senior services. my daughter goes to san francisco public schools. i have housing through san francisco community trust fund. so 15 years ago i thought i would have to leave san francisco, and san francisco has always pulled through for me. so i'm here to ask you to support adobe books as well. i moved here in january '89 and adobe books began in january of '89. i came to work on a mast every rer's degree in poetry. when i say adobe books i'm talking somehow about my own relationship to san francisco. i have intern liesed the meaning of the place in my being because it's hard to imagine being here without adobe. i'm now raising my daughter there and seeing younger generations come through and we know it is now in art history books, professionals have come out of adobe. there's pancake brunch on new year's day, thanksgivings that i really had nowhere to go i would go there. andrew mckinley is archingly andrew to my daughter. but i'm not here for andrew, sorry andrew. i'm actually here to support the volunteers and the co-op. when we lost the building, and i say we because i feel a part of it, on 16th street, i really thought that was it as well. and i watched this group of people, some who i really don't know that well, continue this legacy. and i feel like they continued it for me and my family. as andrew began to spend more time outside of san francisco and we lost 16th street, i watched this group of people learn how to be a co-op, learn how to run a business, learn how to honor community, and it hasn't been easy. many fundraisers, many mistakes and many doubts. and as successful co-ops and collectives will be, personality clashes and new skills to learn, certain people have continued to move forward humbly and with great desire. these are not people interested in power. i have watched these people work so hard for no real compensation. children, paying jobs are careers but the caring of the community and continuation of honoring andrew's vision has always seemed to find room in their lives. i thank you for listening and i thank you for your support. >> thank you. [applause] any other members of the public? >> hello. my name is brett. i was one of the original founding members of the worker co-op that helped move the shop, and i was involved in running the shop for the first five years it was there. i think it's clear you have hopefully seen from the letters of support that it is an important cultural place in the history of the mission district and san francisco and continues to do that by offering so much free cultural programming. i just wanted to speak to how the co-op is working right now. when in 2012 it seems it was facing a rent hike that would make it impossible to keep running the business, what emerged was the realization that what adobe had was community. there were so many people spending time in the shoptalking to each other, viewing art there was there. the business model that came out was saying let's use the volunteers to help make something that can keep going on. that has been the model ever since. there have been countless numbers of people who have given their time, effort and creativity, haven't received anything out of it. the structure that emerged was a worker-owned cooperative. but there's been never a time that a profit has been taken out of the business. people are treating their endeavor as an effort to keep culture alive in the mission and to keep a space for culture alive and to keep doors open and conversations happening. nobody who was involved had any other idea that that's what it was, a project to put your effort into making culture survive in the mission. it was an experimental model to try to run a business this way, which hasn't been easy along the way, and i think adobe has learned and grown a lot over time with how to best operate, how to best structure itself to make that work. it's been difficult, i know, because the business is just very hard to run when you have such high rents in san francisco and these businesses selling books is not a lucrative business and nobody here is coming with a mindset of let's try to make a lot of money. that's often been a real pressure is keeping things working. so i think you have the opportunity by including adobe books in the registry of legacy businesses to help support to give it a little bit more room so that it can work on growing into whatever business structure is most appropriate that can best help to avoid any other disagreements among staff members in the future. so i would really urge you to do so. and i think you can have a chance to help keep culture alive in the mission. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. any other speakers? >> thank you. my name is andrew mckinley. i helped found adobe books in 1989. and it's been a wonderful ride for 30 years. it is a cultural space. we do sell books at a low price for people. it's a real pleasure to sell books for a dollar outside the store in a cart to the people on the street. we've always been a street store. and it's hard to run a small business in san francisco, as you know. and a used bookstore has been challengedmented there are fewer than ever in the city. we need every bit of help to keep going. and your cultural legacy program would be a help. so i'm asking you to consider us, please. 30 years selling used books to people, fewer and fewer people do it. you would be helping preserve a cultural space and some collect chill legacy. thank you. some intellectually legacy. thank you. >> thank you. >> falling apart in front of everybody. i just want to say these are my friends that kept me alive, done some wonderful things in this neighborhood. i can't begin to tell you. if you can help keep it going, please do. i've been completely out of love. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. >> hi. oh, that's loud. my name is teresa. i've been volunteering at adobe for a few months, but it's always been a space to go to the six years i've lived here. and i think it says a lot that it's filled with people who spend their time there who don't get anything in return beside a sense of community. and i think it's really important as a person who has done art and has written and done music their whole lives to have a space where you can feel supported. growing up, i was really self conscious and when i started volunteering there, they were super supportive of any idea i had. to really utilize that space. and i think it's really important to have a space that's accessible to the community and especially in a city where local businesses are just getting chopped off, especially in the commission, i think it's even more important to continue to support adobe books. and especially for my generation and people younger than me, i think there's less and less spaces where you feel safe and supported. and it's really special to my friends and i can just go there and hang out. i've met so many cool people just working at the front desk. and it's really intimate to feel like you're a part of something that is making a difference. and especially in a world that's getting more involved with technology and books are less precious or important, especially to younger generations. my nieces and younger cousins, i think it's necessary to continue to support something timeless as books and something that, i don't know, makes a difference in someone's life. and yeah, super important place. thank you. [applause] >> any other members of the public? seeing none, public comment is closed. any commissioner comments? commissioner laguana. >> i can understand why in the moment in the last hearing the commission would want to hit the pause button for a second and just take stock of where we're at. i'll say that here on the commission, we are not set up to adjudicate disputes. we don't have any ability to hear evidence. we have no ability to be fair to the employee or the employer. our job here is to evaluate businesses based on three, really four criteria. one, they have to be nominated by a mauer or supervisor. two, they have to have been in business for 30 years, three, they have to have contributed to the culture and character of their neighborhood, and four, they have to be committed to maintaining that character and culture. and our job is solely to evaluate the businesses on those three khai tier -- criteria. i think it would be a mistake to allow the commission to turn into a place where folks try to work out issues that are really better addressed in other venues, whether it's the office of labor standards or the oecc. there's other places where it's appropriate to have a conversation about that. with that said, i will also say that sometimes through difficult experiences, we become stronger. and one thing that i have seen happen that i think not many people realize the o.s.d. does is they've worked very closely with adobe, and i've heard from speaking with richard that there's been a real effort to try and put in the processes and different approaches that will ultimately result in a stronger organization. and i think what i've heard here is how strong your community is. and as a former artist and musician, i celebrate and commend your contribution to the neighborhood and to making culture happen. and this was probably a challenging experience for you all, but it's going to make you stronger and better and more durable. and you'll be here 30 years from now, and your children and your children's children will be grateful for the fact that you kept that culture, that spirit alive. so thank you for sticking it out. and thank you for persevering through this. and i hope that the other side understands what our role here as a commission is, which is not to adjudicate personal dispute, which frankly by the time you get to 30 years, pretty much everybody's had a couple of those. you are lucky if you can get five years without one. so that's what i got to say about that. >> commissioner yekutiel. >> i own a bookshop in the mission, a small one, far smaller than adobe. i own a bookshop in partnership with book smith. and so i have a very new person's view on just how difficult running a bangkok shop is. i can't imagine a used bookshop. i wasn't at the meeting in septal though i did watch the video as requested, so i'm not going to talk about that but i'm going to talk about what a bookshop means to a community, because it's something i thought a lot about in building my space which is not far from where adobe was for a very long time. so one of the things that i think is so special about san francisco and our history of small businesses on the street is how we have taught the world how you can think about a space on a street to do more than just sell things. and i'm thinking specifically of what happened in haight street in the summer of 1967, and they used the shops to treat medical issues, free libraries to think about things. and the fact that we have a workerrer-owned shop in san francisco means that flame is still burning in san francisco, and it makes me proud to be a san franciscan. bookshops also provide space for people to ex change ideas to grow and we need that more now than ever to be a cohesive society and to exchange ideas. so adobe is so important as a bookshop is important to a city. i'm from los angeles originally. and los angeles has lost almost all of our bookshops. i think every bookshop that exists in san francisco is a gem. so i think it's very important that we all do, not just in this room but all san franciscos do whatever we can to keep our bookshops alive. i just want to thank richard for all the work that you put into bringing all this together. i know it was a lot. so i want to publicly appreciate you. the last thing i want to say is with whatever happens with the vote with the legacy business, i think it's very important for us to all do more to keep adobe open, because it will say something about san francisco that we can't and if this place closes, it will say something about us and this crop of san franciscans. so i want us to think about what is our responsibility going to be to keep that fire burning and spaces that are just so, so important for a community to grow together with its doors open for the local community, especially in the mission. thank you. >> commissioner ortiz. >> adobe is special to me, obviously i say, i was borned and raised in the mission. mckinley doesn't remember but in 1999, this was several pounds ago but i remember you because people don't realize when you opened that shop on 16th, the mission is not what it is today. it was a hard, rough neighborhood. and to open something so special, especially for youth and kids like us growing up in the neighborhood, we didn't have that. we didn't even have a library. so doing things the government should have been doing for us. so i remember that. and thank you for your efforts and your passion, because a lot of people would have given up or not even opened something in the mission back then in '89. so thank you. [applause] >> any other comments? >> i want to say i'm a huge fan of adobe books. when you were on 16th street when i first moved to the castro, you were right down the street there, and i've been there many times. i've been to many poetry readings there, art exhibitions, i'm a book collector, and i've actually bought some rare books out of adobe books. be very proud of what you did. i'm very happy when you moved down to 24th street. used bookstores are -- you need those. i love them, personally. when i travel, i like going into used bookstores in other cities because you can find a book that you don't find anywhere else. but adobe, i've actually found really cool old books. and i treasure them. so i will be supporting this. commissioner zouzounis. >> i want to thank everybody for being here. i also spent a lot of time in adobe books when i was younger and contributed to a lot of my politicizeation as a young person in san francisco and being able to have access to different types of books. yeah, i love the fact that you all are trying to look at your succession planning intentionally and looking for support for that. that is something i think this commission is going to have to take on at a bigger level as we have a lot of folks running small businesses that want to retire but have cultural entities that need to stay in the city. so thank you for putting yourselves on the map with coming to this commission and seeking our support. >> do we have a motion? >> okay. i also approve. >> and i'll second. >> okay >> motion by commissioner ortiz to approve the legacy business resolution, seconded by commissioner yekutiel. roll call vote. [roll call] motion passes 6-0 with one absent. >> great. thank you. [applause] we are going to get a picture with all the groups now over in this corner. [off mic] [applause] >> item 6, board of supervisors file no. 191260 planning code, zoning map -- >> if everyone can please move outside, because we have to continue the meeting. thank you. go ahead. >> they are not going to hear me. >> wait until they -- >> all right. go ahead. >> item of, board of supervisors file no. 191260 planning code, zoning map, establishing 12 named neighborhood commercial districts. ordinance amending the planning code to establish the inner balboa street ncd, the outer balboa street ncd, the bayview n.c.d., cortland avenue n.c.d., dairy boulevard, bayview, geary boulevard n.c.d., mission bernal n.c.d., holtn.c.d. in consistency with the general plan and adopting findings of public necessity, convenience and welfare under planning code section 302. the presenters are amy, legislative aid to supervisor hillary ronen and planning department staff. >> welcome. >> thank you so much. double dutiy. my name is amy beinharh, speaking about the legislation before you which has gone from the board of supervisors to the planning commission to land use committee and is calendared for the board of supervisors tomorrow. so i'm so glad we are before you tonight. the legislation before you will create 12 new named neighborhood commercial districts in districts 1, 5, 4, 4, 4 and 10. thank you for reading them out so i don't have to. these will be added to planning code section 201 which currently identifies neighborhood districts. each of which showcase a distinct mix most fitting to the needs of their communities. because they are so unique, each with distinctive character, but what we see on the ground is small businesses are facing huge obstacles and shouldering heavy burdens to keep their doors open. this legislation will create a framework for us to promote the vibrant small business districts with an array of small offices, bars, restaurants and housing. the code amendments open the opportunity to work with merchants, local community to consider neighborhood-specific controls for these n.c. d.s through separate legislation in the future. but to be clear, there are no changes to underlying controls at this time. encouraging property owners to keep storefronts ouched is essential. in march, voters will be asked to vote on the storefront vacancy tax. these planning code amendments will ensure that if the voters pass the measure, the n.c.d.s will be in place at the time of the elections so this tax strategy will be appearly kabul to these n.c.d.s as they are to the other 31 already-named n.c.d.s throughout the city. we believe that voters would expect that. they are probably not going to read that fine detail, and they would certainly expect that the neighborhood commercial districts they shop at all the time and that they express so many concerns about vacancies that they will be covered by the same legislation and that will be up to the voters to decide. there are some non-substantive, purely technical correction amendments that were introduced at land use committee today. they were one of the code citations was left off in the zoning tables, and then even more minor, the word residential was spelled out in residential districts and it's supposed to be r districts. so those have been changed globally throughout. i want to thank you for hearing this tonight. your thoughts and input about this and the work you do is so important. we have moved this forward on a very tight timeline and audrey maloney is here from planning staff. and truly her work on this has been heroic along with some of her colleagues and the city attorney as well. i would also thank the merchants of our particular district who were able to give us inputs that we knew we were heading in the right direction. happy to answer any questions. i think, audrey, are you here to answer questions only. and then we didn't bring all one, two, three, six districts that are represented. but jen lowe is here from president normanee yee's district. >> commissioners, a map was distributed that highlights the new ones who audrey can provide some -- she is here to kind of provide an overview of that map. i think it would be great if you could give a similar presentation that you gave to the board, to the commission. >> absolutely. good evening, commissioners. i'm from the planning department. just very briefly, i think she did pretty well. but i have a map for the public if they are watching this later, since none are in the audience. s.f. gov tv, if i could get the overhead. thank you. so what you are looking at, which i believe you were issued copies of as well is all of our n.c. districts in the city as they are currently. the colored n.c. districts, the non-yellows are the ones that are already a named n.c. district. this means that if a zoning control were to change for that district, it would only be for that district. and then all of the yellow that you see, and i'll kind of keep moving the map so it sits on the overhead, all of the yellow districts that you see are either a n.c.s. one two or three or n.c.t. one two or three. and those are essentially our generalized zoning districts, generalized commercial districts that we have in the city, which means that if a zoning control changes for an n.c.2 district, for instance, it's going to change for every single n.c.2 district across the city. it wouldn't just be one neighborhood. and anything that is in red are the districts proposed to switch from a general n.c. district between n.c.1 and n.c.3 they vary to their own individual named n.c. districts. and again this is to give those districts more control in the future, noticing certain trends with an over, underconcentration of businesses, they are better able to meet the needs of that neighborhood. i'm available for any questions. >> thank you. any commissioner comments or questions? >> thank you for the presentation. so i know back when we were having the conversation about the vacancy tax, one of the issues a case study that i gave and we had other similar case studies was on existing n.c.d.s, there were vacancyies because, for example, there's no c.u. or there are c.u. regulations for formula retailers coming in and small property owner, for example, they had their business close, and they were trying to find a lessey and had a hard time because of those restrictions and therefore the vacancy was left for longer than they even wanted. so my fear is how are we going to ensure this doesn't prolong existing vacancies because the c.u. and formula retail restrictions that are going to be coming in with this new name of the corridor. that's my main question. >> absolutely. i want to make sure i'm clear. so the actual controls that guide these districts today will remain in place when they become a new named n.c. through this legislation. if they wanted to put in different controls than would exist today, they could do so without affecting all the other general n.c.d.s as \they could\they had been today. but as of today, a formula retail use is not allowed in the generalized n.c.2 districts across the city, i believe the proposed haight street, lower haight street is currently an nc2 district, then that would remain in place when it becomes the haight street ncd. it would not change the controls. same thing in the opposite. so if in the future, the haight street n.c.d. decided they wanted to allow formula retail or anything else they don't under n.c.2 zoning, they could do so without the uphill battle of changing all the n.c.2 districts in the city. >> thank you. >> that's the beauty of this. i was happy to see coal valley in there. in coal valley they may want something in coal valley, and they want to change it, but they would have to change everything for all the other districts. and this just zeros it in on each new named district. >> it's great to say san bruno part of the corridor. that's where my family is historically from, my family's first business is there, five mile market. a long time ago. and don't take away any more parking on these. they are struggling because of that. especially san bruno avenue. that's just a side note. >> commissioner. >> so i think it has been remarkable and heartening to see all the supervisors and the mayor come together on a common issue here that's facing small business and something a lot of people have been working on. so kudos to your colleagues and to supervisor peskin's office as well for sort of marshaling all this together, super appreciate it. and i think it's a really big deal. and it's something that's sorely needed and is a big help. one tiny question. i had a question you answered it kind of sort of same question. this was more like -- so i'm still wrapping my head around how certain parts of this work. so when an n.c.d. wants to change a use or wants -- how does that process work? who -- i guess who are the decision makers? walk me through that as somebody who doesn't know. >> absolutely. once an n.c.d., are we talking about an individually-named n.c.d.? >> yeah >> much simpler process. they both start the same way but the approval process is usually much easier if you are trying tl valley n.c.d. in the future. usually the supervisor of that district would sponsor legislation that change a zoning control. it can also be sponsored by the mayor. it can also be sponsored by a private citizen or the planning commission. but as long as there is a sponsor it goes through a legislative process for a zoning change to that table that exists in the planning code saying what is allowed, what isn't allowed, requires conditional use, neighborhood notification. any change comes to the planning commission for recommendation as a proposed ordinance or zoning change, and then from there it goes on to the land use committee and board of supervisors and finally the mayor. and it's all done as a proposed piece of legislation. and from there the planning department makes the change to the map and from 30 days after the mayor signs it, that is what become it is new zoning in that district. >> because it's an individually-named district, that's the part that makes it easier because you don't have to change it for all of them. you can just change the one little thing. >> correct >> and one last question for jen since she is here. you don't got to get up. is that little bit of yellow, is that monterrey? >> sf gov tv? which yellow? >> that's monterrey. that's where safeway is. >> oh, that's where safeway is? >> yep >> yes, we did not include monterrey. but we can happily do so in engaging some of the commercial tenants there. we intentionally for district 7 looked at areas that would have the characteristics that are distinct. monterrey was up for consideration but given that it is a smaller strip, there's not really -- i think it was something we wanted to engage the neighborhood on and not too hastily do so without their input. >> i think that makes perfect sense. totally agree with that. i do think it's like it sort of speaks to me of like an opportunity that is just kind of needs more love and attention, i think. >> absolutely. i think this is not the be all end all. i think this is a way for us to create more tools in our toolbox. if this works maybe this is something to talk about, to expand or to use in the future for other parts. this is not -- i don't think all the n.c.d.s are reflective of all the different commercial corridors of the city. am i right to say so? i mean, it's a good majority of them, but it's not universal. and i think right now it's a good -- this is a good kind of test. thank you. >> commissioner. >> so i probably am the commissioner that has most recently gone through a planning and building process in that my business got its approval just a little over a year ago. and i probably looked at and considered to submit l.o.i.s in 15 locations where after reviewing the n.c.d. restrictions with o.e.w.d., realized that my -- what my small business wanted to do was not allowed or basically not allowed because it would have had to go through a c.u. and that's just both financially and temporally a huge obstacle for a lot of small business owners who don't have money they are paying themselves while they are building a small business. you put here in the explanation that this -- that land use controls could be either made more liberalized or stricter depending on needs with these named n.c.d.s and i guess that's the key point in my mind. if the individual naming of all of these streets makes it that much more difficult for young folks, folks without a ton of money, folks with a bold idea that hasn't been tried yet could be more difficult to be put into a corridor that they are a part of, i think it could and commissioner you maybe mentioned this as well, it could make it harder to open up small businesses in san francisco. so the key in my mind is how do we make sure that once this is all done that we don't actually make the process of if i recollecting out if your small business -- of figuring out if your small business can fit into a commercial door is even more difficult. you mentioned the process that basically anyone can propose adding in additional restrictions to a named corridor. and the process that it goes through to figure out if that's going to be okay is land use and planning and the board. those are all bodies that may or may not have small business owners on them. maybe they are, maybe they aren't, or people who have tried to open up small businesses in our city. so that's troubling to me, because that experience is important. unless i'm missing something. so all i'm saying is i think it will be important for all of us in this room to watch how this plays out in the future, and we are sitting here in a couple years and all of a sudden there are 31 new set of rules on whether or not you can open up a bookshop on bernal or coffee shop in cole valley, i think it could make things harder. >> i would like to make sure i clarify that you are absolutely right, and it is something that we would say is a possibility. and we have seen controls in certain n.c. districts become stricter over the years versus less strict. i will say in order for the planning commission to recommend approval, it does have to meet the guidelines of our general plan which has a very strong commerce and industry element that it must meet. and so generally, i can't say 100 percent of the time because it is discretionary at the commission, because but generally, we are for anything that will activate the street front and will bring activity to these districts. and so that's kind of what these districts are designed to do. and it is in their definition in both the planning code and our general plan. so they're certainly not in risk of becoming, for instance, residential districts or becoming entirely office space, because my bidefinition, they are -- by definition, they are to be commerce centers within a neighborhood. but they are something to watch. >> an example. some of you may not know this but valencia street is its own commercial corridor. i found this incredible space on 17th and valencia on the second store of harrington's. a huge space, hadn't been activated, the landlord liked it. it was just sitting there vacant. i worked with katie at oawd. we had come up with a set of terms that was going to work. she went through the planning code and it turns out that on valencia, second floors of valencia street frontages are not allowed to have food and beverage specifically. so we had to crush that. and actually after that point i thought i might not be able to open up the space because we couldn't find a space big enough. so i think it's great we are removing n.c.d.s for everything. this is a great step, and we should all monitor it in the future and make sure as things are proposed to change that small business voices are heard. thank you. >> commissioner huie. >> i had a few questions. one was what are some of the criteria that your supervisors went through in order to identify these additional named commercial districts? and also when was the last time more, i guess, last time one of these districts was added to the list? and why these, basically? >> so he we don't have all six of the districts here, so we can only speak to -- because the concerns that were raised for district 9 and then i don't know if jen wants to speak about district 7. the storefront vacancy tax the way it was written is that the only places that it applies to are named n.c.d.s as of the date that the voters voted. and i totally agree with what commissioner yekutiel is saying, the concerns about vacancies i think are growing, and the acknowledgment that some of the burdens that we are placing on small businesses has really become primary in a lot of districts' thinking. so digging into what are the things we can look at in the future in terms of code and needing to be able to do that on a individual, neighborhood by neighborhood way is going to be a lot easier than doing some global changes. for our district, we have three named n.c.d.s already in place. there's a mission n.c.d. in district 9, a 24th street n.c.d. in district 9 and then there's also half of the valencia n.c.d., and so what really showed up for us was we were very aware of other commercial strips that were having trouble and that were of enough of a quantity, enough of a size that it made sense for them to be looked at. for district 9, we also have a bernal business alliance which has members of many, many, many of merchants on cortland and there's also a mission bernal merchants' association, which has members of the merchants that are between shaves and randal on mission. and then there's less of a formal organization on san bruno but also the neighborhood association which includes merchants in a big way. and so we have someone to work with as we move forward, and we are really looking at this as a starting point where these were not named n.c.d.s before, but this is a possibility for us to work with community, work with merchants and be able to figure out specific neighborhood changes that we might be able to make, but in the meanwhile, we will make sure the storefronts qualify under the storefront vacancy tax, if the voters vote to approve that. does that help? okay. it really is a general, we looked at the map, we are familiar with the district, and these were the corridors that jumped out for us. >> okay. commissioner ortiz. >> actually, i was wondering when was the last time there were new commercial districts added? and i guess my point i guess of asking this question is really wondering why these areas were not included in past approvals and why they're being addressed now because specifically of the vacancy tax and yes, so i think off of my question of when the last time it was approved, i would like to also know what were some of the ramification and what were some of the outcomes of that last time? >> absolutely. so to answer the question about some of the our more recent individual-named n.c.d.s, the fillmore street n.c.d. and visadero street were approved. before that we had the mission street n.c.d. and we had four n.c.d.s in the sunset from four or five years ago. the hayes street is another one. all of these are areas that the planning department or supervisor sponsored the ordinance has felt that over the years, they have developed more and more of their own individual identity as a commercial district, and therefore oftentimes the planning department, that's why we would recommend they become their own named n.c. district. most of the time they are coming from a zoning district that was already neighborhood commercial but more generalized, this is great because it gives it the ability to evolve into its own identity, but as these districts all become a little bit more specific in the clientele they are attracting and the types of businesses that they host, they find that it's easier to split off and become their own. in terms of this legislation, the planning department and planning commission did not have a hand in choosing the specific 12 districts. what we did have a hand in was advancementing each that came to us to ensure they did seem to have the threshold we use, which is that they have evolved in the last few years. and that may be why something like the cole valley n.c.d. wouldn't have been something we would have considered five years ago, but the street has evolved there, the businesses have kind of started to formulate their own scheme, and that is what caused us to recommend approval. if that helps. >> you had a question? >> i'm wondering in the areas that are currently named already, are there -- is there a difference in vacancy rates on these streets versus like with the ones that you are proposing? >> i don't have an answer to that question, but this legislation doesn't change the likelihood of vacancy in these particular named n.c.d.s. what it does is apply the same strategy that is going to be applied to the existing, preexisting named n.c.d.s if the voters vote to approve it to apply it to these as well. so it makes it consistent throughout the city to an increased number of named n.c.d.s. but there is nothing in place at this point for the named n.c.d.s that would be specific linked to the vacancyies. >> okay. >> commissioner ortiz. >> i want to thank everybody for their time on the presentation. i'm a real proponent of n.c.d.s. like if it wasn't for the mission, we would have probably lost a lot of the culture, the eclectic little shops, because formula retail come could around. it is a stop measure, and i appreciate that. now that i live in district 10, seeing the bayview getting that big corridor is much needed. because as gentrification happens, small businesses get gent if id as well. i have a question, and maybe you can't answer in detail, but how is the outreach for the various merchants' associations along those corridors? >> again, i would only speak to my own -- so this has moved very quickly. and that's why we are not changing any of the underlying control, because we didn't, honestly we didn't have the time to do so. we know we needed to make a deadline in order to -- in order for the storefront vacancy part of this to take effect, we needed to make a deadline. for everything else we hope will come later, some real sensitive deep digging with the merchants, we would love to do that, and we would love to take the time and have the capacity from planning department staff to dig it into and work with small business commission. for our district, we reached out to leadership among the business associations for these three corridors. and got positive feedback and were told to yes, please do this. so. >> if i could make a recommendation along the lines with my cocommissioneria yekutiel, maybe a lot more resources or maybe make associations where a business in the corridor is about the -- i'm sorry, c.b.3 program text. those are tools in the tool bag to expedite conditional use process. i think it's underutilized and maybe now that the corridors are new, we take time and maybe allocate resources to bring this to light, like say, hey, we can really do a lot of good things here. we can help small businesses, make it a positive, and make it's allocation of resources. i know there was a deadline but maybe you could go back and reach to those various merchant associations and let them know the resources they have. >> i just wanted to say and thank you, commissioner, i do know for a fact that you guys were reaching out, because i get involved with a lot of -- i have branches in most of these merchant corridors, and i know supervisor fury reached out in the richmond, march reached out in the sunset, and supervisor yee reached out to the merchant corridors. because that's where they could really make changes. i like the fact here because when the visador street, as soon as that change happened, they were able to get the group hubs on the street into those second stories to take care of like what you experienced on valencia. but i do know some of these others, there was outreach, and i know rowland was doing outreach. we have a branch on san bruno avenue. and i think that's going to make the world of difference. i agree with you. we got to stop the parking thing. sidebar, but -- i think you can really make, you know, going forward, i know this was intended for the vacancy, but each neighborhood is its own individual person. and i know the people down in cole valley, i don't live too far from there, and i'm there a lot, they were very, very happy about this. i know supervisor brown did a lot of outreach and dean preston was in there agreeing with it. so i actually think this will make a world of difference going forward on a whole bunch of different levels. so supervisor laguana? >> i just wanted to second what commissioner ortiz said. there's an opportunity here i think as we are looking at this and re-examining this. when we come out on the other side and hopefully the measure is successful. there's an opportunity here to open things up a bit. and loosen some of the strangle hold on small business and particularly the young businesses just trying to get up off the ground. so i'm sure we'll have all of your cooperation and engagement on that. but looking forward to that and your comments are well-said. >> and i totally agree with what you just said, because that's what actually happened on divis adaro. things loosened up where i didn't think it would. and if you go down there right now, you don't see a lot of vacancies on that street between haight street and going up to geary boulevard. past geary, yes, but in that new second right now, it's like where they've opened up those upstairs and stuff, it's effective. it made a difference. okay. we are going to open this up for public comment. is there any members of the public who would like to make comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. do we have a motion, commissioners? or not? >> maybe this could be my first motion. >> go for it >> i make a motion to approve the item. >> seconded. >> motion by commissioner yekutiel. i'm so sorry. commissioner yekutiel. second to approve the ordinance as heard seconded by commissioner laguana. roll call vote. [roll call] motion passes 6-0 with one absent. >> great job. this is going to be awesome. i think this will really be a difference. >> thank you for your time. >> thanks, guys >> next item, item 7, approval of draft meeting minutes, action item. and there is one correction to be made under item 6 on decembe, there was an incorrect spelling of commissioner riley's name, so i will make that correction. >> okay. do we have any members of the public who would like to make comment on the draft meeting minutes of december 9 and december 20? seeing none, public comment is closed. i'm going to motion. i'm going to motion to approve the draft meeting minutes for december 9 and december 20 with the correction of irene riley's name. do i have a second? >> seconded. >> all in favor, voice vote. >> aye. >> any noes? item 7 passes. >> item 8, director's report, update and report on the office of small business and small business assistance center, department programs, policy and legislative matters, announcements from the mayor and announcements regarding small business activities. discussion item. >> good evening, commissioners. i'm passing down the report. want to bring to your attention one of the highlights, i shouldn't say highlights but sort of recent issues that our business counselors are experiencing at the small business assistance center. and i'm sure you've probably heard, but there's a lot of confusion around a.b.5, the employment status. and much of the materials and information seems to be discussed and spoken of around either the employer or the worker. but there's a lot of misinformation for people who are independent contractors but actually self-employed and so we've had individuals come in and say, well now i need to register as i've been advised to register as an l.l.c., i can't be a sole propryter. so i'm letting you know that we are significantly seeing an uptick in these kinds of questions and looking for support. legal services for entrepreneurs will be providing a workshop. the california, the e.d.d. is going to be doing a workshop on this wednesday. and we are hoping to see if we can get some of our other economic development organizations to provide a workshop and information. the e.d.d. does have -- not the e.d.d. but the california labor and workforce development agency does have some guidelines. so we are directing individuals there to see if their questions can get answered. but it's a little unfortunate for us that for our counselors on our calendar that we feel a bit unequipped to be able to handle this. and so -- but to handle sort of being able to give very -- we can't give specific guidance in this direction but really have a clear place to be able to direct individuals except for the e.d.d. -- excuse me, the california labor workforce development agency's website. so we are exploring how we can figure out and meet this need more. but just letting you know that there's still quite a lot of confusion around ab-5. and just sort of speaks to the unfortunate sort of consequences when bills and laws are written to really handle one particular issue and not really thought through about the broader implications. so i also do hear that there's potential amendments coming, because it cast its net too wide. so anyway. and then last year the state updated its pregnancy and family leave work policies. so the office of labor standards enforcement along with the california department of fair labor and employment in housing and the e.d.d. are conducting a workshop on january 28th for employers that are required to comply with the pregnancy and family leave. and how the state and local law applies. we will also be hearing legislation at the next meeting, and dominica will be working on that legislative review to provide more details. that is going to help bridge th. next -- and i guess a couple things i want to just -- because we've already heard the legislation, but a couple things i just want to make sure as commission with -- there was discussion about how land use is controls are amended. and so probably the biggest bulk of legislative items that this commission reviewed is land use, changes to the land use code. and so any changes that would come up with any n.c. district will come before this commission. though this commission is not -- can't mandate that the zoning go one way or another but makes its recommendations. but of course you are able to provide your input as to are we -- we can influence it. you can influence it and give the direction that it's becoming more and more restrictive, which makes it more and more challenging. the beauty of the n.c.s is that you can sort of make it more tailored to the neighborhood and what have you. but the challenges as you spoke about, commissioner yekutiel, is that for businesses trying to figure out where they can or can't open their business, so for our counselors, having to navigate now if this passes, 30 -- no 42n.c. districts of where they -- this one you can do this year, this one you -- you know, this one will require conditional use but over here it doesn't. so navigating that from a business perspective can also have its challenges, especially the more that the n.c.s get micromanaged. and i want to speak to kind of moving into section number two is that last week at the planning commission, the planning commission did speak at its time, they finally mentioned it's time to revisit the formula retail. >> can i jump in on that since it considers me? >> yes. >> so you want to talk -- i was moving an office next door, and it was recommended no, because of zeroed-in planning. and in an area where there's a lot of vacancies. and so my landlord, we're done. our lease is up. we have to move. and we just wanted to move next door. and -- >> principally permitted in both locations? >> nope, it was not. and that was the thing. i had been in this location for 23 years. it will be 24 this year. and the way the planning worked, i couldn't move next door. so i went and i did win. i got unanimous approval. but what it did is we needed to start looking at, and the planning commission said you have to start looking at these. because with vacancy and what's happening, things are changing rapidly. not, you know, rapidly meaning what used to take a year or two years can take now a month, two months in these neighborhoods. and it's happening in these neighborhoods quickly. upper market is starting to become a ghost town. so it's stuff that needs to be addressed and needs to be addressed immediately. >> and to speak to commissioner adams' situation, it was because what was written in the planning code that there could be no more than x percentage of linear footage. like sometimes these things get really micromanaged down. and so i think moving forward with the commission, when land use regulations come forward, a lot of times what happens is the district supervisor is the one that is the legislative sponsor. and so the tendency is to just allow the legislative sponsor do what they are proposing in their neighborhood commercial district because there's an assumption that they worked with the community merchants' association and the community to create this. and so they often get passed, you know, because one supervisor doesn't want to challenge another supervisor because three months down the road, they may be introducing something. and so i think it will be this body's moving forward, sort of really, really taking a look at the details of what's in the proposed changes and looking at it in term of its overall impact and whether we need to say that x number of lineage square footage, you know, needs to happen. >> quick question for you, regina. so the planning department, is there -- i'm thinking about manny's problem where you have an idea for a business and then -- and i've dealt with -- i've opened 15 locations, and you think it's bad here, try to do it in georgia or some other crazy state across the country. what i've always sort of hungered for is just to be able to put in the naics code and a map lights up of you could open here, here, here and here. is -- [laughter] >> there's a property map, and they've launched a new, which we'll send out to you, program. you need to be careful not to take it too literally. but you still need to do your due diligence of cross referencing, but it does -- if you want to open a certain type of business, you can select it, and it will sort of pop up. but you still need to do your due diligence in double-checking the local zoning code of the address of where you want to be, because there's sometimes a lot of nuances. >> a question -- >> go ahead. >> does any of the bodies that approve increased ordy creased restrictions on named n.c.d.s require to have a voice of a small business on them? any of the bodies they have to go through? >> like, the land use is made up of boards. but does the planning commission have a seat that is typically held by a small business owner? >> no. >> so it's this body, and i think for, yeah, you are on it. and so the job for dominica and i is to see a piece of legislation and go -- and weigh the impact. and so therefore there are times when the decision is we really need to try to hear this before the planning commission hears it so that the planning commission can really take the small business commission's recommendation under advisement. and then there are times where it's more beneficial for the commission to hear the planning commission's advisement. so we try to weigh that. the planning commission generally schedules -- and there's generally a little more lead time in our ability to schedule the land use legislation before this commission, because the planning commission is allotted 90 days to be able to weigh in instead of the traditional 30 days. so it is this body that is to do the advisement and recommendations to the various departments and the board of supervisors. >> i just wanted to go on the record, because every time we get new commissioners, this is kind of like the no-brainer that pops up, and it kind of fades away into the night. definitely. why wouldn't there be a business, a small business owner on the planning commission and s fm ca. although they sometimes don't even bring stuff to the commission, because they probably don't think it applies to small business. and as we know, they operate in silos, and they don't understand the unintended consequences of small businesses. the hand doesn't talk to the foot kind of thing. and as a small business person on these boards, it would make a huge impact. and i just, you know -- >> and that is an opportunity to draft a resolution to the mayor or board of supervisors from the small business commission with that recommendation. because many of the commissions have particular seat definitions of what is to fill the seats. but some are -- some may be a little more open for an individual who can fill both the small business and another -- >> just seems to me that we empower every citizen to be able to independently change the zoning controls of a particular street in their neighborhood, but we don't require the body of small business owners to weigh in on whether or not that's a good idea or not. >> neighborhood approval. they are supposed to go talk to your neighborhood merchants associations, neighborhood associations. those are required. >> it's required, but i think even when talking to the counsel of district merchants, many of the merchant groups don't really understand how the land use and zoning tables work for their own district, their own commercial corridor. so that's an education component. but i just wanted to inform you that there is opportunity to be able to take a look at things as they come up and be able to question the need and often some of the mic yo management of the n.c.s come from more the residential individuals surrounding the commercial district. so. >> was there an indication on formula retail? what way they were thinking of revisiting? >> they didn't give a specific indication, but i think that what they acknowledged is that while there was a hard and fast rule within the upper market n.c. district, that then ended up affecting sterling bank's move. particularly with vacancies that it just is -- >> in your situation you have eight. you said you have 15, okay. >> i'm screwed. >> and i have 26. and i was being compared to wells fargo, chase, who has 5,000 or 4,000. i have 26 nationwide. i'm not -- and i'm a community bank. and i'm put in that same category. you would be as well at 15. and you are not enterprise or any of these others. so when we look at small businesses like you and i, we don't get bundled into that. >> or the blue bottles. >> or the blue bottles. exactly. >> [off mic] >> stones believe it or not is not formula retail. >> they are part of the independent grocers. >> and they only have eight. >> oh. >> so, i mean, to your question, commissioner, is that they didn't give any more of an indication but just i think acknowledged that this overregulation, particularly in this -- around formula retail, it's time to reevaluate formula retail. >> that's heartening to hear. i hope we can have a positive and constructive conversation with the supervisors about this. >> also how formula retail is starting to morph with all the cloud kitchen and on-go stuff. we have to get ahead of it. >> so that said -- >> new business. >> the new business item. so at the next meeting we'll be having the presentation on c.b.b.s and the presentation from the sfpd small business group that worked with the san francisco council of district merchants. so deputy chief lazzaro will be presenting and will be asking the sfpdma to be part of that presentation as well. dominica and i have just started having initial conversations -- i would like -- i think the best thing for -- with the commission is to develop -- have the commission, instead of having a presentation but to conduct a hearing. >> yes. >> so around the delivery apps and companies and impact on small business. and it even kind of, you know, questions have come up around laundromats and various things like that. and so that, while not quite the same but, you know, there's a lot of online laundry in addition to new development doing -- putting laundry in the units. and so might need to take a look at that effect as well. but the fact that you can also send out your laundry and have it delivered. so we'll be working on a hearing. i don't have a specific date, but i think that we would like to make sure that -- yeah, that we have it in this first quarter. so no later than the last meeting in march. but it does mean that there will probably be back and forth that we may need to -- there will be documents and information that we'll be sending out. because it will be up to the commission, when it's a hearing, it's basically having the departments come, make a presentation based upon some of the questions and initial questions and things that you want to address, but really be prepared to ask questions, because we are clearly not in the place where we need to be. so your ability to be able to provide them with really clear direction of where we need to go, what we need to look at, what we need to analyze to make any potential changes. >> yes. >> can we add sfmta, there's been a shift where a start-up bought the third largest parking company in the country. and their intentions are so work out of these parking garages, which this particular company has about ten city-owned facilities under their management. so they definitely should be under -- >> they couldn't answer us. remember? they were like private companies are buying public parking garages. >> managing them, yeah. but they are still owned by the city and operated. so one of the largest companies in the country just got bought out by one of these cloud kitchen companies. >> that's really weird, because i just heard from a dealership that is in a private garage that they lost space because the city is now paying top dollar to a private garage. so -- >> yeah, i think there's a lot to uncover. >> we need a hearing. >> so we'll be conducting a hearing. but it will be your opportunity to really be able to drill down and ask questions of those departments with the idea that what are we doing, what's the direction we are going, what, if any, are you thinking of the intended consequences and how are we evaluating it? >> can i ask a follow-up question? >> yes. >> i know that the office of emerging technology is becoming -- did it get voted on? >> it did. and i believe they are only going to be looking at technology that is land-based. so emerging technology that will be -- that you would see, like, on sidewalks or on the streets. they wouldn't be looking at things like third-party delivery platforms. >> interesting. >> that's in the mandate. >> i reached out. i found out via a supervisor as well. that's what i thought. but no, does not apply to that. >> they just made it for the delivery robot that doesn't exist anymore? >> are we inviting any of these companies to a hearing? were you planning on it? >> yes. >> so there are specific ones that you want to make sure to please e-mail dominica. so. >> and to the public looking on tv, just to know we are advocating for you to our great pearl. these people are heavily financed. so if i end up missing, you know who it is. [laughter] i'm not playing. >> and then commissioner ortiz, the tablets, we are working with our budget office now on dealing with the purchasing. >> all right. i will donate the cost. so we don't get it budgeted, i will pay for it. >> i have to go to the board of supervisors to be able to accept that donation. but thank you. and then lastly, i don't know how many of you have ever been to the small business administration office. but would like to close the meeting in honor of michael chong who worked for the federal government for 50 years, ten years as a -- in the military but 40 years at the s.b.a. and he greeted probably -- >> everyone. >> tens of thousands of small businesses over those 40 years. so just want to close the meeting in his honor. >> i loved michael. i took courses in how to write a business plan, how to do -- i took five or six different classes in preparation for opening up manny's, and michael was such an amazing -- he's not dead, he's still alive. right? >> he did pass away. >> oh, no, he died? >> yes, just unexpecteddedly. >> oh. he was really great. >> okay. let's open this up for public comment. do we have any members of the public who would like to make comment on the director's report? seeing none, public comment is closed. any other items, director? >> that is it, unless you have any other questions for me. >> we're good. >> next item, please >> item 9, commissioners reports, allows president, vice president, and commissioners to report on recent small business activities and make announcements that are of interest to the small business community. discussion item. >> okay. i don't have anything this evening. any others? commissioner laguana. >> i was delighted to attend it, yes on d event in north beach in favor of -- >> we have to be careful about how we talk about that. >> oh, shoot. that's right. i didn't do anything. >> sorry. [laughter] >> any other commissioner comments? okay. any members of the public that would like to make comment on commissioner comments? seeing none, commissioner reports are closed. next item, please. >> item 10, new business. allows commissioners to introduce new agenda items for future consideration by the commission. discussion item. >> anybody have any new business? >> i forgot to say something about the commissioner report. >> go ahead. >> we need to close back out of new business and reopen. >> let's go back to commissioner reports. so we are going to reopen item number nine. >> i wanted to give a quick report on how the economic mitigation working group is going. and we'll probably have something more formalized to distribute to the commission soon since we are codifying our recommendations. but i think this body and for those of you who are new to give you some context, the small business commission wrote a resolution after the most recent ban on electronic cigarettes, and it was a resolution that echoed recommendations we made prior from the last ban, but asked for mitigation for businesses that are directly impacted and really asked the supervisors to make that a precedent when they do their letting, because a lot of -- legislating. because a lot of the data that was gathered and a lot of the industry impact and analysis was actually done internally by our office, thanks to a lot of the hard work of dominica and the director. so this resolution has been adopted by the board of supervisors and turned into a working group called the economic mitigation working group. and it has a seat for small businesses like smoke shop and corner store to board of supervisor seats, the chamber of commerce mayor's office of economic and workforce development, our office. it's a precedent for how we really collaboratively come up with legislation that doesn't have these unintended consequences, these big policies that are putting legally-abiding businesses out of business without any recourse or transitional support. so we have had in-depth presentations from departments that are directly relating to the businesses that this particular ban is affecting. so that has been really, really useful because we are able to identify fees, kind of the low-hanging fruit that can be wins for the supervisors and for small businesses that are just on the books that nobody has looked at. and so we are starting from kind of that immediate material support in terms of fee mitigation and also looking at bigger picture how we can look at heavily-immigrant and minority demographic with a lot of folks that also want to retire and how we can help businesses diversify their revenue and even innovative ideas like pop-ups or shared retail. so i think it's a precedent for how our commission can impact policy and present really specific ideas to the supervisors, whereas they may not have a reference point for what exactly they can do to help a small business demographic that's directly targeted by legislation. so i'm really excited about it. >> great. that's awesome. a quick question. regina, so is there a difference procedurally between a working group and a committee? is there a different public notice requirement? can you talk to me a little bit about, like, is there a different staff load, for example? between those two? >> well, i would say for dominica, the staff load is probably greater for the working group. but if there's any official committee developed from this body, the board of supervisors created this working group committee, our office. so but if there is a committee from the commission, then it has to follow the same meeting procedures and criteria. >> yeah, and when i first joined the commission, we did did have some committees, and the committees when we met, it was like an open meeting. so we had people coming, public comment, the whole nine yards, and then we would report back whoever was the chair of that committee during this meeting would report back what our committee did. >> did you find that helpful or -- >> can you speak into the mic? >> sorry. did you find that helpful? >> yes. yes. >> all right. >> also just to speak to that as well. so this body produced a resolution to the board of supervisors like commissioner said, the board of supervisors then opined on whether or not they would and specifically supervisor walton's office, whether or not they would issue their own resolution to establish the working group or if they would issue an ordinance i believe was what happened to establish the working group and had they done -- had they established a working group through ordinance, it would have required many more layers of bureaucratic red tape in order to get lifted off ground. so everyone found that establishing the group through resolution was the best and most expedient fashion. >> we should follow up with another conversation about that. because i am interested for us as a commission to, for instance, manny is experienced with having just gone through all the zoning stuff and to be able to put him in a room where we bring, like you were talking about, commissioner ortiz, where we bring people from planning, we bring folks from the supervisor's office or whatever, and we get those folks with where it's like it's fresh for you. you just did it last year. so you are very intimately familiar. >> i went through it last week too. >> last week yeah, even better. and then if we are going to make real structural change to be able to leverage that expertise and recent experience. >> would you hold that thought? because i'll finish commissioner reports. and this is something to bring up under new business. >> okay. great. >> exactly. >> so under commissioners' report, i'm going to reopen up public comment. do we have any members of the public who would like to make comments on our commissioner reports? seeing none, public comment is closed. new item. item number 10. >> reopening new business. allows commissioners to introduce new agenda items for future consideration by the commission. >> commissioner laguana. finish up, because i like that idea a lot. >> yeah, i would say simply the idea is to find the most light-weight and by lightweight, i mean as minimal staffing as minimal paperwork, bureaucracy, procedure, the most lightweight possible way that we can get to get the folks in the room together with the best information with an eye towards how this impacts small business, get them all in together, get the best and brightest minds together, come up with a series of recommendations that they can then bring back to our commission, to the planning department, but sort of key and central to this is making it as lightweight as possible so that we are not sort of burdening out we want to use for other things and not burdening staff in bureaucracy, but still getting the benefit of all this wisdom and just between the two of you, i imagine, the things could be made easier for hundreds of companies to follow. we need to get that connection. >> absolutely. >> commissioner, can you state for the record what exactly is the topic that you'd want? >> the topic would be what would be the most efficient and lightweight, whether it's a working group or what's the word i'm looking for? efficient and lightweight entity that we can create to -- >> discuss the conditional use process or -- >> i think i'm actually just looking for it could be anything. it could be conditional -- >> i think i understand. i think what it is is i think what the way that may be best address this is to lay out the different formations that one could go about to deal with addressing a topic. >> right. >> even to the point of, again, the commission conducting its own hearing and gathering information. so i think -- >> or working with planning like we did to come up with the cp3 process. >> right. so i think perhaps to your point, what are the different formations and what are the different levels of government regulations that we would need to follow like we do for producing this meeting to the most kind of informal and casual. >> right. so like the heaviest weight would be all seven of us in a hearing with a secretary and you and all the stuff that comes with that. and the most lightweight perhaps it's a working group with a specific resolution, perhaps it's something else. so i would like to, as a body, to have an understanding of what are the different structures that are available to us to examine issues and then some sense of what does that mean for our limited resources? because if we are going to -- you know, attack a series of things that we want to get done, we need to be very careful how we allocate our resources. >> yes. >> supervisor fewer's office mentioned they had been in regular communication and meetings with the taxi drivers, and i would love a report on where the city's conversations are with the cabbies. >> any other new business? >> there was something mentioned earlier to the effect of a resolution to discuss -- under director's report, to discuss having a small business representative at the planning commission or other commissions that are opining on >> yeah, you can put that on the new business. >> okay. great. >> you have reinspired us, new commissioners. [laughter] >> just a question about new business. something that's put up for new business, is it then required to be worked on? or do we have to vote on whether we work on it? >> no. as a commissioner, you have a right, and if you want something that wants to be brought up in front of here, it will be up to the president and the director to schedule it in. >> thank you. >> what's on your mind? >> i'll wait until the next meeting. >> right. and if the new business results in action item, then that's an opportunity -- i mean, there's always the opportunity to weigh in when it's a presentation and discussion item. so. >> okay. any other new business? do we have any members of the public who would like to make any comments on new business? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> sf gov tv, please show the office of small business slide. >> it is our custom to begin and end each small business commission meeting with a reminder that the office of small 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 when you have questions about what to do next. you can find us online or in person here at city hall. best of all, our services are free of charge. the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about 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 11, adjournment, action item. >> okay. i would like to close this meeting in honor of michael chong from the small business commission, the small business administration. do i have a second? >> second. >> no, that's not. you worked with him. you should. >> [off mic] >> motion by commissioner adams to adjourn the meeting in memory of michael chong, seconded by commissioner yekutiel. all in favor? >> aye >> any opposed? meeting is adjourned at 8:02 p.m. [gavel] shop and dine on the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services within neighborhood. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and vibrant. where will you shop and dine in the 49? san francisco owes the charm to the unique character of the neighborhood comer hall district. each corridor has its own personality. our neighborhoods are the engine of the city. >> you are putting money and support back to the community you live in and you are helping small businesses grow. >> it is more environmentally friendly. >> shopping local is very important. i have had relationships with my local growers for 30 years. by shopping here and supporting us locally, you are also supporting the growers of the flowers, they are fresh and they have a price point that is not imported. it is really good for everybody. >> shopping locally is crucial. without that support, small business can't survive, and if we lose small business, that diversity goes away, and, you know, it would be a shame to see that become a thing of the past. >> it is important to dine and shop locally. it allows us to maintain traditions. it makes the neighborhood. >> i think san francisco should shop local as much as they can. the retail marketplace is changes. we are trying to have people on the floor who can talk to you and help you with products you are interested in buying, and help you with exploration to try things you have never had before. >> the fish business, you think it is a piece of fish and fisherman. there are a lot of people working in the fish business, between wholesalers and fishermen and bait and tackle. at the retail end, we about a lot of people and it is good for everybody. >> shopping and dining locally is so important to the community because it brings a tighter fabric to the community and allows the business owners to thrive in the community. we see more small businesses going away. we need to shop locally to keep the small business alive in san francisco. >> shop and dine in the 49 is a cool initiative. you can see the banners in the streets around town. it is great. anything that can showcase and legitimize small businesses is a wonderful thing. today we are going to talk about fire safety. we are here at the urban center on mission street in san francisco. it's a wonderful display. a little house in the urban center exhibition center that shows what it's like in a home in san francisco after an earthquake. one of the major issues that we are going to face after earthquakes are fire hazard. we are happy to have the fire marshall join us today. >> thank you. my pleasure. >> we talk about the san francisco earthquake that was a fire that mostly devastated the city. how do we avoid that kind of problem. how can we reduce fire hazard? >> the construction was a lot different. we don't expect what we had then. we want to make sure with the gas heaters that the gas is shut off. >> if you shut it off you are going to have no hot water or heat. be careful not to shut it off unless you smell gas. >> absolutely because once you do shut it off you should have the utility company come in and turn it back on. here is a mock up of a gas hear the on a house. where would we find the gas meter? >> it should be in your garage. everyone should be familiar with where the gas meter is. >> one of the tools is a wrench, a crescent wrench. >> yes. the crescent wrench is good and this is a perfect example of how to have it so you can loosen it up and use it when you need it. >> okay. let's go inside to talk about fire safety. many of the issues here relate to fire, for example, we have a little smoke detector and i see you brought one here, a carbon monoxide smoke detector. >> this is a combination of smoke and carbon monoxide detector. they are required in single homes now and in apartment buildings. if gas appliance is not burning properly this will alert you before the fumes buildup and will affect you negatively. >> this is a battery powered? >> this is a battery powered and it has a 10 year battery life. a lot of times you may have one or the other. if you put in just a carbon monoxide detector, it's important to have one of these too. every house should have a fire extinguisher, yes. >> one thing people expect to do when the power goes out after an earthquake about using candles. what would you recommend? >> if you have a battery operated candle would be better to use. this kind of a candle, you wouldn't want it in an area where it can cause a fire or aftershock that it doesn't rollover. you definitely want to have this in a non-combustible surface. >> now, here we have our stove. after a significant earthquake we expect that we may have gas disrupted and so without gas in your home, how are you going to cook? >> well, i wouldn't recommend cooking inside of the house. you have to go outside and use a portable stove or something else. >> so it wouldn't be safe to use your fireplace to cook? >> not at first. you should check it by a professional first. >> outside should be a safe place to cook as long as you stay away from buildings and doors and windows. >> yes. that will be fine. >> here we have some alternative cooking areas. >> you can barbecue and if you have a regular propane bark could barbecue. >> thank you for joining us. and thanks for this terrific space that you have in this exhibition space and thanks for helping san francisco stay safe.

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